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Week of October 26, 2008
'New Xbox Experience' Loading Time Comparison — DVD Vs. Hard Drive
MS: No UK 360 price drop for many years in the future
>> From videogamer.com:
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McGill (Microsoft's head of gaming and entertainment in the UK) told VideoGamer.com: "I'm not going to speculate where it might go (the price of the Xbox 360) in five or ten years time, whatever. But we've obviously just reduced the price and that's because we can pass the costs reductions we have straight on to consumers. That's the right thing to do, obviously from a business point of view it helps it sell even more. I think a lot of people have been waiting for it to become even more affordable and they're now seeing that benefit and buying it in their droves and we can now hopefully continue it through Christmas and beyond.
When asked if it was unlikely that there will be another price drop for a good while yet, McGill replied: "Yeah. I mean absolutely. We're a great price now. I'm not dropping the price for many many years in the future I would suspect."
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Full Story: videogamer.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Xbox 360 'CD' Versus 'Hard Drive Install' Game Quality Comparison
>> From pcworld.com:
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Ben Fritz at Variety writing for his games blog The Cut Scene has an intriguing post up suggesting that Fable 2 "looks noticeably better" if you play it from the Xbox 360's hard drive. Running games off the hard drive is one of the New Xbox Experience's features, an option that's being offered to 1) remedy an acoustical design flaw in the Xbox 360's DVD drive and 2) make Microsoft some extra scratch selling hard drive upgrades.
In all the time I've spent with the NXE (see Parts One and Two of my hands on) I can't say I noticed anything graphically better about the visual output. I'm running my 360 through a VGA cable at 1280 x 768 on a fairly high end Sony Bravia LCD TV. Fable 2 looks terrific, but it looks as terrific to my subjective eye whether CD or hard drive spooled.
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Full Story: pcworld.com | weblogs.variety.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Xbox 360 NXE Preview Dashboard Leaked
>> From platformnation.com:
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Apparently someone leaked the install files for the NXE on the internet and it is now available for all to try out. Now just to let you all know, YOU CAN NOT CONNECT ONLINE WITH IT TILL NOVEMBER 19th, it will not allow you, so if you plan to game, do not use this. Also there is no guarantee that Microsoft will not ban your console or get angry at you, so USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
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Full Story: platformnation.com | digiex.net
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Xbox LIVE Goes into the Voting Booth
>> From the press release:
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Over the final weekend of the historic U.S. presidential race, millions of Xbox LIVE members have the chance to voice who they'll be voting for, providing an early look into the minds of young Americans this election. This also creates one of the first unofficial exit polls as early voting draws to a close.
Starting Friday, Oct. 31, Xbox LIVE members can select the candidate they plan to vote for on Nov. 4. Results will be posted election day. Following the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, nearly 100,000 LIVE Americans turned out to cast their "votes" in the first-ever poll over Xbox LIVE, making it larger than the combined samples from individual Gallup, NBC, and CNN polls. This initial poll resulted in Senator Obama trending 12 percent ahead Senator McCain, with a significant percentage of respondents still undecided.
Part of an initiative to help register new voters for this year's election, Xbox LIVE has partnered with Rock the Vote, turning the Xbox 360 into an unexpected political forum with nearly 80,000 voter registration forms downloaded.
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Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
(EU) Bond Returns in a Blockbuster Bundle Package and 60GB LIVE Starter Pack
>> * EUROPE ONLY: Bond Returns in a Blockbuster Bundle Package
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Bond is back at his high-definition best on Xbox 360 in another blockbusting bundle. From 7th November in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Austria, Switzerland, Russia, Portugal, and Ireland, Xbox 360 will exclusively bundle James Bond: Quantum of Solace with the Xbox 360 Pro console. Seamlessly blending the heart-pounding action and excitement of the upcoming "Quantum of Solace" feature film with the "Casino Royale" movie, Bond's latest outing will be available in a custom box with a 60GB hard-drive Xbox 360 console, for a limited time and at the estimated retail price of £189.99/€269.99.
"This blockbuster of a bundle offers a great value introduction to the high-definition entertainment experience of the Xbox 360," said Chris Lewis, third-party marketing manager for Europe.
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* EUROPEAN ADDENDUM: Upgrade your Xbox LIVE experience with new Xbox 360 60GB LIVE Starter Pack
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The new Xbox 360 60GB LIVE Start Pack will be available from the 19th November in the UK and the 21st November across Europe for £59.99/€79.99 ERP.
