Interview with Microsoft's Wacksman Talks about XBLA Business
>> From gamasutra.com: [QUOTE] On the Friday of GDC, Gamasutra got a chance to talk to Microsoft's Jeremy Wacksman, global marketing manager of Xbox Live marketing.
* People are starting to bump up against the size limit again. It was raised once, and that was really beneficial, but I've been hearing more reports from developers as they try to get a little more ambitious as the service gets more mature that they are sort of banging against that size limit wall. What do you think about that? * JW: We haven't heard that too much. We raised it when we did because of the ecosystem and the development community, but we have no plans to change that right now. It ensures small, pick-up-and-play games, and I think people are finding... look at Undertow that just came out. Unreal Engine 3, single and multiplayer, with cutscenes in audio, under 50 [megs]. Not even under 150 megabytes. Developers are finding incredible ways to fit into our platform, and that's part of why I say that.
* Do you think it matters that the PlayStation 3 does not have a size limit? Some developers, if they're going to do a multiplatform download game, the way they're planning, or the issue of what they have to work with becomes more complex for them. * JW: It's always case-by-case. I think we granted a one-time exception for Street Fighter [HD Remix], because it's such a good game with so much put into it, but in general, Live Arcade is all about pick-up-and-play games and accessible games. That's part of that guideline. And like I said, look at the games that we have coming. Look at Castle Crashers. 20 levels, 4-player co-op, hand-drawn HD art... that's a game that fits well with the model. [/QUOTE]
MS Scrubs Signatures And Artwork Off Xbox 360 Case
>> From consumerist.com: [QUOTE] We read a lot of stories about companies doing boneheaded things but rarely do we read anything like what reader Nathanial sent in.
An avid gamer, Nathanial carried his XBOX 360 around to various events, collecting signatures and artwork from members of the gaming community. When his XBOX finally died, he contacted Microsoft to make sure that he could send the console in without having the exterior case replaced or damaged. Microsoft ensured him that his request would not be a problem.
Nathanial included (along with his XBOX) a letter explaining the markings on the case and requesting politely, but firmly, that he receive his original case back.
And he did. Unfortunately, someone at Microsoft took it upon himself/herself to scrub the exterior of the box until the signatures were completely removed. This just seems spiteful. Trying to picture the person who thought that giving someone's signed XBOX a bath was an awesome idea makes our brain hurt. [/QUOTE]
>> From blogs.guardian.co.uk: [QUOTE] We speak to the developers behind Microsoft's first batch of freely available community-developed Xbox 360 games. It's the revenge of bedroom coding! Meet 'Walaber', developer of JellyCar, Brian Cable, responsible for Proximity HD, James Silva of The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai fame and Jeff Pobst and Michael Austin of Hidden Path Entertainment, creators of Culture.
What sort of technical restrictions are placed on XNA developers? Are there things you'd like to have done that the dev platform won't allow? * Walaber: Well, the choice to go with C# brings with it some performance issues (particularly on the Xbox 360), which required me to do more optimization of my code than I would have initially expected, considering that the Xbox 360 is so powerful. Hopefully future versions of XNA will improve some of these performance issues. * Brian: From what I hear, XNA is not quite as powerful as a graphics engine developed internally, but I'm just one person, not a company, and even if I spent several years perfecting a graphics engine the industry and XNA itself will likely have leaped ahead of me anyway, and I'd constantly be playing catch-up with my engine and not focusing on actually making games, which is much more fun and interesting to me anyway. Also there's no achievements, leaderboard support, or the camera support, and I don't think you have full access to Xbox LIVE multiplayer either, but I haven't looked too much into that yet. Achievements are understandable, though, or else you'd have everyone spamming five second non-games and releasing them to the service giving whoever played them max achievements instantly anyway. But of course, I would like access to all of these features, which is why I would love to someday release the game through XBLA. * James: C# does slightly underperform versus native code. Personally, I'd rather be coding in C#, because I'm a rotten C++ coder. If I were in charge of things, I would market XNA with the tagline "XNA: Giving Hope to Rotten Coders." * Michael: There are some features (pointers, etc) turned off for security reasons, and while managed code can be convenient to use, it does run more slowly. For instance, every time you access a variable in an array, C# has to validate the index. In C++ there are no handrails, so you can shoot yourself in the foot, but it's generally faster. The nice thing is that more and more heavy lifting is done by the GPU, and so the impact of using a managed language is less than it has been in the past. [/QUOTE]
>> From next-gen.biz: [QUOTE] Seven years after the introduction of its first console, Microsoft is waging a new war with Xbox 360 - against itself. Phil Spencer, the general manager of Microsoft Game Studios Europe, believes the war can still be won.
Wondering just how big or small a part of Microsoft the division is? That total revenue of $5.53 billion was part of a $30.3 billion (£15.2 billion) total revenue in the same period, so some rough-as-they-come beer mat sums would tell you it's about 18.25 per cent - a proportion that, even allowing for the varied products contained in the division, puts to rest the sneery idea that Microsoft can simply afford to throw money at the brand. And sure enough, the 360 has hit Microsoft's business targets: in particular, Bill Gates' E3 2006 prediction that the console would sell 10,000,000 units by the end of 2006 was surpassed by nearly half a million.
