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Xbox Live to follow up “Summer of Arcade” with “Game Feast”

Following the successful ‘Summer of Arcade’ promotion in 2010, Microsoft are set to run the ‘Game Feast’ games release this autumn on Xbox LIVE throughout October. Exactly what this promotion would entail or would contain was unknown until today, as Microsoft have confirmed the titles set to be included. First on the line-up is the long-awaited Hydrophobia from Dark Energy Digital which is set to be available on September 29th for 1200 Microsoft Points. At E3 2010 Hydrophobia received multiple awards, including Best Downloadable Game from Gametrailers.com. On October 6th, we will get the title Comic Jumper: Adventures of Captain Smiley for 1200 Microsoft Points. The first episode in a groundbreaking new series, Hydrophobia will be priced at 1200 Microsoft Points. Zen Studios’ Pinball FX 2, set to be made available on 13th October 2010. Pinball FX 2 is a free update for existing Pinball FX owners, while new users can download and try every pinball table for free. Gamefeast is then finished up as Super Meat Boy will be available from 20th October 2010. Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE promotional activities typically last the duration of an entire month, so if there are any future Game Feast titles, we will have to wait and see.

September 29th – Hydrophobia (1200 Microsoft Points)
October 6th – Comic Jumper: Adventures of Captain Smiley (1200 Microsoft Points)
October 13th – Pinball FX 2 (Tables purchased individually)
October 20th – Super Meat Boy (Pricing TBD)

Microsoft reveals their new design for the XBox 360 controller — IGN

Coming this fall, Microsoft will release a new, re-designed Xbox 360 wireless controller that features a transforming d-pad and different colored buttons. Acknowledging the trouble many players have had with the current d-pad, Microsoft’s engineers have upgraded the controller’s d-pad to go “from a plus to a disc with the twist of the wrist,” according to Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb. The new d-pad provides “ultimate accuracy and control for both directional as well as sweeping movements.” The new, matte silver controller also features concave analog sticks and gray A,B,X,Y buttons for “added style.” The controller will only be available with the Play & Charge Kit on November 9 in the U.S. for $64.99. Hryb speculated the controller will be available in Europe next year. The new, matte silver controller also features concave analog sticks and gray A,B,X,Y buttons for “added style.”

Trying to reason out the $10 hike when looking at the big picture — Sean Murphy

Xbox Live is now 7 years old and while some may have heard of some pricing changescoming its important to realize just how much the service has grown in the last 9 years. When Xbox Live launches people said it would either make or break the console. The Xbox itself was doing well in sales thanks to Halo but didn’t have much else going for it at the time. Gamers were already using tunneling services to trick the system into doing LAN parties across the world so there was a market for online gaming. Many people felt that it wasn’t going to work however, especially with an annual fee. The Dreamcast which launched 3 years before the service and its online service was mainly for Phantasy Star Online. Xbox Live also required a broadband internet connection which was not nearly as widespread as it is today. Today we know Xbox Live is a huge part of the Xbox 360 but it wasn’t always like that.

When Live launched in 2002 it enforced some basic standards like support for voice chat, anyone who purchased Live got a microphone to use for chatting online so everyone had the ability to communicate. Later in 2003 Live was updated so you could have access to your friends from the Xbox itself and not through the games online menus. You were also able to check who was on through your PC a service Microsoft called LiveWeb. 2003 also was the year DLC came into play with updates to games like Mech Assault that started as free but later content would require a small fee.

In 2004 project Tsunami was released which allowed gamers to send voice messages in friend request. This was also the year the Live hit 1 million users. Having obviously shown that this was a big party of the future of video games Electronic Arts finally caved in and started supporting Xbox Live in the fall. Not surprising considering how they are currently handling online multiplayer for their games. Just before 2004 came to an end Xbox Live Arcade was launched with classic arcade titles like Dig Dug, and Pole Position were released for download. While add ons for games were starting to become the norm purchasing an entire game, even if it was a “classic” title was new for gamers and the start of much bigger things. No one new what Xbox Live Arcade would turn into years later but it had a lot of potential.