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Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
NXE: What You Want to Know - More Avatars
>> From the Xbox PR Blog:
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So, you've made your avatar and now you're wondering what to do with it. When the New Xbox Experience launches on Nov. 19, four existing Xbox LIVE Arcade games will be updated to include Avatar functionality to make your gaming even more personal. Join your friends and play UNO!, Bomberman Live, Hardwood Hearts and Hardwood Spades and watch your Avatar come to life with custom animations throughout game menus and lobbies. On top of that, a new Xbox LIVE Arcade title will also launch with fully playable in-game Avatars - the first title to ever launch with this feature on Xbox 360! (Stay tuned for more info about this game in the coming weeks). In addition to Xbox LIVE Arcade, Scene It? Box Office Smash will also incorporate your Avatar into gameplay. The game released on Oct. 28 - it will get a title update on Nov. 19 that will allow you to use your new Avatar.
Want to learn more about Avatars? Check out Major Nelson's interview with Stacey Law and Scott Brodie from the team bringing them to you.
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Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Interview with Xbox UK boss, Stephen McGill
>> From techradar.com:
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* TechRadar: One thing that you are often accused of is of copying your console competitors - so with Viva Pinata people point towards games like Nintendo's Animal Crossing and with the new Xbox Live Experience people point towards Nintendo's Miis. What is your response to that type of criticism?
* Stephen McGill: I think, well, we've been going down the journey since J.Allard first introduced what Xbox 360 stood for. Nintendo didn't invent character pics. You know, for us, we've had gamer pics there for you to personalise your console experience since day one. So you can customise the whole user look and feel. You can put your own photos on there. So - making it personal, having fun, being social, it's all about entertainment and great games. It is what we've always been about. It's never changed.
And what we are showing with things like the avatars - I don't see this as copying at all - we are very fixated on our own journey which we started to map out many years ago and continue to map out going forward. So we are very focused on what we think we should be doing with our products and our services and we will leave the competition to figure out their own strategies.
* TechRadar: What about controllers? You are bringing out new types of game controllers - Lips being a good example - and there are those recurrent rumours of motion-control on Xbox 360. Plus, a number of third parties are developing their own motion-controlled tech that is compatible with Xbox 360. No plans internally for a motion-controlled device?
* Stephen McGill: We've not announced anything and to be honest we are very focused right now on what we are doing for Christmas. You're right about the Lips controllers. I mean, wireless mics, why didn't anybody do that before?! But also, technology wise, we are just doing it really well, simple things like 'which mic is active' and having a light that indicates when it is your turn to sing. Really cool innovation in hardware. Which we do all the time. You can see our new gaming mice and keyboards here [indicates demo]. So making software and services better through hardware is something that we're pretty good at.
* TechRadar: What of the 'Live Anywhere' strategy [originally launched by Bill Gates at E3 2006] - the idea of bringing PCs and Xbox 360s and mobile phone gaming together seamlessly?
* Stephen McGill: Yeah, we're still working on it and we are seeing some bits come together. We've seen Live on PCs. Right now I'm very focused on the new Xbox Experience, but you are right and as we have more to talk about we will. We have lots more going on in the mobile space as you have seen here.
* TechRadar: What do you think of those arguments by people like WildTangent's Alex St.John that the current generation of consoles are the last standalone games consoles we will see? (He bases his argument on cost considerations and the claim that MMOs and community-based gaming are what gamers are going to be willing to pay for in future).
* Stephen McGill: Well he is of course entitled to his own opinion. I think there is plenty of opportunity for games consoles - Xbox 360 and Nintendo and Sony - which have clearly got a lot of life for those kinds of experiences that you have in the living room. You only have to look at things like Rock Band and Lips and Scene It! as well as things like Gears of War... I just can't imagine things like that being done in any other ways. But of course we can look back in five or ten years time and see whether or not he was right!
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Full Interview: techradar.com (4 pages)
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Xbox Community Games, As Low As 60 Cents? Probably Not ...
>> From blog.wired.com:
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Microsoft's launch next month of the "New Xbox Experience" is also bringing with it access to Community Games, and the home-brewed games could be even cheaper than originally expected.
In Joystiq's video preview of the Community Games section of the new service, we find out that of the three titles currently available in the preview build, multiplayer space shooter Net Rumble is priced at 50 Microsoft Points (around 60 cents).
