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Xbox News is a site that brings you the very latest Original Xbox, Xbox 360 and Xbox One news, the latest games and releases, Part of the
DCEmu Homebrew & Gaming Network.
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September 15th, 2009, 17:07 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft Game Studios boss Phil Spencer reckons you don't want another Xbox machine at the moment, but is focusing instead on offering a "huge return" on your original Xbox 360 investment.
"What Don [Mattrick] was saying was that when Natal comes out it will feel like a new generation has come. I see it as like the launch of the Xbox 360 back in 2005 - there will be a launch portfolio of games to support it," Spencer told Develop.
"And in terms of putting more hardware on the market, what else can we do? Put more memory in it? I don't think that's enough. We like where we are at with the box - 360 currently has a great price point. Consumers don't want another $400 box right now.
"We instead want consumers and developers to know that we are all going to make a huge return on that original investment in the hardware - the one Microsoft made in building it, the one developers made in making games for it, and the investment consumers made in buying the console," he added. "In the current climate that's something people are going to appreciate much more."
Software, said Spencer, is Microsoft's "heart and soul", as the company demonstrated by effectively re-launching Xbox Live with the New Xbox Experience.
"It's not about trying to sell consumers a new piece of hardware at the wrong time, it's about evolving the platform continuously," he explained.
Spencer reinforced Microsoft's commitment to the long-term life of Xbox 360 by suggesting that the console hadn't yet peaked in this, its fourth year on sale.
"When before has there been a console that hasn't peaked and is in its fourth year still growing and offering so much potential?" he asked.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/na...for-360-owners
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September 15th, 2009, 17:06 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft has confirmed that its new Zune HD handheld will feature gaming functionality.
The company said in a press release that the touch-screen media player, released in the US today, will support "fun 3D games" such as Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition, Vans Sk8: Pool Service, and Audiosurf Tilt.
Games can be added to Zune HD via Zune Marketplace over the Wi-Fi connection or when connected to Zune PC software.
The announcement follows comments made by Shane Kim, the outgoing corporate VP of strategy and business development at Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business, that a Microsoft handheld gaming device was an inevitability and only a matter of "when".
Available in the US, the 16GB Zune HD retails for $219.99 and the 32GB version for $289.99. The device features a built-in HD radio receiver, HD video output capabilities, an OLED touch screen and an internet browser. Microsoft said that it will support applications like a calculator, an MSN Weather app, Twitter and Facebook.
While the company hasn't announced plans to introduce Zune hardware in Europe, it has said that the brand will become "the premium partner" in the Xbox Live Video Marketplace. Xbox Live users will soon be able to stream to rent or download to own TV and film content, representing the first time the Zune service has been available in Europe.
"With today's announcement, the Zune business is growing into a comprehensive entertainment service that's no longer tied to any one screen or device," said Enrique Rodriguez, corporate vice president of the TV, Video and Music Business at Microsoft. "Zune lets consumers connect to their music, TV shows and movie content and enjoy it on the three screens they use every day."
http://www.computerandvideogames.com...VG-General-RSS
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September 14th, 2009, 20:43 Posted By: wraggster
First, some background on this problem. Here's what I said in my analysis of the iPod announcements:
"iTunes is in 23 countries. The Zune Marketplace is in one. Microsoft's US-centric approach with the Zune is maddening...I thought there was some light at the end of the tunnel when they launched the Zune in Canada last year, but we never got the Zune Marketplace here, and now the devices being sold here are being killed off. "Disaster" is a good word for how well the Zune launch went in Canada. Between the Zune HD being US-only at launch, and all of the IP-based geographic blocking madness that the Zune software and Web site does, it's like the Zune team is doing everything they can to alienate everyone in the world outside the US."
