New NPD data has once again given the Xbox 360 the lead in console sales in the US during January, but in grim conditions. At 270,000 systems in the month, it had enough to outpace the Nintendo Wii and Sony PS3, whose sales researchers were keeping secret. However, its performance was noticeably worse than a year ago, where it had moved 381,000 systems.
Telus' Optik IPTV service got much more control over non-traditional viewing on Tuesday. Optik TV for Xbox 360 takes advantage of the fall Xbox 360 Dashboard update to use the console as the set-top box, including for remote DVR viewing if there's a traditional DVR on the same network. The support includes full Kinect motion control.
After months of extra waiting for the game itself, Microsoft has confirmed that the Kinect Star Wars Xbox 360 bundle will be available April 3. The special edition system will cost $450 and includes a 320GB Xbox 360, a Kinect motion controller, and a copy of the game in question. Both the console and the Kinect have unique R2-D2 theming, while the gamepad is patterned after C-3PO.
The Windows 8 public preview when it ships will have a handful of available games that mostly come from familiar sources in the Microsoft universe, according to new tips on Tuesday. Some of the games seen by The Verge will be direct ports of Xbox 360 downloadable titles, such as Ms. Splosion Man and Toy Soldiers. Others would be titles that are better known on mobile even with a big-screen version, such as the seminal Angry Birds and ilomilo.
Unusual rumors on Monday had Apple negotiating for fabled TV set with Canadian telecom providers Bell and Rogers. The respective satellite and cable TV providers were said by the Globe and Mail to be Apple targets as they had "wireless and broadband capabilities" that could be used for launch partners. The two allegedly even had prototypes in their labs.
Microsoft took another loss to its Xbox divsion Friday after its Director of Xbox Live Policy and Enforcement, Stephen Toulouse, resigned from the company. Often known as Stepto, he planned to finish his term at the company on February 15. He stressed that the exit was amicable and a matter of looking for a life change, with no other companies in mind.
Microsoft has further expanded the content capabilities of the Xbox 360 with the arrival of the new Xbox Live TV apps for CinemaNow and Crackle. Users in the US can download and access content from both of the new apps immediately. Users in Australia, Canada and the UK now have access to Crackle, but with no current plans to launch CinemaNow in those markets due to content licensing rights.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Microsoft will not release the next-generation Xbox 360 in 2012, according to Cedric Delmas, Microsoft France marketing director. In an interview translated by Eurogamer, he said nothing will be revealed for a new Xbox at this year's E3 show in June. Other claims have pointed to an E3 2013 reveal instead.
Nintendo's Friday briefing in the wake of its tough quarterly results has confirmed that it plans to at last go head-to-head with Microsoft and Sony in a persistent online gaming network. Just called Nintendo Network, it will let gamers download chat and play with each other without needing friend codes in addition to getting game add-ons. On the Wii U, gamers will have personal accounts, presumably letting them transport their Mii, downloads, and other preferences across systems.
The third-generation Xbox could mark a symbolic switch in storage but also a step back for game ownership. Kotaku understood from a rumor source that it would keep an optical drive but jump to Blu-ray, allowing it to hold larger games and play offline HD movies. For Microsoft, it would be the footnote to the HD disc debate of the mid-2000s, where the company officially backed HD DVD but was forced to drop plans after Toshiba axed the format and eventually supported Blu-ray.
A culmination of rumors may have given the first clearer picture of the next-generation Xbox's hardware. A tip to IGN has the system using graphics hardware roughly equivalent to AMD's Radeon HD 6670. Although strictly a mid-range graphics chip on the desktop, it would allegedly be about six times faster than the Xbox 360's 2005-era video.
Microsoft's Xbox Live Director of Programming, Larry Hryb, acknowledged an issue with color space in Xbox 360 video. Some of the third-party apps in the fall 2011 Dashboard don't display the correct color range when invoked. Hryb didn't have a timeframe for a fix, but promised it "soon."
