Microsoft might license Xbox software

Hoping to expand the Xbox's market share, Microsoft might be looking to licensing the Xbox software.

A game with no violence?

What kind of game is that? Would it even be worth playing? From developers Super X Studios come Wild Earth, a game in which your main purpose is to explore and capture exquiste wildlife with your camera. Graphics are getting to a point now where this kind of game could be pretty fun. More details here.

With balls like that, what's not to love?

Since the graphics are looking dope, the game has got to be awsome right? Right?

Max Payne goes to Hollywood

Looks like Max Payne is getting the Hollywood treatment for 20th Century Fox. Co-producer Scott Faye thinks this role is perfect for the serious actor since it's a pretty depressing story, and serious actors love depressing.

J Allard all Xboxed up

Heere's an old school pic showing how J. Allard is all about the Xbox, even down to the shoes! To be successful you gotta be committed (and do yoga or pilates or something, dude has lost major amounts of weight since then).

GameLab making casual games for casual gamers

The Times has an article about casual game makers GameLab and their recent hit, "Diner Dash". By keeping the games they make small and fun, they're able to make more for much cheaper and in a much shorter time frame. Nice to hear about smaller game shops doing well and discovering new markets.

PS3 vs Xbox 360

If you're into the hardware, geeky side of video game consoles anandtech has an indepth comparison (at least to me) of the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3.

NBA Live for Xbox 360 screenshots

Looking like this, the gameplay better be tight too.

Japanese Developers working to revive Japan

A number of Japanese developers are working to bring the video game genre out of it's current slump in Japan. Looking for a return to more innovation and hames that are just fun to play, these developers hope to recapture the imaginations of the jaded Japanese audience.

Nintendo Revolutoin poster

Is this a preview of the look of the Nintendo Revolution ads coming out later this year (said to counter the Xbox 360 launch)? It looks all nice and shiny but it has a date, March 2006! Isn't the PS3 coming out around then also? Sa-weet.

Xbox VP Todd Holmdahl gets interviewed

Xbox 360 Corporate VP of the Xbox Product Group Todd Holmdahl gets interviewed and asked the "hard" questions. Microsot has been pretty forthcoming with their technical specs, not so much from Sony except trash talking. I want some detailed discussion? Does it matter? Not really, I'll go for whichever system has Halo 3 on it ;)

DS more popular than the PSP in Japan

I can see the DS more fun to play because of it's quirkiness but the graphics are better on the PSP, it's their fight to lose. They're losing it pretty well too.

The 7th Annual Independent Games Festival coming to a festival near you

The 7th Annual Independent Games Festival with a $20,000 Grand Priz. Nice.

Bringing back the arcade game

UK mag Edge's online counterpart, Edge-Online (didn't see that one coming did ya!), interviewed three small developers (G.Rev, Milestone and Triangle Service) to see what how they're coping with the downward spiraling Arcade market in Japan.

rock with the Pac of Man! This oh so fine guitar comes with a blinking headstock and a variable speek knob on the eyeball so the blinker can be sync'd with the beat.

You can't stop the funk, you can only hope to contain it

Japanese funky reigns supreme in this Ape Escape 3 commercial. Awsome, these guys are fashion sense pimps.

38 games on your tv

It's 38 games in one, it's the Streamline! All you need to do is plug the device into your tv and presto, you've just opened up a new world of fishing/shooting/arcade games. Enjoy and try to share :)

Is Killer Instinct III coming to the Xbox 360? Gawd I hope so, I loved those 50+ hit combos. That game was too fun to play.

World of Warcraft skin

If you dig on World of Warcraft you need to get this sick looking Windows XP skin. [via wonderland]

Half Life 2: Lost Coast HDR screenshots

These HDR shots of the Half Life 2 expansion look so nice. HDR is my hero!

No more Mario for Gamecube

Looks like the Gamecube is inching closer to death. Miyamoto had an interview with Wired where he states that there will be no more Mario titles for the Gamecube, those teams are all working on bringing 128-bit Mario to the Revolution.

