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Mortal Kombat spears Xbox Live in the chest
Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 is now available on Xbox Live. The gore-fest made a brief appearance last night and promptly vanished with a puff of smoke, only to reappear sometime after midnight. We suspect the decision was made following its accidental release last night, though those among us with tinfoil hats purport that Microsoft is orchestrating the entire mishap to keep our minds off of more luminary XBLA headlines.Costing 800 MS points, UMK3 is sporting current-week and all-time leaderboards, online two-on-two multiplayer, and four player "winner-stays-on" online tournaments. According to Major Nelson, many people are not seeing the game show up, to which he assures us that he is "escalating." Which likely means that he is telling his superiors, and not riding escalators up and down over and over again to his little heart's content.[Thanks to every one who sent this in.]
Ultimate MK3 pops up -- and vanishes -- on Xbox Live [update 1]
Like Dan Forden (pictured) before it, Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 showed up on Xbox Live and promptly disappeared. Since XBLA games are historically released on Wednesdays, we're betting an (now possibly unemployed) Xbox Live employee hit the wrong key.We now know that UMK3 will be 43.62 MB in size, cost 800 MS points, and feature 2-4 player multiplayer. A few lucky gamers (not us) managed to purchase and download the full game, and show off their gamertags as proof. Something tells us, regardless of earlier plans, that next Wednesday will be rather fatalistic. Not to be confused with fatality-istic, that's just lame.[Update 1: UMK3 is now available on Xbox Live.]
MS laments Lumines confusion; new packs in 2007
John Porcaro, Senior Group Manager in Microsoft's Global Games Marketing Team, has responded to the Lumines Live fallout on the official Gamerscore Blog. Porcaro admits that "when we said 'full version,' we didn't make what that meant clear enough." He also reveals that the VS CPU and Mission / Puzzle packs will be released in 2007, as well as an Artist Pack that features music video skins (pictured).For those just tuning in, Lumines Live has been released on Xbox Live, but there's a catch. For 1200 MS points (that's $15 in old money), you receive 12 skins for the the basic version of the game, multiplayer, time attack mode, and samplers of VS CPU, Mission and Puzzle modes. Many of those who purchased the game (self included) were outraged by what was marketed as the "full version" of Q Entertainment's puzzler. Ultimately, it appears the full version of the game (Artist Pack notwithstanding) will cost gamers 3000 MS Points ($37.50), more than the cost of any retail version of Lumines.Here's a query: how much more content was added by upgrading the demo to the $15 basic pack? We don't have a problem with the business model, but perhaps a lot of fury could have been avoided had Q Entertainment not charged (or charged much less) for the base pack and instead released that as the free sampler.Despite our temperament, it is assuring to know that Microsoft is listening to the community.[Via 1UP]
Mizuguchi defends Lumines Live
Q Entertainment founder Tetsuya Mizuguchi spoke with IGN today to defend his choice to split Lumines Live into four pieces (Basic, Advanced, VS CPU, and Mission / Puzzle pack). He gives two reasons for the division: the 50 MB limit on XBLA title (understandable) and the customizable nature of the game (not understandable). Mizuguchi considers it the business model of the future.When IGN presses him on the cost issue, Mizuguchi pauses. After IGN pushes on, Mizuguchi furthers his belief in the piece-wise business model. Theoretically, we don't mind the model so much as the price, and unfortunately IGN never gets Mizuguchi talking about the release date and pricing for the VS CPU and Mission / Puzzle pack.So is Lumines holy like a saint or hole-y like swiss cheese? Q Entertainment still hasn't responded to our request on release date and pricing details. The Advanced Pack game is now on Xbox Live for 600 MS points ($7.50 USD).
