PSA: Open beta for XBL Dashboard update next month, previews go live

Previews for the Xbox Live Dashboard update have started going live, and according to Microsoft's director of platform marketing, Albert Penello, the new update will "lay the groundwork for our entertainment future."

Scheduled to launch in the fall, the update is rather large, "if not bigger," compared to NXE, according to Gamasutra, and contains a new look, unified controller and Kinect interfaces, speedier navigation, and improved speech recognition.

"The definition of a game console is changing over time," Penello told the site. "What people expect and want is changing. This update gets us into a place where we can expand more rapidly without breaking the experience for people who are primarily there to play games."

Penello said "innovation has outpaced," the dashboard updates, the last major overhaul being in 2008, and the new update is designed to allow the platform to grow in a more sophisticated and intelligent manner.

In the works "probably as far back as two years," the update is expected to go into open beta next month, with a firm release date to follow thereafter.

You can read more over on Gamasutra through the link above, as well as read up on previews of the new dash through Joystiq, VentureBeat, Kotaku, and Engadget.