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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.
THE LATEST NEWS BELOW
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June 8th, 2009, 17:29 Posted By: wraggster
The news of Last.fm arriving on the Xbox 360 got kind of buried at E3 by, well, more exciting news. But that doesn't mean it's not exciting in its own right!
If you're an Xbox Live Gold subscriber, you'll automatically have access to the service when it drops on the console later this year. It'll allow you to use the service much like you can online right now. This means you can listen to stations based on the sound of certain artists, compile custom playlists, and create a custom station based on music you like.
There's no word on when exactly this will arrive, nor is there word on whether or not you'll be able to listen to stations in-game, but these screenshots should keep you sated for a little while at least.
http://i.gizmodo.com/5283025/more-de...implementation
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June 8th, 2009, 17:27 Posted By: wraggster
As Microsoft adds more functionality to the the Xbox Live Marketplace, the online business is offering multiple opportunities for developers to grow their business with new revenue streams through services such as the new Avatar Marketplace.
That's according to Xbox Live general manager Marc Whitten, who said that the New Xbox Experience has been pivotal in opening up earlier efforts to monetise games post-release.
"I believe now, as we launch things like Avatar Marketplace where we give people the ability to create content that they can award with their games, props and costumes, but also to create IP that they can put in the store, you will see that actually be bigger than we ever saw with Gamer Pics, because it's such a richer ecosystem and a richer way for people to express who they are," he said in an exclusive interview published today.
Microsoft wants the creation of digital assets to be simple for developers, with Whitten suggesting the more a developer creates additional content for games, the higher the rewards.
"Our goal is that these things are very easy. The beauty of many of these things, especially things like Themes, things like personalisation around Avatar items, is that they are pure digital assets, which allows you to optimise a lot of the tools around this creation, ingestion and the content pipeline for that."
"The more you engage the community with the functionality that you build in and out of the game, I think it creates an overall opportunity."
Whitten highlighted recent titles Kingdom for Keflings and Geometry Wars 2 as examples of developers using Avatars or Leaderboards to enhance and reach a wider audience. The New Xbox Experience, he said, is acting as a deeper online experience similar to traditional web sites and services.
"This is the first time that you can change it consistently and over time," he said. "Something like Spotlight is a great example, where everybody sees that when they first pop on. It's a great experience.
"But frankly what we've seen is that people do an awful lot of exploring of the New Xbox Experience in a pretty rich way pretty consistently. So it kind of serves as a very advanced website, and you see people tracking us. We put interesting content up there, interesting games, interesting things like Inside Xbox. We see a lot of people who just go check out that content."
Microsoft introduced the New Xbox Experience in the autumn last year, and is set to roll-out multiple new features such as games-on-demand and Avatar Marketplace later this year. Whitten wouldn't rule out a new redesign if warranted along with changes to the user interface.
"It could possibly happen in that part of the value of this generation is how with something like Xbox Live and the power of the console, you can reinvent the experience and continue to grow the experience.
"What I'll tell you is right now, the New Xbox Experience has been incredibly successful. It's given us the ability to expand faster, to innovate faster, to target things. The fact that we're launching a new category, a new channel like the Music Channel, is because we have the ability of the New Xbox Experience to expand to give us this place that we can do that work," he concluded.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...for-developers
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June 8th, 2009, 17:15 Posted By: wraggster
Washington-based developer on the receiving end of unfamiliar anger from fans
Acclaimed developer Valve is facing an unfamiliar problem; its fans are not happy.
At Microsoft’s strong press conference at E3 last week, Valve announced it is working on a sequel to the 2008 hit survival-horror-co-op game Left 4 Dead.
Presumptions that Valve’s fan base would be pleased with the announcement have, however, backfired.
Aggrieved that the developer has focused its efforts on a new product, a large group of members from the Valve community have set up athe Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Group on Steam, Valve’s online games portal and community service.
The Boycott group has gained over 15,000 members in a single week, and pledges that its members will not be purchasing Left 4 Dead 2 unless some drastic decisions are made.
When the petition group’s membership reached 5,000 virtual signatures, one Valve user wrote “it's no surprise that the Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott has already reached over 5,000 members. We are all quite disappointed in Valve with their decision to launch L4D2 so soon after the original release of L4D1. The chat room has become full of people voicing their opinions on this.”
