The Xbox 360 launches November 4, according to a story over on Xbox 365. The site is reporting that the got the information off of the Microsoft Partner site. They say that Microsoft accidentally announced the system s launch date.

The Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system places you at the center of the experience. Available this holiday season, Xbox 360 ignites a new era of digital entertainment that is always connected, always personalized, and always in high definition.

Launch Date: November 4 2005

If it s true, and why not, that puts it about 111 days away as of this Friday.

Xbox 360 Launch Date [Xbox 365]

A massively multiplayer game filled to the brim with Marvel characters is in the works from the Xbox 360. Plans for the MMO were announced today, along with details of a deal that awarded Microsoft exclusive rights to the Marvel universe. The first game is expected in 2008.

Microsoft and Marvel Sign Deal [All Games]

A recent survey delivered a gut-punch to Microsoft's Xbox Japan division.

News agency C-News surveyed 1,000 Japanese consumers, ranging in age from 10 to 59, and found that only two percent were interested in buying the Xbox 360. Nintendo didn't fair much better, with a mere eight percent saying they wanted a Revolution. Sony did best with 60 percent of those surveyed saying they wanted a Playstation 3. The Games Industry story doesn't say what the remaining 20 percent wanted, nor what the exact question asked was.

While Nintendo probably isn't delighted with the results, they have plenty of time and many more details to release to win over the hearts and minds of gamers between now and launch day next year. Microsoft, on the other hand, isn't so fortunate.

The big M has been dumping cash and attention on the island nation like nobody's business, seemingly with no effect.

Survey suggests tough times ahead for Xbox 360 in Japan [GI]

Xbox 365 posted up a spiffy concept photo of a black Xbox 360. Notice I said concept image, as in not real. So far the console s only official color is manilla vanilla, or whatever it is they re calling white these days. I d be heartily surprised if the 360 didn t come in other colors, especially since they are pushing the whole custom look idea.

Personally, I like the white one better, though I do worry about how scungy it will look after a month of being manhandled by my 4-year-old son.

Xbox 360 in Black? [Xbox 365]

Pictures of the Xbox 360 development kit or just a big ugly plastic case with a white controller on top? I'm guessing this is an image of the honest to God second wave of development kits. I was talking to Microsoft the other day and they dropped the phrase "debug unit" on me. That would rock, of course they couldn't tell me when they would start shipping them out.

Beta Kit Picture [Xbox Scene]

Shacknews has taken the time to scan and post the full E3 art and story book for Xbox 360 game Gears of War. Destroyed Beauty is a look at the art, backstory and characters of Gears of War. The 17 double-page scans feature text by CliffyB, Jerry O'Flaherty and Eric Nylund with tons of pictures and concept art from the game. The overall theme is that the game is so much more than a shooter, it's character driven, story driven, anything but run-and-gun driven. I'll believe it when I see it.

Visual Inside Look [Shacknews, thanks Sergio]

Microsoft has finalized plans for their Japan Xbox event. Xbox Summit 2005 will be held in Tokyo on July 25. During the 1 hour event the company will unveil the full Xbox 360 Japanese lineup and release the final details on the console's launch in Asia.

IGN is reporting that the unveiling will include showing off Mistwalker plus some other still unnamed big surprises.

Unlike E3, this event really is for press only, so don't bother trying to sneak in without one of Msoft's fancy invitations.

Xbox 360 Makes Japan Spin on 7/25 [IGN]

The Import Game Blog has three new shots from Xbox 360 fan-favorite Gears of War posted on their site. Which they say came from... France?

Gears of War Screenshots [Import Game Blog]

You know you have a good game on your hands when you can't convince the public that a screen shot isn't actually just a photograph. Last week, Bizarre Creations posted a screenshot of Project Gotham Racing 3 of a street scene. The image was so realistic that many dismissed it as a fake. Today, the company released the wire frame of the same image, and another photo realistic in-game screen shot and wire frame.

And these pictures don't have the final in-game effects and lighting added yet.

