A Letter from Marc Whitten: Discontinuation of Xbox LIVE for Original Xbox Games

Dear Xbox LIVE Members,

On April 15 we will discontinue the Xbox LIVE service for original Xbox consoles and games, including Xbox v1 games playable on Xbox 360 and Xbox Originals. I want to start by saying this isn't a decision we made lightly, but after careful consideration, it is clear this will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community.

Seven years ago we laid out our vision for the connected console when we launched Xbox LIVE. We believed then that the power of the Internet to connect people would revolutionize living room entertainment. It started with amazing multiplayer games, and we've since seen that bet pay off again and again with the launches of Xbox 360, Marketplace, Netflix and powerful social features like Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm. None of this would have been possible without the success of LIVE as a multiplayer gaming network.

There’s no greater example of the power of the Xbox LIVE community than the “Halo” franchise. “Halo 2” has had an amazing run on LIVE, with a dedicated community more than five years after launch and well into the next generation of consoles. It has fundamentally changed the way we play video games. And while it’s difficult to see that run come to an end, the “Halo” franchise continues to act as the benchmark for multiplayer gaming in this generation, with “Halo 3,” “Halo 3: ODST” and soon “Halo: Reach” on Xbox 360.

Your Xbox LIVE community has grown to 23 million strong. And as we look down the road, we’ll continue to evolve the service with features and experiences that harness the full power of Xbox 360. To reach our aspiration, we need to make changes to the service that are incompatible with our original Xbox v1 games. We will contact the Xbox LIVE members directly impacted by this change and if this includes you, I encourage you to check your LIVE messages and associated e-mail account over the coming weeks for more details and opportunities. We view you as a partner in this process.

We’ll share more details soon, but in the meantime I want to assure you that the best is yet to come for Xbox LIVE. I believe we’ll look back on 2010 as a landmark year in gaming and home entertainment, and I couldn't be more excited about what we have in store with “Project Natal” and LIVE. The LIVE community is the driving force behind everything we do, and it’s because of the community that ground-breaking experiences on Xbox continue to be possible.

See you on LIVE,

Marc Whitten
Gamertag - Notwen
www.twitter.com/notwen

Labels: announcements, Bummer, Halo, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PC, PlayStation3, releases, Wii, Xbox 360

Labels: Microsoft, PlayStation3, PSN, shopping deals, Sony, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

• Tony Hawk's new game (and new skate deck controller) looks sharp
• Modern Combat 2 continues to impress, but the trailer looks like the one shown on Spike's E3 preview last week. The live gameplay by the game devs looks stellar (though I'm a bit bummed by it's presentation, because while things like first-person ice climbing and massive snowstorm particle effects are cool, they're a bit slow to show at a presser). Snowmobile fighting was very cool, though. Two Modern Warfare 2 map packs will be timed exclusive to Xbox 360.

• Shadow Complex -- Epic's (Chair Entertainment, represented by Donald Mustard) next Xbox exclusive is a AAA XBLA title, and it looks like an uber bastard child of Gears of War 2 and Contra. Still gonna feel weird if Xbox gets an arcade exclusive and PS3 gets a full-title exclusive.
• Joy Ride -- a Big Park Live XBLA title, which allow for in-game Avatar use,
• Crackdown 2 -- I was so hoping for this, it looks amazing (though it was cut-scene only), and now the bad guys are super-charged, too. Couldn't tell if this is going to be more of the same(ish) crime family motif, or more adversarial / /co-op / multiplayer, etc. I would like all of the above, please.
• Left 4 Dead 2 -- I am very surprised at how quickly this coming (I believe November), and that it's an exclusive (in addition to PC, of course; which also helps Microsoft).
• Tom Clancy Splinter Cell: Conviction -- Looks like it got a much-needed makeover, and looks intense and grittier. I really like how mission objectives and info are projected on the in-game scenes -- almost like playing a French indie action film. Things like the "mark and execute" mechanic may make the thing much more usable (and brutal). It will be shipping this fall.
• Forza Motorsport 3 -- The successor to the Microsoft racing franchise, from Turn-Ten Studios. Set to be the "best-looking racing game on any platform". The community-inclusion aspect of custom painted cars, community videos, etc. built into the game is pretty impressive.
• Halo 3 ODST -- Joe Staten showed off new cut scene and playable footage. the playable character is primarily the "rookie" -- alone and separated from his squad. It looks to have nice gimicks for ODST visor and sound-suppressed weapons. And the pistol smacks of Halo CE awesomeness. I also like the gameplay device that flashes back to other playable ODSTs for gameplay diversity and "piecing together the mystery". I don't like that the voices sound like "Red v. Blue" cast voices, which takes me out of the gameplay. It will have co-op (yay!). Ships December.
• Halo Reach -- The top-secret project from Bungie leaked though a forum gaffe this weekend, the game hits 2010, but people buying Halo 3 ODST will get a beta key for Halo Reach. Halo Whores, unite!
• Alan Wake -- From Remedy Entertainment, the playable footage they showed gives me hope the the action genre is back. The flashlight-weakening mechanic to weaken enemies before shooting is cool, and the generator start up and flare gun was a cool twist on that.
• Metal Gear franchise -- Hideo Kojima said the next title, Metal Gear Solid Rising, is in development for the Xbox 360 -- and will feature Raiden. Not sure this one is an exclusive, but given Microsoft's "everything from here on out is exclusive to Xbox 360", it seems like it.

