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Xbox Live service for Xbox 1 games to be discontinued on Apr. 15
[Image: Bungie] Microsoft is pulling the plug on the Xbox Live services that still cater to the original Xbox. As of April 15th, all Xbox 1 games -- including those playable on Xbox 360 or via the Xbox Originals service -- will be severed from the online realm. "I want to start by saying this isn't a decision we made lightly," Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten said at the start of a letter to Xbox Live members, "but after careful consideration, it is clear that this will provide the greatest benefit to the Xbox Live community." Whitten added that in continuing to "evolve the service," Microsoft requires changes that are "incompatible" with the previous console's games. "We will contact the Xbox LIVE members directly impacted by this change and if this includes you, I encourage you to check your LIVE messages and associated e-mail account over the coming weeks for more details and opportunities." According to Major Nelson's most recent list of top Xbox 1 Live titles, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and Counter-Strike players will be hardest hit. Well, sure, Halo 2 is still the most widely played game, but at least those guys will have some consolation when they leave the house and discover that two three more Halo games have come out since 2004. By the way, if you have anything terribly important to say to your clan mates, we suggest you say it now.
Xbox v1 games, systems no longer Live; Microsoft's pulling the plug April 15
It's been no secret that original Xbox games and systems have been the vestigial limb holding back much wanted XBL features including raising the limit on our friends list to over 100 or mobile tie-ins, and on April 15 Live access for all of them comes to an end. Even those Xbox Originals downloaded to the 360 or played via backwards compatibility will be cut off from online play, so we'd suggest getting those last few rounds of Halo 2 in now or at least look into an alternative solution like XBConnect. Affected users should keep an eye on their inbox, Xbox Live GM Marc Whitten has promised "details and opportunities" to come for you as partners in this process -- we're figuring a coupon or two or an extended XBL subscription as the lights are turned out is the least they can do. For the rest of us already living in the future? The timing of this announcement mere days before the X10 event in San Francisco February 11 can't be coincidental, we should find out what comes next by then.
Three ex-Bungie vets form Moonshot Games
Tired of telling the tale of Master Chief and all of those spinning rings in space, three Bungie veterans have packed their bags and left the company, GI.biz reports. The trio -- Michel Bastien, Damián Isla and Rob Strokes -- have decided to embark on their own adventure together as Moonshot Games, a studio based in both the Seattle and Boston areas.There's no word on what the new studio will be focusing on, but with all three having spent years making Halo 2 and Halo 3, we'd say it's safe to assume the studio's new project won't include any AI constructs or multi-billion dollar cyborgs. Well, unless they decide to stick to what they know best ...
Sony, Turbine, Jagex, Blizzard, and NCsoft named in patent infringement lawsuit
It seems to be a World of Lawsuits (TM) recently in our industry. Bloggers are being sued for libel, NCsoft is being sued for patent infringement, Linden Labs is being sued for trademark violations, Turbine is suing Atari, and now five companies are all being sued over a patent dispute.The Boston Globe has reported that Paltalk Holdings Inc. has filed a complaint in Texas against Sony Corp., Activision Blizzard Inc., Turbine Inc., NCsoft Corp., and Jagex Ltd. all for games that violate their patent on computers sharing data so that all users can see the same virtual environment. The games in question are EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars, and RuneScape (in order of the companies as named above.)What makes this lawsuit different from the standard patent shakedowns that we've been reporting on is that the patent has already been successfully used in court. Paltalk has already sued, and won against, Microsoft.
Want a bigger friends list? Stop playing Halo 2 online!
