Microsoft are planning big things for the Xbox 360, particularly with regards to Xbox LIVE. They're calling their latest additions, due August 11th, the "Summer Update", which should already tell you everything you need to know about it. If not, take a look outside and tell me if you think it looks very summery - no? Well, perhaps that's because you have the misfortune to not reside in the United States, the locale for which most of the most interesting bits of information are relevant.

Never mind, it makes pretty good reading as a kind of comprehensive wishlist for features we'd like to see hit Australia, and maybe one day we will!

First up is an addition to purchasable items for your Xbox Avatar:

• Props: New Avatar items that bring custom animation to your Friends channel, including basketballs, mobile phones and pom-poms
• Top Brands: Adidas, Quiksilver, Roxy, tokidoki
• Unique Fashions: Steampunk, Recessionista
• Title-specific items: BioShock 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST, Gears of War 2, Fable II, The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition, Splinter Cell Conviction, Star Wars The Clone Wars: Republic Heroes

As well as forking out cash to customise your personal mini-me, certain games will allow players to score free items, like a 'Splosion Man t-shirt, just by playing the game in question.

I suspect we'll see all these delightful new avatar options down under, but I'm less confident about the promised Games on Demand feature. Microsoft state the service is:

"... launching worldwide with a library of 30 great titles ..."

...and then contradict themselves by listing 21 titles to be available in the U.S. How many will we see? Who knows? But the following densely populated list is what our American brethren will see:

Assassin's Creed, LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, Rainbow Six Vegas, BioShock, Mass Effect, Ridge Racer 6, Burnout Paradise, Meet The Robinsons, Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis, Call of Duty® 2 , MX vs. ATV Untamed, Sonic the Hedgehog, Dance Dance Revolution Universe , Need for Speed Carbon, DRIVE: UNLIMITED, Fight Night Round 3, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Kameo: Elements of Power, Perfect Dark Zero, Viva Piñata, Karaoke Revolution American Idol Encore, Prey, Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise

Netflix certainly sounds awesome, and if we had a hold of it, I'm sure we'd all be excited by the new Movie Night on Xbox LIVE feature, which is a fancy way of saying you can now update your film queue from your Xbox 360 rather than having to walk all the way to your computer. Since we don't, let's move on to the next item on the list, which is a few "organisational" changes.

Basically, you'll soon have the option to reorganise all your LIVE content in new ways. For example, you'll be able to order your friends list by Gamertag, status or even what they're up to at that moment, which should certainly make impromptu matchmaking easier, and rearrange your Achievements and so forth according to your aesthetic ideal. A new ratings system lets you give your opinion on content, as well as search by rating to seek out the most popular items.

That's about it, really, and without confirmation of what we'll be seeing from the Games on Demand service, it;'s not as exciting as I'd hoped. The press release ends with a hopeful little statement that even more exciting updates are due in the near future, including the fabled Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter integration, but for now, we'll try and squirrel out some further details of the Aussie side of things and report back ASAP!