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Madden 07 tops 360 XBL list
EA's monopolistic NFL juggernaut grabs the number one spot on Major Nelson's weekly list of Top10 Xbox 360 Live titles:1. Madden NFL 072. Call of Duty 23. Texas Hold 'em4. Ghost Recon 35. Saints Row6. DEAD RISING7. Oblivion8. Chromehounds9. Test Drive Unlimited Demo10. BFMCMadden haters will be happy to know that Halo 2 still rules overall. Texas Hold'em is the top XBLA game.
XBL stats unleashed
Xbox Live statistics courtesy of Major Nelson: The Xbox Live Marketplace just passed 50 million downloads. That is double the 25 million mark from just three months ago. In the first week of Madden '07 releasing, Xbox Live members unlocked over 600,000 achivements and hosted more than 2-million hours of Madden gameplay. 'Texas Hold 'em' set a one day record as the fastest download item ever on the Marketplace. There were over 100 downloads a minute in the first 24-hours of release. Other Xbox Live statistics: More than 50 million downloads of gaming and entertainment content from Xbox Live Marketplace to date Over 2 billion hours spent on Xbox Live by gamers across the globe since the launch of the Xbox Live online gaming network in November 2002 More than 60 percent of Xbox 360 owners are connected to Xbox Live 1,300,000 text and voice messages are sent via Xbox Live every day. Currently totaling half a billion sent messages between the Xbox Live community per year, this figure is set to explode with the launch of the Xbox Live Vision camera on September 19, 2006 in the U.S. 65 per cent of all connected consoles already downloading and playing Xbox Live Arcade titles Over 8 million downloads of Xbox Live Arcade games following the launch of Xbox 360 Over 2 billion Microsoft Points sold to date Shouldn't the 50 millionth downloader win a prize or something?
SNK Playmore unleashes the Fury on XBLA
As if Xbox Live Arcade wasn't already a menagerie of two-dimensional creatures, Gamespot reports that it's about to become home to fighting wolves and geese. Using less obscures references, SNK Playmore has revealed that one of their titles to be shown at this year's Tokyo Game Show is none other than Fatal Fury Special (Garau Densetsu Special in Japan) for the Xbox 360. Terry Bogard and his punching pals join Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, which was released several weeks ago to brisk sales. It's wonderful to see 2D fighting games making the rounds on our fancy, next-gen consoles (especially, you know, good ones), and with enough player interest, it may even spur on the creation of some brand new entries in the genre. For now, however, SNK Playmore is sticking with the classics -- the rest of their TGS lineup is comprised of The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match, Garou Densetsu Battle Archives 2 (both for PS2) and Metal Slug Complete for PSP.
Microsoft to take a bite out of "consumables"
Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade and Marketplace have been hot topics this week, especially following the announcement of XNA Game Studio Express on Monday. Speaking at Gamefest 2006, Microsoft has further clarified some of their plans to enhance their online nexus of downloadable demos and managed microtransactions, most interestingly annoucing their intention to make a meal out of Marketplace "consumables." As enticing as the prospect of downloading a slice of lemon meringue pie might be, the experience is considerably dulled when you have to watch your in-game character devour it. Items that would be considered as consumables would be ones that you could purchase multiple times and whenever you needed them, and the example cited by the 1UP article points to this being a potentially ludicrous concept. Let's say your level 54 sorcerer (call him ... Tim) is in need of a Phoenix Down, but your party doesn't have enough gold to purchase one. Solution: rather than traipsing through a dungeon and obtaining items from slain beasties (why was that dinosaur carrying a potion?), you could be hitting the Xbox Live Marketplace and buying more gold.So, let's see if we understand how this goes. Use your real money to buy Microsoft's fake money to buy fake gold in order to buy fake potions from a fake in-game marketplace. Obviously, this is a rather extreme way of looking at consumables, but it certainly provides food for thought -- especially so should you consider the fact that by purchasing the game, you've ostensibly purchased the entire game world, marketplaces and overpriced inns included. Thankfully, just as with any marketplace transactions, it's still up to you to decide when something is worth the extra money and when it isn't (hint: equine items of protection).