Exploration has confirmed that at least two key Microsoft staffers have jumped from the Azure cloud service to the Xbox team. Dave Cutler, best known as the chief architect behind Windows NT, has left for the gamign division, ZDNet heard after talking to Microsoft. While his exact project wasn't known, he would be helping shift the Xbox to a digital media hub, a transition that had already started with the fall 2011 Dashboard update.
Online UK movie service Lovefilm has signed a deal with Disney UK to bring a library of TV series from ABC Studios to its subscribers. Branded as ABC TV On Demand, the portal will give members access to full seasons of shows such as Lost, Castle, Desperate Housewives, and more. Shows will air as full seasons soon before the next one airs on UK paid or free TV networks.
Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer, during the company's last CES keynote earlier this week, has provided some statistics on Xbox 360 sales. The company claims that it has sold more than 66 million of the gaming consoles worldwide. About 10 million of the sales came just in the fall.
Microsoft and Google made both official and unofficial plans for their TV strategies on Wednesday. A leak uncovered by Reuters had Microsoft freezing its long-rumored plans for live subscription Xbox TV. The company had decided that the rates TV channels were asking for the Internet-only service were "too expensive" for the plan it wanted to offer, industry insiders said.
Mad Catz has brought out two new products at CES targeting serious gamers. The Major League Gaming (MLG) Pro Circuit Controller is a gaming component designed for Microsoft Xbox 360 or Sony PS3 tournament participants. The F.R.E.Q. 5 Pro Gaming Headset offers an over-the-ear stereo headset for pro gamers.
Netflix confirmed its long-in-the-making plans to expand to Ireland and the UK on Monday. The service works much like its American equivalent but has some accommodation for the local market, such as The Only Way is Essex. Going to the area also brings the full Facebook integration that's currently off-limits to Americans.
Gaming headset maker Turtle Beach has just unveiled its new products for 2012 that it will bring to CES next week. This includes the Ear Force X42 and Ear Force X32 Xbox 360 headsets. They use new dual-band Wi-Fi and large 50mm drivers. The $160 X42 supports surround sound, while the $100 X32 does not.
Quickly coming on the heels of talk of a full Wii U app store is a rumor late Monday of Nintendo actively courting iOS developers. The gaming giant was said by a developer talking to Forget the Box to be offering "assistance" porting apps for Apple's platform to the Wii U. The titles would by necessity played on the controller's 6.2-inch touchscreen.
The British Ministry of Defense is turning to technology in order to train its soldiers. One such example is the virtual trainer called Virtual Battlespace 2, which is a modified version of a popular commercial video game. The need stems from hopeful soldiers who are used to popular and appealing video games for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gaming consoles.
Nintendo's Wii U may have a full-fledged app store similar to the iPad or Android by the time it ships, according to a rumor early on Thursday. The portal as portrayed by The Daily would give non-gaming apps such as MLB.tv the option of running on the regular TV interface, but it would also allow for more tablet-like apps that run just on the gamepad's 6.2-inch touchscreen. There would be a "wider variety" of apps than what DSiWare and WiiWare offer now, the source said.
Researchers at Eurécom in France and the Italian Institute of Technology's Center for Human Space Robotics have demonstrated a system that utilizes Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect accessory to weigh astronauts in microgravity environments. The sensor is used to make a 3D model of an astronaut's body, enabling a computer program to extrapolate mass based on volume estimates.
Gears of War developer Epic Games warned late this past week that Microsoft was pulling all "gun-like" avatar props from Xbox Live. As of January 1, the Hammerburst, Lancer, and other items wouldn't be available as a matter of policy, Community Manager Will Kinsler said. Any avatars bought before the cutoff would stay afterwards.
The NPD Group in a rare step began tracking some of the contributions of non-traditional gaming to the industry for the first time. It estimated that about $1.64 billion came from "other content," which includes mobile games as well as direct downloads and social network games, generated $1.64 billion in revenue. The growth made it larger than the traditional software side of the business, which dropped to $1.3 billion
Microsoft has confirmed the existence of a bug with the fall 2011 Xbox 360 Dashboard that has been kicking gamers from Xbox Live. Surfacing as either Error Code 801540B7 or 80070571, the flaw both stops them from getting online and from accessing any content that hasn't been cleared to run offline. The bug tries to have users re-download their profiles and ask for help but is ultimately out of users' control.