This of course could simply be a quirk of the beta build of the New Xbox Experience, or it could mean cheaper games.
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Update: When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is ... from gamasutra.com:
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One thing that was notable is that the [Community] games -- which will retail from 200, 400, or 800 Microsoft points (US$2.50, $5, and $10), and which will all have timed demo versions -- seemed to be on par with many of the "professional" games on Xbox Live Arcade.
This is perhaps because some of the top titles were created by small groups of former industry professionals, or well-resourced, talented academic teams.
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Full Story: blog.wired.com | gamasutra.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Debunk: Xbox 360 streams HD Netflix over component just fine
>> From engadget.com:
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There's some hysterical outrage out there right now over the New Xbox Experience's HD Netflix HDCP restrictions -- apparently it only works with HDCP-compliant digital displays, which is prompting a lot of hand-wringing about copyright restrictions and whether older 360s will get "locked out." Well, we're here to make it all better -- that's our NXE-equipped 360 connected over component, happily playing back HD Netflix at 1080i.
The problem is that some older LCD monitors don't support HDCP over DVI, so if you're in the minority of people using an HDMI to DVI adapter to drive an older display that doesn't do HDCP, HD Netflix won't work, since it can't authenticate.
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Full Story: engadget.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
XNA Game Studio 3.0 is LIVE
>> From the XNA Team Blog:
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We did it! XNA Game Studio 3.0 is here and you can download it now!
Our ultimate goal with XNA Game Studio 3.0 is to continue to provide easy-to-use, approachable tools for hobbyists, academics and indie game developers capable of producing the best games to be shared with the world on Xbox 360, Windows PC and Zune.
XNA Game Studio 3.0 is required to submit games to Xbox LIVE Community Games. Visit our Quick Start guide if you'd like to know more about how to submit your game.
It is important to begin submitting your game for playtesting and peer review as early as possible to be sure they'll be available to the millions of Xbox LIVE gamers at the launch of the New Xbox Experience on November 19!
Many people worked really hard to bring this to you and it would not have been possible without your input! Thank you all so much!
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Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
HDCP Required For Xbox 360 HD Netflix Streaming
>> From formatwarcentral.com:
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The copy protection police have struck again. The new HD Netflix streaming service on the Xbox 360 requires an HDCP compatible display device. If you try play a movie while not connected to an HDCP compatible display, you will get the "Secure HDCP Link Not Found" error.
For all the people that have a non-HDCP LCD monitors hooked up via DVI to their Xbox 360, you are SOL. What is not clear is whether your resolution be limited to 480p if you have an older Xbox 360 with only component outputs.
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Full Story: formatwarcentral.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
NXE Preview Program Emails Sent
>> From majornelson.com:
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Within the next few hours, we'll be sending out the notification email for those accepted in to the New Xbox Experience Preview Program. The email will be coming from MsftConn@micrsoft.com and the common name for the account is Microsoft Connect. Only those who have been accepted into the program will be receiving an email. Everyone who was chosen will get the New Xbox Experience update later this week. It will be pretty obvious when you're prompted to receive it...trust me. If you got chosen, congratulations. If you did not get in ...don't worry, November 19th is almost here.
Edit: Well that was quick...all of the emails have been sent. Check your junk mail folder just in case!
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Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Xbox 360's New Xbox Experience Reviews
>> Some reviews of the New Xbox Experience around the net...
From Gizmodo says:
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"Ultimately, it doesn't matter whether or not you like NXE, since we're all going to be forced to update the firmware to connect to Xbox Live. But luckily, NXE is an all-around upgrade from the old 360 OS--which really wasn't so bad in its own right.
NXE is faster, prettier and more functional than its predecessor. It brings us avatars and Netflix, full game installs and more robust multiplayer. Truth be told, we could have been shown NXE as the operating system behind the Xbox 720, and life wouldn't have been so bad. Instead, we get it a few years early. And we consider ourselves lucky."
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From Engadget:
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"Overall we're highly impressed with what Microsoft has done. This isn't just PR-speak or phony praise -- the company has demonstrated a tremendous understanding of the needs of the market and its customers, both with this software update, and the recent price cuts on the low-end Xbox 360 packages. If this is "just the beginning" -- as the team claims it is -- we're going to see some pretty exciting stuff in the future. For now, however, the combo of rock-solid, next-gen game console, multi-tiered entertainment delivery system, and robust social networking engine leaves little to be desired. Let's just hope that developers can live up to the system's potential."
