Microsoft's Xbox 720 to arrive in 2012, Sneak peak: E3 2011

Update: According to EA;" This story is a total fabrication – 100 percent not true," EA vice president of communications Jeff Brown has this evening told other sites. Develop is sticking with their story; "Our source, as well as pinpointing key details of the kits' content, said that the unit had been seen at EA and could even be talked up at E3 to 'steal Wii 2's thunder'."

Original Story: While Nintendo has been making waves with rumors circulating about "Project Cafe", Microsoft is stealthily planning to introduce a successor to the Xbox 360 console sooner than many are expecting.

According to Develop; The successor to the Xbox 360 console is on desks at an unnamed Electronic Arts studio. The new hardware, sent to EA last month, is a very early build with no casing – it is in fact being stored inside a PC shell. EA developers are getting to grips with the tech to create first-generation software.

Develop has had great inside info in the past. Besides that inside scoop, Microsoft has advertised new job vacancies such as Graphics Hardware Architect and Performance Engineer for the Xbox Console Architecture Group. Microsoft’s new hires will be “responsible for defining and delivering next generation console architectures from conception through implementation,” the company said.

With Microsoft's core gaming exclusives on ice, it may only make sense to steal some thunder from Nintendo and let the world know what they have up their sleeves. Also, factor in the current state of Sony's PSN being up shit's creek with out a paddle and the potential to not only steal some thunder but market share from Sony.

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Darkness II Coming Fall 2011

2K Games has officially announced The Darkness II for the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC. The sequel to The Darkness will be released in fall 2011 and will not be developed by Starbreeze Studios this time around. Instead, the game is being developed by Digital Extremes, the team responsible for Dark Sector and the PS3 port of BioShock.

The Darkness II takes place two years after the events of the first game. Jackie Estacado, who is now a mob boss, hasn’t been using his supernatural powers since he avenged his girlfriend’s murder. After an unprovoked attack on his life, a mob war breaks out and the powers of The Darkness are once again unleashed.

The game will feature “Quad-Wielding” gameplay mechanics that will allow players to use their Demon Arms to decimate enemies while simultaneously blasting them with both weapons in hand. Comic book writer Paul Jenkins will be providing a narrative that promises to “weave dark humor with hardcore tenderness.”

Darkness was one of my favorite games at the beginning of this generation, I just hope Digital Extremes do this great game justice.

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Microsoft's Kinect get's it's first Hardcore Game Kinda

Microsoft's Kinect has seen many intriguing and fascinating hacks. But this has to be the most perverted of them all. Sex video game maker ThriXXX claims it has built a Kinect-based interface for its brand of sex video games, which seem to involve sliding your hands across computer generated T&A for shit and giggles.

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Ubisoft Reveals Motion-Control Plans: 15 Games For PS3 And 360

During a recent conference call, Ubisoft's CEO Yves Guillemot revealed that his company is planning to release ten games for Microsoft's Project Natal motion control system and four to five games for Sony's mysterious motion control system.

"We have about ten games that will come for Natal during the first six months of the launch of Natal, and we expect between four to five games for the new controller from Sony," Guillemot sad. "That's the picture at the moment, it can change in the next twelve months."

Via:[Joystiq]

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Modern Warfare 2 breaks bank OMFG

Activision's has officially detailed the first day Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 sales in North America and the UK, in which it says was the biggest entertainment launch in history and I repeat "In fucking history".

In its first 24 hours Modern Warfare 2 racked up $310 million in sales in the two regions, says Activision.

That's 4.7 million copies, the company estimates - not far off the 7 million global sales predicted this morning.

"The Call of Duty franchise has become a cultural phenomenon showing the power of video games as an entertainment medium," said Activision Publishing CEO Mike Griffith.

"The shattering of these entertainment records is a testament to the compelling, cinematic and uniquely engaging experience that the Call of Duty brand delivers," he added.

During the ongoing BMO Capital Markets Digital Entertainment Conference in New York, COO of interactive entertainment business Dennis Durkin stated the Xbox 360 version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has doubled up the PlayStation 3.

"Initial feedback from retailers is that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 [on Xbox 360] has outsold the PS3 2:1," he said.

