Xbox Live gets goosed

Xbox Live is about to get a bit more... comfortable. Microsoft will release the first major upgrade to the online network next week, adding several tweaks that users have been requesting since the launch of Xbox 360. Truth is, Xbox Live has been far more successful than Microsoft expected, and the network simply wasn't built to handle all the traffic it's been hosting - the team thought they'd have 100 bits of content online after E3, but oops, it's 1000. So they've been building in some fixes and updates to accommodate the realities of that success.

The top request from users has been the ability to download content while doing something else. Currently the system stops your game while it grabs new stuff, but no more. You can now queue up six different things to download in the background while you go about the business of racking up huge scores in Astropop. If you decide to jump into a multiplayer session, your downloads will pause so that your gameplay experience isn't stuttery or slow, then automatically resume when you're done playing.