Microsoft and NVIDIA reach deal for Xbox 360 backward compatibility

Microsoft has licensed some Nvidia tech for use in the Xbox 360 so that Microsoft can provide backwards compatibility for users to play (some) Xbox games. It's even been rumored that backwards compatibility wasn't even supposed to be a feature of the Xbox 360 but they decided at the last minute to throw it in there. It looks like it's been a big headache for them since it doesn't even seem like they have it down yet.

Vin Diesel to play hitman in...Hitman

Eidos' Hitman series is getting the Hollywood treatment with Vin Diesel set to play the role of Agent 47, probably wanting to get back to his XXX action days. Looks like Eidos is also trying to get Diesels game company, Tigon Studios to do the next Hitman game. Would it be a game of the movie about a game? Woah.

Sony PSP swap trick hack

Run your homebrew PSP appz (note the added z for hacker credibility) using two memory sticks and this swap trick.

Wonderland

I'm never playing arcade games again. This poor guy is gets put to sleep playing this zombie arcade game and then wakes up in a real life version of the game. This hypnotist built the arcade game to put people in a sleep-like state so he could then take his unsuspecting victims to his real-life set of the game he built. What sucks for this guy is that his friends didn't try to save him and let some stranger come out of a back room and take him away. Poor guy. Damn funny though. [via wonderland]

Microsoft planning on making Xbox 360 a digital music hub

Looks like Xbox boss Robbie Bach will be in charge of the company's music business and in charge of making MS king of the digital music mountain.

Citing only "people familiar with the matter," the Journal says Bach is "expected to be given the authority to push for a range of changes, such as setting up a team focused solely on digital music, reorganizing product groups, or acquiring companies." The iPod continues to grow its already dominant 80 percent share of the digital music-player market.

Japan to get Xbox 360 in December

Yoshihiro Maruyama (Xbox Japan head honcho) told Japanese Newspaper, "The Mainichi", that the Xbox 360 will be coming to Japan in December.

Xbox 360 to have 20 launch titles

Famitsu Xbox reported recentlly that Microsoft is aiming for 20 titles for the Xbox 360's launch later this year. When called to confirm, a MS rep did state that they were looking to have 25-40 titles available during the launch period, which is apparently from November to the end of the year. Sure they may have 20 titles at launch, but how good could they be. Didn't the dev kits come out not too long ago?

Tetris block tries to make it in the real word

He's so misunderstood. All Tetris Block is trying to do is find his...place in the world. Get in where he...fits in. Get in...shape. Whoo! I crack me up. Video here

Sony PSP gets cracked.

WoW hits hits (passes?) 2 mill mark

World of Warcraft hits two million subscribers worldwide.

Interview with Xbox 360 designer

Xbox.com has an

Kutaragi hearts Xbox...

...about as much as I like chicken pox and eating trash. Sony's Ken Kutaragi spoke Cell technology and Playstation backwards compatibility with Japanese Impress PC Watch. He also touched on how the Xbox not being fully backwards compatible would be killing themselves (Xbox). Basically, Xbox sucks and Playstation 3 will be great and all that jazz.

Politicans love videogames

Declan McCullagh over at cnet chats about how the government folk are basically using video games as a means to tap into the value-conscienous Americans that beat them last election year. Seems like a lot of politicians are also backing (well, not them, more them ok'ing our tax money to back it to the tune of $90 million) some research looking at how violent video games affect the young'uns. As long as my 4 yr old daughter can play Halo with me, even on XBL, I'll be good to go. "Surely you jest!?!" you say....of course I do, moron!

Leak of the Revolution Controller?

Speaking of the Revolution [see previous post], here's a pic of what the Revolution Controller probably is not going to look like. It's still cool to look at anyway though. -via gizmodo-

Nintendo Revolution specss leak

From Nintenro Centrium comes word of some possible Revolution specs , verifying that it won't be HD-able:

..the system will be powered by two 1.8Ghz IBM PowerPC G5 processors, a 600Mhz graphics chip from ATI and a 7.1 Digital Sound chipset.

