At CES today, Microsoft announced an expansion of its Xbox Live video offerings. ABC Television and MGM will both offer HD videos on the Marketplace.
Coincidentally, these studios are exclusively aligned to Blu-ray. This agreement gives Xbox owners a chance to experience this content in HD as well.
ABC Television Network, ABC Family, ABC News, Disney Channel and Toon Disney are all part of this new offering. More than 500 hours of content, in both standard definition and high definition, will be offered including ABC Television shows Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Ugly Betty and Desperate Housewives. Past and current shows will be offered, as will archived ABC News broadcasts.
MGM will offer a wide variety of movies, from the Rocky series to Dances with Wolves. Movies across all demographics will be available, including Terminator, Silence of the Lambs, Legally Blonde, Barbershop and Agent Cody Banks. Platoon, Rain Man and The Usual Suspects will also be available.
Price and an exact launch date of this newly announced content have yet to be revealed. HD DVD may have gotten a serious death blow this week, but it appears Microsoft's on-demand offerings should more than satiate the HD film appetite of the Xbox fan.
Paramount Pictures has denied it is set to follow in Warner Brothers’ footsteps by dropping its support of the Microsoft backed HD-DVD format in favor of Sony’s Blu-ray technology.
“Paramount's current plan is to continue to support the HD-DVD format,'' Brenda Ciccone, a spokeswoman for Paramount told Bloomberg Tuesday.
The Financial Times had earlier reported that Paramount, which is set to release a number of likely blockbuster movies during 2008 including the latest Indiana Jones film, is poised to defect to the Blu-ray camp in a move that ‘will sound the death knell of HD-DVD and bring the home entertainment format war to a definitive end'.
According to the FT, Paramount, which came out in support of HD-DVD last summer, joining Universal as the main backer of the format, is thought to have a clause in its contract with the HD-DVD camp allowing it to switch to Blu-ray if Warner Bros changed allegiances. Warner defected to Blu-ray last week, joining Walt Disney, 20th Century Fox and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer as backers of the Sony format, increasing the possibility that Blu-ray will prosper over HD-DVD in the same way VHS was victorious over rival video technology Betamax during the format war in the 1980s.
Disney Interactive Studios and Backbone Entertainment bring back an arcade classic, “Tron.”
Featuring the familiar gameplay from the original, players battle as the mighty warrior Tron against the insidious Master Control Program and his ruthless right-hand man, Sark. “Tron” offers a four-part retro-futuristic test of skills, including racing light cycles, battling Sark’s tanks, fighting to enter the MCP cone and dodging grid bugs. “Tron” offers both the original arcade game and an enhanced version with new graphics, improved sound and two-person multiplayer.
It’s the perfect re-creation of the original game based on the pioneering computer animated Walt Disney Pictures’ 1982 feature film, “Tron.” Plus, the Xbox LIVE Arcade version is the first version of “Tron” with two-person multi-player functionality of co-op and versus. The game will be available worldwide (with the exception of Japan and Korea) for 400 Microsoft Points and is rated E for Everyone by the ESRB.
"Tron" will be available this Wednesday, January 9 at 9:00 a.m. GMT (2:00 a.m. PST).
Fly through treacherous 3-D environments with “Omega Five,” a graphically explosive next-generation shooter firing its way onto Xbox LIVE Arcade.
Hardcore and casual gamers alike will love “Omega Five,” a new high-definition shooter with awe-inspiring graphics. “Omega Five” features a gorgeous and challenging environment, with enemies coming at players from all angles, even the background. Battle enemies as Ruby, Tempest or other unlockable characters and simply add another controller to play local co-op with a friend. “Omega Five” features the highest quality visuals available on an Xbox LIVE Arcade shooter and offers multiple levels of difficulty including “++Mode” where players are only allowed one hit! The game will be available worldwide for 800 Microsoft Points and is rated E10+ for Everyone 10+ by the ESRB.
A memo penned by Microsoft Games division boss Don Mattrick gives a glimpse into the company’s 2008 gaming strategy, which Mattrick predicts will see the home console cement itself as the market leader.
The memo, forwarded to various media outlets including Next-Gen, focused on Microsoft’s Consumer Electronics Show announcements and also outlined Microsoft’s plans to broaden its home console market share in 2008.
Mattrick suggested that Xbox 360’s ability to generate greater third party revenue than its rivals will play a key role in the console’s success.
"History has shown that the eventual winner of each console generation was the console that generated the most third party revenue, and according to the most recent NPD data, Xbox 360 generated more third party revenue in 2007 than Nintendo and Sony combined," he stated.
While Mattrick noted that it is still important to capture core gamers, he said that it was necessary to “captivate the masses” with more mass-market friendly games and media content, as well as to improve Microsoft’s “brand appeal to consumers interested in more physical game play… By this measurement, I feel confident that we are best positioned for success.
“Looking ahead, I believe we will close 2008 with Xbox 360 being the leader of this generation of consoles.”
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"History has shown that the eventual winner of each console generation was the console that generated the most third party revenue, and according to the most recent NPD data, Xbox 360 generated more third party revenue in 2007 than Nintendo and Sony combined," he stated.
