Over on Major Nelson's latest podcast, Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson himself, made it clear that the new Xbox Live Experience is more or less an optional feature you can use to enhance your gaming experience. For those folks who aren't "flipping their bit" at the news of the new interface, they can choose to do everything the way they're used to via the Xbox Guide.

Speaking about the Xbox 360's revamped dashboard in the latest podcast, Hryb explained that:

...you don't actually have to use it. You can just never go there; just leave your game disc in and you're gonna be able to pretty much do everything that you could before but on the Guide level: one button press away in every single game.

Hryb also mentioned that you don't have to use the avatars; "they're not required," as Hryb notes. Instead, you have the option of simply using your gamer pictures and themes as before.

For the full skinny on the Xbox Live Experience, you can visit Major Nelson's site, linked below, and download the podcast. The important bits about the revamped dashboard, noted above, can be found at the 17:00 mark onwards. The portion relating to avatars, on the other hand, can be found at the 6:30 mark.

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