The console will apparently sport 128MB of high speed 1T SRAM as main memory, along with 256MB of slower DRAM, while the graphics chip has 12MB of on-board high speed RAM. 6GB proprietary DVD-size discs, designed by Panasonic, would be used for Revolution's games.

This is still offically rumorand who knows what could change, Nintendo doesn't even have the controller down yet.

Real Men Knit

Virginia may be for lovers, but knitting is for gamers.

ATI claims Xbox 360 has edge over PS3

Speaking with bit-tech, ATI's Richard Huddy comes out singing the Xbox 360's praises because it will be using's ATI's unfied shader architecture. The PS3's Nvidia technology will have seperate pixel and vertex piplines which ATI thinks is inferior and will lead to the PS3 games not looking as good as Xbox 360 games. Then again, of course ATI would be touting their own technology as being the best. It's going to be hard to speculate who's "better" until we start seeing some real footage.

Microsoft to land deal for Halo movie?

Fox and Universal might be trying to work out some kind of deal with Microsoft to buy the Halo rights for $5 million, splitting the costs and to still have the movie in theatres by 2007. Whatever happens, this would be a hard movie to not screw up. Has anyone heard anything about the script?

Xbox's Far Cry Instincts trailer is hot like fire

New Far Cry Instincts trailer is out now and it seems to show off the game pretty well. It looks awsome. Nice water, foiliage and booby traps. Kewl

Kutaragi speaks, dishes on Playstation 3's HDs

Kutaragi spoke with Impress PC Watch recently and spilled some beans on the Plasystation 3's hard disks and how they will run Linux (like they would put Microsoft anything on them):

I thought that the situation would become better since Microsoft appeared [in the gaming industry] from the IT field. But they won't say it either, since they want to protect their business. They see problems if the Xbox could run Windows, so they keep calling the Xbox a "game machine." It is really a pain in the neck. This time, we're positioning the PS3 as a "supercomputer." But people won't recognize it as a computer unless we call it a computer, so we're going to run an OS on it. In fact, the Cell can run multiple OSes. In order to run the OSes, we need an HDD. So in order to declare that the PS3 is a computer, I think we'll have [the PS3's HDD] preinstalled with Linux as a bonus.

Sony can't get dev kits out fast enough

Even though Sony has already shipped over 100 PS3 development kits, Ken Kutaragi stated that they're running out of parts and can't ship enough units to meet demand.

Some Stargate ingame footage

Apparently this guy (Superbasti) on this Stargate fourm had his Dad's camera on him when he visited JoWood's headquaters in Rottenmann. He was able to sneak some footage recording. Nothing too revolutionary but it's cool to get some ingame footage of a game that's still in development.

Some Video Game commercials

Classic, contemporary, and present videogame TV ads.

Nintendo DS gets cracked

We all knew it was only a matter of time. Nintendo DS games have begun showing up on the net enabling players with specially designed flash memory cards to download and play them. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo came out with a patch to somehow break this so user beware and also, it's just plain not fair. Freaking kids, sheesh.

Kutaragi slings more next-gen mud, touts PS3 as the end all

Kutaragi is a confident man. Confident enough to say that the Xbox 360 is not going after the Playstation 3 but the PS2.

This time, Microsoft has stated clearly it is going after the PlayStation. However, they are not going after the PlayStation 3, but the PlayStation 2. Because they looked at 2, the Xbox 360 became what it is.

Damn. Like Sony can do no wrong and are masters of all things tech. They do make nice shiny devices but I mean, were those demos at E3 real time? Wasn't the PS2 supposed to make us cry because it was to have been so beautiful? I'll believe the PS3 capabilities when I have one in my hand. He also goes on to state:

the messages of the Xbox 360 and PS3 differ clearly. Xbox 360 emphasized it is a game machine which is complete as a platform. PS3 emphasized the possibility of technology.