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More Reviews: engadget.com | gizmodo.com | joystiq.com | 1up.com | gamespot.com | pcworld.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
NXE Missing Xbox Live Arcade Auto-Downloading
>> From multiplayerblog.mtv.com:
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While messing around with the New Xbox Experience on my home 360 last week, I had trouble finding my second favorite feature from the old dashboard: Xbox Live Arcade auto-downloading.
That feature allowed me to set my 360 to download demos of every new XBLA game any time I entered my XBLA games library and there was new content available. I was a big fan of the feature, because it enabled new games to come to me rather than me having to know about them and seek them out. Auto-downloading is not in the NXE.
Yesterday, a Microsoft rep confirmed to me that the feature "is disabled for the NXE launch," but added that "it may come back in a future release."
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Full Story: multiplayerblog.mtv.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Japanese Publishers Impressed with 360
>> From xbox360.ign.com:
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Guess which system came out on top when Japanese game publishers were asked for their opinion on the Tokyo Game Show? Wii? PS3? Try Xbox 360!
Famitsu polled 55 game makers on a variety of topics regarding the recent game event. Most notably, for the question of which system left the strongest impressions, Xbox 360 managed 26 of the votes, beating out the PS3's 14 and the Wii's 12. PSP and DS got 8 and 6 votes respectively.
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Full Story: xbox360.ign.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Microsoft Reveals the Dream-Build-Play 2008 Winners
>> From the press release:
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Microsoft Corp. today announced the highly anticipated winners of its Dream-Build-Play 2008 game development contest, which encouraged independent and hobbyist game developers to create innovative and fun-to-play video games for Xbox 360 using XNA Game Studio. Four winners received a total of more than $70,000 in cash prizes to pursue a development career, and will have the opportunity to receive an invitation to publish their games on Xbox LIVE Arcade. This year's global Dream-Build-Play competition garnered more 350 games from over 100 countries, nearly doubling the number of community members who enrolled in and submitted Dream-Build-Play titles in last year's competition. Many of those games will have the opportunity to appear on the Xbox LIVE Community Games Channel when it launches to millions on Nov. 19 as part of the New Xbox Experience.
Team Gambit of Singapore received the first place prize of $40,000 for "CarnyVale: Showtime" an acrobatic puzzle game where players are asked to complete various circus stunts. Chia even built-in a circus map editor for players to create their own obstacles to overcome, bringing user-generated content to a new a level.
Jose Alberto Gomez and his team from Venezuela took home second place and $20,000 for his stunning, 3D, action tennis submission, "Battle Tennis."Mommy's Best Games, led by Nathan Fouts received third place and $10,000 for the high-energy, side-scrolling "Weapon of Choice." China's Hu Ling and his team came in fourth place and received $5,000 for his stylized martial arts action game "HurricaneX." Last year's first place winner David Flook of Canada, and a team from South Africa led by Roger Miller received honorable mentions for their games "Blow" and "Save Jack" respectively.
"We've been absolutely blown away by the quality of games we received through Dream-Build-Play this year," XNA General Manager Boyd Multerer said. "What is really exciting isn't that we've unearthed all of this truly remarkable talent, but that many of these aspiring developers will have an opportunity to share their creations with millions when Xbox LIVE Community Games launches next month."
Microsoft announced earlier this month that the next iteration of its industry leading game development toolset, XNA Game Studio 3.0 will be available for download on Oct. 30. Not only will the upgraded toolset allow developers to distribute their games to millions on Xbox LIVE Community Games on Nov. 19, but it will also allow developers to create and play games on Zune.
XNA Game Studio 3.0 also takes advantage of new improvements and support in Visual Studio 2008, C# 3.0, LINQ and broader partner support from Softimage and GarageGames. Softimage is now building on their relationship with XNA by offering a special version of the free Mod Tool for commercial use by Creators Club Members. GarageGames is releasing a brand new 3D editor for their Torque X3D game engine. Both the engine and the new 3D editor will be completely free to all Creators Club members. That means that Creators Club Members can use the XSI Mod Tool and Torque X 3D to create even more amazing titles for Xbox LIVE Community Games.
More detailed information about Dream-Build-Play and XNA Game Studio 3.0 and Creators Club Membership can be found by visiting www.creators.xna.com.