Members of the boycott group allege that Valve’s commitment to a sequel will mean its focus on the original Left 4 Dead will be compromised.
Those joining the group have, by extension, committed themselves to the Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott’s manifesto, which believes that “the release of Left 4 Dead 2 as a stand-alone sequel will split the communities and decrease the quality of multiplayer gaming”.
The group states that Left 4 Dead 2 “does not warrant a stand-alone, full-priced sequel and should instead become updates (free or otherwise) for Left 4 Dead.” It adds that the original Left 4 Dead has not enjoyed “the support and content which Valve has repeatedly stated will be delivered”.
The group’s manifesto has committed to “holding Valve to its promise of free, continual updates to Left 4 Dead in order to build and sustain the community”, to keep the Left 4 Dead community together “in order to improve the quality of online gaming”, and to “support the model of continual updates Valve has set forth with its staple products like Team Fortress 2.”
Though acknowledging that Valve needs to release product to sustain itself comercially, the group doesn’t easily recognise that the developer has a desire to create games which interest and excite its fleet of designers, programmers, artists and animators. Instead it states that the release of Left 4 Dead 2 will “make Left 4 Dead an obsolete purchase and inferior piece of software after only one year since release”.
Valve has revolutionised PC gaming with its online games service, Steam. Since the company launched in 1996, it has continually developed lucrative and applauded series of games such as Half-Life. The company also was a pioneer of sorts with its engagement with the community. Gabe Newell, the company’s founder, still pledges to read every email sent to him by fans of the company.
A Valve representative could not be reached at the time of going to press.
http://www.developmag.com/news/32117...-4-Dead-sequel
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June 7th, 2009, 01:36 Posted By: wraggster
We got a chance to see Section 8 at E3 this year. Summing things up, our experience was pretty much in line with what we played at GDC earlier this year. So, let's just skip that and get to the news, shall we? Section 8 will be the very first Xbox 360 game to allow users to set up their own dedicated servers, according to producer Robert Siwiak.
Players will be able to download an application on their PC that will allow them to turn it into a dedicated server for the game. When playing on a dedicated server -- developer TimeGate will be hosting some as well, incidentally -- Section 8 will support multiplayer matches of up to 32 players. This a significant boost over the standard 16-player offered by regular servers. Sporting some very impressive sci-fi inspired gameplay bolstered by this extra online support, Section 8 is shaping up to be quite a game. Expect it to drop (from 15,000 feet) this fall.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/05/se...s-to-xbox-360/
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June 6th, 2009, 13:35 Posted By: wraggster
As previously announced, Harmonix Music, the leading developer of music-based games, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom's MTV Networks, (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), along with distribution partner Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: ERTS), will offer 12 tracks from Iron Maiden, one of the world's most successful rock bands, June 9 in the Rock Band Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation 3 computer entertainment system and the Wii system.
The release of these downloadable tracks coincides with the U.S. release of Flight 666 on Blu-ray and DVD as well as a double-CD soundtrack album and limited edition double-vinyl picture disc. Flight 666 documents the first leg of Maiden's legendary SOMEWHERE BACK IN TIME WORLD TOUR, which took them 50,000 miles around the planet, playing 23 concerts on five continents in just 45 days. One of the stars of the movie is the band's customized Boeing 757, Ed Force One, which carried the band, all their crew and 12 tons of stage equipment and was piloted by Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson, a fully qualified and active Airline Captain with Astraeus Airlines.
Live recordings of "Aces High," "Hallowed Be Thy Name," "Fear of the Dark" and "Iron Maiden," featured on Flight 666, are among those available for download in the Rock Band Music Store June 9. The other eight songs were among those featured on the band's Somewhere Back in Time World Tour during the first leg of which Flight 666 was filmed. This will mark the first time master recordings from Iron Maiden have been made available on Rock Band games.
"Fans have been asking us to do something with Rock Band for some time, and this seemed to be a perfect opportunity," said Maiden manager Rod Smallwood. "Our recent Somewhere Back in Time tour was perhaps the most enjoyable one we have ever undertaken and certainly the most successful with almost 2 million people catching the shows around the world. So it just seemed a good idea to make some of the songs we played available now so fans can play along with the band on the tour. Then we shall see if they can keep up with the band!!"