Life Begins at 170 mph [Bizarre Creations]

Here's an interesting tid-bit: Toshiba was showing off their Fall line-up the other day and demoed a HD-DVD that was being created in conjunction with Microsoft. This, of course, was well before the official Xbox software announcement, but now attendees are starting to wonder if references to the device's ability to download games and play them may be tied into the Xbox software deal.

Could Toshiba be working on a HD-DVD Xbox? It would certainly explain why Microsoft seems so willing to drop the original console like a bad habit, maybe they are making room for a new, fancier iteration of the original.

Oh, and the Toshiba folks also spilled the beans on HD-DVD and the Xbox 360, saying that the next-gen console will use the new format for its media and whining about how Microsoft is dragging their feet on the official announcement.

For what it's worth, Microsoft officials told me that the week before E3 and reconfirmed it when I called them back days later. (Who's eating paste now Joel, stick that in your daily dose of Kielbasa and smoke it.)

The Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 have been thumping their chip-laden chests since they both were officially announced earlier this year. The epic pissing match culminated with both Sony and Microsoft claiming that their respective consoles would be 20 to 30 times faster than previous iterations.

Enter the brainy writers from Anandtech. The hardware site poured over the tech specs and all of the information available on the two systems and their new technologies and then broke it down for the not so tech savvy to understand. Bottom line, both systems are pretty much neck-and-neck and both will offer up jumps in processing power that's closer to two or three times faster than the current generation.

Wait, let me get this straight, Microsoft and Sony exaggerated how powerful their products are going to be? Say it ain't so.

Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PS3 A hardware discussion [Anandtech]

P.S. Reading the entire tech discussion may cause gouts of blood to jet from your ears.

All Points Bulletin, the massively multiplayer online take-off of Grand Theft Auto, is coming to the Xbox 360. APB, which is being designed by the original creator of GTA, is a freeform combat and driving game that will let players take on the rolls of members of the police or gangs.

The game is due out in the first quarter of 2007 and will also be released for the PC. This is one of those games that could either change the face of console gaming or suck to such an extreme level that it decimates an entire company.

APB [Webzen]

The Next-Gen console War is being fought in the trenches in France. The Playstation Portable is set to hit Europe on September 1, just a few months before the Xbox 360 is supposed to arrive there.

Recently, Sony held a press event in Paris to promote their PSP, and Microsoft responded by transforming the store across the street from the event into a giant X360 billboard that read "Save your energy for this winter."

I love marketing battles, consumers always win.

Xbox 360 Vs PSP Combat de Titans [Jeux France, thanks Karsten]

A new pack of Halo 3 rumors is spreading on the net today. Here's a run down of what a friend of an uncle of a Bungie employee is reporting (Yeah, it's that reliable):

1) It will have a darker and more gritty story than the previous games.

2) They're attempting to maintain an online cooperative component for the campaign supporting more than two players at once.

3) It has a lot of cinematics planned for it. The opening scenes apparently occur thousands of years before the timeline of the original Halo: Combat Evolved's story.

4) It will have a multiplayer mode which pits players against bots in scenarios that are directly connected to the story of the game.

5) They're attempting to implement both a map editor and a movie maker, which would allow players to send and receive their maps/movies through Xbox Live. This would apparently be on a separate disc, and they have an entire team working just on these two projects.

6) Zanzibar, Sidewinder and Hang Em High are said to return to the multiplayer mode, completely reworked. Zanzibar will be mangled and torn apart as though after the battle, the sky will be dark red. Sidewinder will have four legs instead of just two, with bases at each end. Hang Em High will have a massive tree at its center and the structure will be deteriorated.

7) They want to support more than fifty players on Xbox Live for certain maps.

Halo 360 [Team Xbox forums]

Snag yourself a cool E3 Xbox 360 faceplate without having to sit through a redundant press conference and fight the throngs for bun-less hotdogs during the after conference party.