Durkin also stated this past Tuesday was the largest day on Xbox Live ever, with over two million concurrent players on at a given time. He also touted the service by taking a jab at Sony, saying Xbox Live had no server issues even with such a large number.

PlayStation 3 owners suffered server outages due to demand, but Infinity Ward was able to fix the problem in less than a day. Way to go Infinity Ward.

"Modern Warfare 2 has taken interactive experience to unprecedented heights setting a new standard for entertainment."

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Alan Wake gets a Release Window, no seriously

Microsoft;s Xbox 360 most wanted title get's a release window, finally

According to MCV, Alan Wake has been confirmed to be released in May 2010 simultaneously around the world. The 360 exclusive looks very promising and is one of the few 360 titles on my must have list. Previously given a Spring 2010 release, the action-thriller was shown off at E3, hopefully Microsoft will attach at a date in a future announcement.

Just to throw a little speculation into the mix, I believe Alan Wake will be part of the all new Xbox 360+ Natal launch. And to make the hype be larger than life why not implement Natal. We will have to wait until May 2010 to see more of Alan Wake and Natal.

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Microsoft Brings the "Ban Hammer" on Modified XBox 360 Consoles

Have you been enjoying your modified Xbox 360 with little to no worries, will not any more. Microsoft has officially unleash the ban hammer. As first reported by IGN, Microsoft is committed to to swinging the "Ban Hammer" "We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs," a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. "In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE."

I understand Microsoft's stance on piracy, being it is a standing policy with no specific time-frame. It's only fair for the developers who has committed their time, money and resources to bring us some of the most memorable gaming experience so far this year.

"All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE," the spokesperson added. "The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them."

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Would Xbox 360 Live may cost double?

“I don’t foresee a scenario where we’re going to double the price of LIVE any time in the next couple months”

You may have heard rumblings around the net that Microsoft's Xbox 360 LIVE monthly and yearly subscription may double in price in the next few years. Videogame analyst/financial/inside guru Michael Pachter suggested the company's $50 Xbox LIVE membership fee, which players pay to access special features, could double in the next couple years.

Michael Pachter was quoted: "You can't hook a guy into Xbox LIVE Gold if he's playing on a PC," said Pachter. "That's the other problem. You really want to hook every gamer who has a 360, you want them to buy all their games on 360, play everything multiplayer, pay $50 a year, so that in a couple of years, it's $100 a year. That's going up, we all know that."

Microsoft’s spokesman David Dennis made some very interesting comments in a post-NPD conference call. The man with two first names David Dennis states: "I don't foresee a scenario where we're going to double the price of LIVE anytime in the next couple months," said Dennis.

According to that statement, it's feasible that a price increase for Xbox 360 LIVE can happen as early as the first of next year. The fact the Dennis mentions the next couple of months makes me think, he either misspoke and meant a couple of years or he knows something that he is not telling.

To throw my two cents into the pot--with the advent of 1080p HD Streaming arriving on Xbox 360 in the near future there has to be a huge cost associated with such a feature. Sony is currently making a killing charging a premium for Blu-ray movies. I can see Microsoft increasing the cost of LIVE to cover the cost of 1080p streaming and at the same time adding a premium value to their service. It makes sense for Microsoft to go this route--plus many will still pay to play. Microsoft logic behind such a feat would be "why not", we have an establish game library and everyone that owns a 360 has a pretty sizable friend list. We have Games on Demand, 1080p HD streaming, Facebook, Tweeter and Netflix. Why wouldn't someone pay a $100.00($8.33 per month) a year to access these premium features?

I would not pay a $100.00 a year to play with friends would you?

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Microsoft Bricks Unauthorized XBox 360 Storage Devices

Microsoft's Major Nelson has issue a warning that next week's XBox 360 update will see the blocking of unauthorized storage devices such as the XBox 360 Memory Unit 512MB or XBox 360 Max Memory Card 2GB. This makes no fucking sense Microsoft, I currently used my Xbox 360 Memory Unit to store my profile and game saves just in case I happen to go to a friends house.

Major Nelson states:

"When Preview Program members start receiving the Xbox 360 system update next week, one of the changes is that unauthorized Memory Units will no longer work with the Xbox 360.