Media convergence:

• Last.fm -- Microsoft announced a music deal with Last.fm, making it available later this year to gold members for free. I know people there, and I am impressed they did not leak this to me. Though I would not have leaked the leakage.
• Netflix -- They've updated the service to remove needing a PC to set up the download queue, and simplified it -- just click "play".
• Sky TV -- Brings live TV to the UK. Hey, what about the U.S.?
• Zune video -- Microsoft's updating the Xbox video library to full 1080p, there's going to be no delay in play, the user experience has been streamlined, and the service is expanding to 18 countries (from 8)

Social Technology -- special versions for Microsoft's console:

• "Every Xbox Live game, music, and video experience can be an Xbox Live Party experience."
• Facebook integrated with Xbox Live (friends, photos, status, and sharing screenshots to Facebook from in-game; sounds like games will need to explicitly take advantage of the functionality, and hopefully it's taken advantage of more than the PS3 YouTube functionality).
• Twitter integration with the Xbox 360 dash (my office mate will hate this, and I will rub his face in it).

Hardware announcements:

• Super controller "Natal" -- Microsoft announced its own full-body motion capture, voice recognition uber controller. Looks ambitious, and if it delivers -- boy howdy -- "Controller free entertainment". It will work with every past Xbox, and will ship with every new Xbox. Steven Spielberg joined Microsoft's Don Mattrick on-stage in pushing the new technology, is at least tertiarily involved in the project, and will be "coming up with some good stuff" to take advantage of the technology.
  
  Kudo Tsunoda was on-stage to narrate the demonstration of "Natal" -- I was wondering what he was up to since the Fight Night franchise, and did not expect this. As an aside, I think paint party is great fodder for a drinking game over Xbox Live . I am concerned about the "stencil" functionality :- . Very compelling live demo, though.
  
  Peter Molyneux was on-stage to show what Lionhead is doing with the Natal technology. The Milo demo -- a virtual boy with emotional demonstration and response -- was stunning. I had shivers. You have to see the video to believe it, and if it's real ...

Anyway, Microsoft is first out of the gate, and their media blackout may have done its job -- I'm 90% ready to declare a presser winner right now.

Labels: E3, E3 2009, innovation, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

E3 is coming, and hopes to nod more toward its glory days from before the past few years -- and it may just do that.

I'm looking forward to several things, and while there are lot of predictions out there, I'm keeping mine fairly small and fairly me-centric.

And while I'm going to comment on some of the rumors out there, I'm not going to chat up anything I may have knowledge about thanks to my day job -- that would be bad form, and this industry has enough problems with loose lips.

First up and close to home, I'm excited about four titles powered by Gamebryo tech from Emergent Game Technologies that will likely be making a big splash next week. Two will definitely be on the show floor, two are likely, and I'm not going to announce any of them until they make their debut. And we have some long-time and new licensees that will be doing some exciting pitch work at the show, but I won't talk about that, either.