2005 and 2006 were 2 of the biggest years for Live as Halo 2′s release helped bring its user base to a staggering 2 million doubling its numbers in just a year. Microsoft also announced the future of Xbox and Xbox Live with the Xbox 360. Where Live came after the Xbox’s release it was ready one day one for the 360 and the functionality was built directly into the UI from day one.  Xbox Live arcade ended up becoming the mecca for indie developers who wanted to get on consoles with out a massive budget. Microsoft also announced Xbox Live silver which would allow a base level of features for all Xbox 360 owners. Knowing that live would be the backbone for the 360 Microsoft was sure to make your account easy to transfer over, sadly you lost the ability to use your original Xbox but you gained achievements and gamer points and with the backwards compatibility people were able to play titles like Halo 2 until only recently when the original servers were finally shut down. DLC for the 360 was a bit of a  joke in 2006 when titles like oblivion release meaningless content like horse armor for $2.50 but when two exclusive downloadable episodes for GTA4 were announced everyone knew that worthwhile products were going to be available for DLC.

Xbox Live had grown to over 7 Million users in 2007 a number that was helped with the juggernaut that was Halo 3 since Halo 2 was still very much the game of choice for Xbox Live at the time. Microsoft started to look a little beyond the “core” gamer when they released the Xbox Arcade model which was aimed at people who wanted an Xbox and would likely pick up a few of the smaller arcade titles which would fit on its 256 meg storage. Far smaller the the 20 gigabytes the 360 launched with. It wasn’t until 2008 that Xbox Live really started to have appeal beyond that of just Halo and other popular titles. This newer model also came with a price drop to help combat the Nintendo Wii which was easily outselling the 360. With packed in titles like Uno which supported online play Microsoft was making their stance clear on wanting to be just as family friendly as a game of wii sports.

The Xbox NXE (new experience) was released in 2008 a streamlined UI that made navigation much easier then the multitudes of blades the original dashboard had. With this new update gamers were blessed with  support for Netflix, while Microsoft had offered DVD play back and even offered an failed HD DVD add on this was finally the non gamer killer app for the system. Now anyone with a gold membership and a Netflix subscription could stream movies on their TV with out having to hook up their PC or purchase an additional set top box. Avatars were also new MS’s answer to the Nintendo Wii’s player created Mii’s these were a 3D representation of your gamer tag and visible to anyone on your friends list. Sadly some lessons are quickly forgotten and Microsoft starts charging for avatar clothes and items though some are available for free with games. The summer of 2008 was also the first “Summer of Arcade” which released several high profile downloadable games to help make the summer drought of gaming much more bearable.

Last year with Xbox brought more social aspects to Live with Facebook and twitter, Last.Fm was also brought on for music streaming a great compliment to anyone’s Netflix account for tunes on demand. In the summer of 2009 Live started to feature games that were currently available only on disc for download as their games on demand service. Microsoft also attempted to have their own online game show 1 vs. 100 which  would offer prizes to gamers who won. Sadly this feature was  discontinued 8 months later but with over 17 million users Xbox has shown no sign of slowing down.

Which brings us to 2010, so far this year has been pretty boring compared to all the updates that have been released. There was an update for supporting USB thumb drives which allowed people far more storage with out having to pay the insane prices for an Xbox hard drive. There are a few changes coming up though like price hikes we mentioned coming fall, however 2 other features that were announced this year for fall release are ESPN and Hulu streaming services. ESPN’s service will offer trivia questions and stats and highlights for 3500 live sporting events! Hulu will be offering all of the functionality of their Hulu+ service as well. Murphy writes, ”Now as someone who beta tested the original Xbox Live I can look back to its humble beginnings as see what it has become. While I will gladly buy a $50 dollar one year card to keep my gaming at a lower price right now, I honestly can’t argue with the functionality and features the service has provided me over the last 7 years and I feel the additional ten dollars is pretty reasonable.  I know that many may feel otherwise but this started as a gateway to play games online, now its used for so much more and I use it for more entertainment features then my satellite provider.  The title of this article asks if this price hike is fair, with Xbox live I can use my 360 to play games, listen to music, watch trailers, download demo’s and smaller titles and soon I will be able to watch games for almost any sport and catch shows that I missed that are too new for Netflix all for about 5 bucks a month.  Xbox Live has transformed from giving console gamers a big part of what made PC gaming great, to giving us more then anyone could imagine we could access through just one box 7 years ago. Microsoft has consistently invested time and money to make it the most robust service available for what will soon be the price of your standard game. If Microsoft can continue to innovate and grow Xbox Live in the same way over the next decade I couldn’t care less if they doubled the price by the time the next console comes out.”

X-Box Live Subscription to go up by $10 a year… no one surprised.