Xbox Live's Major Nelson is giving away his cool green-ringed faceplate and a Major Nelson Plantronics headset. To enter you need to create a 360 faceplate and upload it on MN's Flickr group. The best design takes home the goodies.

So far the entries have been mostly mundane, though one has a bit of corporate commentary built in. Contest ends June 30, so get cracking.

Win my limited edition E3 Faceplate [Major Nelson]

Could one of the most addictive massively multiplayer games being going to the Xbox 360? The World of Warcraft people told Games Industry that they are in talks with Microsoft about making a possible port for the next-gen console.

What about the next-generation consoles? Final Fantasy XI is going to Xbox 360 - surely Microsoft must have talked to you about bringing World of Warcraft over as well?
We've been in contact with Microsoft... World of Warcraft was really built with a focus on PC, and while I think it certainly could get to Xbox, it's not something that at this moment we've decided to do.
We're exploring any variety of possibilities, as you can imagine, and as it relates to [Xbox 360], it would require certain input devices - you know, a keyboard or a mouse. Those are things that are not standard, they're peripherals, and peripherals have historically not done well for any of the console companies unless you're talking about additional controllers or memory cards. Other than that, when you look at other peripherals, they historically haven't done so well - so for us, we're exploring it, we're listening, we're talking, however, we've not made any decision to go that direction at this point.

Yowsa!

Focus : No Calm in the Blizzard! [GI]

The Xbox 360 will, according to Famitsu, launch with a whopping 20 titles. And when they say launch, they mean day one. Pretty damn impressive, if it's true.

Xox 360 gets 20 on Day One [Ferrago]

Spong has pictures of what they say is box art for three Xbox 360 titles.

The site says the artwork for Kameo: Elements of Power, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Perfect Dark Zero all come from an official, yet still unnamed, Microsoft source. None of the box art includes the swank Xbox 360 border art.

Xbox 360 Box Art
Emerges [SPOnG]

Update: I was shocked to find out that Spong's research consisted of looking at a contest page.

Update Update: Spong emails to say that their images were actually discovered through good old leakage and not web browsing. Maybe if they used attribution I would have been able to figure that out on my own.

An analyst has confirmed what I heard a bit about back in April. Microsoft has agreed to pay a royalty to Nvidia to allow the Xbox 360's ATI chipset to emulate the performance of the Xbox's Nvidia chipset. Single layer games will perform with little or no problem. Multilayer games will require software patches. These patches, according to the analyst, will be pre-loaded onto the 360's hard drive.

Xbox 360 Backwards Compatibility and Pricing [G-A Forums]

Microsoft is predicting that the Xbox 360 is going to kick so much ass they won't even be able to keep them in stores when they launch.

I think demand is going to be phenomenal so we see that as a really difficult thing. We feel as a company we've done the groundwork to get to a point where we can do the global release; we feel we're going to deliver and have a great Xmas. Will we execute well so retail will have good volume? Yes. But I don't think we're going to meet demand as people are going to come into this platform in a big way.

Microsoft went on to say that people should just go ahead and start pre-order eBay bidding wars for the yet to be released console in expectation of Cabbage-Patch-Era riots. Actually, just send all of your money to Microsoft and they'll do their best to get a console to you when they get around to it.

Microsoft warns of possible Xbox 360 shortages [GamesIndustry]

Microsoft will be losing $75 a pop on the Xbox 360 when it comes to market in November for $299, according to analysts at a major investment bank. While this is the norm for consoles at launch, this time around Microsoft won't be taking a big a bath as they did with their original Xbox. This time around the company will be able to follow Sony's lead and not rely so heavily on third-party manufacturers. And don't shed any tears for Microsoft's $75-a-console-loss, I'm sure they will more then make up for it with overpriced games.

Analysts predict $75 launch subsidy on Xbox 360 hardware [Games Industry]

My brother sent me this snazzy pic of the Xbox and Xbox 360 snuggling. Is this what we have to look forward to if we want to have full backwards compatibility?

