Microsoft Corp. has responded to a possible class-action lawsuit over banning up to one million Xbox 360 consoles from accessing its online gaming service, arguing the company is well within its rights to ban users from Xbox Live.
U.S. law firm Abington IP recently announced on its website that it's considering filing a class-action lawsuit over Microsoft's worldwide crackdown on modified Xbox 360 consoles by booting them from the Xbox Live online network. The firm is asking those interested in joining the suit to contact them.
Microsoft "conveniently" waited until after the launch of two of Xbox 360's biggest holiday titles before banning up to one million consoles from accessing its online gaming service, the firm argued.
A spokesperson from Microsoft reacted to the possible lawsuit on Friday. "Piracy is illegal and modifying an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use. Microsoft is well within its legal rights to ban these users from Xbox Live."
The number of bans has not been released by Microsoft, but some media reports suggest between 600,000 and one million consoles were banned.
The law firm is asking Xbox Live subscribers who were not refunded for the time left on their subscription to participate in the possible class action.
A 12-month subscription to the service, which allows players to access the online marketplace and play online with other subscribers, costs about $60. More than 20 million people are members of Xbox Live.
"Although modification of Xbox consoles is ‘arguably' against the terms of use for Xbox/Xbox Live, Microsoft conveniently timed the Xbox console ban to coincide with the release of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game and less than two months after the release of the very popular Halo: ODST game," argued Abington IP, which specializes in consumer class action lawsuits
Abington IP said the timing might have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had the console bans taken place before the releases. The firm also argued sales of Modern Warfare 2 -- which launched Nov. 10 and set a new sales record by grossing about $550-million over the first five days of sales -- would have been hampered by the bans. Both Halo: ODST and Modern Warfare 2 have very popular multiplayer modes.
"As an aside, piracy is a legitimate concern for Microsoft and other content producers," said Abington IP. "However . . . Microsoft has chosen to use one of the most indiscriminate ‘weapons' in its arsenal in an effort to combat piracy."
Xbox 360 today announced that it had achieved console sales to 10 million consumers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa in just four years. Reaching the landmark number has meant that Xbox 360 is the only console to achieve year-on-year growth across the region this year.
The launch next week of instant streaming HD movies, Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm on Tuesday 17th November 2009 transforms Xbox LIVE into the largest social network connected to the TV and strengthens Xbox 360's already impressive line up of interactive entertainment services.
"Xbox 360 continues to pull ahead of the competition when it comes to delivering on a complete home entertainment experience and we think that Xbox Live currently is about 12 to 18 months ahead of its main rival PlayStation Network when it comes to offering service and content beyond traditional games," said Martin Olausson, Director of Digital Media Research at Strategy Analytics. "By introducing innovative new services and content such as Natal, instant streaming of full 1080P HD video, and integrating social media features such as Twitter and Facebook, Xbox will likely attract a wider audience than its rivals and is in a great position to maximize sales in the next few years".
2009 has been a pivotal year in Xbox's journey from its gaming origins to now changing the way people consume and share entertainment content, interact with each other online and continue to play great games. It's a change that people are embracing; there are more than 20 million Xbox LIVE active members worldwide and there have been over 1 billion downloads of gaming and entertainment content, with movie downloads doubling in the last year alone.
"Reinventing entertainment through, play, watch, connect and share. This is the vision that we have for Xbox 360 and today that vision is the reality for 10 million Xbox owners. European consumers are very discerning and demand a connected entertainment experience. That's why we focused on providing content that is right and relevant for them and entertainment beyond just gaming to movies, music and social networking. We have delivered on this promise and next week will bring real innovation into the living room through instant streaming high definition movies, connecting with friends on Facebook and Twitter and a personalised music channel. Together, this represents a real shift in the way people are entertained every day," said Chris Lewis, vice president Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft Europe.
This reinvention of entertainment has already seen a shift in where the Xbox lives in the home, with the majority (60%) of Xbox consoles now becoming integrated into the family living room. It has also caused a shift in the Xbox customer base as now 35% of Xbox customers are women and 64% are over the age of 25[2]. The arrival of the much anticipated 'Project Natal' will create a new category of gaming and entertainment experiences through controller-free gaming that makes Xbox 360 more inclusive and relevant to an even wider audience.
For all the latest xbox 360 gaming and homebrew news stay tunes to the 360-HQ homepage or install our FREE 360-HQ Toolbar which will automatically keep you up-to-date with all the latest changes on HQ
A brand new selection of Gears of War merchandise has been revealed today, undoubtedly set to slot into the series' fans "most-wanted" lists rather highly. Expected for release this fourth quarter in the UK, the Gears of War - Delta Squad Box Set is just what many UK Gears of Wars fans have been waiting for.
Gears of War sold over three million copies in just Electronic Theatre Imageten weeks and was the fastest-selling videogame of 2006. The success of the game has led to the development of the Gears of War franchise, including the 2008 sequel Gears of War 2 and a whole host of Downloadable Content (DLC), and adaptations to books, comics, and a feature film suggested to be on the way.
Originally available as two separate series in North America, each comprising of two action figures, the Gears of War - Delta Squad Box Set consists of four characters; Marcus, Dom, Baird, and Cole. In addition, the Gears of War - Delta Squad Box Set contains exclusive weapons and accessories only available in this set. Though no firm release date has yet been set, it has been suggested that the Gears of War - Delta Squad Box Set will arrive in time for the busy fourth quarter retail period. A Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of £34.99 has already been announced.
The Gears of War - Delta Squad Box Set is not the first set of action figures based on the Gears of War franchise to be released in the UK, but is undoubtedly the most detailed. Electronic Theatre will keep you updated on all the latest development with the Gears of War franchise.