Microsoft has announced that as of November 1, 2010, the price for Xbox Live Gold will go up in Canada, the US, United Kingdom and Mexico. The annual fee will go up by $10 in the United States, with one and three month subscriptions also going up in price. Starting November 1, a one month subscription in the US will cost $9.99 and a three month subscription will carry a price tag of $24.99. These are increases of $2 and $5 respectively. In the UK, a one month subscription will go up by 1 GBP to 5.99. Canadian and Mexican one month subscriptions will go up by $1 CAD and 100 Pesos each to $9.99 and 599 Pesos. All other subscription packages will have the same prices. In his most recent post, Microsoft spokesperson Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb explained the hike:
“Since launching Xbox LIVE in 2002 we have continually added more content and entertainment experiences for our members, while keeping the price the same. We’re confident that when the new pricing takes effect, an Xbox LIVE Gold membership will continue to offer the best value in the industry. However, we do want to thank our loyal members and give you the opportunity to lock in your current price with an additional discount, so now would be a good time to renew your subscription.” So you can get grandfathered in to the current rate for the future in the next few months.
It’s doubtful that this price increase will have a major effect of Microsoft’s momentum or subscription base. Microsoft could be responding to Sony’s move to charge for the Playstation Plus and they also have to worry about new interface problems once Kinect launches… right around the same time as the price hike.

Modern Warfare 2 glitch unlocks five SNK XBLA games–Joystiq

In a stroke of exceptionally bad luck for SNK, a glitch has been discovered that unlocks free access to the full versions of five of the publisher’s XBLA games for users who already have the demos on their hard drives. To make it worse, the glitch occurs within Modern Warfare 2 (a game that bajillons of Xbox 360 owners already have) — or its recent demo (which is freely available).

Somehow, running Modern Warfare 2 coincidentally fools the system into thinking it’s authorized to temporarily unlock full versions of Garou: Mark of the Wolves, The King of Fighters ’98 Ultimate Match, Metal Slug 3, Metal Slug XX, and Samurai Shodown II. Joystiq tested the exploit with Garou and KOF ’98, and can verify that it works. For now, at least.

We’re certain this issue will be patched by one of the three affected parties — SNK Playmore, Activision, or Microsoft — in the near future, now that it’s known. In the meantime, just because you can get these games for free doesn’t mean you aren’t a major jerk for doing so.

[Note: This doesn't permanently unlock the games; only if you launch them directly from inside MW2. If you launch from the Dashboard, they'll behave just like plain ol' trial games.]

Microsoft has announced several new product bundles that will be coming to market in the coming weeks and months. Even better, the company has finally offered an official price on both the stand-alone Kinect sensor and a bundled version that comes with a new Xbox 360. First up, the price. Kinect will have a suggested retail price of $149.99 (£129.99/€149.99 in Europe), as many online retailers have recently guessed. The news is that Kinect will be bundled with a free game, Kinect Adventures. All first-party Kinect games will have a suggested retail price of $49.99 (£39.99 in the UK) and Microsoft expects that to be the standard, though it is leaving third-party pricing up to those publishers. At least one third-party game will follow that standard. Microsoft has announced that Dance Central, from Harmonix and MTV Games, will also retail for $49.99/£39.99. For those new to Xbox 360, Microsoft will have a special Kinect console bundle available at the November 4 launch of the sensor. For $299 (or £249.99/€299.99 in Europe), the bundle will include an Xbox 360 console, the Kinect sensor and Kinect Adventures. The Xbox 360 will be the previously confirmed $199 redesigned Xbox 360, not the 250 GB model that has spurred sales in the past month. Microsoft has also announced the full details on that new Xbox 360 console model, which will be available August 3 in North America, August 20 in the UK and later in the month around the world. This version will have a 4GB internal flash memory, but no 250 GB hard drive. It still has a built in Wi-Fi N adapter, as well as all of the other bells and whistles of the 250 GB Xbox 360. The internal hard drive bay will remain, but will be empty at purchase. You’ll be able to tell the difference between this new 4GB console and the 250 GB version as the 4GB model will have a black matte finish as opposed to the glossy finish on the more expensive model. Again, this 4GB model will cost $199 in the US. Currently, there are no plans to sell the 250 GB hard drive that comes with the recently launched “slim” model separately. As for why Microsoft chose Kinect Adventures as the free game to include, Greenberg said it had a lot to do with offering something new. “It’s a great broad appeal game for existing and new buyers. It’s got more than 20 game modes, everything from River Rush to Obstacle Course…We did a lot of testing with consumers and we really felt like this title had a great broad appeal. It’s full body, it integrates voice. It’s great jump-in jump-out multiplayer. We think it’s a fun game to play for existing owners as well as new consumers…We thought about Kinect Sports, but we felt like Adventures was more new and unique.” Those who pre-order Kinect, either on its own or in the $299 bundle, will receive a download token for three additional exclusive levels for Kinect Adventures. The $299 bundle allows new consumers to get Kinect at a cheaper cost than those that buy everything separately. Greenberg noted this in saying, “That’s our primary focus, at least for launch, is the opportunity to expand the market.”