(All tracks are original master recordings)
Track / Album
"Aces High (live)" Flight 666 (2009)
"2 Minutes to Midnight" Powerslave (1984)
"The Trooper" Piece of Mind (1983)
"Wasted Years" Somewhere in Time (1986)
"The Number of the Beast" The Number of the Beast (1982)
"Run to the Hills" The Number of the Beast (1982)
"Can I Play With Madness" Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
"The Clairvoyant" Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)
"Powerslave" Powerslave (1984)
"Hallowed Be Thy Name (live)" Flight 666 (2009)
"Fear of the Dark (live)" Flight 666 (2009)
"Iron Maiden (live)" Flight 666 (2009)
The Iron Maiden tracks will be available for purchase as part of the "Iron Maiden Pack" or as individual tracks for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system. These tracks will be available for purchase as individual tracks only for Wii.
Release Date: Tuesday, June 9, 2009
(Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360 and in-game Rock Band 2 Music Store for Wii)
Thursday, June 11, 2009
(PlayStation Store)
** Dates for Rock Band game tracks are tentative and subject to change **
Price: $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) for Xbox 360 per track
$19.99 (1600 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for "Iron Maiden Pack"
$2.00 (200 Wii Points) per track
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June 5th, 2009, 23:42 Posted By: wraggster
New from Play Asia:
FUEL is set in an alternate present in which whole swathes of the globe have been ravaged by the effects of climate change brought on by decades of environmental abuse. Here oil prices have rocketed and yet a new breed of racing junkie takes to the wastelands, pitting their grungy home-tuned vehicles against each other in an all-new extreme sport as they compete to win fuel supplies. To triumph means travelling the wastelands to challenge the best; from the tsunami-wrecked pacific coast through the Nevada wastelands, including the Grand Canyon, up treacherous snow-capped mountains, thick forests, arid deserts, abandoned lakeside resorts and much more.
http://www.play-asia.com/SOap-23-83-...j-70-3cqj.html
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June 5th, 2009, 23:36 Posted By: wraggster
Xbox 360 owners will be able to get an arcade style twin stick controller for Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram. Sega and Hori are working together to release the product in the middle of November for 30,000 yen ($300!). Yes, you read that right the sticks will cost more than an Xbox 360 console.
Sega will take pre-orders for the accessory then start producing the sticks after they reach a certain quota. Details about the pre-order process will be announced on June 13 at an online Live Park event.
Please note that the sticks may not be easy to get overseas. The pre-order program has only been mentioned in Japan at this time.
http://www.siliconera.com/2009/06/05...or-virtual-on/
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June 5th, 2009, 23:21 Posted By: wraggster
Valve speaker Doug Lombardi has said the existence of Left 4 Dead 2 does not mean there will be no new content for Left 4 Dead 1. Quite the opposite.
"It's definitely not the case that we're closing the book on L4D and saying, 'Next time you get anything is when the sequel comes out,'" Lombardi told Rock Paper Shotgun.
"Stay tuned, there's more coming - there's more information we're going to talk about for the sequel, there's more content coming for Left 4 Dead in the fairly near term.
"I think the short answer is: trust us a little bit," he added. "We've been pretty good over the years - even with L4D going back just a few months - about supporting games post-launch."
Left 4 Dead 2 adds five new campaigns, four new characters, the city of New Orleans, melee weapons, reworked guns, new ammo, new bosses, gauntlet moments, a Wandering Witch, protected Infected, limb loss, a new unannounced game mode and more control for AI directors.
"In a sense, L4D2 is a response to what players were asking for after the first one shipped," explained Lombardi. "That's really how it came about. I think if folks spot us a bit more time, they may see where we’re going with all this."
Head over to our hands-on impressions of Left 4 Dead 2 to see what we think.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/e3...he-book-on-l4d
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June 5th, 2009, 23:19 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft big cheese Shane Kim has said Rare is working with Xbox 360 motion-sensing technology Project Natal.
"Rare is intimately involved with Project Natal in a number of different dimensions. They're doing an awful lot of work, even outside the traditional game space, I would say," Kim told Kotaku.
"Unfortunately I can't go into a lot of detail about that. Rare is alive and well and really having a broader impact on the entire Xbox world than just doing the games they traditionally have in the past."