XNA Game Studio Express FAQ not entirely worthless
Ever since Microsoft announced their intentions to open up the stage and let any tonedeaf buffoon grab a microphone and engage in the game developing equivalent of drunken karaoke, gamers and hobbyists have been asking questions. Frequently. That's largely the reason the delectable acronym sandwich and informative document, XNA Game Studio Express FAQ, exists for all to peruse and to briefly summarize on video game blogs. The important questions with matching answers:What's in the XNA Game Studio Express package? We'll tell you. XNA Game Studio Express is comprised of the XNA Framework, a stash of managed code development libraries which is intended to increase productivity, and the XNA Framework Content Pipeline, a collection of tools designed to aid in adding 3D content to games. Included documentation, how-to's and starter-kits help you come to grips with the basics.Can I make a commercial Xbox 360 game with it?Only if said game is actually about commercials, possibly a Joe in the Fast Lane take on the exciting life of a marketing mastermind. In fewer words: no. You can sell Game Studio Express titles for Windows, but you'll need Game Studios Professional (available next Spring) to hawk your goods on the Xbox 360. Isn't this just another annual Xbox 360 fee I have to pay?You and your entitlement complex don't have to do anything. XNA Game Studio Express for Windows is free. If you want to create, share and play custom Xbox 360 games, however, you need to sign up to a "Creator's Club" subscription through Marketplace for $99 annually or $49 for four months. It's your choice.Speaking of choice, I just switched to Mac OSX.No.I haven't even asked the question yet!XNA Game Studio Express will only be available on the Windows and Xbox 360 platforms.
XBL gets its mouth washed out with soap
The sometimes forgotten reality of Xbox Live is how much of a scurrilous cesspool it is. This was brought into pie chart form by one Mr. Josh Smith last February after he recorded nearly 34 hours of Halo 2 then dissected it with a keen eye on the cussin'. Dean Takahashi, author of Opening the Xbox and Xbox 360 Uncloaked, writes a column this week for The Escapist on the Xbox platform's best feature: Xbox Live. Oh yeah, except it's not about how great it is, it's about how much profanity there is. Of course, Microsoft has taken measures to address this shortcoming with the 360's four different gamer "zones" and a feedback system. Takahashi writes, "Taking a cue from eBay, the service now has a feedback system where gamers can rate their rivals. Each player carries a reputation with him. By clicking on someone's gamertag, it's easy to file a complaint about someone. If the complaints pile up, Microsoft can remove the gamer from the service."With Halo 2 still dominating Xbox Live charts, it's hard to tell if the new features are going to be effective in making the 360's first multiplayer killer app fun to play.
PS3 entitled to mockery
In the July 19 EGM Live Podcast, editor Dan Hsu reported that Sony's new, yet oddly familiar, points system will allow gamers to pile up "entitlements" by achieving certain goals in PS3 games. Set aside, for a moment, the fact that this entire concept is a blatant rip-off of Microsoft. It doesn't even make sense. Last I checked, entitlements were something the modern welfare state sent your grandmother in the mail, not things that you earn through toil and tears. Microsoft calls them "achievements" because you're..um...achieving something. This is a hilariously awkward attempt by Sony to avoid using their rival's nomenclature that denotes both a lack of creativity and a failure to comprehend the English language. I guess "goals" and "accomplishments" were also taken. Leave it to Kutaragi & Krew to come up with a reward system that sounds like they're doling out government cheese to the indigent. Then again, if you plunk down $600 for PS3, you better be entitled to something besides a hefty credit card bill.I almost can't believe this will be in the final product. Is Sony as dense as they are shameless?[Thanks Geof]
GoW viral campaign on XBL?
