Xbox 360 Blades
No Xbox dashboard has garnered a rabid fanbase quite like the Xbox 360 blades dashboard. Despite the initial hardware issues that plagued the 360s launch, people have an overwhelmingly positive memory of the console’s original dashboard. Originally featuring four tabs (later expanded to five to include the Marketplace), the blades dashboard was responsive and easy to navigate. A miniaturized guide popped up from the side allowing users to utilize menu functions without having to completely exit their game.
Much like the OG Xbox’s dashboard, the blades were known as much for their iconic sounds as it was for its unusual aesthetic. The swish/swoosh that went up and down in pitch as the user navigated between menus is possibly the most recognizable sound in all of UI sound design.
In a Reddit thread posted a year ago, Hryb told a story from the 2016 New Xbox One Experience announcement. “At E3 this year,” Hyrb wrote, “right before we were set to announce NXOE, a few of us were guessing how long it was going to take for the ‘Can we have the blades back’ threads to appear online. It took about 2 minutes.”
When asked by a user if Xbox users could get the blades back, Hryb simply replied, “no.”
