I Am A Monument To All Your Sins

To say that Bungie’s swan song in the Halo universe, Halo: Reach has by far the most challenging campaign of all of the Halo games is a gross understatement.  To play the campaign on the highest difficulty setting, Legendary is for the most part, insane. Checking my Bungie.net stats, I started playing the game on Legendary – Solo on September 22nd.  Ironcially, seven days after the release of Halo: Reach (For those of you who don’t know, Bungie… Read On »

VGChartz Sales Data On Kinect Sparks Remarks From Greenburg

Yesterday, VGChartz released initial sales data for Kinect for the Xbox 360, stating that the device had sold almost 480,000 devices between its launch on November 4 to the week ending November 6.  For two days worth of sales, it’s not a figure to laugh at.  Especially considering that it took the Playstation Move four weeks to reach a similar number.

But Mr. Aaron Greenburg, Chief of Staff for Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft, is indeed, laughing.  Per his post on Twitter, “LOL’ing at sales reports from VGChartz, why do people release info as official when there is no source or science behind the #s?”

VGChartz has come under fire before for the accuracy of the data that it reports.  Many times, their data will be corrected when groups such as NPD release their own tracking data.  However, with NPD no longer reporting their data to the public, VGChartz is the only source left for many bloggers, myself included, to gather semi-accurate sales data.

Brett Walton left a comment in the Kinect article stating, “I’m a little disappointed that a senior figure like Mr Greenberg decides to comment in such an immature way rather than maybe offer the actual figure for example.

As ever, it is entirely possible that our figures aren’t perfect (they are only estimates from samples afterall), but they shouldn’t be that far out.”

So is this another example of VGChartz guesstimates being way out of what the actual numbers are?  Or could Mr. Greenburg be clutching on to the real sales data because the true numbers aren’t as impressive?

Stay tuned.

~W75

October Sales Data – Christmas Season Predictions

Nintendo down 50%, Sony Leads The Month Sony led the month of October with over 990,000 unit sales pulling ahead of Microsoft by almost 230,000 sales in the last two weeks.  Two contributing factors to Sony pulling ahead were most likely the launch of the Playstation Move, Sony’s motion controller, and anticipation of Microsoft’s Kinect for Xbox 360, with people opting to pre-order the Xbox 360S 4GB and 250GB bundles with the Kinect device. More… Read On »

Console News For Monday, November 8

Microsoft Bundles Alan Wake – Forza 3 In Holiday Bundle

For those of you who don’t want to be Kinect’d, Microsoft is releasing this year’s holiday bundle with core gamering goodness.  The new bundle will come with a copy of Forza Motorsport 3 and a token to download Remedy’s hit thriller, Alan Wake.  This bundle will launch at the $299 price point leaving gamers to decide, get Kinect?  Or go with a couple of core games?

Source: Major Nelson

Mass Effect 2 For PS3 To Receive Free Extra Content, Missions

PS3 users will finally be receiving Mass Effect 2 on the Sony console with some extra goodies.  It will be including all of the DLC missions that Xbox 360 users had to purchase this last year, as well as a new mission worth about six hours of gameplay and an interactive comic to walk them through the events of the first game, making key decisions that affect the outcome of Mass Effect 2.

It will be interesting to find out if Xbox 360 fans will have access to this extra six hour mission as later downloadable content.  It would probably be a good idea for EA to release it to appease the 2.12 million fans of the Xbox 360 version may feel a bit left out and disgruntled if it isn’t the case.

Source: GameRant

Kinect Technology Could Have Gone To Apple First

Apple Inc., a company whose dedication to innovating arguably stands above any other company could have had Project Natal, now known to the world as Microsoft’s holiday hopeful, Kinect, first.  But why would Apple, king of new technologies miss out on this huge opportunity to bring something unique to their own line of products?

Because, “Apple is a pain in the ass,” according to PrimeSense CEO Inon Beracha.

In an interview with Cult of Mac Editor, Leander Kahney, Beracha said that when Apple was introduced to the technology, it was the stack of legal agreements and NDAs that turned Beracha off to the partnership.

Interesting.

Source: Cult Of Mac

Microsoft Giving Away Free Xbox 360s With Purchase Of Win7 Phones In Toronto

As you know, Windows Phone 7 launches today.  And what better way to celebrate this event than getting a free Xbox 360 with your purchase of an HTC 7 Surround or LG Optimus 7?  People shopping at the Toronto Eaton Centre can get just such a deal.  But you better be quick, word is that numbers are limited.

Source: Wirelessly Obsessed

Coming This Week

I’ll be taking Microsoft Kinect For Xbox 360 for a test drive and writing down my thoughts, as well as with the new 360 Dashboard.  Also, my holiday sales predictions after last week’s numbers are posted.  Stay tuned.

~W75

Console News For Wednesday, October 27th

Sony To Introduce Its Own Console Phone?

