The New Xbox Experience (NXE) is going to be released on Wednesday. Today Microsoft already granted everybody who applied for the beta access to the new Xbox 360 Dashboard update. NXE is a dramatic update to the Xbox 360 making it much more valuable than it is now with Xbox LIVE Party, avatars, and of course Netflix movie streaming.

Also note that Xbox.com and the Xbox forums will be offline for maintenance on Tuesday, November 18th from 12:01am PT until 4:00am PT to prepare for the New Xbox Experience launch on Wednesday the 19th. Via Major Nelson. There were some Xbox Live hick-ups on Monday, but I am actually in good hopes that the NXE upgrade is going to be rather seamless as Microsoft managed to already deploy it to tens of thousands of Xbox 360 players, something they did not with previews Dashboard updates where long downtimes have been criticized.
Xbox 360 owners will get tons of new things to try out. The NXE update brings the following main features besides the new look:

• Entertainment without limits. Xbox 360 invites you into a limitless world where the best games, movies and TV shows live side by side with your personal pictures and music library, and ready to share your fun anytime with friends across the globe through Xbox LIVE.
• Xbox LIVE Party. Xbox 360 allows you to create a virtual party on your TV with up to seven friends. With LIVE Party, voice chat while you play games, share photos in real time² and entertain friends all over the world.
• Personality plus. Create a customizable, animated avatar and literally jump into the world of Xbox LIVE. Your avatar is your game-face throughout the New Xbox Experience and represents your personality — whether you are a LIVE Party host or chatting with a friend. With custom avatars created by the more than 14 million members worldwide, Xbox LIVE will have as many avatars as Tokyo has residents.³
• On-demand entertainment. Xbox 360 is home to the best TV and movie entertainment, including more than 12,000 exclusive films and TV episodes from Netflix Inc., and a large online library of on-demand high-definition TV shows and movies from partners such as Constantin, Disney, MGM, NBC Universal Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.
• Games for the community, by the community. For the first time in the history of console gaming, thousands of games developed by the creative community will be available to the public. The Community Games channel on Xbox LIVE will include games made by students, hobbyists, and average people all around the world and will be exclusive to Xbox LIVE.