In the resulting discussion from the post, the issue of this US-centric approach to the Zune was brought up several times, and I floated this theory:
"Apple was the first company to negotiate big, international music distribution deals, and way back then most of the music labels probably though Apple would fail, or at best only be mildly successful. So they said "Sure, 99 cents sounds fine as long as the bit rate sucks." Fast-forward, and iTunes is massively successful. We've watched as the record labels pressured Apple for variable pricing year after year, trying to re-assert control over their music. They finally got it. The labels don't like all the power that Apple has, so here's my theory: they're making it very hard, if not impossible, for the Zune guys to get the same sort of deal that Apple has. They're trying to exert control over the Zune deal in a way they wish they could have done with the Apple deal years ago.
Witness the $1 that Universal demanded Microsoft pay them for every Zune sold. We're talking POWER STRUGGLE here people. Maybe that's one reason why Microsoft can't accomplish now what Apple did years ago - the record labels are more aware of what they want to control.
Second reason? Maybe Microsoft feels that the Zune Pass is SO important that they can't/won't launch Zune Marketplace without it. It's quite integral to the Zune experience - many new Zune features rely on the customer having a Zune Pass - so maybe Microsoft isn't launching in new markets unless that market includes the Zune Pass. I think this is a bit silly - not everyone wants a Zune Pass - but maybe it's another reason? These are just my theories."
http://www.zunethoughts.com/news/sho...nally-yet.html
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September 14th, 2009, 20:41 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft’s Phil Spencer questions the immediate value of new GPU and CPU combos
Microsoft has continued to distance itself from the opportunity to build a new console.
Microsoft Game Studios’ Phil Spencer - speaking to Develop in a new interview published today - suggested that few are signalling for a new Microsoft console.
“Do we need to sell a new console at some point? I don’t think we need to right now,” he said.
“We’ll wait until our experiences are at the right point, like we have done with the Natal camera. We’ll wait until everyone is ready for it from a software perspective.”
Spencer echoed the sentiment of Xbox division VP Don Mattrick, who notably stated that a Natal-powered 360 is – essentially – a next-generation console.
“I see [Natal] as like the launch of the Xbox 360 back in 2005 – there will be a launch portfolio of games to support it,” added Spencer.
Natal is expected to be released late in 2010, some five years after the 360’s initial launch.
Meanwhile, Spencer questioned whether the next generation of consoles will need to follow the traditional, and perhaps outdated, hardware upgrade process.
“In terms of putting more hardware on the market, what else can we do? Put more memory in it? I don’t think that’s enough,” he said.
http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...says-Microsoft
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September 14th, 2009, 19:38 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released today:
features
Authentic materials: This guitar controller’s body is solid. Its neck is real wood. The frets and tuning peg handles are metal. And the fingerboard is rosewood.
Licensed for Xbox 360®: Setup is a cinch. The controller uses Xbox 360® wireless technology—just press the Xbox 360® Guide button, and the controller connects to the console.
Touch Sensitive Neck Slider and Star Power button: Take advantage of all the features of Guitar Hero®—in the game and in the Music Studio. (The game is sold separately.)
Wireless range of up to 30 feet (10 m): You’re not tethered to your console, so you’re free to go where the music moves you.
description
When it's time for your big solo, take center stage with your Logitech® Wireless Guitar Controller. Because it's time to unleash your inner rockstar.