Right. Like I said, put it in my hand and I'll all for it. The Xbox 360 doesn't get all the love though, where the heck is Perfect Dark Zero? Wasn't that supposed to be a launch title? It sure looked like kaka on that MTV "unveiling" event they had. I guess we'll see though. -via teamxbox-

Nintendo contest winners to get special edition DS's

From This July to August, Nintendo is running a contest they've called "Hot Summer". Goodies first, the winners of said contest will recieve one of the five differnet special edition Nintendo DS's, with each one featuring a wireframe of a different Nintendo character (Wario, Bowser, Mario, Princess and Yoshi...no love for Luigi?). To win, you need to enter yourself on Nintendo's website during the July to August timeframe. When time's up, 1000 winners will be picked. !st place losers (runners-up) will recieve a Panasonic Walkman with exclusive Nintendo Music SD cards and 3000 cases (huh?)

List of Nintendo games that will be downloadable on the Revolution

The latest Famitsu Weekly game mag has a list of all of the Nintendo published titles that are to be downloadable on the Nintendo Revolution. If this is what we get for free, I don't think I need to pay for anything else. Forget third-party games (well, there is final fantasy). This is going to be awsome. Young kids as well as old timers would be able to appreciate this. You can buy the Revolution, just the console, and be able to enjoy it right out of the box. I just hope they have this service ready by launch. These things would fly off the shelves.

Final Fantasy XI will be different on Xbox 360

Apparently Hiomichi Tanaka spoke with Japanese Game mag Famitsu recently and spoke about the Xbox 360's Final Fantasy XI and how it will sport some new features and graphical improvements. The Xbox 360 version will feature more than twice the draw distance of the PC version as well as new jobs or even new Summons. -via xbox addict-

The goodness that is Rockstar Games has unleashed (too violent?) some screenshots for thier upcoming title Bully and oddly entrancing The Warriors. When I first saw the Warriors I thought, "Who the hell would wear that?"...then I saw how serious the movie seemed to be and began to dig it.

Games you can play and finish in a day

Need to get a gaming fix but don't have the time to invest in another epic (My Resident Evil 4 playing has slowed down due to mainly how long it's taking to finish it. I do like the fact I don't need a friggin game guide just to finish the dern thing), check out these thinkin' man games from Everett Kaser Software. No big advertising blitzes, just some games for you to enjoy. Being a fan of mazes I dug (am digging?) Knarly Mazes. I caught this website from a post on Gamesblog.

World of Warcraft adds 2 new Battlegrounds

Blizzard released a new World of Warcraft patch today, opening two new Battlegrounds. Once you enter the PvP queue for your clan by entering into certain portals in certain areas, you go on about your business until it's your turn. You can battle in Alterac Valley and/or Warsong Gulch.

Both have unique game types and requirements, and both will reward players with unique items.

Alterac Valley is open to players level 51-60 and allows a maximum of 40 and a minimum of 30 players per team. On the mountainous and snow-blanketed map, each army will attempt to destroy a series of enemy towers and an opposing computer-controlled general.

Warsong Gulch is open to levels 21-60 and is divided into battles between levels 21-30, 31-40, 41-50, and 51-60, with a maximum of 10 players on each side. The hilly, forested map is much smaller than Alterac Valley. The battle format for Warsong Gulch is capture the flag, with each base, located on opposite sides of the battlefield, housing a flag.

I don't like PvP yet. Bad memories. One thing that made me hate Diablo over Blizzard's Battle.net online service was the fact I always got whupped by people who had all of these items I never even heard of. I'd die before I even got within 10 feet of them. That's my whole perception of player vs player, you're going to lost to the more skilled cheater. Now and days, with Blizzard closing accounts left and right, this issue is probably resolved but I'm not paying $15 a month to find out.