As reported by Engadget, it looks like Sony is looking to steal some of Microsoft’s thunder in the phone market with their own Playstation phone.  While still considered a rumour, I can’t but wonder if this is the reason why Sony has so drastically marked down the price of the PSP Go.

Microsoft has been working very dilligently to bring the XBox Live experience to the mobile platform with the introduction of Windows Mobile 7, and further extend the Live experience with their upcoming revamp of Games For Windows Live to unify gamers across all devices.  An entry by Sony with a Playstation phone could very well take a bite out of Microsoft’s efforts in re-entering the mobile market.

Of course, if Sony is to do this, then the real winner would be Apple Inc.  As a split of users determined not to buy an iPhone between Microsoft and Sony would only bolster their position as the number one mobile phone maker in the market.

Source: Engadget

NATS and Xbox Live

@majornelson‘s (Xbox Live’s Major Nelson) Twitter feed this morning links us to a Microsoft Xbox Engineering blog talking about NATs (Network Address Translation) and how strict and moderate NAT’ing can affect your Xbox gaming experience.  It’s full of plenty of extremely useful information of how Xbox devices under networks of certain NAT configurations will react to Xbox devices under other NAT configurations.

Of course it was written by an Engineer, so if you find the details to be a bit cumbersome, they included a very easy to follow diagram for the regular non-geek.

Source: Twitter, XBox Live Engineering Blog

 Game Pack 11 For Game Room Released

Microsoft has released Game Pack 11, the add-on for Xbox’s own classic video game emulator just a couple of weeks after the closing of Krome Studios.  The Microsoft dev team responsible for Game Room and the “regularly scheduled releases”.

I haven’t downloaded the pack to see what games are on it as of yet, but one fellow blogger seems to be quite taken with a Konami game that found its way into the release.

Source: Xbox Live, The Examiner

Sims 3 On Xbox 360 And Playstation?

EA has announced that the popular Sims franchise is now available for the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360.  So now you can date, get a job, be a criminal and set your virtual you on fire from the comfort of your couch!

Interestingly enough, there’s been a lot of news about problems with Microsoft’s Xbox Live guidelines and MMOs in the press lately.  With that said, you have to wonder if any of the guidelines were bent or broken to allow the Sims 3 to come to the Xbox?  Or is it a case of the subscription requirements in the other MMO games that are the real sticking point?

Only time will tell.

Source: Electronic Arts; MCVUK

Console News for Tuesday, October 26th

Microsoft Spent $30,000 To Build The First Kinect Device

The New York Times has a very thorough article on Kinect, and the work that was done to make it happen.  One thing of particular note is the cost of the first Kinect device.  Over $30,000 was spent to build the intial unit.  Also, the article claims that, according to Don Mattrick, Microsoft’s President of Interactive Entertainment business, “the company has a product it can sell for $150 a pop and still turn a profit.”

I wonder how much of a profit they turn with the discounted Xbox 4GB Bundle?

Source: New York Times

PS3 and PC To Get Back To The Future, Xbox 360 Excluded?

NowGamer is reporting that while the upcoming Back To The Future game is set to release on the PS3 and PC, it is not slated to release on Xbox 360.  A quick check on Telltale Games’ forums indicate that there is in fact no current plans to release Back To The Future to Xbox Live Arcade.

Nuts.

Source: NowGamer

Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare DLC Now Available

Zombies are what bacon is to any food.  It just makes it so much better.  And now you can get tasty tasty zombie cowboys for your RDR needs.  The new DLC touts:

All-New Single-Player Story – as the frontier’s last and greatest hope, it’s up to John Marston to eradicate the zombie outbreak and discover a cure;

Undead Overrun Co-Operative Multiplayer Mode – band together as a team of 2-4 players and survive endless waves of undead horrors in a variety of locations;

Four Distinct Zombie Classes – including the Undead rank and file, Bolters, Bruisers and Retchers that will test your mettle and accuracy;

The Blunderbuss – an all-new, all-powerful shotgun that not only uses zombie parts for ammunition, but adjudicates them in one shot;

New Melee and Projectile Weapons – set zombies aflame with the torch, cleanse them with Holy Water and lure them towards certain doom with Boom Bait;

Infected Open World – ambient challenges, zombified animals, mythical creatures and missing persons are scattered throughout the now-undead world of Red Dead Redemption;

All-New Soundtrack;

New Achievements and Trophies.

And all of it is now available on PSN for $9.99 and Xbox Live for 800 Microsoft Points.  Not a bad deal at all!

Source: Bezinga

Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit Demo Now Available On Xbox Live

You can now get your mits on quite possibly the NFS game to hit the consoles on Xbox Live.  Check out the demo and let me know what your thoughts on the latest addition to EA’s high speed franchise.

