Xbox CEO teases return of the Xbox 360 era with new hardware update

As Xbox looks towards the future with Project Helix, it’s simultaneously looking to the past at the same time, to the glory days of the company.

This week, Xbox’s next-gen console launch plans were outlined online, and it genuinely sounds like the death of gaming.

In terms of performance, Project Helix sounds good on paper. The price, however, less so. Reports claim it could cost well above the previously speculated price of $1,000. Nearly double in fact.

As if to distract from the discourse though, Asha Sharma has teased the return of the Xbox 360, or at least one of the aspects that made it such a beloved console.

The newly formed Xbox Labs team was put together to “turn emerging ideas into things our players and developers can experience”. The fruits of its labour currently involve “retro vibes” according to Xbox CTO Scott Van Vliet.

In an accompanying video, Scott showed off the glorious return of the Xbox 360 dashboard, and Asha Sharma responded by saying: “Blades on web. Do we like this experiment?”

Without confirming anything, the duo are obviously teasing some new customisation options for future Xbox dashboards, and it almost makes you forget the company is years away from selling a near $2,000 console...

Why Xbox bringing back classic dashboards is such a big deal

I’m sure plenty of gamers will agree when I say this hobby has become far too commercial for its own good.

Games were made to be fun and the consoles that played those games were marketed as such. However, around the time of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, there was a noticeable change in vibe. Ugly console dashboards were introduced that felt cold and sterile.

It’s been a recurring problem for years and all three of the major video game companies are involved: Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo.

Xbox finally listening to its fans and restoring the sauce is a good thing. It’s more than just a cosmetic change, it’s a spiritual change.

It won’t fix the wider problems in the industry, of course. A splash of colour on our Xbox backgrounds isn’t going to reverse the avalanche of layoffs or alter the price of next-gen consoles, but it’ll at least show that Xbox is listening.

While it’s still a little too early to tell, the Xbox Labs initiative seems to be heading in the right direction. I’m still convinced that the next generation of consoles will be the death of the industry, but its best chance of preventing that will be adding as much value as possible to justify the price.

Bringing back the Xbox 360 UI could be just a bit of cheap marketing, but it could also be the beginning of something important, so we’ll be watching what Xbox does next with great interest.

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