If you’ve moved your profile or saved games onto one to “back it up,” you’d better move it back onto an authorized Xbox 360 storage device prior to taking the update.

If you continue to use an unauthorized Memory Unit after the update, you will not be able to access your stored profile or saved games."

I do not understand this move and the purpose of it, will try to contact Microsoft for details.

Via:[PS3news]

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Fist of North Star To Sell A Million Domestically

Kenji Matsubara, Tecmo Koei Holdings head honcho, expects great things from the recently announced multi-platform title Hokuto Musou aka: "Fist of the North Star". The game is based on post-apocalyptic martial arts manga Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken). One of the best Anime to ever be released.

"Only in Japan, the game should sell a million copies," Matsubara told the Nihon Keisai Newspaper. According to the paper, the game is expected to launch worldwide, given the international familiarity with Fist of the North Star.

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Turn 10 responds to Forza III graphics

The demo of Forza Motorsport 3 was released on September 24th for the Xbox Live Marketplace. While having the potential to be a huge hit when released, many are still complaining about the games graphics.

Che Chou, the community manager of Turn 10, was kind enough to address some of the concerns across multiple game forums.

Here is his response to a claim that the in-game graphics of Forza Motorsport 3 are different than the ones found in photomode:

"One clarification about photomode and screenshots we've released so far. Aside from the added effects such as AA, DOF, and motion blur, all assets you see in photomode are the same although I do stand corrected on one factor which is the player car. They do have higher detail in photomode while all other cars, the environments, etc. are exactly what you see in game. And as you know in replays everything is the same. Anyway, did not mean to mislead or 'play dumb' with earlier statements as I misunderstood how LODs were being used in the various modes. That said, many of the screenshots we've released thus far have used the in-game graphics car models since we often shoot a scene including cars that aren't the player car. It all looks good and representative of the game, imo

The demo is visually representative of the full-game so racing in-game won't look much different.

I don't see that many jaggies on my multiple TVs at home and at work, but everyone's setups can be varied.

I guess that's the thing. Overall, when I'm racing around the track, my eyes are not bleeding. I am a fairly big graphics ***. I love taking photos in photomode. Games with bad graphics distract me from my experience. That said, when I play FM3, I do not think about how awful the graphics are or low in-game car models, etc. simply because the overall effect is that the game looks good. Can it look better? Yes, totally and I agree it is not perfect. But does it justify the vitriol of some of the threads I've scanned this morning? I'm not sure that it does. Everyone has their own opinion on the matter and that's fine and there's not much I can say except I hope you'll give the final game a chance and have fun with it."

Via[examine]

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Japanese Charts: PS3 Sales Decline Pokemon Sells like Gold & Silver

Sony saw a dip in PS3 sales to a respectable 51,055 units shipped. For the second week in a row, Pokemon Soul Silver and Pokemon Heart Gold led Japanese charts, as the new slim PlayStation 3 hardware experienced a mild decrease. Total sales of Pokemon Souls Silver & Pokemon Heart Gold where 443,133 units. Microsoft is still trying to gain some sort of traction in Japan with only 4,965 total units shipped.

Tales of Vesperia for Sony PS3 also made the top three with 216,593 total units falling 6000 short from the number one spot. Sony sales will spike tremendously this holiday season due to the release of a 250GB PS3 bundle, Uncharted 2, and Final Fantsy XIII in Japan. From the looks of it, Sony may be making some serious head way to catch up with the Xbox 360.

DSi 66,073
PS3 51,055
PSP 21,073
Wii 16,698
DS Lite 13,555
Xbox 360 4,965
PS2 2,723

LW	TW	Title	Publisher	Platform	Weekly Sales
1	1	Pokemon Soul Silver	Pokemon Co.	DS	222,579
2	2	Pokemon Heart Gold	Pokemon Co.	DS	220,554
NEW	3	Tales of Vesperia	Namco Bandai	PS3	216,593
NEW	4	Jikkyou Pawapuro Pro Yakkyuu Portable 4	Konami	PSP	104,377
NEW	5	SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny	Square Enix	DS	91,547
3	6	Tomodachi Collection	Nintendo	DS	72,629
NEW	7	Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 4	Konami	PSP	50,697
NEW	8	Ys VII	Nihon Falcom	PSP	33,349
4	9	Dragon Quest IX	Square Enix	DS	32,603
NEW	10	Idolm@ster: Dearly Stars	Namco Bandai	DS	30,786

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Aaron Greenberg: Sales boost from price cuts will last "a month or two"

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg does not expect recent price cuts for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to leave a lasting impression on the console sales race.