See, I'm starting out as a tease.

Here's the big presser line-up:

• Microsoft conference – 6/1, 10:30 a.m. Pacific
• Electronic Arts conference - 6/1, 2 p.m. Pacific
• Nintendo conference – 6/2, 9 a.m. Pacific
• Sony conference – 6/2, 11 a.m. Pacific

On the big announcements front, I hope Microsoft or Sony do an announcement similar to Microsoft's disruptive Netflix announcement from last year. I hope Sony doesn't just announce they have Netflix, too -- because that would feel me-too(ish), and not as fun. It would take away from Microsoft's differentiation, though, so that would be a smart business move.

There are all sorts of rumors for peripherals or some other announcement from the Big M, which as a consumer I've been expecting for a while. Have you been paying attention to what feels like really liquid pricing on the current 360 camera, including dirt-cheap pick-ups for in-game bundles of it? Noticed the wireless headsets selling for nearly half of its MSP? Etc.

Maybe Microsoft will do something with convergence -- what can they do to leverage the PC, Console, Zune, and windows mobile platform across each other? We've gotten a bit of this with the announcement of Zune HD and the Zune Store being made available to 360 owners. That's good convergence, and the Zune is seriously under-rated. Maybe there's a Windows Mobile 6.5 or Windows Mobile Microsoft - says - it - doesn't - exist - but - get - real version 7 crossover opportunity? Microsoft's exciting challenge there is to not cannibalize any of those platforms (for example, intro'ing an iPhone competitor would hurt both Zune and Windows Mobile)

But really, I'd like to know: Where the #### is Live Anywhere?

Sony needs to do something. I can't get my head around Microsoft doing so well on the media catalogue / media convergence thing against Sony -- They have a freaking extra-dimensional monster closet vault of music and video, so why aren't they doing something with it? Is there some mistaken notion that it will undercut the value-add of the PS3 as a Blu-ray player?

I'd like to hear some big announcements on Sony convergence, and maybe that'll be PS3 / PSP (or rumored PSP Go) or PS3 / Sony Ericsson phone or -- dare I dream -- an announcement for a massive, unified Sony device synergy that is real and awesome. I don't think the "PS3 Slim" will be there, and I don't think it would be wise -- I think it would hurt PS3 sales, and unless they've done power and heat dissipation magicks, I don't think it would be a full-featured PS3, which could cause consumer confusion (and raise gamer ire).

Nintendo is going to be Nintendo, which you can take as you will. They will be innovative, their handhelds and Wii own the commercial consumer non-core space, and the company is still printing money, if a little slower than they were. I hope they surprise everyone with yet another new peripheral. And by surprise, I mean something that makes people say, "Wii remotes and nunchucks and Balance Boards and MotionPlus and Wii Speak, and everything else -- those are cool, but this, this I must have!"

I do expect some game coolness for Nintendo, but think it may come uncharacteristically from 3rd parties (I'm hoping the High Voltage Software Wii FPS The Conduit does as well as that developer and SEGA hope it does).

Despite a ridiculous amount of pre-E3 leakage, Microsoft is uncharacteristically under wraps, so I'm hoping for bigness, because they're talking a big game.

And I honestly am hoping for a bit of competitive rodeo, because Microsoft's presser goes first this year, and if you're Sony or Nintendo, how do you head off the under-wraps Microsoft?

Traditionally (besides having big stuff of your own) you take away the differentiators -- take away Netflix, or something. Maybe do more with Miis on the Wii than Xbox Avatars are doing -- but watch out, because I don't expect Microsoft to keep those still). Better, leapfrog the differentiators by announcing Netflix, and something like an XM exclusivity.

And someone needs to add a social networking component. (In a way that matters.)

Yeah, but it's all about the games, right?

Right! (I'm lying, but the games are cool.)

What am I stoked about?

Besides the Gamebryo titles I hint at above (and genuinely, as I'm off the clock and out of shill mode), here are some of the titles or rumors I'm looking forward to.

Modern Warfare 2. Infinity War is top-notch. The previous game was fantastic, and this one continues on. And despite the reveal in Game Informer Magazine, they claim "big surprises" are still in store for this title. I hope we learn those at E3.