Revolution downloads won't be free

The fact that the Nintendo Revolution will be able to let you play the classic Nintendo games from back in the day is many things to me, free ain't one of them. Well, their first party games might still be freely downloadable but it's the pesky third-party games that need to still be sorted out.

Too Good to be True

Nvidia announced that they are still developing the RSX graphics chip for the Playstation 3. That must mean that the Killzone demo we saw was either, pre-rendered, or it was running on some other graphics chip that will have similar capabilities to the PS3's RSX. Of course, you cannot rule out the theory that maybe the demo was running on a prototype RSX. The question is now whether the graphics be better or worse that what we saw at E3. Incidently, the Xbox 360 demos weren't running on actual 360 hardware either. They were running on dual apple G5s, which are the dev kits that Microsoft gave out to game developers. Was what we saw at E3 all a lie? Will the actual in game graphics be better or worse than what was shown at E3? I guess we will still have to wait another couple of months to see what these systems can really do.

Read more about it here.

China gets World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft launched to big numbers in China recently. In this new, very pro-MMO, makret they're hoping to score a load of players though there will be some changes to how things will work:

Under this system, players will be able to download World of Warcraft and then activate their accounts by purchasing an authorised CD key for 30 Yuan (around 3 Euro). Instead of a monthly subscription, players will buy World of Warcraft Points Card, which also costs 30 Yuan, holds 600 points and allows around 67 hours of play at 9 points per hour.

Ballroom dancing just got a lot more competitive. The Partner Ballroom Dance Robot is capable of predicting how it's partner will move with the use of a sensor around it's waist and it's three wheels underneaths it's evening gown.

Nintendo to have WiFi hotspots for DS by the end of the year

Nintendo is looking to have 1000 WiFi hotspots for the Nintendo DS by the end of the year. They plan on putting up the hotspots in department stores and game retailers, basically whereever you would be able to buy Nintendo DS games. Mario Kart DS and Animal Crossing DS are two titles that are supposed to support the WiFi connectivity and be out by the end of the year.

Ninja Gaiden Black to be cheaper than Ninja Gaiden

Even though Ninja Gaiden is still running at $39.99, the soon to be released Ninja Gaiden Black will debut at $29.99. A steal considering that it comes with the original full version as well as both Hurricane packs and some other bonus content.

StarCraft Ghost preview

It's been a long time coming but here are some more details on the upcoming Xbox stealth game, StarCraft Ghost. It's good to hear of all the StarCraft RTS game throwbacks and that things seem to be going pretty good despite Swingin' Ape Studios basically building almost everything from scratch.

Making your own music in Star Wars Galaxies is bad

In Star Wars Galaxies you can do just about everything besides make music. SOE and LucasArts didn't want to give players the ability to make their own music for fear of someone making a Madonna or MC Hammer tune and them (OE or LucasArts) having to pay licensing fees or something like that.

"If we allowed someone to play anything they want, they could play a song by Madonna and then we'd have licensing issues," said Julio Torres, a producer for Star Wars Galaxies at LucasArts. "We don't want to give them the option to try, because the bottom line is, if we open that gate, they will go through it," he said.

Way to stifle creativity guys!

True Crime 2 video

Is Detroit the setting for True Crime 2 on the Xbox. I'm guessing so, since that would make it resemble GTA just a little bit more...zing! here is a True Crime 2 video.

Microsoft might take a hit with the Xbox 360

Analysts are thinking that Microsoft might take a $75.00 hit per unit on the Xbox 360 when it launches. That's if the Xbox 360 launches at the $299 price point they're thinking it's going to launch at. Microsoft will be paying $375 to their manufacturing partners while hoping to make up the difference (and then some) thru software sales. The falling price of the hardware that owuld hopefully happen over time would also help but who knows.

Prey E3 video

See the 12 minute Prey video from E3 in either High resolution or Low resolution. It looks pretty good but I'm most intrigued by the story.