Microsoft has used internal studio Rare to work on top secret projects before; the Viva Piñata creator was behind the New Xbox Experience Avatars, which launched last November.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/e3...natal-projects
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June 5th, 2009, 23:15 Posted By: wraggster
Microsoft may well allow developers to retrofit their existing games with Project Natal controls, according to Xbox Live and services boss John Schappert.
"We haven't talked too much about that. Can that be done? Certainly it can be done," Schappert told Eurogamer at E3.
"What we did with [the Burnout Paradise tech demo] is that was an early example that the team used to prove out their technology - the software layer and the magic that makes Natal special and unique to Xbox and to Microsoft.
"And so they wanted a finished game they could work on, so they actually created a pretty amazing little piece of hardware that kind of went from Natal and mimicked an Xbox controller, and so that's what they've got working right there."
Schappert admitted the demo, which along with Ricochet and Milo & Kate formed the spine of the E3 presentation, wasn't necessarily the ideal way to do racing games, but was still "amazingly accurate, robust and fun".
Natal project director Alex Kipman had previously told us about other possibilities for handling racing games with the hands-free controller system.
"Game designers will have to come up with what is natural. I can tell you several different options I can think of. You could say, hey, do this to accelerate [mimes pushing a steering wheel forwards] or this [pushes his shoulders forwards] or this to brake [pulls backwards].
"And remember I'm tracking 48 joints individually, so there are so many combinations. I just gave you a few I thought of off the top of my head, but game designers could come up with anything."
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/e3...l-to-old-games
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June 5th, 2009, 23:11 Posted By: wraggster
Namco Bandai has unveiled a beat-'em-up campaign mode for Tekken 6 at E3.
Think third-person action but with the characters of Tekken stomping around, battering enemies, unravelling a proper story and even using guns and giant robots as well as their assorted bag of martial arts attacks.
This Scenario Campaign can be tackled alone or online with a friend, and the further characters progress the stronger they will become.
Eurogamer TV has a video of the Scenario Campaign and it looks odd in motion; these characters with their clunky wooden legs and shuffles don't appear well-suited to open levels, exploration and crowd control.
But they are designed to go head-to-head, which they will - in destructible environments where players can be thrown through walls and floors.
Tekken 6 is out on PS3 and Xbox 360 this autumn.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/e3...em-up-campaign
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June 5th, 2009, 23:06 Posted By: wraggster
Human-computer interaction expert Johnny Chung Lee, famous for his series of YouTube videos utilising the Wii, has revealed that he is working on Project Natal for Microsoft.
Lee rose to fame through a number of videos which used a standard Wii and controller to perform head tracking, finger tracking and other advanced features. Although none of his innovations were taken up by Nintendo or other Wii developers, Lee was employed as a researcher in the Applied Sciences group at Microsoft.
As such Lee has revealed in his personal blog that he has been "helping Xbox with Project Natal" - the motion control system unveiled at E3 2009 this week. Specifically, Lee has been part of a team attempting to ensure the technology works in normal living room conditions.
Although unable to reveal any further details about the system, Lee describes the 3D sensor used as "providing detailed 3D information about the environment similar to very expensive laser range finding systems but at a tiny fraction of the cost".
"The human tracking algorithms that the teams have developed are well ahead of the state of the art in computer vision in this domain", he adds. "The sophistication and performance of the algorithms rival or exceed anything that I've seen in academic research, never mind a consumer product."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-project-natal
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June 5th, 2009, 21:32 Posted By: wraggster
When you have Microsoft's VP of LIVE, Software and Services for Interactive Entertainment Business John Schappert in front of you, you can't not ask whatever happened to the long-lost Live Anywhere service. So we did.
I set the stage by talking about all of Xbox's features since the New Xbox Experience that go way beyond the system itself—the stage is totally primed for Live Anywhere, which we saw a couple years ago. Where is it?
"It's all right there. We're with you. That remains our vision. Right now though, what remains our number one priority, that's our box in the living room, so we're going to continue to push that hard." He brought up all the stuff going on with Games for Windows Live, pointing out that "we do PC and Xbox connectivity happening, and we don't have the mobile phone just yet. There's nothing to announce now, but we still live the dream."
"When I hear 'Live Anywhere' our vision for Live Anywhere is to be able to access the LIve services from any device that we have: our PC, our mobile phone, our Xbox. We've got some of that functionality on the PC now, we don't have it all. But we don't have a mobile client right now."