I am planning on buying each of these 5 awesome-looking games! You get MS points refunded when you buy 3 or more too, which sweetens the deal a bit. Regardless, 5 games, 4 of which offer co-op online, for ~ $75 (1200 MS points a peice) is a steal–especially seeing as you get 1200 MS points refunded for purchasing all 5. Anyway, check em out:

Now that we are a week removed from E3, we’ve all had some time to reflect on what the big three companies announced. Everybody had some expectations going in. There were disappointments, but there were also some nice surprises. This year was all about new technology rather than new systems. I’m actually kind of shocked now that Sony and Microsoft didn’t just create new systems that incorporate the motion capture technology of the Kinect and the Move. Instead they just created add-ons that configure with current systems. Perhaps they saw the writing on the wall of the economy. It would have been a huge risk to debut the next generation console with motion capture and attach a huge price tag to it like every other new systems gets. But even with the motion capture technology, they would have to make advances in other areas too. Microsoft unveiled their Xbox360 slim with built in wireless adapter. That’s something Nintendo already did with the Wii. They could have taken an extra step and included Blu-Ray tech in the machine, but that would have likely driven up the price tag. I’m not sure how much further a system could go in terms of graphic enhancements. With HD and today’s graphics, the next generation console will really have to be something beyond the current tech. Nintendo took the first steps to deliver this in the form of the 3DS. While I haven’t personally seen one, word around the industry is that it lives up to the hype. Nintendo knew it had to deliver some golden games with the launch of the 3DS and with the new Kid Icarus game along with a 3DS port of Ocarina of Time, it already filled the cash registers of many game stores. With the 3DS and some new games from Nintendo, most journalists are declaring them the winner of E3. It’s a little bit more of a mixed reaction from the regular gamer, who is more likely to throw out all the new tech and just focus on the games.
The presentations
Sony and Microsoft spent a lot of time on their new tech and their new partnerships, with Microsoft spending a good amount of time showing off the features of their deal with ESPN. We’ll have to wait and see if the ESPN feature is really something to enjoy or if it has the value of an iPod app. When watching Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft give their presentations, I couldn’t help but detect the odor of urine after the pissing match those companies both engaged in. Whether it was Nintendo ragging on 3D glasses, Sony busting on the Kinect, or Microsoft touting their exclusive deals and game features, too much time was spent on taking ribs at the competition. But I did enjoy Sony wheeling out Kevin Butler during his 15 minutes of fame to amp the crowd up.
Each of the presentations had it’s unique memorable moments. The Kinect focus really gave me a weird vibe. I couldn’t get a grasp on much. I guess that was the idea after seeing a dude pretend to hold a steering wheel while playing a racing game. Then we had the Kinectimals performance with the little girl. I looked at a few more details about this game. Seems you don’t have to name your pet tiger “Skittles”. A player can go through calling out various names until the pet approves it. I’m guessing that they already spent weeks filtering out the ability to give your pet a name like “Fuckpants”, “Twatfarm”, or “Cockmonster”. I guess I’ll just have to go with “McLovin”. The Kinect dancing game just gave me all kinds of weird flashbacks to when they used to have music on MTV and shows like The Grind. (Fun fact about that show. All those dancers are in their 40′s now). I don’t think a dancing game is going to catch on outside of the teen slumber party scene. Nintendo was memorable for all their glitches with the new Zelda game. It didn’t help that the demo was in two languages either. And as I said before, all the non-release dates by Nintendo was a big turn off. I am left wondering what will be released first. The next Zelda game or the next Hobbit movie. And then we had Sony, who for years bragged about not charging for online content, only to come out with the $50 a year Playstation Plus. I hear crow tastes like chicken. Save some of that for EA and their “Gun Club” feature. We’ll see how 2010 and 2011 accept these two.
The Games
The return of GoldenEye is huge. Popular shooters on Nintendo platforms are few and far between, but Goldeneye set the gold standard of shooters on any platform, and it can be a contender for best shooter overall if Wii gets their multiplayer act together. In the meantime we’ll have Killzone 3, Rage, Bulletstorm, Medal of Honor in the Middle-East (cool if it was Middle-Earth), and Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Speaking of returns, we get a lot of old friends back. Kid Icarus is back after a twenty year drought without his own game. Donkey Kong gets back to his country after fourteen years and Kirby gets something else to snack on after four years. Any amount of time between Zelda games on a console system seems like it is too long. I’m still waiting for my next Lunar game. Lots of people are getting excited about games such as Portal 2, Epic Mickey, Dead Space 2, Need for Speed Hot Pursuit, SOCOM4, the list goes on. There was something for just about everyone.
As we discussed in the last podcast, there were a few no shows that people were hoping to see. There was no Grand Theft Auto V. No Pikmin 3. No Wii HD. I’m still not getting a new Lunar game and Kingdom Hearts 3 will have to wait until next year. In a really surprising absence, Batman Arkham Asylum 2 had absolutely nothing to show. And this was after a teaser trailer was shown back in the winter and loads of news had been dropping on this game all year.
But there’s still a lot of 2010 left. The San Diego Comic Con will likely pick up where E3 left off and Blizzcon will mop up the remaining drool from gamers mouths. But when we look at 2010, we’ll remember it for the new tech making it’s debut. 2011 will either be remembered for when it took off for the stars or when it went down crashing in flames.

