Shirlene Lim, one of the program managers for the WP7 games hub, has revealed a whole host of changes that will be coming with the Mango firmware update scheduled for release this fall.
The new games hub very much resembles the new Xbox dashboard that was revealed during E3, giving a "cleaner and lighter design that emphasizes your game collection and Xbox LIVE info".
3D Avatars are now available and will react in different ways when poked and prodded, they will even dance or faint if you shake your phone and react to smilies in Xbox LIVE messages.
The number of improvements and additions are quite vast, screenshots and a brief run down of some can be found below, but if you have a WP7, I strongly suggest you take a visit to the Windows Phone Blog to view them all in detail.
• Improved Collection View
In Mango, games are neatly organized in the same familiar alphabetical list view as your apps—icon on the left, name on the right. Once you’ve amassed more than 20 games—something that can happen pretty quickly on this Xbox-friendly phone—finding titles you play frequently can become a chore, requiring multiple swipes. Our customer research and your feedback told us people want to quickly and easily get back to recently-played games.
To fix that, in Mango we’re introducing a new Recent category. When your collection exceeds 20 games, the last three titles you’ve played now appear right up top.
• Integrated Achievement and New Comparison Views
See the recent games your friends have been playing, and compare gamerscores and achievements for all Xbox LIVE games played on the phone, console, or PC.
• Improved Spotlight Content
We’ve improved the news and info delivered to you via Spotlight in the Games Hub. Your window to the Xbox LIVE community will now be complemented with rich and vibrant images!
• Improved Game Request Notifications
In Mango, you’ll receive notifications for multiplayer game or turn requests and can track them in the Requests section of the Games Hub.