Mark asked if Live Anywhere would be some big thing that would "launch" or be something else, more like a smaller chunk like Netflix or Last.fm. Schappert reslied, "I think you'll see it unrolled piece by piece as you're seeing that right now. It's just the evolution of the Live service."
Okay, so we're not any closer to when we'll see Live Anywhere, but at least we know they haven't forgotten about it, taking care of this year's annual update. We'll see you next year.
http://gizmodo.com/5279760/where-is-xbox-live-anywhere
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June 5th, 2009, 21:09 Posted By: wraggster
It doesn't come as a surprise that Sony and Microsoft are hard at work at motion controls for their respective consoles: Nintendo is eating their lunch. The Wii's incredible appeal with the average consumer -- due primarily to the accessibility and charm of its Wiimote motion controls -- has also created an annoying divide in the industry (real or perceived) between consumers who use embarrassing gestures to control meaningless mini-games, and those who memorize incredibly complex control schemes to control deeper and more "mature" experiences. There's been a small amount of crossover, of course, but since Sony and Microsoft have lacked most of the gestures option, a majority of it has taken place on the Wii -- the inclusion of an accelerometer in Sony's Sixaxis controller has had little impact on gameplay, and Sony's EyeToy 2 has had even less impact on the average gamer.
Of course, that's all about to change next year, with the emergence of the Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's PlayStation motion controller. Typical thinking would suggest that Sony and Microsoft will be attempting to capture a slice of the casual gaming market that the Wii has so well dominated, while also expanding on the Wii's capabilities at serving the hardcore gamer -- some capabilities which Nintendo itself is attempting to add to the Wii with the even more imminent MotionPlus add-on. So, does anyone here have what it takes to serve up the next generation of gaming controls to everybody, or do cost considerations and the current state of the console wars dictate an ongoing rift in the market? Let's weigh our options...
http://www.engadget.com/2009/06/05/m...catch-up-with/
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June 5th, 2009, 00:34 Posted By: wraggster
Johnny Chung Lee, the former Carnegie Mellon researcher known for finding creative ways to adapt the Wiimote, has revealed himself as one of the minions behind Project Natal, Microsoft's effort to add motion-sensing capabilities into the Xbox 360.
Lee, who is now a researcher at Microsoft, said in a blog posting that he has been working on the motion-sensing project.
"Now, I should preface by saying I don't deserve credit for anything that you saw at E3," Lee said in the blog, which he posted on Monday night. "A large team of very smart, very hard-working people were involved in building the demos you saw on stage. The part I am working on has much more to do with making sure this can transition from the E3 stage to your living room - for which there is an even larger team of very smart, very hard-working people involved."
Microsoft demoed Project Natal on Monday as part of its press conference at the E3 trade show. The technology allows a person to act as their own remote, with a depth-sensing camera capturing their motion, and software then translating it into actions.
Lee notes that he can't reveal anything beyond what Microsoft shared, but does talk a little about the technology that underlies Natal.
"The 3D sensor itself is a pretty incredible piece of equipment providing detailed 3D information about the environment similar to very expensive laser range finding systems but at a tiny fraction of the cost," Lee wrote. "Depth cameras provide you with a point cloud of the surface of objects that is fairly insensitive to various lighting conditions allowing you to do things that are simply impossible with a normal camera."
The hard work, he said, is then converting that cloud of points into human actions, something which requires some pretty sophisticated algorithms. That said, the work could lead in some even cooler directions.
"At times, working on this project has felt like a miniature 'Manhattan project' with developers and researchers from around the world to coming together to make this happen," Lee wrote. "We would all love to one day have our own personal holodeck. This is a pretty measurable step in that direction."
Before joining Microsoft, Lee gained attention for his projects using the sensor bar and remote of the Nintendo Wii to work as head-tracking devices, a multitouch user interface and more.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10...?tag=rtcol;pop
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June 4th, 2009, 19:35 Posted By: wraggster
In an interview with Joystiq, Forza Motorsport 3 content director John Wendl of Turn 10, confirmed the upcoming racer would ship on two discs. As rumors last year noted, the core game will come on the game's first disc while the second will be reserved for other content -- such as vehicles and maps. "It is going to ship on two discs," Wendl said. "Disc one is the full experience, even disc one is bigger than any other racing game out there. Disc two includes a lot of extra cars, even a handful of tracks."