Tomb Raider: Legend may be getting the Xbox 360 treatment, according to the July issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly. The mag claims that the game, featuring the shiny new high-polygon count version of Lara Croft, is in the works. The game is being developed by Crystal Dynamics with the help of the original game s desiger Toby Gard. I hope this one doesn t suck as Angel of Darkness, though that would sort of be impossible.

Tomb Raider Legend Taps Xbox 360 [Tomb Raider Chronicles]

Team Xbox has posted some nice high-res pictures of Xbox 360 peripherals along with descriptions. The Xbox Live Camera will support VGA 640x480 video at 30 frames per a second a take 1.3-megapixel stills. The Xbox 360 Headset will feature a noise-canceling boom microphone and can plug straight into an Xbox 360 wireless controller. The damn sexy remote is a universal media controller, so don't get too excited about the Live TV and Record buttons. The backlit remote will include a power button to turn the 360 on and the Guide button for accessing the Xbox Gamer Guide.

Xbox 360 Peripherals [Team Xbox]

Am I the only one who finds it extremely ironic that the only program I can find that countsdown to the release of the Xbox 360 runs on the Mac OS? The estimated release date is based on the Mountain Dew Every 10 Minute Giveaway.

Countdown to Xbox 360 [Apple, thanks masamunex2]

Yelling at your TV during intense gaming just got a lot less pointless. Microsoft announced today that they are partnering up with the Fonix Speech Group to add voice recognition technology to the Xbox 360.

"By incorporating Fonix's speech recognition technology into our Xbox 360 development kit, game developers can give players a fun and natural way of interacting with their games," says Brian Schmidt, a program manager for Audio and Voice Technologies at Microsoft.

The Fonix Speech Group "currently offers voice technology solutions for mobile/wireless devices; interactive videogames, toys and appliances; computer telephony systems; the assistive market;" and those goddamn annoying voice recognition systems that many customer service lines use.

Some games already equiped with the Fonix technology include Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 Black Arrow, Tom Clancy Rainbow Six: Lockdown, Tom Clancy Ghost Recon 2, Delta Force-Black Hawk Down, and SWAT: Global Strike Team. Clancy declined to comment, citing that he was in the middle of a shopping spree.

No reports yet whether Fonix will be added to other appliances, such as toilets, washing machines, dishwashers, and anything else that requires physical exertion.

Xbox 360 to Feature Fonix Voice Technology

-SM

The majority of the games are slated for release on 11/02/2005 with a few on the sheet slated for within a week after. The games included FIFA 2006, Tiger Woods, and many others (did not see a Halo though...which leads me to suspect it will come out when PS3 comes out). Games were priced at $59.99 which is a $10 premium to current prices.

Some guy went on to tell our emailer that Sony decided to hike up the price of their PS3 while keeping the price of the games low and that Msoft is doing the exact opposite.

On a completely separate note, the emailer says that the Xbox 360 will let you do picture-in-picture so you can play games and watch TV at the same time.

No clue if any of this can be believed, but I've never been one to shy away from the occasional rumor.

Whether it's behind a painting, between the mattress boxspring or under your dog Zeke, it's time to find a place to store your hard-earned cash. Microsoft corporate vice president J. Allard says the hotly-anticipated XBox 360 will debut "in the neighborhood" of $300 this November. Europe and Japan will likely see it by the end of the year.

-SM

Xbox 360 Priced In $300 Region

Some concept art for a Xbox 360 kiosk is posted over on Xbox 365.com. The picture shows a system that includes a HDTV, attached controllers, headphone jacks and memory unit plugs that would allow gamers to download content to their card. While interesting, I doubt Microsoft would invest in something that seems more for playing then test-driving the system. Remember, retail kiosks are all about getting people to buy the system, not hang around the store all day playing games.

