Microsoft - Page 169 of 239

Microsoft Carves Out Its E3 2011 Keynote Plans

Just a few days after Sony told us when to expect its E3 2011 showing of all things PlayStation, Microsoft chimes in, letting us know when and where to expect their big E3 media briefing. We were invited to the the Xbox 360 E311 Media Briefing earlier today, which is slated for Monday, June 6…

By Michael McWhertor Published April 18, 2011

Of Course Crytek Wants 16 Times More RAM In The Next Console Generation

Crytek took it in the shorts from PC loyalists who felt Crysis 2 was handled in a way that catered more to console users than to PC gamers. In an interview, the studio’s graphics engineer said Microsoft and Sony have way underweight RAM configurations, and whatever they build next needs 8 GB of RAM, minimum.…

By Owen Good Published April 17, 2011

Five Awesome XBLA Games, One Great Price

There’s quite the sale going on over on Xbox Live Arcade at the moment. Five of the very best games around – Limbo, Shadow Complex, Castle Crashers, Trials HD and Monday Night Combat – are going for half price. Normally, they’re 1200 MSP. For today, April 15, they’re only 600 MSP.

By Luke Plunkett Published April 15, 2011

This is the World’s Biggest Pac-Man Game

Here’s what you’re going to do when your bored at work for the next few months: The World’s Biggest Pac-Man is a brower-based version of the classic blown up to epic proportions. The game connects thousands of user-created levels like tiles to create a single immense map. Designed by web design firm Soap Creative using…

By Mike Epstein Published April 14, 2011

Kinect for Netflix is a Catastrophe. Microsoft Has No Idea What to Do with Kinect

“Let’s find out how long it takes to select and watch our favorite Netflix movie using Kinect instead of the Xbox 360 controller!” That was the simple metric we wanted to try to test the new Kinect support in the Xbox version of Netflix. I suspected that it’d take a little bit longer to use…

By Joel Johnson Published April 14, 2011

Microsoft’s Official Kinect Software Is Better Than Most Hackers’

Looking to remind people, hey, we made this thing, Microsoft’s upcoming Kinect software development kit for the PC (which anyone can grab) will include a variety of features most hackers and code enthusiasts haven’t been able to manage on their own. One of those features is the ability for the camera to track the skeletal…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 14, 2011

We’re One Step Closer to a Wall-E Society with This Kinect Powered Chair

The best part about this Kinect-powered armchair? Microsoft’s going to release the source code for it. Shown off today at the company’s MIX11 coder symposium, the Kinect-powered La-Z-Boy is a proof of concept for the Kinect PC software development kit, which will open up development over Visual Basic and C++. The recliner code will be…

By Owen Good Published April 13, 2011

From Gears To Deals To Games On Demand, This Is Xbox Live For April

April is shaping up to be a big one for Xbox 360 owners, especially if they like getting their hands on Gears of War 3 early. That multiplayer beta leads a long list of content that Microsoft confirmed for April today, from Xbox Live Arcade games to deals on tons of other stuff. If you’ve…

By Michael McWhertor Published April 12, 2011

Using Kinect To Make Your Own Action Figures

I’ve always wanted to have my own action figure. And had I been in Barcelona earlier this year, I could have had the chance, thanks to a 3D printer and a network of Kinect cameras. A collaborative effort between street artists and science, “Be Your Own Souvenir!” was a little project run in January in…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 12, 2011

We Might Be Getting “Free” Games On Xbox Live

According to a report on IGN, Microsoft will next year be making free to play titles available on Xbox Live. You know, the ones that like to take $5-10 of your money a month in tiny chunks instead of $60 all at once. So think Lord of the Rings Online. Or Battlefield Heroes. Those kind…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 12, 2011

Promoter Sues Microsoft Over Kinect Launch Event

Remember the Times Square launch event for Kinect last fall? It took some begging, pleading, and cold hard cash just to happen, when the cops made the last-minute discovery a full blown concert didn’t have the requisite permits. The promoter who made all the bad stuff go away says Microsoft owes him $63,000 for it.…

By Owen Good Published April 10, 2011

Kameo 2 Artwork Hints At The Pretty Sequel That Might Have Been

In 2005 developer Rare graced the newly-launched Xbox 360 with Kameo: Elements of Power, a cartoon-styled action-adventure game starring a fairy with the power to transform herself into various magical creatures. Slow sales killed its rumored sequel, but the art lives on. The launch of the Xbox 360 and Kameo heralded the beginning of the…

By Mike Fahey Published April 6, 2011

A Limited Edition, Customized Xbox 360 Just For Japan

Japan’s DEZAEGG is like a car painting and body works shop for game consoles. They take consoles, handhelds and computers and make them look all purdy. Its latest effort is a limited edition Xbox 360 to mark the anime broadcast of visual novel Steins;Gate Steins;Gate debuted on the Xbox 360 in 2009, so DEZAEGG is…

By Brian Ashcraft Published April 5, 2011

Hackers Snare Website of Xbox Live’s Top Cop [Update]

Stephen Toulouse, known to many as Stepto, is Microsoft’s director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live. That means he’s the guy with the biggest, baddest banhammer on that service, making him a prime target for grudge-nursing hackers. Apparently one just seized control of his personal website, stepto.com Update: A hacker took control of his…

By Owen Good Published April 3, 2011

Super Meat Boy Creators Went Through Hell To Get Their Game Done, Felt ‘Taken Advantage Of’ By Microsoft

You thought playing Super Meat Boy was hard? Because making the notoriously difficult indie platformer sounds like pure hell, according to a Super Meat Boy post mortem that lays out what went right (fun design environment, Steam) and what went wrong (financial drain, Xbox Live Arcade). Team Meat’s Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes recount the…

By Michael McWhertor Published April 1, 2011

Leaked Forza 4 Video Confirms Kinect Features [Update]

Realizing it is April Fool’s, if this video is a fake, someone went to a lot of trouble to create something that delivers no punchline. Here is a solid three minutes jampacked with in-game footage of Forza 4, touting a lot of features we’d scented from a marketing survey that went out last week. Details…

By Owen Good Published April 1, 2011

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Getting Help From…An Xbox 360 Controller?

The situation at Fukushima is far from over. The Japanese government is working hard to cool the nuclear cores and contain the problem. Help from outside is being enlisted, too. Help that is powered by an Xbox 360 controller. North America’s QinetiQ deployed its unmanned Talon robots in Fukushima. According to QinetiQ, the robots are…

By Brian Ashcraft Published April 1, 2011

You Won’t Need A Kingly PC To Run Fable III

For those of you still excited at the prospect of playing Fable III on the PC after its long delays and, well, complete lack of cohesion, here are its system specs

By Luke Plunkett Published March 31, 2011

Microsoft Finds A Way To (Maybe) Make Kinect Better

Microsoft’s research team in Cambridge has published a paper outlining several ways the speed and accuracy of Kinect can be improved. Lucky Kinect is also made by Microsoft! The team’s research does not build on Kinect’s existing technology; rather, it strips it away at the base level and replaces it with a new way of…

By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2011

Xbox Live Indie Games Hit By Ratings Manipulation

Now this isn’t fair. It’s hard enough for Indie games on the Xbox 360 to be noticed as it is, let alone when crazy gamers are knocking out their only real way of getting in the spotlight: a game’s ratings. Microsoft is currently “investigating a possible misuse of ratings” affecting a number of titles on…

By Luke Plunkett Published March 30, 2011