I'm sure you all turned on your 360 and got the update on the 6th and if you are wondering what it was or why it was there since it obviously did nothing to change your dash at all then i got your answer right here guys, it seems the update was just a small bit of ground work to prepare your 360 for future growth.
Major Nelson has reported the following to clear it all up for us: "A few minutes ago, the team released a system update for the Xbox 360 over Xbox LIVE. Sometime over the next few hours when you sign in to Xbox LIVE you’ll recieve a prompt to accept this mandatory update. This update contains code to ‘prepare for future growth of the service.’ There are no other changes or enhancements in this update…in other words no new features."
"To be clear: This is not the new Xbox experience update. That will come in the Fall."
So to recap and beat the dead horse it was just some preparation for the fall update that will include such features as:
* Entertainment without limits: With LIVE Party, bring your favorite games, TV shows, movies, and pictures to life by sharing those experiences with friends, wherever they are around the world.
* Express yourself: With the new Xbox 360 experience, personalize your entertainment like never before. Create your own avatar, designed exclusively by Rare, and jump into a party with friends from around the world.
* "Must See TV" and more: The biggest names in entertainment worldwide, such as Netflix, NBC Universal, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, SCI FI Channel, USA Network, Constantin, and MGM are bringing their content to Xbox 360.
360 Degrees of Entertainment
The 2008 Xbox 360 entertainment lineup of games, movies and TV shows is its best and broadest ever. Whether for fans of action, role-playing, racing, sports, strategy, party, or action-adventure games, Xbox 360 has the biggest blockbusters and the most exclusive content in 2008 and beyond:
* The new game show: The new Xbox LIVE channel Xbox LIVE Primetime represents an all-new way to play. A collection of virtual game shows such as "1 vs. 100," Xbox LIVE Primetime allows thousands of gamers to become contestants from their living rooms, playing together simultaneously, live with content that is always fresh and relevant. The global phenomenon 1 vs. 100 is created by Endemol, the world's largest independent production company and the producer of the hit show Deal or No Deal.
* Blockbusters: Final Fantasy XIII will be available on Xbox 360 at launch in North America and Europe. Xbox 360 is the only place to play the year's biggest games, such as Gears of War® 2, Resident Evil 5, Fable® II, and exclusive Grand Theft Auto IV episodes.
* Music: Xbox 360 is the preferred stage for all the best music games, including Lips, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero World Tour and DanceDanceRevolution® UNIVERSE3.
* Family: Xbox 360 gets the whole family playing with titles such as Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts,Scene It? Box Office Smash and Viva Piñata®: Trouble in Paradise.
* Sports: Xbox 360 remains the best place to play sports titles, including leading franchises like Madden NFL, Tiger Woods PGA TOUR, NBA Live, NHL 2K, and more.
* TV and movie entertainment: Xbox is home to the best TV and movie entertainment, including exclusive games such as You're in the Movies and 1 vs. 100, exclusive films and TV from Netflix, and the world's largest online library of on-demand high-definition TV shows and movies.
Poor Jun Takeuchi producer of Resident Evil 5 cant catch a brake on this worn out topic and ends up hit again in an interview with mtv.com's bloger known as multiplayer with the same old question and gets the same old answer but what i like about this and all the other interviews on the topic is the comment sections that goes with it, check it out.
Multiplayer: I know you talked about this at [Capcom's Las Vegas promotional event] Captivate, but I have to ask you: the way people talked about the game and some of the reactions of: “Oh, is this a racist game?”… A lot of that has died off. But we on the MTV gaming blog actually published one of these interviews that got a lot of the reaction. We interviewed a gaming journalist who talked about his feelings when he saw the trailer. And he talked about: “I don’t feel like anybody black worked on this game.” That was his gut reaction. And I’m curious if you had anticipated that kind of response, if you had foreseen that people were going to react that way — and how that reaction affected you?
*To answer the question that was posted on your blog, there are black members in the development team.
Takeuchi: No, we certainly didn’t anticipate the reaction. We were quite surprised by the reaction that came out. I think everyone understands that we never set out to with the intention to make anything that was racist — that was never our intention. We think it was a bit of a misunderstanding when we published the first images of the game back in the day. And we think that as we move along and allow people to see more the game and more of what’s going on and more of the story, people will get a better idea of the game. I think you can see that that reaction has started to die down a little bit. To answer the question that was posted on your blog, there are black members in the development team. We do have staff working on the game, who are aware of the historical background and we are constantly checking these kinds of things with them.