Crackdown 2. I don't think this is on anyone's radar for E3, but a sequel to one of the better games on the 360, after a premium theme randomly popped up for purchase? C'Mon, show me some super-cop love.

Dead Rising 2. Sure, the games not going to be shown, but the US arm of Capcom will likely be in attendance, so maybe it will. I so dug the first game, despite hating the save and escort mechanics. I really thought it was an indicator of what next-gen gaming could be, and it sounds like the sequel -- as long as gameplay is pushed as hard as raw polys -- could build on and explode that legacy. Plus we should all be practicing for the inevitable.

Labels: announcements, Business Development, companies, console updates, E3 2009, Emergent Game Technologies, events, Gamebryo, Gamebryo LightSpeed, Microsoft, Nintendo, PC, PlayStation3, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

"I would characterize it as that new breed of title that is high production value, great bang-for-the-buck, and innovating under new challenging models of budget and timeline constraints. You should play this game."

Labels: Gamebryo, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Labels: announcements, Emergent Game Technologies, Gamebryo, PC, PlayStation3, releases, Wii, Xbox 360

Attendance is down around 11,000 from last year (continuing a downward trend), probably due to Nintendo's continued absence, and the in-betweenness of big shipping titles and not-yet-playable titles, and/or Microsoft as one of the big publishers still not being the Japan draw that Sony is (or Nintendo would be, if they deigned to show).

But ignoring jaded gaming press's various wailing's about "not much happening" at TGS this year, for gamers who still love games, there's some good stuff, and Saturday's public attendance (from picts) at least looks respectable.

Microsoft:
If you're an Xbox 360 fan, there was a lot of good noise on that front. Besides the formal announcement the New Xbox Experience (NXE) coming November 19th, (confirming what we already knew, based on an XBL ad), it sounds like the monolothic, twice-a-year Xbox dashboard updates of the past may give way to more fleet-of-foot updates, which as a gamer, program and former development manager, makes me happy. Plus, the videos of the new dashboard in use is pretty exciting.

And the laggard "Bringing it Home" downloadable content finally showed up (anyone else find it funny that Xbox Live's Major Nelson seemed surprised by the content?). Oh, but good luck finding it in one place on your Xbox, since I have yet to find the TGS08 button there, what with all of the "Shocktober", Quantum of Solace, Gears of War 2, and other noise on the dashboard. (UPDATED: Turns out I got to it by going to Marketplace --> Spotlight --> Games --> Tokyo Game Show 2008 (37 slots down from the top? Seriously?).)

If you're more on the 360 fanboy side, you should take glee in Microsoft's further eroding of the Sony exclusives by taking Tekken 6 (out next year), adding to the usurped Grand Theft Auto and Final Fantasy franchises.

Oh, and Halo junkies? Bungie finally got to make their late- and- undercut announcement of Halo: Recon, a boxed-title expansion pack for Halo 3, that will be a prequel (single player campaign and new multiplayer maps and modes), featuring a playable Orbital Drop Shock Trooper (ODST) marine -- a bad-ass looking character I've been waiting (and I'm pretty sure I've been promised I'd be able) to play since Halo 2. The trailer shows off the repeat top-notch, triple-A, traylor madd skilz we've seen in past Halo universe trailers. Some of the cool stuff is pretty subtle (which makes it cooler).

Of similar interest is the Halo Wars RTS, and I'm hoping it gets the love it needs from Microsoft and Ensemble, given the former's recent shuttering of the latter.

Public service announcement: I still want Otogi 3, but From Software's Ninja Blade will likely fill the gap until someone comes to their senses and makes that other thing happen.

And on the free- publicity- better- than- your- own- game- PR- could- do front, I'm not sure Microsoft could get better than Kotaku calling Banjo Kazooie "More Like LEGO Grand Theft Auto".

Sony:
Sony folks? Were you bummed like I was that anticipated title White Knight Chronicles -- a game showing up this year -- wasn't playable on the show floor, and its session was a PowerPoint presentation? Hey, at least 4-player co-op news snuck out.