But think about the figures for a moment. If 1.5 million 360s were sold by the end of 2005, 10.4 million by the end of 2006, and 17.7 million by the end of 2007, then the Xbox 360 sold significantly fewer units in 2007 than it did in 2006. The bad news doesn't stop there: 2007 saw its head start battered aside by the unstoppable Wii, with little chance of redress, and the PlayStation 3 reaching the 9.5 million unit mark worldwide. The only territory in which it outsold the PS3 was North America, and without the sales spike around Halo 3 things would have looked considerably worse.
It seems strange that this is the case. After all, with its obvious attributes and its late-2007 software lineup, why didn't the Xbox 360 dominate the year, and the Christmas period in particular? Microsoft began 2007 with a huge unit lead, its biggest game properties due to arrive on the shelves, plus a significant marketing spend, and in the event managed to sell less hardware than the previous year. [/QUOTE]
>> From xbox360fanboy.com: [QUOTE] Microsoft has a new promotion for those gamers who are just getting into the the Xbox Live scene. Those gamers who have just created a Gamertag can register via a .NET site to receive a download code for the XBLA version of the classic tabletop game Settlers of Catan. The article is formally for recommending friends, but any user who has created a Gamertag since the twenty-fifth of this month can sign up. [/QUOTE]
>> From informationweek.com: [QUOTE] Microsoft has fixed a technical glitch that locked out thousands of users around the world from their Windows Live accounts, Hotmail e-mail, and other Microsoft online services, the company said.
"An issue began that has caused some consumers worldwide to experience difficulty logging in to their Windows Live ID accounts. This issue has since been resolved and normal operations have been restored to all customers," said Samantha McManus, Windows Live product manager, in an e-mail late Tuesday to InformationWeek.com sister site ChannelWeb.
Microsoft didn't disclose the nature of the bug, but reports indicate that in addition to Hotmail and Windows Live, it affected numerous Web services -- including Xbox Live online gaming and Microsoft's Windows Messenger instant messaging platform -- that rely on users' Windows Live IDs for logins. [/QUOTE]
>> From gamepro.com: [QUOTE] GamePro examines four recent multi-platform titles (Assassin's Creed, Burnout Paradise, Call of Duty4, Devil May Cry 4) to determine which console has the better games--PS3 or Xbox 360. What we discovered challenges the common wisdom that "Xbox 360 is better."
While we can't definitively name one console as having better multi-platform releases across the board, there's a clear winner among these four games: PlayStation 3 beats the Xbox 360 handily. Call of Duty 4 plays nearly the same on both systems, differing only in superior online integration on PlayStation 3. With Devil May Cry 4, the game is all-around better on PlayStation 3 (despite the horrendous installation process). Burnout Paradise emerges as decidedly better on Sony's system thanks to EA Criterion's decision to make it the leading version of the game. The exact opposite is true for Assassin's Creed where Xbox 360 beats out its PlayStation 3 counterpart visually.
Judging by what we've seen with these recent games, you may be better off picking up PlayStation 3 versions of high-profile multi-platform games for the time being. The notion that PlayStation 3 ports are inherently inferior to Xbox 360 simply doesn't hold water these days. Some games do perform worse on Sony's console--Blacksite: Area 51 has been plagued with performance issues, for instance, and The Orange Box suffers from groan-inducing load times and chugging framerates.
These issues are slowly being addressed, though, as many publishers are starting to churn out multi-platform releases with an eye for the PlayStation 3. LucasArts recently announced an initiative to make the PS3 their leading platform for development, joining a growing wave of developers seeking to improve multi-platform games heading to Sony's console. With any luck, this movement will result in better performance for all gamers, Xbox 360 and PS3 alike. For now though, just enjoy fragging terrorists, crashing cars, and slicing demons in half on your PlayStation 3. [/QUOTE]
>> From the ELSPA press release: [QUOTE] Two men, who peddled a while-you-wait console chipping service at a Midlands computer fair while simultaneously selling pre-chipped Nintendo Wii and Nintendo Wii consoles have been arrested.
The men, who operated a stand alongside other genuine businessmen, were caught offering the 'service' at the Robin Park Sports Centre in Wigan, where it was also discovered they were selling a number of illegally copied Xbox 360 and Wii games and a number of counterfeit DVD films.
The warrant for the raid, obtained and executed under the Trade Marks Act 1994, was carried out on the evening of 16th January at the Robin Park computer fair by officers of Greater Manchester Police and Wigan Trading Standards following investigative test purchases made by ELSPA's (the Entertainment&Leisure Software Publishers Association) I.P. Crime Unit.
One of the two men arrested, who, like his partner-in-crime, cannot be named until further investigations have been carried out, was a resident of the West Midlands. Consequently Wolverhampton City Council Trading Standards Service, West Midlands Police and ELSPA investigators executed an entry warrant at his home in Dudley where it was discovered he was running a functioning chipping factory in his garage. Further documents found at the premises resulted in the execution of a further raid at a business premises in the Wolverhampton area on 17th January from where other counterfeiting equipment was seized.
