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Xbox 360 250 GB Holiday bundle is $239 today on Amazon
Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect Holiday Value Bundle is on sale for $239 as part of today's Gold Box discounts on Amazon. Those that act fast will get the redesigned Xbox 360 E console loaded with a 250 GB hard drive, a controller, a Kinect camera and three games: Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports: Season 2 and a download code for Forza Horizon. The bundle normally costs $399, amounting to enough savings to pick up a few extra games, or better yet, groceries so you don't starve this month. Again, the deal is only on for today as long as supplies last, and is a great deal for people that haven't bought an Xbox 360 in the last few days like your humble Joystiq editor has. It's also a good deal for those that aren't picking up a PS4 or Xbox One this coming month.
Microsoft store offering $175 off on Xbox 360 S Kinect bundle
While now may not be the best time to buy a new Xbox 360, this close to the holidays, we're certainly not going to judge your need of one. Instead, we're here to help you save some money – hey, look, a deal!The Microsoft store is currently offering a $299.99 bundle that tosses in the 4GB Xbox 360 console with a Kinect sensor and two games: Kinect Adventures, which is included with every Kinect sensor; and Kinect Sports Season 2, Microsoft's sequel to its initial sports minigame collection.The bundle also tosses in 12 months of Xbox Live Gold, a three-month subscription to Hulu Plus, an Xbox 360 media remote and an HDMI cable. It's the HDMI cable that really gets us.
Ex-Rare dev discusses Killer Instinct 3, Kinect's 'Savannah' prototype and Microsoft acquisition
A former artist at Rare has given us a peek behind the curtain at the studio's "Savannah" project and the eventual elimination of Killer Instinct. Speaking with NotEnoughShaders, Donnchadh Murphy, who was a 3D modeler at Rare but now works at an animation studio, revealed the developer was working on a project called "Savannah" for Kinect.Savannah (models pictured) was going to be a Kinect title where players raised a lion cub from birth, teaching the animal survival skills. The game was only ever a prototype and was never greenlit.Meanwhile, Murphy said, the company was always interested in revisiting the Killer Instinct franchise in HD, as is often requested by ardent Rare fans. "We all wanted to make KI3, but Microsoft [was] more interested in broadening their demographic than making another fighting game," he said. "So it never got made, I doubt it ever will."
Kinect Sports: Season 2 invents a new sport called 'basketball'
Kinect Sports: Season 2 has a new basketball-based DLC pack, as described by the hyperbolic 1950s PSA narrator in the above video. The Basketball Challenge Pack includes three new game modes for basketball, a brand new sport for the title: 3-Point Hero, Shot Party and Alley-Oop Dreams.3-Point hero appears to be a quickshot game, Shot Party involves precision aiming and Alley-Oop is all about those mad assist skills. All of the new modes are available for up to four players.
Microsoft reveals Xbox 360 lineup for PAX East 2012
We haven't figured out a way to travel into the future yet, and we're just as upset as you are about that. But the closest thing has to be playing games that aren't actually out yet, right? Microsoft is offering PAX East attendees a chance to do just that next weekend.Major Nelson posted the list of activities and upcoming Kinect and XBLA titles that will be playable at Microsoft's booth, including Trials Evolution, MineCraft: Xbox 360 Edition and Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor. We hear one of our editors really liked that last one when he got a chance to play it earlier this month.Also of note is a playable build of Dust: An Elysian Tale, the winner of 2009's "Dream-Build-Play" competition. It's currently slated to launch on Xbox Live Arcade in 2012.
This Rose Parade Kinect float won't respond to voice commands
College football enthusiasts first laid eyes on Microsoft's Kinect float prior to kickoff at this year's Rose Bowl game today, but how else can those without an affinity for football sneak a glimpse? Microsoft's Facebook page, apparently. The above video was posted today, a time lapse of the massive structure being built over the course of a week. A second video embedded past the break shows the finished float going through a few maneuverability tests -- sorry, we can confirm there's no Deathmobile hiding underneath.
Kinect Sports: Season 2 'Maple Lakes' DLC tees off on December 20
Usually, it's pretty expensive to get in nine holes at the local country club, let alone the cost of clubs and those mandatory plaid pants. But thanks to video games, no longer must we tempt fate by braving the deadly fauna and flora of the outside world. If you're fine with miming golf in your domicile, the Maple Lakes DLC for Kinect Sports: Season 2 may interest you. It adds nine new holes on December 20, for 400 MS Points ($5). %Gallery-141780%
Kinect Sports: Season Two Challenge Pack DLC crosses the goal line
Microsoft has issued the first round of DLC for Kinect Sports: Season Two. The Challenge Pack #1 adds a new mini-game activity for each of the game's six sports. Most of them boil down to practice drills, like returning an infinite stream of tennis shots or landing a forty yard field goal in football. There's also the more quizzical addition to darts, which requires players to solve math problems with accurate throws (which is sure to be a challenge, given our experience with the game). The add-on is free, and marks the first in a series of free monthly downloadable content. Microsoft plans to expand the game every month through "spring 2012" with new activities and, at some point, a new sport. There's no telling what the new sport might be, though we can only hope it doesn't involve any more running in place.%Gallery-138664%
Kinect Sports: Season Two review: Sports, kind of
Kinect Sports may have been little more than a tech demo for the fledgling Kinect hardware, but I'll be damned if it wasn't an enjoyable tech demo. It was the stuff of family gathering legends: A game which allowed you to interact with sporting events in a somewhat limited way, using rudimentary, instantly familiar gestures. It wasn't the most intricate or intellectual use of the device's motion-tracking capabilities, but for a launch title, it worked. If anything, Kinect Sports: Season Two is an exquisite example of how far the Kinect's software has come over the past year -- only, not in a good way. After a few hours of mock-football, mock-baseball or, perplexingly, mock-darts, I was left with the overwhelming feeling that the Kinect can be (and has been) used for so much more. %Gallery-126229%
Buy Dance Central or Kinect Sports sequel, get original for half off on Amazon
If you're looking into jumping into either the Dance Central or Kinect Sports franchises sequel-first, Amazon's offering you a chance to catch up on your back catalog for peanuts. For a limited time, if you buy Dance Central 2 or Kinect Sports: Season 2, you can get their prequels for half-off.