Speaking to G4 late last week, a "high-level Microsoft source" said that the real reason Microsoft hasn't upped the friends list limit on 360 thus far has more to do with people still playing Halo 2 on Xbox than limitations of its current console. Reportedly, the source says that Microsoft is still undecided on when to finally pull the plug and add a feature gamers have been requesting for a long time now.The company has made it clear in the past that it would like to implement the feature, even going so far as to explain to us at CES 2009 that "original Xbox games were coded to be limited to 100 friends and that limit was brought into the current generation." According to G4's source, the shuttering of Halo 2's online could come after Halo 3: ODST drops this September, giving Microsoft two Halo titles to offer on the Xbox 360. The source also contends that the real decision to keep Halo 2 online is in the hands of gamers. What say you, gamers?!%Poll-33098%[Via Shacknews]
Happy (belated) 10th birthday, Halo
Hey, Halo! Wow, is it ever good to see you! Listen, we're sorry we missed your birthday yesterday, we were really busy with the Babypirates and that dinosaur-headed robot. We just wanted to say you're 10 years old now, and you're growing up in to a fine young man. ... Anyway, listen to us ramble. The point is ... we think you're old enough to have this: It's your grandfather's pocket knife.Now don't tell your mom about it and don't go poking your eye out, she would just skin us alive. ... What's that? No, smart alec, we don't know how a knife would puncture the nearly 1,000 pounds of MJOLNIR armor that you're constantly required to wear. Now go get washed up for supper, we're having fettuccine.[Thanks, Jacob]
Halo 3: Over one billion served
At 6:36pm PT on Saturday night, Halo 3's 1 billionth match went down. It was a game of Infection on Foundry that lasted a little over 3 minutes, and we imagine all those involved are incredibly proud of how far along Bungie's baby has come. To put it in perspective, that's 2,023,153,340,764 seconds (64,109 years) of total matchmaking playtime. That's like 3 multiplayer searches in Gears of War 2.Another fun fact: Bungie offers that Halo 2, a game that has topped the original Xbox Live leaderboard since its release 4 years ago, has served a total of 798 million games. Halo 3 released on September 25, 2007.
Superstruct: The world's first massively multiplayer forecasting game
Forget what you typically expect from your average client-based MMO. In fact, the title you're going to read about here differs markedly from the type of game we normally cover at Massively, but that makes it no less interesting. Superstruct is truly something different -- a futuristic alternate reality game that launches today (October 6) and lasts only 6 weeks, developed by a team at The Institute for the Future (IFTF) -- a not-for-profit think tank based in Palo Alto, California. For lack of a better, and less inflammatory, description, Superstruct is a thinking person's MMO, and is in many respects a social experiment; the game is an attempt to harness the collective intelligence and problem-solving abilities of its playerbase to make forecasts about the world's future and its escalating problems. In fact, Superstruct bills itself as the world's first massively multiplayer forecasting game, with the tagline: Play the game. Invent the future. Despite being set in 2019 and looking forward to world issues that will become crises 20 years beyond that, Superstruct's genre is more futurist than sci-fi. Superstruct doesn't feature the traditional game elements we've come to expect from a massively multiplayer title. Instead, it fosters new ways for players to work together, testing out their ideas and strategies in a creative, collaborative brainstorming experiment that spans different mediums. Plausible future scenarios will be posited to the player base, challenging them to really think and produce compelling responses to the events in the game.
Frank O'Connor leaves Bungie for Microsoft to work on Halo franchise
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/xbox/Frankie_leaves_Bungie_Heads_to_Microsoft_to_work_on_Halo'; The long-standing "voice" of Bungie, Content Manager Frank O'Connor, is leaving the Halo studio in order to "work more closely with Microsoft on the Halo franchise." In his final Weekly Update, O'Connor sends a heartwarming thanks to the community for a number of things, among them for "not following through on the death threats" (his emphasis, not ours).The most interesting part of his goodbye later is the tease on the "coming years." Said O'Connor, "I was busy working on a story for one of our next games, an experience that is destined to surprise, amaze and entertain like nothing we've ever made before. That game has an amazing team invested in it, and one that will be tasked with building the Next Big Thing. You should see what they've already achieved, you truly should." We'll be watching with eager eyes. Take care, Frank, you'll be missed.(Oh, and be sure to check out all the fun Frank O'Connor Photoshops.)
The Daily Grind: Are ARGs MMOs?