The Xbox 360 Retail Experience [Xbox 365]

Microsoft has released a ton of Xbox 360 trailers. The high definition videos show demos for 16 next-gen games and includes the EA compilation demo. Here's the full list:

Call of Duty 2
Condemned
Dead Rising
Demonik
EA Compilation E3
Final Fantasy XI
Frame City Killer
Full Auto
Ghost Recon 3
Kameo
Madden NFL 2006
NBA 2K6
NHL 2K6
Quake 4
Saint's Row
Test Drive Unlimited
The Darkness

Xbox High Definition Videos [Microsoft]

Everyone has expected the Xbox 360 to ship in time for Thanksgiving since the Holiday 2005 release date was announced, but it has never been officially confirmed. But in an in interview with Globe and Mail, one of the companies hired to test out the new console confirms that Microsoft is definitely pushing for a November release.

Microsoft's contract manufacturers are in the preliminary build stage until July, when the factories are scheduled to move to product validation before finally hitting full-scale production in September. "They have a huge mandate for getting [the Xbox] out for Thanksgiving this year," Mr. Thornton says.

I still think the release date will coincide with the fourth anniversary of the release of the Xbox.

Cimtek ironing bugs out of Xbox 360 [Globe and Mail]

Microsoft plans to lauch X05 to showcase the Xbox 360 and its game line-up in Europe. X01 through X03 gave Europeans glimpses of the Xbox classic and its software over the years, starting in 2002, but the whole X thing was put off last year.

No word yet on when or where X05 will be held, but the events have always come with some monster Xbox announcements.

European Showcase Event Revived for Xbox 360 Launch [GI]

Hello Gamer has a link to a three-minute video of the notorious CliffyB demoing Gears of War. The 360 third-person shooter survival horror game is very impressive. It looks to be shaping up to be one of the 360 s premiere launch titles.

Gears of War Demo [Hello Gamer]

I mentioned that a lot of people were confused by Msoft's vague announcement Monday.

He said that the plan was to make all Xbox games BWC, but when pressed said that it had not yet been achieved.

He went on to say that the systems top titles would be compatible, but they hope to make all games playable. He added that while it was the plan, it wasn't a definite.

That doesn't sound good at all.

Another blurry pic after the jump.

Not only was it my first chance to check out a next-gen platform game, it was my first run through with the Xbox 360 controller. Consider me impressed on both counts. When you finally get your hands on Full Auto though, expect to think, "Hey, that reminds me of Prince of Persia/Grand Theft Auto/Burnout/Twisted Metal." Still, it makes for some tasty gaming soup.

A demo labeled simply Hedgehog? showed a first-person perspective as Sonic zipped through a forest and plains. The game also jumped perspective to third-person occasionally, showing Sonic fighting a robot or bouncing off the walls in some ruins. The brief video ended with Sonic being surrounded by an army of robots that unleash on him, but just when you think the big-headed insectivor is down he starts to glow and shoots into the sky. The screens goes black after showing Sonic floating in the sky, pulsating gold.

Prior to the Sega bit, the video showed snippets of Virtua Fighter characters flexing, posing and going through their little personal katas. There was also video of an Afterburner-type game which showed a background that was either video of real world places or amazingly details images.

It looks like the game is also going to have some amazing lighting effects. One part of the game has some psychotic chasing you down through a tenement as the screen flashes white, shooting light through cracks in the walls and flaring around the bad guy. It was amazing.

Full Auto looked very slick, but not very different. The chief new thing for this car combat game is that it includes a rewind feature, sorta like the same feature in Prince of Persia. I wasn t overly impressed, but it could be worth playing.

Chrome Hounds is a tactical squad-based shooter that puts you in beefy bullet-spewing mech. The game was in very early development, so all I got to see was a movie, but it has some major potential, especially if they manage to maintain the game s look.

Still, white controller + sweaty gamers + wonky AC = hand salsa. What's going to happen when these sit in your home for a few years?

Fortunately, Microsoft didn t bet on the odds, instead they hired models/actors to beautify those two rows, smiling and clapping on cue, or so one source told me. Thing is, the presentation was riddled with awkward silences. Here s a tip for you Microsoft: Next time try getting pretty people who can actually read their cues.