Microsoft has been showing off what it is planning to do with Xbox Live. Demos have been finding their way to news hacks and the results are looking quite good.

Despite the name "Xbox Live Experience," the service is easy-to-use, complete with customizable avatars and all kinds of new functionality that will actually reward the Xbox nut. Due to be relaunched before Christmas, Microsoft is a bit worried about the hardcore players and how they will react to the changes.

It expects lots of griping, but hopes that punters will cheer up a bit as they get used to it. Certainly the demo we have seen adds all kinds of new community and interactive functions to Xbox Live that is worth adapting, too.

The Xbox Live interface is currently as user friendly as shaving your face with a piranha. Pages of information are stacked on top of each other so that you have so many choices you have not really got a clue about what you are doing until you get used to it. The new interface provides windows that spread out on the screen and stretch off into the distance, allowing users to shuttle through them, left to right or right to left.

In short, we are used to spitting tacks at Microsoft for its software efforts but this one really does seem a step in the right direction.