Xbox and Xbox 360, Side by side

Xbox vs Xbox 360. "You make me look fat..."

Check out these old school-ish gamer t-shirts.

QUAKE 4 Xbox 360 footage

Check out this Quake 4 Xbox 360 footage.

GTA on the PSP pics leaked

Some pics of GTA: Liberty City Stories for the PSP have been leaked. Some of the pics seem to hint at some kind of multiplayer functionality.

Miyamoto's not playing many games these days...

Shigeru Miyamoto isn't playing that many games these days because most of them are just too long. According to him:

A lot of the games out there are just too long. Of course, there are games, such as 'Halo' or 'Grand Theft Auto,' that are big and expansive. But if you're not interested in spending that time with them, you're not going to play.

He didn't really give any insight into the Nintendo Revolution. He did have this to say though:

We asked ourselves 'why would a family need or want to have a gaming console?' The answer is what's driving development of the Revolution.

I like how that sounds but I wonder if they're beginning to create their own niche in the gaming world.

PC gaming soon to be extinct?

Cnet Exec editor David Carnoy seems to think so.

Making the Xbox 360 a Japanese success

Yoshihiro Maruyama, general manager for Xbox Japan, and Mike Fischer, marketing manager for Xbox Japan, detail their plans on making the Xbox 360 a success in Japan. They've got a long fight ahead of them but them seem pretty determined.

Blizzard axes 50,000 World of Warcraft accounts

Proving that they can will disable your account for any kind of infraction, Blizzard closes the book on over 50,000 accounts. They can go back online and rebuild from scratch but if they notice you repeating naughty behavior, you're cd-key could get banned, ouch.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 on the Xbox 360

This game is shaping up to be quite the looker (graphic nut here remember!?!). Jam on some Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06 Xbox360 (or is it Xbox 360) goodness

Could this what Xbox360 box art will look like?

Is this what the Xbox360 box art will look like? Maybe? Clean and brighter than the current Xbox style. -via joystiq-

Square Enix spreads the rpg love

Looks like the Square Enix Party, which is set to take place at the Nippon Convention Center in Chiba, Japan (right down the street from me, great! wait, Chiba JAPAN? and not Colorado?...well nevermind then), is shaping up to be a happening place for all Square lovers (duh). Final Fantasy XII is supposed to be playable and there is supposed to be a newer FFVII Advent Children trailer which will look awsome no doubt. The other titles scheduled to make appearences are:

• Final Fantasy XII (PlayStation 2)


• Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII (PS2)


• Kingdom Hearts II (PS2)


• Code Age Masters (PS2)


• Fullmetal Alchemist 3: Kami o Tsugu Shoujo (PS2)


• Grandia III (PS2)


• Heavy Metal Thunder (PS2)


• Musashi Samurai Legend (PS2)


• Slime Morimori: Dragon Quest 2 (Game Boy Advance)


• Final Fantasy XI (PC, PS2)


• Front Mission Online (PS2)


• EverQuest II (PC)

Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all go after each other

The next generation console fight is going to break someone's feelings. All this trash talking about one another, someone isn't going to be able to back it up. In response to the Xbox outselling the PS2 lately, Ken Kutaragi of Sony said, " Beating us for a short moment is like accidentally winning a point from a Shihan [Karate master], and Microsoft is still not a black belt.". Zing! Striking back (sort of, not directly to that comment though) Cheif Xbox Officer Robbi Bach stated that the PlayStation 3's capabilities were equivalent to Xbox 360's saying, "We will become the market leader with our next-generation console.". He needs to add some flavor to that one is he expects to get anyone riled up. How about "We will become the market leader with our next-generation console...b!tches." Now that has some feeling, some getup and go. Not to be left out Nintendo President Iwata critizied the controll-your-living-room ambitions of Sony and Microsoft stating that focusing on higher specs would bloat development costs and that they're "...not about selling new kinds of TVs or taking control of the living room." Zing! Get your trash talking fill here.