It’s coming.
That’s what’s being stated on the Xbox 360 Dashboard for several days now (actually, a few weeks).
The New Xbox Experience (NXE) is headed to connected Xbox 360 consoles on November 19, 2008. All things are pointing to an on-time launch; there has been quite a few announced outages (both big and small) that will occur in the days prior to the official NXE release into the wild.
But, what are the things that concerns you?
Memory/Storage Requirements
As you probably already know, what the Xbox 360 considers as “memory” is actually storage space on your fixed (or removable) storage device. Most folks are using one of the Xbox 360 hard disks (such as Yours Truly), and given the huge size of a lot of the demos, movies, videos, et al. that I routinely fetch from the Xbox LIVE Marketplace and promotions, it’s a wonder that I ever have any free space remaining.
I typically hover around 500-800 MB, on a good day. Let’s face it: there’s just waaaay too much stuff out there to try out!
Joystiq has reported that there is a 128 MB storage requirement for NXE to get successfully installed onto a Xbox 360; unfortunately, there are no further details than that. However, that would mean that my console should be able to manage the shift.
Of course, for Xbox 360 owners who lack a hard disk with enough disk space, this poses a problem. My recommendation would be to immediately go through all of your stuff now and delete enough materials to give at least double the minimum storage requirement: that means you want to clear out at least 256 MB of free space. This allows for any system unpacking requirements and caching needs.
If you have to be unfortunate enough to not have a hard disk at all for your Xbox 360, there was a recent program that Microsoft announced that is intended to get you one. Good luck! 
Transitioning to NXE
Here’s another issue: what exactly is the transition/switch to NXE going to be like? According to Microsoft’s [MSFT] Major Nelson and other Xbox folks, it seems that it should be merely a simple download, followed potentially by a system reboot (in the event that there is too much inconsistent state on your particular console).
Let’s hope this is fairly straightforward… Don’t think about Vista, ‘kay?
Performance
Of the three current-generation gaming consoles, the Xbox 360 is the elder statesman. Yes, it provides better graphics and animation than, say, the Nintendo Wii, but the Sony PS3 definitely gives the Xbox 360 a run for the money (yes, I know, I’m hacking the proper saying up…).
While several of the beta testers have reported adequate performance with their copies of NXE, it still remains to be seen whether the majority of Xbox 360 users will have a positive experience.
However, keep in mind that, thus far, the UI appears to be quite reminiscent of the Windows Media Center, with the additional presence of the “avatars” that strongly resemble MS Agent technology that we’ve seen elsewhere over the decades. A lot of this stuff is fairly performant and polished (appearance-wise), so expect a fairly smooth, detailed usability factor.
Coming Soon
So, now we wait… In a few days, after all of the intermittent system outages for upgrading and adjusting and tweaking Xbox LIVE, the NXE will be unveiled, and we’ll all be hanging around our consoles, customizing our avatars and chatting up a storm.
Right? Right, folks? Er, um… Bueller? Bueller? 
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