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Netflix to Stream Movies and TV shows to Xbox 360 in High Definition
>> From seattlepi.nwsource.com:
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I have another super secret cool cat to let out of the bag. Netflix streaming to the Xbox 360 is going to have high definition HD content offered if you have the bandwidth. This is not a rumor it is a fact and it is going to be a part of the NXE on day one. I have this on pretty darn good authority.
Microsoft is not going to talk about it now and Netflix is not going to talk about it for two weeks or so but when the New Xbox Experience or NXE ships on November 19th there is going to be high definition content from Netflix available as a part of the video movie streaming offering. I don't know what movies or TV shows is going to be available in HD but since Netflix has a deal with CBS and Disney I would guess that those are probably going to be some of the first stuff out the door.
When you sign up for Netflix on the Xbox they give you a four digit code that you then type in to the Netflix website on a PC and the two are then synced. Also the video quality looks a lot better on the Xbox 360 than Netflix streaming on a computer but it is all dependant on the speed of your net connection to the Xbox. Since the 360 has graphics power and CPU power to spare it can handle streaming HD video. I don't know what resolution of HD they are going to offer. It also remembers what point you were last at in a movie or show and you can change your instant playlist on the Xbox 360 or your PC in real time.
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Full Story: seattlepi.nwsource.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Xbox 360 60GB Live Starter Pack Arrives This Weekend
>> From teamxbox.com:
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As its name implies, the Xbox 360 60GB Live Starter Pack includes a 60 GB Hard Drive, plus an Xbox 360 headset, a 3-month LIVE Gold subscription, and Ethernet cable. That basically means this pack has everything not included with the basic Xbox 360 system. How much does it cost? As you'd expect, it sells for $99, the same price difference between the Xbox 360 Arcade ($199.99) and the Pro ($299.99).
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Full Story: teamxbox.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
NXE Gets 'Largest Marketing Campaign In The History Of Xbox'
>> From gamasutra.com:
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And if the goal of Microsoft's recent initiatives -- adding family-friendly entertainment "channels," avatars and, most recently, price points low enough to make the Wii look even whiter -- is to draw in a new casual consumer, then how will the company inform these relatively uninitiated audiences about the update?
Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg tells Gamasutra that such an update at this stage is just the next step in a progression. "We are already delivering games and entertainment in high definition; we have already got storage built in," he says. "We already have high speed internet connectivity -- so we are no longer limited by the power of the hardware."
So for Microsoft, the next frontier for innovation is, logically, software. And Greenberg says the company's aiming high: "As dramatic as going from the original Xbox was to when we launched Xbox 360, this is just as much of a dramatic jump with the New Xbox Experience," he says.
But the "re-launch" of the entire Xbox 360 experience will also be accompanied with in-store outreach, says Greenberg.
"We will be launching the largest marketing campaign in the history of Xbox," he says. "We will be spending more money in marketing in advertising this holiday than we ever have in the history of our business."
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Full Story: gamasutra.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
New XNA Creators Club Coming Soon
>> From the XNA Team Blog:
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There is a heck-ton of exciting happenings over the next few days! I hope you're all ready (I hope Team XNA is, too!)!
First up: Creators Club Online will be down from Wednesday, October 29 at 8:00 a.m. (PST) until Thursday, October 30 at 8:00 a.m. (PST). During this time we'll be furiously constructing the tubes that Xbox LIVE Community Games will be channeled from you to millions of Xbox LIVE gamers. You won't be able to get to all your favorite places at Creators.xna.com, but come Thursday we'll be back and better than ever -- complete with XNA Game Studio 3.0!
During this time you'll also want to visit us here on the Team Blog where I'll be posting all about the happenings at our XNA Game Studio 3.0 and Xbox LIVE Community Games Launch Event in San Francisco! Do you live in the San Francisco area, are over 21, and would like to join us? Visit here to R.S.V.P. (first come, first served!)!
We'll also be announcing all the winners of 2008's Dream.Build.Play competition! It gets bigger and better every year and picking the winners wasn't easy. So many of this year's entries were amazing - we're all hoping we see many of them on Xbox LIVE Community Games when it launches on November 19th!
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Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
Microsoft Planning Avatar Store for Next Spring
>> From teamxbox.com:
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Robin Burrowes, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) product manager for Xbox LIVE, told VideoGamer.com at a recent hands-on preview event for the New Xbox Experience that the company plans to launch a dedicated store for the upcoming Xbox 360 Avatars.
