Whew, thanks Anon 56. You know how to cut to the core of me… 
In reading the disgustingly disappointing news yesterday regarding the Spring Dashboard Update (or lack therein), I decided to surf through some of the staggering 464 comments left on Major Nelson’s site (at the time of this writing). Outside of the viscerally gratifying title of this post, I tried to grab the most level-headed of the comments and post them here to show that the community (when not riled up of course) has some really decent points about this most terrible of decisions:
RazorD
I think its a bit unfair that we found this out today. You guys have always discussed your bi-annual release schedule of the dash updates, and dumping this out in an interview to one site, a few weeks after the updat was expected as an after thought really isn’t the best way to treat the community.
Why not say there wasn’t going to be an update when that list came out a few weeks ago? We’re a good community as a whole, and would understand – its just a bit disappointing that you guys don’t keep us in the loop.
GhostlyKiller17
This to me is really disappointing. I think the DRM and Arcade reconstruction should be features of a spring update. Honestly, saying more time needs to be spent on the infrastructure of the service should not effect the consumer. It should be on you guys because you guys were not ready for Christmas. Really sucks we get nothing while PS3 is getting a better looking store, and their own PSN guide with all it being free, while we pay and get no update.
Zeouterlimits
I think it’s a mistake to not have a Spring Update, but more importantly, you should have came out and said it much earlier.
People wouldn’t have been looking forward to it if they knew it wasn’t coming.
*shrugs* 4 person voice chat {false rumour} would have been nice, but no biggie.
Dynamo Matt
I’m struggling to believe that the Xbox division is being so cheap that they are going to take off poorly performing Arcade games away from us. That clearly isn’t for our benefit, as restricting choice for the consumer is never good. Trying to save yourselves a little on the bandwidth bills from all those trial versions, eh?
It’s very disappointing to hear that there will be no dashboard update too. If it hasn’t been planned for a long time, why have the community been left waiting? It seems pretty unfair to have withheld that information so long and let the speculation continue. You know the community wants certain features very badly, but you could have been honest a lot sooner and say you’re not getting them – yet you leave it to the very last moment to announce it. It would have been nice at least to see the Marketplace get another overhaul as it is still clunky and cumbersome to use.
On the DRM, this is something you should have fixed a LONG time ago. It’s sad that it has taken you over two years to respond to our complaints on the issue. Let’s just hope this one works unlike the previously announced tool for repaired machines.
Looking beyond the PR spin, this interview just shows what a joke the Xbox division are.
Anon 55
No Spring update? That really does suck…I was hoping the list on Kotaku might have been somewhat true. Very disappointing and a bad choice in my opinion. Why string people along? If there was not going to be an update why not say so from the beginning? Why have all these “back end” updates and tell people this is not the Spring update? As if there is going to be one. This is like waiting for Christmas then your parents tell you on Christmas Eve that you’re not celebrating this year. Very bad choice and unprofessional on behalf of the entire Xbox Team. All I can say is you guys better have some kind of update otherwise may God have mercy on your souls because the community is going to kill you…
Anon 71
I agree fully with this pervious comment: I think its a bit unfair that we found this out today. You guys have always discussed your bi-annual release schedule of the dash updates, and dumping this out in an interview to one site, a few weeks after the updat was expected as an after thought really isn’t the best way to treat the community. Why not say there wasn’t going to be an update when that list came out a few weeks ago? We’re a good community as a whole, and would understand – its just a bit disappointing that you guys don’t keep us in the loop.
Anon 85
Major, Major, Major.
It’s another case of poor communication between XBL and its users. I must say, I’m pretty disappointed that there may not be a Spring Update. I will be even more upset if someone at XBL knew there wouldn’t be an update and didn’t inform the community until now through some obscure interview.
If you were more open with us, you’d probably get a lot more leeway, and a lot less hate mail.
Maybe I should be the XBL Community Ambassador? Give a voice to the concerns of the people and let them know that XBL is still on their side.
Anon 112
Ahhh..I see what you’ve done there. Delayed announcing that there is no update until the DRM fix was ready, then you can offset the bad news with a bit of good. As for removing the arcade titles – Why? Why not just, like suggested, create an Arcade Archive section in Marketplace with some of the games that aren’t as highly rated of haven’t sold as well. Seems silly to remove them and not very well thought out – what if I need to download it again? Are you low on bandwidth or something?
Really though, way to drop a BIG ball by not telling us this sooner. You’ve really let the community down. Its painfully obvious that Marc Whitten only cares about getting the community’s money. Peter Moore at least listened to what we said and responded – even if it wasn’t with the answer we always wanted, it was nice to actually hear something from the top. Whitten comes across as a ‘I’m always right and I’m not listening’ kind of guy and only rears his head when he has too (The whole XBOX Live doesn’t work at Christmas thing.)
Like some others here, I’m not bothered or effected at all by the DRM issue- so what are we getting: “proper infrastructure” – something that should already be in place anyway? I’m pleased for the people who the DRM fix is going to help, but again, it should already be in place and not pimped up by the GM as an amazing gift from God.
So in summary, please pass this on to Mr. Whitten:
DRM Fix: Good
No Dash Update: Lame
Not telling us sooner/directly: Richard Gaywood
This is not good.
the last sith
I don’t mind the no dash update but dont give us some bullshit story about it. I’m sure there’s different teams for infrastructure and the console. If not then you guys have more problems than i thought.
What does concern me is the pulling of xbla titles. This is a big no no in my books. So if i purchased a game and then it gets delisted and then my hard drive craps itself, THEN WHAT? how do i download it again when its no longer avaliable. Instead what should happen is the titles should be moved to another section, a bargin bin section that has less bandwidth avaliable to it. That way if my hard drive was to *** itself i could then go to the bargin bin and redownload it. If this goes ahead then i will be considering not purchasing anymore xbla titles. I have over a hundred xbla titles on my system, you just lost a supporter of your xbla. 
* * *
Pretty amazing how many people are frustrated by this (again, there are hundreds of more fans that are upset, but they kept their comments less…focused…) Any suggestions on how Microsoft can save themselves from this nightmare?
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