"I don't believe the price cuts that both companies have made will impact the market dynamics too dramatically in the long term," Greenberg, who is director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, told our sister site Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"We typically see a month or two of lifts and share adjustments, but then things tend to settle back to roughly the established market ranking."

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Zune HD confirms 3D gaming

With Sony currently unleashing it's next generation 3D plans with very impressive 3D technology it was only enviable that Microsoft will also join the party. Micorsoft foray into 3D will begin with the Zune HD.

Over the weekend, several demo videos were posted online and then quickly yanked; As you can see in the clip below, the Zune HD is briefly shown playing a 3D racing game, while the voiceover highlights that the PMP will also allow for gameplay.

Since the Zune HD is based on NVIDIA’s Tegra chipset – a 720p HD-capable platform with HDMI output and hardware video acceleration – that really comes as no surprise, but it’s been a factor Microsoft themselves have been decidedly quiet on until now. The PMP officially arrives tomorrow, priced at $220 for the 16GB model and $290 for the 32GB version. Video after the Jump:



Via:[Ars Technica]

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PS3 Bayonetta "Bad Port": Blame it on Sega

PlatinumGames company's CEO Tatsuya Minam has spoke out about the recently weak showing of Bayonetta.

When Sega showed off the PS3 version of Bayonetta at an event in Tokyo late last month, many who attended were disappointed by the blurry graphics and surprisingly erratic frame rate when compared to the Xbox 360 version. Tatsuya Minami discusses the issue in a blog post today on the PlatinumGames blog, explaining that Sega is the company handling the PS3 port.

"With Bayonetta, we created the Xbox 360 version of the game first, and then handed off all the data and other assets to SEGA so they could begin the process of porting Bayonetta to the PS3, giving them advice regarding the porting process along the way and overseeing the progress to ensure that the PS3 version would be the best it could be."

PlatinumGames seems to be distancing themselves from the sub-par experience that too many PS3 owners has come to experience when it comes to multiplatform games this generation.

"As the developers of Bayonetta, we have overseen both versions, and I would like to make one thing clear. The Xbox 360 and PS3, as hardware platforms, both have their own distinct differences and peculiarities, and these characteristics will naturally give birth to differences in the final product. However, all involved endeavored to exploit the specific traits of each console to create an enjoyable experience. We feel the best way to evaluate this is by actually playing the game for yourself and coming to your own conclusions."

Both version will be shown at Toyko game show in the coming weeks and we will have a chance to see if PS3 owners again will be getting yet another mediocre port courtesy of Sega.


Fall Harvest [PlatinumGames Blog via Kotaku]

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PS3 Motion Control Game Revealed

EA has leaked one of the first PS3 motion control PS3 games that will take advantage of this new tech when it arrives in Spring 2010. EA Sports made it know to the world that “Grand Slam Tennis”, which originally debuted on the Wii, has been in development for the PS3 and Xbox 360 for some time but was mysteriously delayed back in August.

Grand Slam Tennis will arrive on the Sony PS3 in the Spring when Sony PS3 MoCo glowing wands arrives. Xbox owners will be seeing a similar version later on Natal in the fall 2010. With Sony being first to the HD MoCo wars it will be very interesting to see how the gaming public warm up to Sony attempted to capture the casual gamer.

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Shane Kim To Depart from Microsoft By Year End

Microsoft exec Shane Kim, the former VP of Microsoft Game Studios and current corporate VP of Strategy and Business Development for Interactive Entertainment Business, will be leaving Microsoft by the end of this year, he will be retiring.

Shane Kim over saw some of Microsoft biggest exclusives such as; Halo, Age of Empires, Fable, Gears of War and Forza Motorsport franchise for the Xbox 360 and Windows PC platforms. His career at the company spanned some 19 years, with 14 of those working in Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division.

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