If you boot up your Xbox 360 today - yours is still hooked up, right? - you might notice a slight change on the dashboard, fixing an old visual glitch and adding a two-panel suggestion that you might want to upgrade to an Xbox Series X. A year after the original 360 marketplace shut down, it honestly just feels like salt in the wound.
The change was noted by players on Reddit earlier this week, and brought to wider attention by TrueAchievements. I fired up my 360 earlier to confirm and - after a surprisingly difficult process trying to sign online - found that sure enough, the dashboard swaps over to a new configuration the second the console touches the internet.
On the updated dashboard, you'll find one panel with an image of Xbox's current-gen consoles and a QR code with the caption "Experience next-gen performance. Upgrade today." That QR code will take you straight to Xbox's official console shop. It doesn't look like there's a proper system update alongside this change, with the new panels simply slotting in after even the quickest server check-in.
It's been nearly a year since the Xbox 360 store shut down, and the only way to buy digital 360 games these days is with the selection of titles now available on modern Xbox consoles. The notion that Microsoft can't support game purchases on the old console but can still drop you an occasional ad for their new machines… Well, it's understandable in an objective sense, but it just feels bad, man.
The dashboard change does come with one nice benefit, though, as the box art that shows on the primary game launch button is no longer all stretched. Score one for clean UI, but if anybody at Microsoft is listening, I gotta tell you… I need the original 360 blades back so bad. Please. One last gesture of goodwill for the truly nostalgic. Just let me go back to the original dashboard. For old times' sake?
The best Xbox 360 games make up one of the greatest console libraries of all time.