ARGs (Alternate Reality Games) take the normal boundaries between games and reality and skew them just enough so that the two overlap, offering a new way to think about entertainment interaction. Perhaps one of the most famous of these is the "I love bees" campaign, which was developed to promote Halo 2. Certainly hundreds played, and part of the gameplay mechanics was taking clues from various places on the Web to complete the puzzles and solve the mystery.However, is "hundreds" enough to typify the term "massively"? Given that you could play alone and never see another player, only becoming part of a grander, more widespread team, is that really "multiplayer"? If the entirety of gameplay isn't online, does that satisfy the "O" requirement? How precise does the "MMO" definition need to be?
Downloadable Halo 2 HD cut scenes now complete
An update to last month's story about HBO and their friends whose mission was to make all of Halo 2's cut scenes available to the masses in beautiful high definition. Progress moved along at a slow yet steady pace, with each week bringing a new downloadable HD cut scene and at the same time, as each video was uploaded, a piece of our soul was fulfilled. Now, after a few weeks of hard work, we're proud to announce that all of Halo 2's thirty-five cut scenes are now available for download in HD over at HBO. Grab the complete HD series and clog HBO's bandwidth pipes. Mr. Louis Wu would love us.
Watch Halo 2's cut-scenes in glorious HD
Since the cut-scenes that were included as part of the Halo 3 Legendary Edition didn't live up to our HD requirements (stupid limited DVD format), the fellas over at HBO and Clan Infectionist have teamed up to bring Halo 2's cut-scenes into the HD era. Captured using Halo 2 PC, the newly HD'ified H2 cut-scenes are being made available over at HBO in both Quicktime and Windows Media flavors. Currently, only the first two H2 cut-scenes are available for download in HD, but HBO will be rolling out the entire HD H2 cut-scene library throughout March. Staggering their release in an effort stay on top of the massive amount of bandwidth needed to host these gems. Now go forth fanboys, download H2 cut-scenes minus that icky "popping effect" and in full, glorious, beautiful, HD glory.
Halo 2 finally joins Xbox 'Platinum Hits' collection
As one of the strongest titles in the Xbox library, Bungie's Halo 2 has been notably absent from Microsoft's "Platinum Hits" series, which features high-selling games at reduced prices a few years after their release. Now, it seems that Halo 2 has finally gone "platinum," with the required ugly box art remix, and an expected price drop down to $19.99 USD. Said ugly box art remix was recently added to Microsoft's press site.Currently priced at $29.99, Halo 2's inception into the Platinum Hits would certainly be a good thing in terms of price. The bad side? The slick cover art of Master Chief has been cropped to make way for all the Platinum Hits gobbledeegook, and includes a big ugly inset reminding everyone that it's the "Best Selling Xbox Game Ever." The new box also reminds players that Halo 2 is playable on 360 (provided you have a hard drive). If you have yet to pick up this modern classic, the price drop certainly makes it a good time to reconsider a purchase. When this beauty hits brick-and-mortar shelves, though, we recommend hunting down the old-box versions and requesting the new lower price. Nothing says "uncool" like owning the "greatest hits" version.[Update: Microsoft has confirmed the news. An official announcement is forthcoming.]
Halo 2 decides it wants to be a Platinum Hit [update 2]
Update 2: Microsoft has now confirmed that Halo 2 definitely headed for Platinum Hits. The shock of the confirmation nearly made us spew out our iced tea. Nearly.After being on the market since 2004, earning an average metacritic score of 95 and selling millions upon millions of copies, Microsoft decided Halo 2 could sit among the Max Payne and Shark Tales of the world and officially become a Platinum Hit. Woohoo! Actually, we bet it was the other way around. Halo 2 finally decided it was time to lower itself to the Platinum Hits catalog and force Microsoft to quit milking its $39 retail price tag as its retail teets have become sore and gone dry (yeah, bad mental picture).We confirmed Halo 2's Platinum Hits status after recently spotting the game's retail box art (viewable above) over on one of Microsoft's press websites. We also can't help but point out that Halo 2's Platinum Hits box is chalk full of marketing goodness including a "Plays on Xbox 360" stamp and a rather large blue inset that tells everyone that Halo 2 is the "Best Selling Xbox Game Ever". You know, just in case weren't aware. Anyway, the new Halo 2 Platinum Hits edition should be shipping to retailers sometime soon and will carry the typical Platinum Hits price of $19.99 even though we're sure you can find the game clearance priced for cheaper. But who wouldn't want a copy of Halo 2 in that iconic and oh so brag worthy silver jewel case. Right?