But the Resistence 2 (PS3) and Resistence: Retribution (PSP) interconnectivity sounds nifty (actually the whole "PSP Plus" tie between the PSP and PS3 (including DualShock functionality) feels cool, and I hope devs exploit it).

I'm watching to see if LittleBigPlanet becomes the atypical console mover I think it could be. But the brilliance of leveraging Sony's IP as Sackboys (Kratos from God of War, Nariko from Heavenly Sword, "Old Snake" from Metal Gear Solid 4, Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII), while kind of a "duh" move, showcases the kind of tactical marketing savvy I like to see. Now, if they could only do the same thing with their video and music catalogs on PSN...

Multiplatform:
On the multiplatform front, Resident Evil 5 is looking grr-eat, and the co-op deets (I'm a co-op bigot) make me happy.

Konami's going to get us a new Xbox 360 and PS3 Castlevania, but other details or neigh non-existent.

Namco Bandai's Afro Samurai? Looks wicked sweet.

And, no, Square Enix didn't announce a date for Final Fantasy XIII. [Sigh]

And this Street Fighter IV trailer? Art. Again. I want the game to look like the ink or watercolors or sand post-processing effect. Please?

Changing Business Models:
On the "changing business models front", Microsoft's NXE goes a long way in that direction, because it will give better access to the wealth of content that's made the 360 a victim of its own success, and it'll be an interesting experience in the "core, non-core, social interaction" realm (a la the avatars and LIVE Party). Sony making all first-party PSP titles downloadable is a very cool, moving- into- the- digital- distro move, and Level 5's surprising ROID digital distro (Steam?) competitor gets props for super sexy packaging, and console- transformer- red- herring tease (but they don't have any PC or mobile games in their portfolio, do they? Hmm.).

Philosophy:
As a left-field kind of thing, I really like what I think is an important industry statement from Peter Molyneux (Fable II):

Show Floor:
Here's an embed of what the Tokyo Game Show floor must be kind of like, from blip.tv / Kotaku (who, despite my rant below, I think are probably fine folks).

More as I think about it. Maybe.

* (What is up with Kotaku? Much as I like those guys, why the hell do I have to dig through so many fractured tags to get all of my TGS info? ("tokyo game show 2008"? "TGS08"? "Lets TGS" [sic]? WTF? Oh, and there's TGS content not tagged. Nice.)

Labels: announcements, companies, console updates, events, Microsoft, PC, PlayStation3, ramblings, Sony, TGS, TGS08, Xbox 360

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation3, shopping deals, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

Gamebryo Casual.

Labels: announcements, Emergent Game Technologies, Gamebryo, PlayStation3, Wii, Xbox 360

Labels: Emergent Game Technologies, Gamebryo, Product Management, Wii, Xbox 360

Labels: announcements, E3 2008, Microsoft, Xbox 360

Labels: E3 2008, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation3, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

Redmond, Washington—Microsoft is giving consumers more gigabytes for their buck. The company today announced an Xbox 360® console with triple the storage space of the original console, but for the same price of $349 (U.S.) estimated retail price.

Available in retail stores in the U.S. and Canada starting in early August, the upgraded Xbox 360 will include a 60GB hard drive for storing the growing wealth of digital entertainment available for the console, including music, movies, television shows, and game content. In addition, Microsoft today dropped the price of its 20GB Xbox 360 console in the U.S. and Canada to just $299 (U.S.) (ERP) while supplies last, a savings of $50.

"We know consumers need more and more space to store the amazing digital content Xbox 360 offers, and we're giving it to them at no extra charge," said Albert Penello, Xbox director of product management at Microsoft. "No one device offers the depth and breadth of entertainment that Xbox 360 can deliver, and now you'll have three times the storage to manage all that great content."

Xbox 360 is just one of three Xbox 360 gaming and entertainment systems Microsoft offers. Microsoft's Xbox 360 Arcade, which comes with a 256MB memory unit and five Xbox LIVE Arcade games, is a value for the whole family for $279 (U.S.) (ERP), and the premium Xbox 360 Elite console is available with a 120GB hard drive for $449 (U.S.) (ERP).