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-3ijo.html
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September 14th, 2009, 19:37 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released today:
features
Multiple disciplines, encompassing the very best that modern off-roading has to offer and fuelled by the 3rd generation of Codemasters’ world-renowned EGO™ Engine technology, DiRT 2 has more attitude, more adrenaline and more DiRT than ever – off-roading just got cool
DiRT 2 will take players on a World Tour to compete in aggressive multi-car and intense solo race events in the most diverse and challenging real-world environments. Career paths will span the globe as players unlock tours in stunning locations spread across the face of the planet. USA, Japan, Malaysia, Baja, Croatia and others await as players climb to the pinnacle of modern competitive off-roading
DiRT2 is adrenaline-fuelled extreme sports with eye-popping visuals and presentation in stunning real-world locations. Events include exhilarating rally cross in the massive Los Angeles sports stadium’s “Stadium King Shootout”, edge-of-control canyon racing of Utah’s “Creek Trailblazer” event, the “Rawang Rally Run” along treacherous Malaysian rainforest tracks and the “Battersea Battle”, where night races are staged at the iconic London power station
Embark on a game-long love affair with your favourite cars. Rather than being forced through a checklist of in-game cars, DiRT2 enables players to pick their favourite rides and drive them across multiple disciplines. Upgrade them, cherish them - and then smash them to bits at breakneck speeds. Get to know which to use for what event and surface, tweak them to perfection, then push them to the absolute limit
DiRT 2 invites players to become part of an extreme sports community, with full online multiplayer race events and community integration across multiple disciplines. With leader boards, news feeds and ‘scribbles’ to keep you up-to-date on your friends’ racing achievements, DiRT 2 will be a social hub for off-roading fans
description
As the sequel to the acclaimed racer of 2007, DiRT 2 is set to take off-road racing games to a new level, with benchmark tech, thrilling new race types, big event atmosphere, stunning locations, a new breed of off-roading heroes and a peerless line-up of super-charged speed machines.
Promising a thrilling race experience and an extreme sports attitude that borrows from snowboarding and skateboarding culture, DiRT 2 will take players on a World Tour to diverse and challenging real-world environments to compete in contemporary off-road events. Specifically selected to deliver aggressive and fast paced racing, DiRT 2’s garage will house a best-in-class collection of officially licensed rally cars and off-road vehicles; covering seven vehicle classes and players will be given the keys to powerful machines right from the off.
DiRT 2 will come complete with full online functionality that will be core to the overall experience, with head-to-head competitive online play and new social features to engage the racing community. Prepare for mud, gravel, dust and dirt too in DiRT 2.
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-3cqg.html
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September 14th, 2009, 19:36 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released today:
Compromises of 3 Xbox 360 games from Capcom - 'Dead Rising,' 'Lost Planet: Extreme Condition' Colonies Edition and 'Devil May Cry 4'
'Devil May Cry 4' - Hack and slash combat using combination of gun and sword. New characters (Nero) clashes with veteran Dante.
'Dead Rising' - Dynamic enemies (zombies) in unprecedented numbers who react to their environment; everything in game can be used as a weapon; intense, yet comic gore and vibrant realism.
'Lost Planet: Extreme Condition' Colonies Edition - New modes for Single Player and Online Campaigns; New playable characters and weapons; Cross platform compatibility with PC version.
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-3ioz.html
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September 14th, 2009, 19:33 Posted By: wraggster
Newly released today:
features
For the first time ever, play along with 45 legendary Beatles songs on the game-disc including: “I Saw Her Standing There,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” “I Feel Fine,” “Taxman,” “Day Tripper,” Back In The USSR,” “I Am The Walrus,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “Here Comes The Sun,” and “Get Back”
Take an interactive journey through the legacy and evolution of The Beatles’ legendary career from the renowned venues to the clothing and instruments made famous by The Fab Four
“All You Need Is Love” will be released exclusively as a downloadable song for The Beatles: Rock Band through Xbox LIVE on September 9, 2009 with all Apple Corps Ltd, MTV Games and Microsoft proceeds benefitting Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In addition, the entire Abbey Road album will be the first album made available for download purchase
Progress through five seminal venues in which The Beatles performed during their careers including: The Cavern Club, the set of the Ed Sullivan Show, Budokan, Shea Stadium and the rooftop of Apple Records
Highlighting the years in Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios where The Beatles revolutionized modern recording and created amazing masterpieces are inspired artistic visual expressions known as Dreamscapes. These imaginative environments capture the essence of The Beatles’ genre-busting musical and fashion transformations during their later years
Audio clips featuring conversation from The Beatles’ recording sessions, some of which have never before been heard, bookend the game play experience
description
The Beatles™: Rock Band™ is an unprecedented experience through the story of The Beatles and celebration of their music and artistry. The game will allow fans to pick up the guitar, bass, mic or drums and experience The Beatles extraordinary catalogue of music through game play that takes players on a journey through the legacy and evolution of the band’s legendary career. In addition, The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-3cq7.html
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September 14th, 2009, 17:24 Posted By: wraggster
See that there? That's a shiny new 16GB Zune HD, which isn't supposed to ship until September 15th. Why bother to honor the street date? Ask the cool cats at the Fort Myers, Florida Best Buy, who has no qualms selling our tipster a unit over the weekend. At the time, no 32GB versions were available, and even now, this 16GB unit won't sync with one's PC or do much of anything useful. Of course, Microsoft's pretty much shutting itself down tonight as it readies a new software update, so we suspect all systems will be go within the next 24 hours. While we're on the topic, has anyone else managed to snag a Zune HD early?