The second arrested man was a resident of Leyland in Preston, Lancashire, and during the search of his house a substantial quantity of Wii and Xbox 360 games were recovered. [/QUOTE]
EU hits Microsoft with record 899 million euro anti-trust fine
>> From AFP via google: [QUOTE] EU competition regulators dealt a new blow to Microsoft on Wednesday, fining the US software giant a record 899 million euros for defying a landmark 2004 anti-trust ruling.
The fine, equal to 1.4 billion dollars, is the biggest ever levelled against a single company in an EU antitrust case and brings the total penalties against Microsoft to just below 1.7 billion euros. "Microsoft was the first company in 50 years of EU competition policy that the commission has had to fine for failure to comply with an anti-trust decision," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.
In reaction, Microsoft said it was "reviewing the commission's action" and highlighted that the latest EU action targeted "past issues." "The commission announced in October 2007 that Microsoft was in full compliance with the 2004 decision, so these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved," the company said.
In particular, it accused Microsoft of using its stranglehold on PC operating systems to elbow rivals out of the more competitive markets for media players that play music and videos, and operating systems running back-office servers. [/QUOTE]
>> From the official XNA Blog: [QUOTE] We're thrilled about the responses we've been getting about our community games announcement! I know many of you have more questions. We're investigating getting a video done that covers our GDC session talk, but in the meantime encourage you to read this article I wrote for Gamasutra titled, "Democratizing Game Distribution: The Next Step." This article covers lots of details about how community games are submitted and reviewed. If you still have additional questions, feel free to bring them up on the special Xbox LIVE Community Games Discussion thread on the XNA Creators Club Online forums. [/QUOTE]
>> From xbox360.ign.com: [QUOTE] Independent warranty company SquareTrade says the 16 percent Xbox 360 failure rate it reported earlier this month is just a starting point and that the actual figure could be higher.
For its study, SquareTrade tracked 27 Xbox 360 Elites, 57 Cores and 956 Premiums. Out of the 171 claims reported (60 percent), 102 were general hardware failures (Red Ring of Death). Of the other 69 claims: - 18% were disc read errors. - 13% were video card failures. - 13% were hard drive freezes. - 10% were power issues. - 7% were disc tray malfunctions. [/QUOTE]
>> From hollywoodreporter.com: [QUOTE] Netflix refused to comment Monday on persistent speculation it would soon announce a deal with Microsoft to offer downloadable feature films via Xbox Live.
"Netflix intends to be on many devices that get the Internet to the TV," A Netflix spokesman said Monday. [/QUOTE]
>> From dbtechno.com: [QUOTE] Bloomberg is reporting that a Microsoft spokesman has told them that the price point of the external HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 will drop to $49.99. The reports state that the price cut of the external HD DVD player for the Xbox 360 will go into effect as of tomorrow. [/QUOTE]
If you still get those 6 free HD movies (offer is valid till February 28 2008 afaik), that's a pretty good offer I guess, even if the format is dead. For those who already bought a HD DVD player or addon, Amazon.com is still selling 150 HD DVD titles at 50% off RRP.
*Update* Microsoft's PR Blog confirms that not just the US will get the price drop. It should drop in most regions to $49.99/€49.99 (and equivalent local currencies). They also confirm that the 5 free movie deal is still valid for 4 more days (US only). King Kong is also still included (North America only), so that brings us to a total of 6 free HD movies in the US.
XBMC for Xbox 2008-02-24 SVN rev11787 build - T3CH
>> T3CH released a new SVN compile (rev11787) of XBMC for Xbox (XboxMediaCenter(info)). This T3CH-compile is a complete snapshot of what is in SVN at the time the build was compiled, with just a few small additions.
Special Notes and Noteworthy/XML/Script changes: * Added Nuka1195's XBMC-Addons Installer PLUGIN which can be used to install various Addons. Needs installation (use Programs) - says Nuka1195. * fixed: GetProtocolInfo was not transforming extension to lower case causing content type to be misconfigured changed: Xbox360 support! The 360 now can browse XBMC server and play music and video (whatever codec it can at least). No pictures yet. changed: some upnp:class changed for the 360 to be happy. Might break WMP on Vista. Needs testing. fixed: forced inclusion of port in urls for 360 to be happy fixed: upnp:class was wrong for music fixed: if no items were found during upnp browsing, returns 0 items instead of error changed: changed UPnP Server name to be compatible for 360. It's now "XBMC: MediaServer:" fixed: removed model name XBMC. The 360 doesn't like it ;-) added: if we failed to force UPnP Server to bind on port 80 (since xbox360 wants that for urls of files to stream), we try again with a random port. This might cause the 360 to not work though. Best is to disable xbmc http server or change its port to something different than 80 if that happens.
Keep in mind this is a SVN snapshot of the current development tree. It's not an official (stable) point release. Use only if you know what you are doing.
is still selling 150 HD DVD titles at 50% off RRP.