Labels: announcements, Microsoft, shopping deals, Xbox 360

• Download Cold Storage for Free
• Download The Official Bungie Day Gamerpic7ures (free, available ONLY on 7/7)
• Download the Bungie Day Theme (free, available ONLY on 7/7)

• Read about the making of Cold Storage
• Download, iTunes or stream the return of the Bungie Podcast.
• Check out the new Avatars and Wallpapers for the forums
• Watch the ViDOC: And on the Seven7h Day... yet again

Labels: Halo, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Labels: Emergent Game Technologies, Gamebryo, PlayStation3, releases, Xbox 360

Labels: Microsoft, PlayStation3, Sony, Xbox 360

Labels: PlayStation3, shopping deals, Xbox 360

• The Games of 2008: Q1
• The Games of 2008: Q2

Lotta good games coming in 2008. Quarter three's typically the slow one of the year as publisher's lose their audience to summer, and feel out where they fall in the holiday onslaught.

Quarter four is tough to predict with any accuracy, and a lot of the "to be scheduled" games get shunted into the last two quarters as placeholders for fiscal forecasting.

So I'm lumping the two quarters and uncommitted titles together.

Happy Tree Friends False Alarm -- Cutesy crude IP, of which I'm already a fan. I'm in.

Battlefield: Bad Company -- Interest in the Battlefield franchise for a lot of folks is like interest in the Victoria's Secret network fashion show -- it's their if you happen to stumble upon it. This iteration will add a single-player campaign and deepens the online component, and hopefully removes some of the concessions they've made to enable massive online play in the FPS space.

Ninja Gaiden II -- Itagaki-san has a rock star mentality, and that entertains me. Ninja Gaiden made me curse. I play it to make me think I can handle "games made for gamers".

Fable 2 -- Action RPG from the master of video game visionary promises. As long as the dog makes it in, I'm playing.

Halo Wars -- The CGI trailer has nothing to do with the gameplay, and I don't like RTS games. But the gameplay footage (available via Xbox Live) does look compelling, and may get me into the genre. Plus, it's Halo, so it'll print money.

Too Human -- I can't wait for this thing to get out of the fog of game engine heartburn. I think this has the potential to be a brilliant take on my Norse mythology love.

Fallout 3 -- I'm Fallout fiend (maybe just a Fallout fan; or just an alliteration amateur). I suspect this'll be a fun, immersive, time-suck of an RPG.

Brutal Legend -- Jack Black marries Tim Schafer and they birth a spiritual success to KISS's under-rated Psycho Circus. Tell me why you won't be playing this gem.

Alan Wake -- I'm trying to stay interested in this survival horror title. Knock off the delays and keep this thing funded on the publisher front.

Saboteur -- I think this stealth game with an innovative colorization game mechanic looks amazing. Can't wait, though I'm torn that I may be rescuing France.

LEGO Batman -- Have you played LEGO Star Wars? Have you seen the LEGO Batman toys? I am going to own this game, and my be-otches will play LEGO Robin online by my side.

LEGO Indiana Jones: The Videogame -- See above. Minus Robin.

LEGO Universe -- A LEGO MMO. A. LEGO. MMO.

Borderlands -- Hundreds of gun combos. Everything else is gravy, but I'm expecting a lot of gravy.

Fracture -- Real-time terrain deformation as a gameplay (and multi-play) mechanic. From LucasArts.

Mushroom Men -- I miss the Oddworld franchise. Mushroom Men looks to be that foot that bill. Again, from publisher Gamecock.

Dead Space -- Electronic Arts bucks behind a team that wants to create a survival horror title, inspired by the likes of Alien. A potential brown trouser excursion.

Ghostbusters The Video Game -- This game wants to be Ghosbusters 3. If they pull it off, it should rock. I hate Slimer.

Labels: action, Halo, Microsoft, MMO, Nintendo, PC, PlayStation3, releases, RPG, RTS, shooters, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle of Doom (X360) -- Hey, an action RPG brawler retake on an action RTS mainstay, playable co-op over Xbox Live? I'm in (even if the demo was less than accessible).

Pirates of the Burning Sea (PC) -- An MMO that's not orcs 'n' elves?Let's see how it does. I probably won't play until the ninja community mod expansion pack kicks in.