An Xbox Live user by the name of MFenix (the main character in Gears of War is Marcus Fenix) is spamming confused gamers with the message "We need your help. Can't talk now. Don't know who to trust. Will send more tomorrow." See pics here. Is this a nascent viral marketing scheme, a bored GoW fanboy, or just CliffyB drunk on XBL? Whoever MFenix is, he doesn't game much. His gamerscore is zero with no games played and the motto "Offline...for now" (Too busy blasting Locust to cheese out Madden, I suppose). Several users in the Epic forums report receiving cryptic replies after contacting him. And, of course, the developers officially mum.Why do viral marketing campaigns, real or imagined, inevitably promote games that are already hyped to hell?[Thanks Seth]
Fuzion Frenzy 2: more mini-games, but in space
Perhaps most remarkable for being an Xbox launch game that wasn't Halo, Fuzion Frenzy attempted to fill the oddly shaped party game niche way back in 2001. Ignoring the use of some of the most pathetic and annoying characters to ever grace the gaming universe ("Where is the competition?!"), the game was quite an amusing diversion, though one might argue that it's hard to go wrong with bopping people over the head and rolling about in giant hollow balls.Microsoft has officially announced the holiday arrival of Fuzion Frenzy 2 for the Xbox 360. Interestingly enough, this one's actually being developed by Hudson, a subsidiary of Konami (the first game was done by Blitz). Aside from oh-so-creatively shifting the 40 mini-games into space and across multiple planets, the new developer has seen fit to add full online functionality, allowing players to create custom tournaments and build up a rank that gives them some authority in picking which mini-games to play next. It isn't specifically mentioned, but you can probably count on purchasing and downloading extra activities months after you've grown tired of the original selection.That original selection had better feature Sumo and Twisted System, or we'll be so angry. You won't like us when [censored by the clichè police].
Table Tennis demo now available on Live Marketplace [Update 1]
If your eyebrow is still in a raised position with regards to Rockstar's foray into the explosive, prostitute-less world of Table Tennis, be sure to grab the newly served demo from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Coming in at 526MB, the curtailed code should give you fine opportunity to beat innocent balls senseless and engage in more back-and-forth whacking than a Sopranos episode. Feel free to gawk at the shiny graphics and the ball physics, but don't make the crucial mistake of forgetting to press the green button. You can be sure that Conrad's sister will capitalize and promptly crush your ego in the palm of her adorable hand. Update: Major Nelson made this addition to his blog: "Hey, I forgot to post that this is a limited time demo. (sorry about that) That means that you can only download it and play it until the end of August. After that...the title will not work, even if you have already downloaded it! So get it and play it while it lasts!" Looks like someone's worried the demo might be a little too good.
Joystiq interviews XBLA's Ross Erickson
Hate your job? You're about to hate it a whole lot more. We discovered why Ross Erickson, as the Worldwide Games Portfolio Manager for Xbox Live Arcade, has one of the greatest jobs on the planet. We chatted for a couple (untranscribed) minutes about his time at the Salt Lake Games Group (his boss was actually Tex Murphy) before getting into questions about the merits of the portfolio strategy, the value of the indie game scene, his game collection and, of course, what he actually does for a living.Your title is Worldwide Games Portfolio Manager, which is a big way of saying what? It's a big way of saying finding and picking and identifying the games we want to put on Arcade and then working with all the publishers and developers around the world. Both on an inbound basis, when those guys are interested in getting a title on Arcade, original ideas come through me first and I vet out the ideas and justify the choices and sort of pick out which ones fit in the portfolio best, which ones magnify the goals and objectives of Arcade, and also really assess the risks of working with said developers to determine if this is great in the idea stage or is this something that can make it all the way to the finish line and be a real productive game and a game that people are going to love.The other side of it is going outbound, which is to go and find the kinds of games that we're looking for, evangelize the goals and ideals of the platform both on a 360 macro level and on the Arcade level, the kinds of features and things that we want and the kind the kind of game experiences we want to get into the hands of customers at various stages in the lifecycle of the whole console. Clearly right now we're in the early adopter stage still, the first twelve months of people really enthusiastic about the console, primarily male, hardcore gamers. But they have significant others and spouses and wives and girlfriends and whatever in their lives as well and many of them are having kids and Arcade's sort of becoming this thing where, as an entire portfolio, we sort of want it to look like there's eventually something there. There's many choices in Arcade and there's something there for everybody in the Xbox household.