The sequel to a popular video game has been modified so it can be sold in Australia.
Left 4 Dead 2 has been given an MA 15+ rating after it was refused classification in September.
According to the classification board report, the modified version removes considerable amounts of gore from gameplay.
“The board notes that the game no longer contains depictions of decapitation, dismemberment, wound detail or piles of dead bodies lying about the environment,” the report said.
“No wound detail is shown and the implicitly dead bodies and blood splatter disappear as they touch the ground.”
The report confirmed that melee weapons, such as “axes, crowbars and chainsaws” were still in the game.
Electronic Arts also submitted the original version of the game to the Classifications Review Board, which is scheduled for consideration on October 22, 2009.
The original version of the game was refused classification because it contained "realistic, frenetic and unrelenting violence".
Distributor Electronic Arts spokesperson Cameron Jenkins said the company still hoped the original version of the game would receive a classification:
“We are waiting until we get the results back from the resubmitted full version, just in case it gets classified after working with the OFLC, we would much prefer to release that one,” he said.
According to gaming blog Kotaku, Valve submitted the modified version to ensure the game could be released in November and that Australians would receive a free update to the edited version if the original game was classified.
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford has said that including easy Achievements can increase a big game's sales by up to 40,000, in an interview in the new issue of OXM.
Apparently blatant scorewhores, like OXM's Jipped, are an important enough demographic to be worth catering for.
"The Achievement hunter, who's going to make purchase decisions around the Achievements per minute to ratio - he's probably buying ten to twenty titles a year, or at least playing that many," Pitchford told OXM. "He's playing a lot. So he's a very frequent customer, and you want to be in that pile. That's just business."
Enough business to justify fiddling with the Achievements? Yes, apparently, because it's barely any more work than you'd do already.
"The time it takes is minimal," we were told, "because you're designing Achievements anyway, and you can probably affect your sales by something like 10 and 40 thousand units. If you're talking about a triple-A game selling between 1 and 2.5 million units. You're talking tens of thousands of units of impact there."
"Unfortunately most people in the industry don't think through it that much. You have designers designing achievements, and they're the worst."
A survey has been sent to Xbox 360 owners that provides some interesting insights to Microsoft's ventures into the casual gaming space.
The first part of the survey is the most standard, asking people about their favorite game shows and board games, including Balderdash and Taboo, as well as what they like best about 1 Vs. 100. One interesting aspect of that section is that there may be a paid version of 1 Vs. 100 that will offer better prizes.
The latter part of the survey, however, is extremely intriguing, and an indication that Microsoft may be venturing into a PlayStation Home-like space in which Avatars can congregate and play retro games on classic coin-op cabinets. They queried applicants what name would fit the space best – "Game Room", "RetroCade", "AvatArcade", "RetroGame", "Classics LIVE", and so forth.
Of course, with all the Atari festooning, maybe its a classic Atari compilation game that allows online parties.
Hey Gamers, here is a brand new reveal trailer for Mass Effect 2. Introducing a new playable character "Subject Zero"
For all the latest Mass Effect 2 info including screenshots, achievements, trailers, cheats, forums and more please visit our MASS EFFECT 2 game page: here
With a minor update just behind us news of next months Xbox 360 Dashboard update has started to surface. Sky Magazine states that the Sky Player will be available to download on the console while Twitter and Facebook functionality are also rumored to be included.
Digitalspy writes: "The next Xbox 360 dashboard update will arrive next month.
The October issue of Sky Magazine states that the Sky Player will be available to download on the console.
The service will be accessible for all Xbox Live Gold members, but only Sky subscribers with the relevant movie and sports packages will be able to access premium content.
As well as live television, it will share features with the PC version of the player, allowing the availability of movies and on-demand content.
Microsoft has said that the next dashboard update will include social networking functionality, including Facebook and Twitter."
360-HQ Gamer "HQ GAMExxOVER" has completed a prestige level up by only using the knife on cod5. Check out more info and Detailed stats below....
Done on Xbox360, using only a Knife, not a shot fired, no dogs or artillery, no nades of any kind. Just run'in and slicing, See the video..
More info...
1. I did the prestige over about a 2 week period
2. I stated I called in a few artillery, this was just to clear the kill streak spot as I would use radar once in a while, I would pull up the artillery and drop it far off the map so as not to get any kills.
3. You will see in the stats I have turret Hunter, this was done 4 times by running up along side a tank with a gunner, jumping up and stabbing him, also when a guy jumps out of a tank and you kill him, he is still considered a turret gunner even though he is no longer in the tank.
4. You will see I have about 1 mile put on the tank on the road trip challenge, I did use the tank a few times on large maps but just as transportation to get past a sniper, I never fired a shot in the tank or turret and was careful not to run anyone over.
5. Web stats for Knife...
I was a bit disappointed to find that the web stats to not record knife use! they keep track of how many kills you get by hitting someone with a gas grenade, statistics on every weapon and a bunch of other stats but nothing on knife, I hope they change this in the future, maybe have a unlockable GOLD KNIFE for like 5,000 Knife kills.
6. Camping..
I never camped, If I did I would still be doing the challenge. The only time I would sit still is if I was taking a headquarters or protecting a headquarters. The most effective way to knife is to keep moving, stay alert for any enemy movement around you, when you see someone just start running for them, regardless if they are looking right at you, far away or if they are in the open and in a gun battle, you can not be concerned about dying, you just have to go for it.
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Apparently blatant scorewhores, like OXM's Jipped, are an important enough demographic to be worth catering for.
Bungie's popular first-person shooter makes its debut on the Xbox 360 with Halo 3.
published by: hqm0nsterb0y