Devil May Cry 4 (X360, PS3)-- I'm a franchise fan, and even if it's more of the same (but bigger, faster, more insane), it being available out of the gate on the 360 makes it a grabber for me.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Wii) -- If I can get a Wii, this and Super Mario Galaxy are the two boxed titles I'm likely to buy.

Lost Odyssey (X360) -- This may be the JRPG that gets me into JRPGs (sorry, Blue Dragon). Yeah, it's Mistwalker Studios, but it's from Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the original Final Fantasy series), composed by FF music creator Nobuo Uematsu, art by manga creator Takehiko Inoue, and written by Japanese novelist Kiyoshi Shigematsu.

The Club (PC, PS3, X360) -- Take a top-notch racing game developer and throw them at a stylistic, Running Man-esqu thinking man's FPS? I'm in.

Turning Point: Fall of Liberty (PC, PS3, X360) -- An FPS in alternative 1950s America where the Nazis won? Of course it's on my list.

Insecticide (DS, PC) -- "Insecticide is a film noir action adventure game set in a decaying world run by bugs. " Plus it's published by Gamecock Media. Who are in Austin, TX, and make me laugh.

Condemned 2: Bloodshot (X360, PS3) -- The first Condemned is one of the strongest launch games on the 360, and it still stands up. Add a more polished version of one of my favorite other vertical game engines (Lithtech) and multiplayer, and I'm ready for another "brown trouser" excursion (thank you, Brits, for that expression).

Bully: Scholarship Edition (X360, Wii) -- Bully for Rockstar for doing something different with this game. Sure, it came out the PS2 a while ago, but this version will have new classes, new content, and achievements (on the 360). Plus, the 360 version is being built using Emergent Game Technologies's Gamebryo game engine.

Viking: Battle for Asgard (PS3, X360) -- I'm a big fan of Norse mythology, action brawlers, and SEGA. It's a lock.

Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon (PS3, X360) -- I know the writer for this, so I would suck if I didn't list it. Plus the franchise genuinely rocks on all fronts.

Haze (PS3) -- Free Radical has my eternal love for the TimeSplitters franchise (bring me TS 4!). Haze looks smart and subversive. Just bring it to 360, kids -- I'd hate to see a sales shortfall for the potential franchise by limiting yourselves to a PS3 SKU.

Labels: brawlers, Emergent Game Technologies, fighting, MMO, Nintendo, PC, PlayStation3, releases, RPG, sandbox, SEGA, shooters, Sony, Wii, Xbox 360

"Did you know our system update package is only 7MB in size? Or that the entire 360 O/S resides on a tiny 16MB filesystem and when running it is only given 32MB of system memory?"

Labels: announcements, Microsoft, XBLA, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

"With no disc necessary, and at just 1,200 Microsoft Points per game, Xbox LIVE members can easily rediscover these hit titles, or check out a game they missed the first time around. This launch lineup is only the beginning, as Xbox 360 owners can expect to see a growing catalog of Xbox games to download and own over the coming year."

Labels: announcements, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

Labels: announcements, events, Microsoft, XBLA, Xbox 360, Xbox Live

1. The Entertainment and Devices Division wasn't projected to be profitable until 2008.
2. 2008 was a bump up from the original profitability projection of 2010.
3. This is Microsoft's second profitable quarter for the Entertainment and Devices Division in a row.

So, the division is profitable for 2 years, and 203 quarters (depending on how you count) earlier than planned, and it has a track record, and (going into holiday sales), a likelihood to continue.

Never mind things like the Xbox was never expected to be a contender in the console war, and arguably bested Nintendo last generation and Sony this (so far). And the Entertainment and Devices Division also includes Zune, which is doing well, and also wasn't supposed to even be a contender in the MP3 / personal media devices front.

And, brass tacks, they're making money. Lots of money.

Honestly, I don't get the haters mentality (toward Microsoft, Apple, Electronic Arts, etc.) -- it just seems to be sour grapes from the have-nots and don't-want-to-work-for-its.

I'm fine with opinion pieces on things like the Microsoft numbers -- just call them "opinion", rather than "reporting". Or call them "second fiddle to Adam's snarky brilliance".

Let the hate mail begin...

Labels: Microsoft, ramblings, Xbox 360