With the release of The New Xbox Experience, the Xbox 360 will get their own Miis in the form of Avatars, customizable graphical representations of Xbox Live users tied to Xbox 360 profiles. At launch, there will be a bunch of accessories for these Avatars available free of charge, but in 2009 Microsoft plans to create a store where Xbox Live users will be able to buy new accesories
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Full Story: teamxbox.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
E3 in L.A. for Three Years
>> From edge-online.com:
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The Los Angeles Convention Center and Visitors Bureau said that L.A. will be E3's home for the next three years.
It's an important deal for Los Angeles, as the city expects $18 million in economic impact from the upsized expo, with everything from cab fares to hotel and food expenses pumping money into th local economy.
The city estimates 33,000 room nights to be paid during the Entertainment Software Association's games industry event, taking place June 2-4 next year.
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Full Story: edge-online.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
In Poor Economy, Big Publishers Gain, Smaller Ones Lose
>> From gamasutra.com:
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Warning signs have appeared to suggest the global economic crisis may impact video games at retail, says Lazard Capital Markets analyst Colin Sebastian, who says he's "cautiously optimistic although sales are a little uneven."
Echoing recent statements by Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot, Sebastian agrees retailers are being more cautious about their upfront inventory purchases, relying more heavily on reorders for games that sell well.
The analyst says that in the current climate, launch sales of games are generally strong -- but tend to drop off rapidly. "We interpret this trend to suggest that the core market remains healthy, while more casual/mass market consumers are spending more cautiously or waiting to make purchases closer to the holidays," he says.
This affords greater sales weight to major publishers like Activision, Electronic Arts and Ubisoft, with their seasonal blockbuster-type titles, suggests Sebastian -- to the detriment of the smaller publishers.
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Full Story: gamasutra.com
Discuss this news item on our forums: forums.xbox-scene.com
MS and Companions in Courage Foundation Give 360 Kiosks to Young Patients
>> From the press release:
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Pediatric patients at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children (RMHC) in Denver today received new Xbox 360(TM) kiosks to play with, thanks to a collaboration between Microsoft Corp. and the Companions in Courage Foundation. RMHC is the only Colorado children's hospital to receive the custom-built game units from the program.
The Companions in Courage Foundation, started by hockey great Pat LaFontaine, established the Lion's Den Kiosk program with Microsoft Corp. Microsoft delivers the mobile game units to select children's hospitals to provide interactive, fun entertainment as a respite for children battling life-threatening illness.
"Microsoft is committed to keeping kids entertained in a variety of ways within a safe gaming environment, so partnering with Companions in Courage to offer children in hospitals a way to connect through something as universal as games, is a natural fit for the work we do," said Microsoft President, Entertainment and Devices Division, Robbie Bach. "The goal for this program is to give these kids a chance to have some fun and just be kids."
Colorado Avalanche hockey greats Peter Budaj and Ruslan Salei broke in the new game kiosks with pediatric patients today at RMHC.
"We are thrilled that Companions in Courage chose to help HealthONE's Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children continue to improve the lives of our patients and their families," said Reggie Washington, MD, chief medical officer for RMHC. "It is wonderful to witness the joy and excitement of these children and teens when they have a chance to break away from the normal hospital routine and let kids be kids."
The customized and hospital-friendly Xbox 360 kiosks are pre-loaded with a variety of E and E10+ rated games, Y-rated television programs, G-rated movies, as well as Xbox LIVE Headset and LIVE Vision Camera capabilities, which enable patients to communicate over a dedicated Xbox LIVE network, the world's largest social network connected to television. This network was created just for the Lion's Den Kiosk program and does not allow patients to communicate with individuals outside the network -- only with those children at other select hospitals around the country. The Xbox 360's parental controls, known as Family Settings, will be used to help restrict access to content outside of ratings parameters, as well as the times during which patients can use the kiosks or consoles.
Companions in Courage founder and NHL Hall of Famer Pat LaFontaine said, "Entertainment, creativity and personal connections can be important factors in alleviating some of the isolation and discomfort these children experience each day. Xbox 360 offers young patients a fun escape through games, TV shows, movies and positive interactions with others over the Xbox LIVE network. These gaming stations are a perfect complement to our interactive Lion's Den playrooms."
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