Microsoft has announced that it has added eight new channels to the Xbox Live TV service in North America and several European countries. Notable additions include Walmart's VUDU streaming video service, along with Ultimate Fighting Championship content for users in the US and Canada.
Microsoft has reportedly replaced its veteran Xbox designer Don Coyner with Emma Williams, who was charged with heading up the Xbox Live interface redesign. Two Microsoft employees revealed this information to CNET, though Microsoft has no official comment. Coyner was on the Xbox team since 1999, starting off as a director of marketing for the group. He was also instrumental in creating a unified design language for the Xbox 360.
Streaming and video-on-demand on game consoles has seen a sharp increase over the past year, media researcher Nielsen revealed after performing a study in October. Users now spend 14 percent of their time on the Xbox 360, 15 percent on the PS3, and 33 percent on the Wii watching videos from services such as Netflix, Hulu, MLB Network, and ESPN3.
Microsoft on Tuesday took the first ever step of porting a Windows Phone game to iOS. Kinectimals ($3, App Store) is a one-for-one match on the iPad and iPhone and lets gamers raise a virtual wild cat's cub with rankings. Like the WP7 version, playing on one of Apple's devices can unlock five extra cubs inside of the original Xbox 360 game.
Microsoft's Windows Phone leader Andy Lees is being moved out of his existing role to work on a special cross-platform project, a leaked memo uncovered Monday. CEO Steve Ballmer told staff that Lees was working on a special project for next year that ZDNet understood would involve Microsoft support across PCs, phones, and tablets. The exact details weren't uncovered other than that Windows 8 and Windows Phone would be the key ingredients.
Microsoft's Windows Phone 7.5 OS doesn't have NFC support built in, despite last week's report to the contrary. The software giant has now corrected Microsoft UK developer and product manager, who said last week that the functionality is present and simply need to be enabled by OEMs and the required hardware. Instead, the ability to send information in close quarters between compatible devices, such as for mobile payments, is coming sometime next year, corroborating other reports.
Microsoft is headhunting to get original content for the new TV features of its new Xbox 360 interface and Xbox Live, new rumors maintained Saturday. The source for Bloomberg said Microsoft had picked executive recruitment firm Stratis' Tom Schneider to search. Jeff Gaspin and Marc Graboff, both formerly from NBC, had been among those asked about signing on.
New NPD data has shown runaway gaming hardware sales in November that could signal a minor revival in the face of iOS gaming. Nintendo saw a resurgence as it moved 795,000 3DS units in the US during the month, or about double what it has in recent months. It still managed to sell 350,000 DSi systems, leading it to about 1.15 million handheld gaming systems in one month.
Microsoft may take a page from Apple and step back from major trade shows, Microsoft-focused journalist Mary Jo Foley said in the latest episode of the Windows Weekly podcast. Near the end of the show, she told of a source who understood that Microsoft would dial back its presence at the annual January CES show after 2012. The Windows developer would still likely have a footprint, but it would most likely drop the near-traditional Steve Ballmer keynote and, presumably, scale back the size of its booth on the show floor.
The so-called squirting functionality of the first-gen Zune could come back in future Microsoft-powered devices such as PCs, tablets, smartphones and the Xbox 360 using near-field tech. Files could be beamed using NFC, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi Direct pairing, frequent rumor source MS_Nerd tweeted. This would be yet another step in Microsoft's attempt to unify the experience across its devices, with the first step being the Metro user interface.
Microsoft bucked expectations Wednesday by releasing an official My Xbox Live app for iOS (free, App Store). The app lets iPad, iPhone, and iPod users handle most of what they can do outside of gameplay and the Game Marketplace. It touts messaging, managing the friends list, comparing profiles and achievements, and customizing the avatar, as well as newer features like game Beacons.