Major Nelson banned from XBL
No, he wasn't yelling about chocolate milk.[Thanks Nick]
New PGR3 content hits Xbox Live Marketplace
Lifting their foot slightly from the pedal and instead concentrating on all things cosmetic and shiny, Bizarre Creations have finished putting together the Style Pack for Project Gotham Racing 3. As reported last month, the download contains 12 new beautifully shaped hunks of metal, fit for driving around the streets of London and gazing at for embarrassing amounts of time. Unlike last month, however, the pack is available for download right now. In case you didn't get it the first time, here's the list of included vehicles, available for 60 MS points ($0.75) seperately or 400 MS points ($5) as a group. BMW M6 (2006) BMW Z8 (2001) BMW M3 CSL (2003) BMW MINI COOPER S (2005) Gumpert Apollo Coupe 4.2 V8 (2005) 2005 Chrysler® Firepower Concept Ferrari 365 GTB4 "Daytona" (1968) Ferrari F430 Challenge (2006) Mercedes CLK DTM AMG (C209) Pagani Zonda F (2005) RUF R.K. Spyder 3.8 (2006) [Note: This one's free!] Vanwall GPR V12 (2006) In addition, you'll be prompted to update the game once you log on and be pleased to welcome some new (and way overdue) features. It's finally possible to upload the stunningly artistic or hopelessly amateurish images you've created in the game's photo mode to the official PGR3 website. It doesn't seem to be fully operational yet, but there is likely a very large tantrum in store should that not change in the near future.New multiplayer game modes come in the form of "Free Roam Points," "Team Free Roam Points" and a series favorite, "Cat and Mouse." The rules of the latter mode dictate that teams comprised of two cars each, one being an E-class vehicle, compete to have their slower car be the first to cross the finish line. If the other, faster car crosses the line first, the team loses instantly. The update also adds matching achievements should you need any further incentive to venture online.[Thanks Xbudd!]Previously: More cars pull into PGR3's garage Cadillac secures Xbox Live ad space Forza 2 jacks PGR3 technology
Allard's iPod killer to use Live Anywhere?
Earlier this week, Microsoft finally revealed the not-so-secret project that kept J Allard and Robbie Bach away from E3: A wi-fi enabled portable music player (see horribly blurred image above) designed to take a chunk out of Apple's iMonopoly in the PMP business. While not the portable 360 of our dreams, the device, due this Christmas, will presumably feature some sort of limited gaming capability -- and it's own version of Xbox Live. From Engadget:Microsoft's new portable audio and video player will have a screen that's "bigger than that of the iPod video" (which isn't really saying much) and built-in WiFi so you can not only download content directly to the player (sort of like with the MusicGremlin), but actually participate in an Xbox Live-like social network that will help you connect with other people with similar taste and interests. Whether that's going to be the Live Anywhere service they introduced at E3 we don't yet know. But we do know the tag line they're pitching for the device combined with this new network is "Connected Entertainment."Since this is an Xbox 360 blog, naturally we're most concerned with how this new product relates to our favorite console. If the device is indeed apart of Allard's Live Anywhere concept, will it offer some special benefit for 360 owners? Will it allow you to communicate with your XBL friends list? Will Marketplace media content be available for download? Since we don't know much, the climate is ripe for rampant speculation. What kind of Xbox Live integration would you like to see in a Microsoft PMP, and would such features convince you to toss your iPod?