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/14/z...ntil-tomorrow/
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September 14th, 2009, 17:03 Posted By: wraggster
New promo vid for upcoming Zune HD shows that Microsoft’s machine can run 3D games
Ever since the Zune was first announced the industry has patiently awaited Microsoft’s move to position the device as a games machine – and that could be about to arrive at last if a new promo video is anything to go by.
Gizmodo spotted an inclusion in the machine’s latest promo which shows a fully 3D racing game in action on the device.
Some are predicting that this will be a port of the upcoming Forza Motorsport 3, though there’s not yet any evidence to support this.
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September 14th, 2009, 17:02 Posted By: wraggster
Researchers have harnessed the powerful silicon chips used in the Xbox 360 console to solve scientific conundrums.
Academics at the University of Warwick believe they are the first to use the processors as a cheap way to conduct "parallel processing".
Parallel computing is where a number of processors are run in tandem, allowing a system to rapidly crunch data.
Researchers traditionally have to book time on a dedicated "cluster" system or splash out setting up a network of PCs.
Instead, the Warwick team harnessed a single Xbox 360 Graphical Processing Unit (GPU). The chip was able to perform parallel processing functions at a fraction of the cost a traditional systems.
Dr Simon Scarle, a researcher on the team, built the system to help him model how electrical signals in the heart moved around damaged cardiac cells.
Dr Scarle, who previously worked as a software engineer at Microsoft's Rare studio, had first hand experience of tapping into the power of GPU technology.
Speaking to BBC News, Dr Scarle said that the the code controlling the chip was modified, so instead of working out graphical calculations, it could perform other ones instead.
"You don't quite get the full whammy of a cluster, but its close," he said.
"Instead of pumping out stunning graphics, it's reworked; in the case of my research, rather than calculating the position of a structure and texture it's now working out the different chemical levels in a cell."
Real world computing
There has been cross-pollination between game consoles and real world computing in the past.
Roadrunner, officially the worlds fastest supercomputer, uses the same processor technology as that found in Sony's PlayStation 3.
However, it is thought that this is the first time an Xbox has been used to perform parallel processing, albeit on a single chip.
Roadrunner is used in nuclear weapons research
Dr Scarle said that linking more than one Xbox together using the techniques would not be impossible.
"It could be done, but you would have to go over the internet - through something like Xbox live - rather than a standard method."
"However, without development tools, it wouldn't be easy.
Xbox live allows gamers to play against each other over the internet.
"Sony have been into this [parallel processing] for some time, releasing development kits, and Folding@home comes as standard," he added.
Folding@home is a project that harnesses the spare processing power of PCs, Macs, Linux systems and PlayStation 3's to help understand the cause of diseases.
The network has more than 4.3 petaflop of computing power - the equivalent of more than 4,300 trillion calculations per second. Roadrunner, by comparison can operate at just over one petaflop.