Microsoft's Larry Hryb in an update saw an end in sight to the delay for getting the Xbox 360 fall Dashboard update. The first wave of gamers would be getting the update inside of the "next few hours." He didn't give an explanation for the last-minute freeze or say when every user would have the new Windows Phone-influenced front end.
Microsoft's Xbox Live programming director Larry Hryb warned Tuesday that the Xbox 360 fall 2011 Dashboard update, due to have gone live at 10AM Eastern, had been "slightly delayed." He didn't have extra information and only expected more information until sometime "later today," hinting at at least several hours' more waiting.
In addition to the Xbox 360 Live TV features that go live on December 6, Microsoft will launch its Xbox Companion app for Windows Phone on the same day. The free app will let users access and control content from the entertainment services available on Xbox Live. Bing will power a search that brings up results for movies, TV shows, music, games and apps contained in the Xbox catalog.
Microsoft is about to launch its Xbox 360 fall Dashboard update, and we've had the opportunity to use it early on our own system ahead of when it goes live December 6. The update is Microsoft's second major revamp in the Xbox 360's history and is geared around turning the Xbox 360 into a media hub. Read on for hands-on time and why it may be the definitive answer to the Apple TV.
In sync with the fall Xbox 360 Dashboard update, Microsoft has provided a listing of TV providers that will be ready to go this week. Along with existing access to ESPN, Hulu, and Netflix, the December 6 update will also bring EPIX authenticated video in the US, Lovefilm in the UK, MediaSet's Premium Play in Italy, Sky Go in Austria and Germany, Telefonica España's Movistar Imagenio, and MSNBC's Today in the US.
Microsoft on Tuesday marked its best week ever for gaming. The company sold over 960,000 Xbox 360 consoles during Black Friday week, getting its best one-week Xbox hardware sales ever even with a holiday. Over 800,000 of those were sold just on Black Friday itself, and it was one of the top sellers at Best Buy.
Verizon has now made public some details of its Xbox 360 Live TV service first mentioned back at the start of October. Through their Xbox 360, Xbox Live Gold members will have the ability to access up to 26 live FiOS TV channels, depending on their subscription. They also need to be FiOS TV and Internet service subscribers.
A rumor Monday claimed to have details of the next-generation Kinect. The Xbox peripheral would overcome the inherent limits of the current system and could detect facial expressions, Eurogamer was told. It would be accurate enough to detect emotional expressions and even to read lips, possibly letting it tell who was speaking a command.
PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan said he doesn't want to repeat being behind competitors in the launch of its next-generation gaming console. Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer, Ryan said it'd be "undesirable" for the PS4 to be "significantly later than the competition." Nintendo's Wii U should be out in 2012 while the next Xbox is expected to be introduced next year as well, with a launch possibly due in 2013.
A day ahead of Black Friday, Microsoft has posted a teaser page for its own online store's discounts. The company plans to give away free Windows Phones to anyone who signs up for a two-year contract, undercutting even a one-cent Amazon deal. It's not known if this includes a modern phone like the Focus S or is limited to older hardware.
Microsoft has plans to make and sell TVs with its Kinect sensor built in, according to sources speaking with The Daily. It would then no longer require the company's Xbox 360 gaming console to be connected, and would allow users to turn the TV on or off or change channels with hand gestures rather than remote controls. What would be required, however, is a connection to a PC running Windows, a feat that's already been documented.
Early Black Friday deals for gamers have started early and include a $145 Nintendo 3DS at Target and a $199 Xbox 360 bundle at Sam's Club. The usual price for a 3DS is $170, making the discount relatively steep for a system that's otherwise the same as usual.
Microsoft took its expansion of Kinect a step further Tuesday with plans from general manager Craig Eisler that a new Kinect controller was coming just for Windows. The system, so far called just Kinect for Windows, will have tuned hardware and software just for closer confines, including objects that can be fully recognized as close as 20 inches. A Near Mode in software will focus on apps that are designed just for upper-body tasks.
