Microsoft

Xbox Live Hacker Attacks On The Rise

Are Xbox Live users taking out contracts against their opponents? Microsoft is investigating a rash of attacks on Xbox Live users by hackers using data flooding tools to kick them offline. It’s the same sort of attack that’s been targeting PC users for years. Hackers get a hold of the IP address players use to…

Microsoft Would Like You To Believe This Model Is A Halo Fan

Well done, Microsoft UK. Here we were, thinking that, come 2009, gaming – yes, even 360 gaming – was for everyone, when you go and shove a set of Halo Wars-covered tits in our face. It’s not that we’re complaining. After all, yes, Microsoft, they are a lovely pair. But, just like the Gears of…

The Most Innovative Companies In Gaming

Business magazine Fast Company has released a list of the 10 most innovative companies in the gaming industry. Where do Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony rank? Well we can pretty much guess where Nintendo ranks on the list, can’t we? While Fast Company does note the fact that Nintendo hasn’t done well by the hardcore, it…

Red Xbox 360 Mentioned Officially By Microsoft

Whoops! In an official Halo Wars email sent to retailers and games press in New Zealand today, Microsoft make official mention of the rumoured red Xbox 360 Elite console. The email was to announce a deal whereby anyone buying a 360 console in NZ would, for a limited time, receive a free copy of Halo…

Expiring Email Accounts Can Eat Your Xbox Gamertag

Microsoft is investigating a problem with expiring email addresses that is causing some Xbox Live users to abandon their Gamertags and start fresh, losing any progress they’ve accumulated over the past few years. It seems that certain Windows Live ID email addresses that you need to have in order to set up an Xbox Live…

Xbox 360 Saves The Date For E3 2009

First out the door for this year’s upcoming bigger, better, more fleshy E3 is Microsoft. We just received our official save the date for the Xbox 360 E3 2009 media briefing, set to take place Monday morning. It looks to be about the same time as last year’s E3 media briefing. I’d expect to start…

Microsoft Survey Probes Non-Gaming Achievements

Microsoft Game Studios sent out a survey on Achievements to its beta program invitees. There was an array of questions that included multiplayer achievements, user generated Achievements and what types of Achievements players liked. There was also a mention of displaying a player’s favorite Achievement on their Gamer card as well as non-gaming Achievements like…

New Ensemble Studio Working on New Game

When Robot Entertainment said “hello, world” last week, it seemed likely that, being made up of an Ensemble co-founder and a bunch of Ensemble staff, they’d be taking over Ensemble’s work. Now it’s definite. A press release issued by the company today has confirmed that Robot will be continuing work on Halo Wars, supporting Age…

“Worst Of Xbox 360 Hardware Failure Behind Us”

Three flashing red lights on the Xbox 360 represents “general system failure.” Nicknamed “The Red Ring of Death,” this system failure has plagued the Xbox 360 console for years. While Microsoft pegged a low percentage rate of system failure in the early moments of the Xbox 360’s launch, the numbers of customers suddenly experiencing the…

Microsoft To Buy Motion-Sensing Company

Here we go again. Fresh off speculation Microsoft were working on a motion-sensing controller for current generation hardware, seems the company is now in talks to buy a firm specialising in motion-sensing tech. Israeli site Haaretz reports that the makers of the Xbox console are in talks to buy locally-based company 3DV for $35 million.…

Crap Economy Will Affect Microsoft

Times are hard. For you, for me and especially major international corporations like Xbox 360 maker Microsoft. While at a trade show in Barcelona, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer told Reuters, “Revenues in our industry, and in our company, will be affected by the economic conditions.” Will be? What was last January? A lark? To…

Rare “Restructuring”, Job Losses A Possibility

In January, Microsoft started “reviewing” a few things. Cut some jobs, that sort of stuff. That “review” now shines its light on Rare, where belts are to be tightened, and jobs might be lost. In comments released to the British press today, the company stated a number of aims going forward that seemed a tad…

Microsoft Says Xbox 360 Lead In Europe Now 1 Million

Europe Land has long been Sony country, with the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 dominating sales charts in their respective generations. But the PlayStation 3 had a tougher challenge—a head start from Microsoft’s Xbox 360. Now, says Microsoft, it has pulled ahead in the region, giving the Xbox 360 a lead over its PlayStation 3 competition…

This Week On Live Arcade: Death Tank

Old school gameplay gets an upgrade this week on Xbox Live Arcade, as Snowblind Studios releases Death Tank, a shiny new take on the classic tank-on-tank angle shooter. What’s an angle shooter, you ask? It’s any game that involves calculating the angle of projectiles based on terrain velocity in order to efficiently dispatch your foes.…

Ex-Ensemble Staff Form New Studio

Ensemble Studios, developers of the Age of Empires series and Halo Wars, are dead. But the developers who comprised Ensemble? They’re still alive, and some of them have formed a new studio. It’s called Robot Entertainment, and has been established by Ensemble co-founder Tony Goodman, along with “a number of veterans” from the former Microsoft-owned…

Halo Wars: Making Console Real-Time Strategy Work

The third in a series of video documentaries covering the upcoming Xbox 360 game Halo Wars features members of the development team explaining how to make a console real-time strategy game that works. Having obviously not paid enough attention during the early days of Halo 3 development, I was a bit surprised to learn that…

Massage Your Love Over Xbox Live

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the natural evolution of the Rumble Massage program we posted last month, Remote Masseuse, a Xbox Community Game that lets you reach out and massage someone via Xbox Live. Where Rumble Massage allowed you to use your Xbox 360 controller as a personal massager, Remote Masseuse lets folks activate…

Ninja Blade Is Available In English Right Now

Xbox 360 exclusive Ninja Blade may not have a North American release date yet, but that doesn’t mean you can’t own an English version. Right now. The Asia region has English language support (text and voice). It’s also region free. Interested parties, import away! Ninja Blade Ready In English, Just Not Here [Siliconera]

Microsoft Responds To January NPD Sales, Seems Pleased

Microsoft sold over 300,000 Xbox 360 consoles in January. That’s cause for celebration in the halls of Redmond, as the company’s gloating presser boasts of not only strong software sales, but record Xbox Live numbers. Seems January 2009 was the “single biggest month ever for Xbox LIVE”, which leads us into a presser which sees…

Yup, Microsoft Are Opening Microsoft Retail Stores

Last month, we took a tour of Microsoft’s “fake” retail store. Meant to show what it would look like “if” Microsoft ever decided to open a dedicated store. Like the ones they’re now actually opening. The company have announced that, yes, they’re going to follow Apple into the dedicated retail space, and will be opening…