Halo stalker arrested after making 2,600 mile trip
A 20-year old male was arrested in Spokane, Washington this past weekend for stalking a 15-year old girl he met online playing Halo (the report does not specify which iteration). The accused was from Saratoga Springs, New York, which means by our estimations he drove around 2,600 miles in order to drive past the girl's house and send her a text message. According to Seattle news outlet KOMO-TV, the parents of the girl caught his license plate number as he passed and called the police. He has been charged with a felony count of stalking. Let this be yet another warning to all online gamers out there: don't give out your personal information, including where you live and your phone number.[Thanks, Foolio]
Fall Xbox 360 dashboard update revealed: download Halo December 2
Official Xbox Magazine has the scoop on the Fall Xbox 360 dashboard update, and you better believe it's a doozy. UK-based CVG reports that the December 2 update will allow 360 owners to download and play Microsoft-published Xbox 1 games on their 360s. Let's say that one more time: come December 2, you will be able to download full, original Xbox games to the Xbox 360. The initial list of available games includes Fable, Indigo Prophecy, Crimson Skies: High Road To Revenge, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath Of Cortex, Burnout 3, and, of course, Halo: Combat Evolved. Games will cost approximately 1200 Microsoft Points, or $15 USD. Microsoft plans on re-releasing as many Xbox 1 titles as possible through Marketplace. Look out, Virtual Console. Update: The CVG source has been removed, but Eurogamer has posted a similar report, dating the update for December 4th.
Cinemassively: Going global
Our latest clip is Not Safe For Work (NSFW). If you didn't get a chance to see the stream for the UK Machinima Festival that took place on October 13th, 2007, you really missed out. Rooster Teeth, the creative force behind Red vs. Blue, debuted a special Halo 2 Machinima just for the audience. I've eagerly awaited it's public release to share with you!As a warning, this clip has plenty of cuss words and can be quite politically incorrect. With that said, it's absolutely hilarious. The majority of this short consists of showing how different Red vs. Blue would be if it were made in a different country. If you are from England, France, Germany, Russia, or Japan, I apologize in advance.
Halo 3: Landfall - all three Blomkamp shorts cut together
Halo 3: Landfall, a combination of Neill Blomkamp's three previously-released live-action short videos depicting the events following Halo 2, has now been released online; it is also available through Xbox Live. One thing we noticed as the film progresses is the improved quality between each of the three shorts. Of course, the next logical thought would be what Blomkamp could do with another Halo video, or perhaps even a film. Alas, it just wasn't meant to be. [Via X3F]
Halo: Uprising goes hardcover next year
Spotted for pre-order over on Amazon.com by eagle eyed halo.bungie.org member Onebitrocket is a listing for a yet to be announced hardcover version of the Halo: Uprising comic books. The Marvel comic series, which bridges the story gap between Halo 2 and Halo 3, was initially slated for four separate comic books with staggered release dates throughout the year and into 2008. But never did Marvel mention plans for a collective hardcover version of the comics and at a $16 retail price, you can count us in. Hardcover Halo: Uprising FTW![Via HBO]
Halo 2's Zanzibar map done completely in Lego
It seems like if you want some guaranteed internet traffic these days, all you have to do is slap Halo tags all over the place. In fact, it's probably standard practice by now for sites offering things like FREE VIAGRA and GET RICH NOW NOW NOW to put Halo in the metatags. Darned 'Halo' branded little blue pills. However, if you actually go out and create something all your own as a fanatical tribute to the Halo universe, then you have our respect. When it involves recreating the Zanzibar map from Halo 2 completely to scale in Lego, then you have our allegiance. In fact, we'd love to have something like this gracing the front window of the 'Stiq offices. If you've ever read Douglas Coupland's Microserfs, then hopefully you get the reference. If you haven't read it, then you probably just think we're dorks. Anyhow, check out the video of this incredible Lego creation, and then go raid your old toy closet and pull out the bricks. Time to get crackin' on your own Lego version of Lockout. Ping us when you're done.