Bad at math? Use this MS Points converter
Been duped into forking over 200 "Microsoft Points" for some fancy horse armor, only to have your waning, embarrassingly poor math skills catch up with your error after the fact? "2.50? 2.50?! I coulda bought a bunch of gamertag pictures for that!"You're right dear reader, although we'd question that expenditure as well. In the real world, $2.50 can buy all sorts of great stuff like: four thousandths of a PlayStation 3, some Taco Bell, or a small water at a movie theater. Using bigsteveouk's Unofficial Microsoft Points Converter, you can convert Microsoft's funny money into real currency before making any more impulse buys, and then save that money for important stuff. [Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]
Prey Demo now available on Xbox Live
Major Nelson kindly informed us that the Xbox Live servers are hosting a brand new chunk of code. At last, Xbox 360 owners get the opportunity to explore Human Head's topsy-turvy alien abductee sim, Prey. Contained within the 1.17GB demo (well over the 449MB PC version), you'll find a first-person shooter tinged with insanity and laced with opportunities to shoot yourself in the back. It's not often we get to play a corridor-crawler where the walls vomit body parts, your grenades attempt to bite you and the gravity behaves like it's trapped within some sort of interstellar tumble dryer. It's also not often that we get a Live demo on a Friday -- must be more alien meddling. Grab the demo and be sure to let us know what you think. Please note that the demo is not available in the regions of Germany or Japan, so folks living there won't get to prey it right away (sorry).
Preemptive warning: Xbox Live down today for 4 hours
Grab the purified water (for your 360, natch), charge up the batteries (using the Quick Charge kit), and don't forget all the canned goods (for eating, stupid)! Now quickly, to the shelter! It won't be long before it's upon us ... an Xbox Live outage!The military Major Nelson Xbox Live's Larry Hyrb has issued the following WARNING to all XBL users: "On Tuesday June 27th from 0200-0600 PT Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, the 'My Xbox' section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode (you won't be able to post.) The remainder of Xbox.com will be available" maggots.Oooooooh, shiny new features? The good Major stubs his cigar out in your bright eyes barking, "This is for maintenance, there are no new features that will appear when the service comes back online. This is all for server maintenance...nothing more, nothing less."Phew, looks like this is only a drill. Guess we'll have to pass the time with a good, old-fashioned game of UNO ... with real cards. It's only a couple hours.[Update: Ugh, this was supposed to go up last night. As of right now, the outage is over and XBL is back online with -- as promised -- no new features. Consider this a response to the handful of tips we got on the outage then.]
June 27th says: "No Live for you!" [update 1]
PlayOnline has announced that Xbox Live servers will be down on June 27th from 2:00 'til 6:00 PDT for maintenance. It looks like this will only affect PlayOnline, but it might mean no Live for anyone. No word has actually come down from Microsoft about Live being down so, who knows? The announcement mentions that those already connected to PlayOnline will stay connected, but once you disconnect you won't be able to access PlayOnine until the maintenance is finished. So, 360 Final Fantasy XI fans (both of you) better connect now before it's too late. [Via Xboxic] Update: Reader bigC24 let us know that the Live outage is official. Check out Major Nelson for details.
400 XBLM points for free -- sort of
Outpost.com is selling 1600 Marketplace points for $14.99 (the usual price is $20.00). Over the weekend, the status of this deal was "Call for Availability." However, they seem to be back in stock now. The site is also selling 12 and 3 month Live subscriptions for $54.99 and $29.99 respectively. That's $10 off of a three month subscription and a full $15 off of a 12 month subscription. 360 Fanboy does not endorse this site, and I have no idea how reliable it is so, buy at your own risk. Anybody scored any other deals lately? [Via The Hottest Deals]
Giant mechs gone gold
Giant mech fans rejoice, SEGA's team oriented, Xbox Live enabled, giant-robot-killfest, Chromehounds, has gone gold and should hit store shelves on July 11th. The game features massive online battles, including a perisitent war mode and more traditional deathmatch and CTF offerings. FROM software has a pretty good track record on the original Xbox. Here's hoping they come through for the 360.