When asked if the second disc would act as a data transfer, downloading the additional content to the hard drive for use with the first disc, Wendl told us that was "exactly right." While Turn 10 assures all gamers will be able to enjoy the full Forza 3 experience, we now have confirmation that not all gamers will be able to enjoy all 400 vehicles promised at the Microsoft press briefing.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/04/fo...-on-two-discs/
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June 4th, 2009, 19:31 Posted By: wraggster
If Castlevania: Lords of Shadow -- announced today during Konami's E3 press conference -- seems ... familiar, it should. The game was actually announced at last year's E3 -- by Konami -- as Lords of Shadow, minus the Castlevania. But, as far as we can tell by comparing what we saw today versus a year ago, that's the only difference.
Lords of Shadow was a gothic action-adventure game starring a character named Gabriel, who just so happened to wield a whip -- iconic weapon of Castlevania heroes -- that emerged from a crucifix. Castlevania: Lord of Shadows is -- in keeping with the series -- a gothic adventure, starring a crucifix/whip-wielding character named Gabriel (who, like the rest of the game, looks exactly as he did last year). Both years' trailers even feature the same giant, stone golem boss character. Oh, and look amazing. Only now, Kojima Productions is steering MercurySteam along the development path.
2009, where everything old is new again -- and carrying the Castlevania name.
http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/04/ca...e-castlevania/
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June 4th, 2009, 19:28 Posted By: wraggster
Xbox 360 bigwig Aaron Greenberg thinks Sony's motion-sensing wand for PS3 will share the same "fun" space as Wii, but believes Microsoft's Project Natal is "leapfrogging" them both.
"To me it looked similar to the Wii experience. You hold a remote or a wand: it looked very derivative of that - similar to other products on the market today," Greenberg told vg247. "I thought it was interesting and fun, just like the Wii is fun. I think it's great that they're sharing that space.
"What's clear is that what we're doing is, in many ways, leapfrogging over any of the experiences [demoed] today. We're trying to breakthrough... with a new controller in gaming and entertainment, and I think that will differentiate us, and in many ways remove another barrier to people who are intimidated by, not just controllers, but wands and having to push buttons and do things.
"To be able to just drive a car with your hands, or to be able to kick balls as you swing and kick your feet. It's a whole different type of experience," he added.
Microsoft and Sony both unveiled rival motion-sensing technology during their keynote addresses at E3. Microsoft revealed Project Natal, the heavily-rumoured camera-based motion sensor, which hopes to kick-start a controller-free future.
Sony, on the other hand, demoed a prototype wand controller that has in-built sensors like Wii but also a dome on the end that is picked up by the PS Eye. The technology was put through a number of on-stage demonstrations, each more impressive than the other, culminating in an archery mini-game that used two of the controllers at once.
Nintendo's conference was more subdued in comparison, but then the Wii already has motion-sensing, which improves this summer with the Wii MotionPlus peripheral.
Microsoft and Sony offered no release dates for their technology, and Greenberg wouldn't budge on providing a hint. Presumably his company will enter the market first, as developer kits have been sent out this week and Project Natal is finished hardware. Nevertheless, both could be at least two years' away.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/e3...-wii-greenberg
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June 4th, 2009, 19:22 Posted By: wraggster
Shane Kim, Microsoft's corporate VP in charge of strategy and business for Interactive Entertainment, was unsurprisingly upbeat about his company's performance at E3 this year, and revealed that Microsoft was working on a ten-year lifecycle for the Xbox 360 - vocalising for the first time a similar strategy to Sony's long-held plans.
Kim, talking to Venturebeat, explained that Microsoft saw motion control system Project Natal as something that would fit mid-cycle into the console's lifetime.
"We firmly believe that the Xbox 360 has a life cycle through 2015 (ten years after the launch)," he said. "Project Natal is a great innovation. It will work with every Xbox 360 sold.
"It's not about pushing more pixels on the screen," he said, referring specifically to Natal, "It's about how to break down barriers that stop people from playing games."
And when asked who he felt performed best out of the three platform holders in their respective press conferences, he was clear:
"I think we won," he said. "It's not just me saying that. It's pretty universal. We had something very special yesterday, starting with the games portfolio.
"We had a lot of content for a normal E3 briefing. But Project Natal doesn't come along every year, and it is very difficult to match."
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...cycle-says-kim
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