Microsoft - Page 230 of 239

Bay Area Game Jam Rocks My Weekend

This weekend, Wild Pockets, Crispy Gamer and Microsoft are teaming up to host Bay Area Game Jam – a 24-hour game development competition at the Microsoft Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, California. Contestants have to use Wild Pockets’ 3D web-based game engine and the fine print on the contest rules specifies that this is…

By AJ Glasser Published April 3, 2009

Xbox Live’s April Deals Of Darkness

Microsoft has revealed the game and add-on discounts coming your way as part of the Xbox Live Deal of the Week program, and odds are you might find something worth spending points on. Heading up the deals for this month is Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, on sale next week for…

By Mike Fahey Published April 3, 2009

Lips Mics Will Work With Metallica, Rock Band 2

Microsoft’s nifty wireless microphones that were packed in with Lips just got a whole lot more useful, supporting Guitar Hero Metallica and soon Rock Band 2. Tethering a music game singing virtuoso to a console is a sad, sad thing, especially since the cords are never long enough to allow for the sort of microphone…

By Mike Fahey Published April 3, 2009

Japanese Game Industry Sales Dropped Last Year

Comparing 2007 to 2008, the Japanese game market is shrinking. Enterbrain, publisher of game magazine Famitsu, has released the hard data for last year’s domestic sales. The total market place (hardware and software sales) was worth ¥552.42 billion in 2008, compared to ¥676.95 billion the year before. Hardware sales were ¥231.52 billion in 2008 and…

By Brian Ashcraft Published April 2, 2009

Xbox 360 Update Offers “No New Features”

A mandatory update has just hit the Xbox 360. According to Microsoft’s Larry Hryb, “This update addresses interruption issues that some Xbox LIVE users may have experienced when playing a limited number of Xbox 360 games.” Meaning? “There are no other changes or enhancements in this update…in other words no new features.” Xbox 360 System…

By Brian Ashcraft Published April 2, 2009

Greenpeace Once Again Gives Nintendo Low Marks

Every year that Greenpeace releases its “Guide to Greener Electronics”, one company is always at the bottom. That company is Nintendo. According to Greenpeace, “Nintendo remains in last place with a pitiful 0.8 points out of 10, scoring zero on all e-waste criteria.” Why did Nintendo score so low? Not providing information on things like…

By Brian Ashcraft Published April 1, 2009

A Look At How Microsoft Approve A Game For Release

Introversion – developers of Defcon and Darwinia – have a treat in store for us. Following “unprecedented approval” from Microsoft, they’ve uploaded a paper trail documenting the journey a game takes from pitch to release. And it is fascinating. Provided you find this kind of backroom stuff interesting, anyway. Available for perusal are bug reports,…

By Luke Plunkett Published April 1, 2009

Xbox Avatar Clothing — Serious Business

Your “New Xbox Experience” avatar has just gotten some grown up clothes, eight new pieces of formal and business casual articles that will be a hit at your next Xbox Live con call. New shirts, slacks, waistcoats and skirts are yours for the virtual closet raiding, provided you want your Avatar to look nice, but…

By Michael McWhertor Published March 31, 2009

Microsoft Discounts PS2 Price Cut

Sony’s Jack Tretton says that dropping the price of the PlayStation 2 to $99 will bring new consumers to the PlayStation platform. Microsoft rolls its eyes. Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Microsoft’s VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business Chris Lewis dismissed Sony’s announcement, suggesting that the key to staying competitive in the console market lay in developing…

By Mike Fahey Published March 31, 2009

Xbox 360 Has Sold A Million In Japan, PS3 Sold Three Million

Last we, we broke word that Microsoft would soon reach one million Xbox 360s sold in Japan. By soon, we meant this week, because that’s what has been announced today. According to sales figures from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, lifetime sales for the Xbox 360 have crossed the million sold watermark in Japan with 1,001,191 units…

By Brian Ashcraft Published March 31, 2009

XNA Games Don’t Sell, Don’t Make Money [Update]

Much was made of Microsoft’s attempt at gestating a user-created gaming platform on the 360 with their Community Games service. But six months on from launch, how well is it faring? Here’s a hint: not very. Statistics for the service’s games have been made available (and then collected by GamerBytes), showing how many times a…

By Luke Plunkett Published March 31, 2009

The World of Fable II Wastes Less Than The World of Fable I

I wasn’t sure what to think of “The World of Fable II” when they played a blues song with the chorus “gonna give you a whippin'” before the panel started. What game had I been playing? I thought maybe I was in the wrong room, but then Fable II’s Technical Art Director, Ian Lovett, started…

By AJ Glasser Published March 27, 2009

Yes, Microsoft Will Still Publish PC Games

Microsoft used to publish lots of PC games. Now, though, they mostly don’t. Sure, there’s Gears of War, and a three years late port of Halo 2, but aside from that? Not much. And it doesn’t look like there’ll be much in the foreseeable future, either. The company’s internal Flight Simulator team has been canned.…

By Luke Plunkett Published March 26, 2009

Microsoft To Reach One Million Xbox 360s Sold In Japan (Soon)

The Xbox 360 went on sale in Japan in December 2005. The console was met by a largely indifferent Japanese game buying public. But, bit-by-bit and RPG-by-RPG, the console has started doing decent enough. According to online reports, the consoles current sales total in Japan is hovering dangerously close to the one million mark. During…

By Brian Ashcraft Published March 26, 2009

We’ve Never Wanted A Dev Kit This Badly

Not only do the new Microsoft development kits contain more debugging memory, they are some of the sexiest damn Xbox 360s we’ve laid our eyes on. Perhaps it’s just the soft black backdrop behind the development kits, or the Barry White we’ve got playing in the background, but there’s just something about that matte black…