It looks like the new Quantum of Solace game for the Xbox 360 has a little something extra bundled in with the package: according to reports, an explosive 48 hour Xbox Live Gold trial membership card with a secret “Netflix code” on the back is included. Nobody seems particularly stunned to hear that the companies plan to aggressively push the streaming movie service when the NXE goes live on November 19th, though no other details of the trial have emerged yet.
“Half the things” Microsoft wanted to put into the New Xbox Experience were cut out, Europe’s Xbox Live boss has told CVG.
Speaking in a recent interview Microsoft’s Jerry Johnson said that the redesigned Xbox 360 dash isn’t finished yet and detailed plans to bolster the backend with new applications and content.
“There’s still a lot of stuff we want to do,” Johnson told CVG in an interview. “Half the things we wanted to do [in NXE] we cut out of the service.
“One of the nice things we did was this architectural change to make things more published and driven from the service. All of a sudden we opened up the platform to say ‘I don’t have to wait until once or twice a year to release something onto the dashboard’.
“There’s a Photo Party app that will be part of the platform,” the XBL man added. “The way it will be distributed is all of a sudden you’ll see a slot on the dashboard and if you don’t have it you click on it and it’s going to download from the service onto your application part of the dashboard. Those are the type of things we’re going to start doing.
Johnson also confirmed that Xbox Live Primetime, which offers server based ‘game show’ style online games, will be launched in spring 2009.
We’ve all been there. You’ve just popped some popcorn, put on your flannel pants with the puppies on them (don’t fake like you don’t have them), wrapped yourself in a comfy blanket, and parked yourself on the couch. Remote in hand, and Dolby 7.1 ready to blast, you reach for the familiar red Netflix envelope sitting on the coffee table - only to discover that it’s already open, and you’ve already watched the DVD! Your girlfriend/boyfriend/wife/husband/roommate/dog forgot to put it in the mail. Frustration sets in.
Relax - it’s time to get comfy again and turn on your Xbox 360. On Nov. 19, all movies from your Netflix instant watch queue will be instantly accessible and playable on your Xbox 360. All Xbox LIVE Gold members with a Netflix subscription will be able to instantly watch more than 12,000 movies from the Netflix library at no extra charge.
On top of that, you no longer need to put on make-up, “acceptable” clothing and shoes to drive to the rental store. Xbox LIVE Video Marketplace offers more than 20,000 pieces of HD and standard definition content, and will have a new sleek look and feel that makes you feel like you’re browsing shelves right in your own living room. You’ll be able to see hi-res box art for all the movies and TV shows you love, plus read all the information that would usually be on the back of the DVD box.
In total, when the New Xbox Experience launches, you will have a massive library of more than 30,000 HD and standard movies and TV episodes at your fingertips. This gives me another reason to spend a quiet night in with Clive Owen, Cillian Murphy, Christian Bale, oh the list goes on…
A Miscrosoft spokesperson has told Edge that Epic’s long-awaited Gears of War 2 will not be released in Japan.
“We can confirm that Gears of War 2 will not be available in Germany or Japan indefinitely” said the spokesperson.
The news may come as a shock to many observers as the original Gears of War was one of the first titles to crack the Japanese software charts during a time when the 360 console was selling at its slowest.
The reasons why the game will not be released remain unclear. In May this year Germany’s ratings organization declined to issue the game an age certificate.
Major Nelson’s latest podcast has hit the web and in it is an interesting tidbit.
* “Major Nelson: “…I know you as my audience, you guys, you like to pick up and play. You want to get your hands on it and I don’t blame you because you’ll enjoy it. In fact, if you want to get your hands on it, let me just say this…….keep an eye on my blog next week. If you want to get your hands on it early, that’s all I’m going to say.”
* E: “So let me make sure I understand this, so if I were a listener to the podcast.”
* Major Nelson: “Correct”
* E: “And I wanted to have access to the New Xbox Experience before November 19th. I should visit MajorNelson.com on a regular basis.”
* Major Nelson: “That’s pretty much what I’m saying”
* E: “Okay, interesting.
* Major Nelson: “I’m not going to say anything more”
* E: “I wonder what that means”
* Major Nelson: “Stay Tuned. So New Xbox Experience coming November 19th….or earlier to a few of you.”
The gaming community as a whole is generally a decent group of people, when face to face. Mix a competitive online gaming session with the anonymity the Internet provides and those decent people turn into a mob of racist, swearing, a-holes. A new patent awarded to Microsoft may change this.
Microsoft’s patent is for technology that would allow real-time censoring of foul language. Sure we all think that potty mouthed 12 year olds are funny but it seems some parents don’t. With MS trying to push the XBOX 360 into the casual market it only makes sense that they would try to clean up the service that they want grandma and little Timmy to use.
One of the most interesting features of the third Xbox besides being able to play all of your Xbox 360 titles, and transfer over your gamertag and gamerscore is forward-compatibly. Backwards-compatibility of course means that a game from the previous generation of systems works on the new systems. An example of this is PlayStation games working on PlayStation 2, or original Xbox games being playable on the Xbox 360 through emulation and software updates.
This is something completely different however. Forward-compatibility means that games made for the Xbox 360 are made even better thanks to the features and hardware of the next Xbox system. This isn’t a side effect of textures being cleaner and upscaled resolution, this is a new animal completely. Imagine playing Gears of War 3 on your Xbox 360 it looks and plays good right? Well imagine that the year after it comes out you go out to buy the next Xbox and it looks even better, it plays even better. Features in the new controller are utilized with the game, the graphics do not only look sharper, but the draw distance is better, the speed is better, framerate, and there are even new features, perhaps even levels via DLC for the game on the third-generation Xbox. GoW3 is of course an example of what this could mean, past the forward-compatibly information, Xbox Evolved has not been given any other information about the next generation of Xbox.
“I don’t know if we are going to tie ourselves to a spring/fall release schedule as much,” said Schappert to a gathering of reporters. “I think one of the things that I worked with the team with when I joined — let’s do a big release. Spring and fall sounds like there is a lot of distance between the two but there is an awful lot of… it’s pretty hard to make a new dashboard because you have to certify it against every revision of the hardware, and there’s a bunch of different specs. It’s a pretty time-consuming and challenging thing to do. Which is why we only did it twice a year.”
But apparently, as Schappert went on to explain, even twice a year may still be too often. “I like staying focused on bigger and more impactful releases, so maybe it will be twice a year, maybe less frequently,” he said. “You know, to be determined. I think it’s going to be more about: What’s the next big launch? What are we bringing? When can we bring it? How can we do it in a big way?”
John Schappert, Corporate Vice President of Xbox LIVE, Services and Software, announced today during his Tokyo Game Show keynote that the New Xbox Experience will ship to Xbox 360’s around the world on November 19th 2008.