The results of the University of Warwick research are published in the journal Computational Biology and Chemistry.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8254159.stm
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September 14th, 2009, 16:55 Posted By: wraggster
New evidence has been uncovered that suggests Zune HD will be Microsoft's first foray into handheld gaming.
A promotional video, dug up by Engadget, shows a short clip of a racing game running on the device. It's little more than a red car weaving around an urban track, but means Microsoft may be ready to square-up to the iPod Touch and iPhone.
News that Zune Marketplace will be integrated into Xbox Live beefs those claims up, as does mention of games by Zune chip-maker NVIDIA on its website.
Given Microsoft's silence, however, gaming clearly isn't the focus for Zune HD.
Zune HD launches across North America on 15th September for $289.99 (32GB) or $219.99 (16GB). There will be no UK release this year.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/zu...vidence-mounts
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September 13th, 2009, 21:26 Posted By: wraggster
Physorg has an article about a researcher, Dr. Simon Scarle at the University of Warwick's WMG Digital Laboratory, who needed to model some cardiological processes. Conventionally, he would requisition time on a university parallel-processing computer or use a network of PCs. However, Dr. Scarle's work history included gaming industry experience as a software engineer at a company associated with Microsoft Games Studio. His idea was that researchers could use Xbox 360s as an inexpensive parallel computing platform due to the console's hefty parallel processing-enabled GPU. He said, 'Although major reworking of any previous code framework is required, the Xbox 360 is a very easy platform to develop for and this cost can easily be outweighed by the benefits in gained computational power and speed, as well as the relative ease of visualization of the system
http://games.slashdot.org/story/09/0...ng-an-Xbox-360
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September 12th, 2009, 22:26 Posted By: wraggster
It seems that reports from way back in January of this year on the Zune HD were true -- the upcoming handheld from Microsoft will in fact feature some form of handheld gaming when it releases on September 15. At least that's what we can glean from a recent advertisement for the OLED-laden iPod Touch competitor, hinting at a gaming feature (and showing a tiny snippet of a racing game).
We've embedded the video after the break, originally found by Zunited, but will presumably have to wait until at least Monday to hear more about the Zune HD's gaming features (though we've asked Microsoft for comment either way). Considering the fact that the Zune Marketplace is coming to Xbox 360, we'll be holding fast hope for a Microsoft version of PSP's Minis at some point in the near future
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/09/12/zu...pse-of-gaming/
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September 12th, 2009, 04:13 Posted By: wraggster
New xna release for xbox 360:
GeneSys is a real-time game-construction toolkit created in .NET and XNA 3.1. While the base tool requires this platform, games developed in it can be ported to other supported platforms implicitly (such as Xbox 360 and Zune) and explicitly (Android, Mac OSX, iPhone, etc).
GeneSys reaches for that Holy Grail of game development: to be able to develop an entire game from start to finish without having to restart the tool a single time. Forget making games in months, let's try days or even hours.
Furthermore, at its ideal, GeneSys requires no programming...and at its best, no typing! That's a tall order but why not shoot for the stars, it beats settling for the swamp.
The development log and tutorials of GeneSys are being committed to a book for publishing later this year or early 2010.
http://www.gameprojects.com/project/?id=1b79a7fe05
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September 12th, 2009, 04:12 Posted By: wraggster
New xna release for xbox 360:
The first of the apocalipse dawn series however its in a unplayable stage. The idea is there will be four maps each in a different setting. One is in a bunker another is a small suburbs, there will be a Hotel and last a larger wide open zombie assault. They should be at least 7 guns i have all ready done 5 of the weapons. It should be 4 player online co-op and its a first person shooter. Don't expect straght results am working on my own in spare time. I'll keep you posted on the progress. I would have more maps but a 150mb limit sucks. Chances are the computer version will be better and longer.
This game is being made with xna and the C# enviroment.
http://www.gameprojects.com/project/?id=eb0d4f0da3
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