Developer diary is your ticket to Kinect Sports Season 2
Anxious to see what's in store for Kinect Sports Season 2? Huddle up with the video above -- or, of course, you could just download the demo available on Xbox Live right now.
Kinect Sports Season Two demo, anyone?
Microsoft has released a demo of Kinect Sports Season Two on Xbox Live, including two of the game's six sports: golf and tennis. Incidentally, if your living room is big enough to play virtual doubles in front of the Kinect, you could probably just play actual tennis.
Dance Central sales step up to 2.5M, Kinect Sports kickin' it with 3M
Kinect Sports and Dance Central have reached 3 million and 2.5 million unit sales, Microsoft's Michael Johnson, global marketing director for Kinect games, told us at Gamescom earlier today. Dance Central has performed stronger in North America, while Kinect Sports has found a larger audience in Europe. Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg called the two games Kinect's "breakout hits" for the publisher when he announced back in January that the titles had reached a million sales in the US. The Kinect device surpassed 10 million units globally in March. So, it probably comes as no coincidence that both franchises will receive sequels this year. Dance Central 2 talks to the hand this October, while Kinect Sports: Season 2 has a retail field day on October 25.
Kinect Sports: Season 2, Kinectimals Now With Bears dated
Halloween gatherings are about to get a lot scarier. Kinect owners will be able to inject their world of furry friends with pure ursine terror when Kinectimals Now With Bears! launches on October 11, both as a standalone disc and DLC. What's that? You don't think bears are terrifying? We can only presume then that you've never seen a shaved bear.* Things get even hairier on Oct. 25 when Kinect Sports: Season Two: Now With Beards sprints its way to store shelves. And no, it's not really called that, we assume it has, you know, the regular number of beards in it. But we can dream, can't we? *If you were thinking of doing a Google Image Search for "shaved bears" with SafeSearch turned off ... well, maybe just don't do that, OK? Promise us.
Kinect Sports: Season 2 preview: Swing and a pass
Microsoft announced the inevitable sequel to Kinect Sports during its press event at E3 this year. Kinect Sports: Season 2 features a slate of new sports, including tennis, darts, skiing and, American football and golf. I was able to try out the latter two games. One of the two didn't seem to have much substance, and the other one was golf. %Gallery-126229%
Kinect Sports comes back for Season 2
Surprise! There's a Kinect Sports: Season 2. This one features new voice controls and new gestures -- and also some new sports, like skiing and tennis. There's also some team football, which looks incredibly awkward if you're the guys Microsoft got on stage to play it. But you're not those guys, right?
Microsoft's new Xbox 360 UI has Bing voice search across Hulu, Netflix, YouTube, and live TV
Quick refreshing of Microsoft's E3 landing page has apparently revealed some of the things it will be announcing within a couple of hours at its E3 press conference, including new features for Xbox Live like Voice Search and new look for the service. With the explosive popularity of the Kinect add-on, it looks like the system is being refashioned with support built in from the ground up as opposed to the current menu system that's more of an afterthought. Also mentioned on the page are Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports Season 2 and most importantly, two new Halo games. One is Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary which appears to be the HD (& possibly 3D) remake leaked by Joystiq previously, while the other is Halo 4 -- no explanation needed. We'll surely find out everything when the press conference kicks off live at 12:30 p.m. Eastern and of course we'll be covering all of the news live right here. Update: Microsoft's just confirmed some of the leaked information onstage at its E3 keynote, with demonstrations of a deeply integrated voice command setup powered by Kinect. YouTube has been announced as an Xbox Live partner, while Bing is coming to the console to let users search across Netflix, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Hulu all at once.That universal search also extends to new live TV partnerships with Sky, Canal+ and Foxtel. Update 2: Want a better look at the revamped Xbox 360 UI that blends in more of a Metro look with the old Kinect UI elements? Look no further than the gallery below. %Gallery-125534% %Gallery-125417% [Thanks, q & Pradeep]
Rumor: Domains reveal new Fable, Dance Central and Kinect Sports
The announcement of sequels and spin-offs has become too routine to incur huge gasps of disbelief at E3's trio of biggest press conferences. A real surprise, then, would be in those titles staying under wraps until the very last moment. "Spoiler," says the internet, "but that's not happening while I'm around. Check out these domain registrations." As highlighted by Superannuation, the following Microsoft titles have been linked to internet domain registrars: Fable The Journey, which may be a new jaunt across the land of Albion, Kinect Fun Labs (first mentioned amongst other leaked Microsoft titles), and a pair of body-driven sequels, Dance Central 2 and Kinect Sports Season 2. Without the presence of a convenient "Kinect" in the title, it's difficult to say whether or not Fable: The Journey (colon assumed) is part of Microsoft's camera-sensitive lineup. The franchise has endured experiments with Kinect before, and it's not exactly difficult to imagine Peter Molyneux pitching it as the best, most amazing, mind-blowing way to experience a hero's life ever. You might already be envisioning it as a spirited on-the-spot march through the streets of Bowerstone, over the surrounding hills and across Milo's unmarked grave.