Microsoft showcases new games while praying Kinect will catch on

Before the show got started, Spike TV showed off a few trailers. One was for some DLC for the Alan Wake game. Those who purchased Alan Wake new will get the content for free through their game package when it is available on July 27th. The next trailer shown was for THQ’s Homefront. It follows a North Korean invasion of the US. Seems like it’s been done before though. After a preview of The Guild: Season 4 there was more hype for Kinect, followed by trailers for the downloadable Deadliest Warrior andDust: An Elysian Tail
The show finally got underway with a new trailer for Call of Duty: Black Ops which comes out on November 9th. Treyarch studio head Mark Lamia came out and gave a demo of the game, which is said to be in the style of a Modern Warfare game. The demo showed a section of the game which takes place in 1968. Unsure if that is the setting of if the game moves throughout history. The demo showed a player using a helicopter during gameplay. It is unknown if other vehicles will be available for use. Then Senior Veep Don Mattrick took to the stage to announce a multi-year agreement with Activision. Starting with Black Ops, all add-ons and map packs will launch first on Xbox for the next three years.
Next up to the stage was Hideo Kojima, creator of the Metal Gear Solid series to show the first footage of Metal Gear Rising. The footage showed the main character basically hacking everything to bits in the game, from cars, to buildings, to people’s heads, and even watermelons. The game makes use of a technique called “Zan-Datsu”, where you cut a solider the fuck open, remove his power, and take it for yourself.
Another exec, Phil Spencer, then came up on stage, and announced that everything shown today is exclusive to the Xbox360. He introduced Cliff Bleszinski, a producer for Gears of War 3 who was sporting the “yeah I have tattoos under my shirt but you can barely see them” look. He brought more staff to do a full 4 player demo of Gears of War 3. The demo showed a locust soldier who tore a human’s arm off and then beat him with it. In this demo, players (now including female Gears) could swap weapons with each other. Some of the enemies in the game were shown mutating into bigger threats and creating smaller threats from itself (like every big enemy in WoW).

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At a pre-E3 event hosted by Microsoft, the company announced that the official name of their new motion-sensing controller for Xbox 360 is “Kinect.” USA Today was able to release a the titles of a few games which will allow games to use their bodies as controllers. Games for Kinect include:
A Yoga/Tai Chi Game (official name to be announced)
A Soccer Game (official name to be announced)
Joyride
A racing game where players can steer using their hands.
Kinect Sports
Boxing, bowling, beach volleyball, track and field, soccer and table tennis.
Kinectimals
Play with 20 different kitties like a lion, cheetah and tiger. Kind of like Nintendogs.
Kinect Adventures
River rafting with multiple players that move their bodies in the raft.
Dance Central
A dance-em-up game made by MTV Games.
Along with Kinect games using Disney and Star Wars characters, there were also dashboard apps showing motion controls used to interact with Netflix. The dot on the screen follow where you point.

Users can also use motion controls to scroll through photos, start live video chats with friends, and share photos. This is done through a kinect app on the dashboard. Time will tell to determine if this is the hottest thing since the Wii or the biggest turd since the Power Glove.