Source: Xbox Live

Microsoft Not Interested In HD Remakes…For Now

During an interview with Microsoft VP Phil Spencer, they asked if there were any plans to re-release original Xbox titles such as Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2 in HD.  Spencer replied, “”We obviously have a lot of new things going on, so the thought of re-doing a bunch of things is probably difficult to just weave into the overall portfolio,” Spencer added. “If you can provide real value to the customer, there could be possibilities for that, but I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about it.”

Honestly, I can agree with him.  While Sony is re-releasing PS1 and PS2 games on PS3 by way of BluRay disc or PSN, they have to with the lack of backward compatibility available in the newer systems.  Whereas there are very few games in the Xbox library that aren’t compatible with Xbox 360.  Likewise, many of the original Xbox games are being re-released on Xbox’s Games On Demand for public consumption.

I do know that with Halo: CE, the Games On Demand version is in HD and widescreen format.  But I don’t see MS releasing a completely revamped version for something that already works and is available for the time being.

Thoughts?

~W75

5 Squenix Games I’d Like To See On XBLA

To be totally honest, each console, the Xbox 360 and the PS3, both have their merits as a console.  When it came down to decision time for me to jump in, there were many reasons why I chose the 360 over the PS3, and I’m still to this day very happy that I did.

However, Squenix seems to still be very tight knit with Sony.  They’ve released quite a few games in the last few years that were either PSOne or earlier console releases that don’t seem to find their way to Xbox Live Arcade.  And this is really disappointing to me.

But if Squenix ever did decide to change their mind, these are what I’d love to see:

1) Final Fantasy VII (PS1) – Who can’t love this game?  Millions bought it.  I know I did.  And I still enjoy playing it to this day occasionally on my PS2.

2) Parasite Eve (PS1) – This was just announced to be coming to the PSN yesterday.  A cult classic in my eyes.  Awesome gameplay and a compelling story.

3) Chrono Trigger (SNES) – How can you forget the loveable characters and enjoyable storyline of this classic?  Squenix at its best!

4) Einhander (PS1) – A throwback to the good old sidescrolling shooter.  Awesome!

5) Kingdom Hearts (PS2) – Why this didn’t make it to the original Xbox is beyond me.  But an awesome game nevertheless.

Xbox.com Update – Play Dressup With Your Avatar Online!

As Larry Hyrb, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson, previously announced, Xbox.com received a facelift today.  And so far, the result is very nice and clean, with some excellent new features added.

One of the nice new features is the ability to now go online and not only purchase avatar clothes and props, but to be able to try them on as well.  I went straight to the avatar props and clicked on my Halo:Reach Falcon and my avatar immediately started playing.  So cool!

Surfing through the profile pages, I found it was fairly easy to navigate through.  Finding where I can redeem my codes, update my credit card info and view my game information easily.  There is also a Family Center link now available under the “My Xbox” menu, but it looks to still be under construction for the time being.

The Achievements Page got a bit of a touch up as well, making things a bit easier to read at a glance.  Your total gamerscore for the game and number of achievments acquired/remaining is a bit more in your face now.

Of course, the update is still continuing, and there will probably be a couple of bugs or glitches while they tweak things to make for a good experience.  So be sure to be patient.  I’m sure @xboxlive is going to be blowing up enough on Twitter as they work out the kinks.  Enjoy the update!

What’re your impressions?  Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

~W75

Microsoft Kinect for Xbox 360 On Tour In Canada

Hey Canadians!  Want to try out Kinect?  It’s on tour in Toronto and Montreal right now.

The deets:

Toronto – At 207 Yonge Street

Montreal – At 677 Rue St. Catherine O. (That’s St. Catherine Road West for those of you who don’t speak French.  Which in Canada I think is two of you.)

Schedule and further info here.

Source: Kinect Central Canada

Major Nelson Reveals Xbox.com Makeover Releasing Tomorrow

Larry Hyrb, Xbox Live’s Major Nelson just blogged new screenshots of the makeover coming to Xbox.com.  Per Major Larry, “Tomorrow, Xbox.com will be getting a massive facelift and I want to give you a preview of what you can expect.  In addition to support for the 9 new Xbox LIVE regions that will happen next month, Xbox.com will get a brand new look as well as some new features.”

Here are some highlights:

Browser based Avatar editor: Edit your avatar and preview avatar items before purchase

Combined views for messages, friend and game requests

Improved notification of your account subscription

Leverage Family Reports to understand what your family is doing and how they are using LIVE

Play web games with your Xbox LIVE friends on the web or on Windows Phone 7

Marketplace: More powerful search and more intuitive ways to browse and filter

Direct linky to screenshots are here.  Looking very nice if I do say so myself.

Per Major Nelson, the changes will begin to take effect at 0500 ET/0200 PT/0900 GMT tomorrow, October 20th.  While they make the updates, access to Xbox.com and the forums will be unavailable, but the Xbox Live service will not be affected.

Source: Major Nelson’s Blog