Multiplayer: Just one other question on that. You didn’t anticipate that kind of reaction. Has this experience taught you anything? A lot of people talk about how race is very much something that is discussed in America in a different way than it would be in Japan or even Europe. What has this experience taught you about how racial matters are viewed?
Takeuchi: Certainly the most important thing we have learned is that different countries do see the same things in different ways. I think it’s very important as we go along and start other projects to learn from other countries and learn from other companies who are working in the video game and entertainment sectors, learn from their experiences, and not have the same problems again. You know, we have had the reverse problem with some games in Japan as well. But we’re in the business of making entertainment. We’re not out to make anything to deliberately shock anyone, so I think we can take a couple of lessons away from this experience.
Check out the comments section after the story via the source link, i find it to be the best part of all the posts that have came out on this topic.
With Microsoft getting ready to start this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo on Monday, July 14 2008, all Xbox 360 gamers will be on the look out for the full list of upcoming games from E3. The guys over at IGN have put up their own wish-lists. Read on and follow the link for the full story.
The team at IGN want these 10 games to be featured prominently. So if you're reading MS, this one's for you.
With no real new info out on this game i forgot it was even being made but thanks to gamefront i have now recalled this suppressed memory and decided to share a hand full of pic's that gamefront posted from a (I'm guessing Japanese) magazine.
ENJOY
Click any image for full size view.
This game still has no release date But I'm sure it will be a hit just from the fan base that the RE franchise has already in place.
We received NPD's 2007 U.S. video game industry sales report less than an hour ago and it took Microsoft only a few minutes to send their comments on the subject:
Xbox 360 Drives the Video Game Console Industry in 2007: NPD data released today confirms consumers spent more dollars on Xbox 360 in 2007, with more than $13.7 billion in total consumer spending. Xbox 360 won 2007 with $4.8 billion in total consumer spend compared to Wii with $3.5 billion and PlayStation 3 with $2.2 billion. This wraps up a historic year, with NPD reporting consumers have spent nearly 45 percent of total industry figures on Xbox 360.
Here is a quick snapshot of what is driving revenue for Xbox 360, based on the latest reports from NPD and Microsoft data:
XBOX 360 WIDENS THE GAP OVER PS3 WITH CONSOLE SALES: According to NPD, Xbox 360 sold 1.3 million consoles in December alone, and has steadily widened the gap between Sony’s PlayStation 3 console sales. In December, NPD stated that Sony sold 798,000 PS3 hardware units. Since PS3’s launch in November 2006, Xbox 360 has outsold PS3 by nearly 2:1 on average, bringing a total U.S. Xbox 360 install base of 9.2 million consoles, compared to and installed base of 7.4 million Wii consoles and 3.3 million PS3 consoles.
GAMES DRIVE INDUSTRY GROWTH: Xbox 360 robust games portfolio spans across the highest-ranked AAA titles to the largest collection of “Everyone” and “Teen” rated games. According to NPD, of the top 20 best-selling titles in 2007 for this generation, 11 were on Xbox 360; while only seven were sold on the Wii and two sold on the PS3.
NPD reported that this holiday’s leading multiplatform blockbusters continue to sell better on Xbox 360:
“Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare” for Xbox 360 was the leading game last month with 1.5 million copies sold, outselling the PS3 version nearly 3:1.
“Assassin’s Creed” for Xbox 360 was the fourth best selling title, having sold 894,000 units. It outsold the PS3 version more than 2:1.
“Guitar Hero III” outsold the PS3 nearly 2:1, having sold 625,000 copies.
“Rockband” continues to rock the charts, selling 463,000 units for the Xbox 360 platform, compared to 174,000 units for the PS3
To date, 33 third party games on Xbox 360 hit the top 10 list across all consoles compared to five third party games on PS3, and four on Wii. These results confirm that third party partners create better games and reap more sales on Xbox 360 than any other platform.
In its fourth month on the market, Halo 3 continued its strong performance and was the sixth best selling title in December, selling another 742,000. In 2007, NPD projects that Halo 3 has sold 4.8 million units in the U.S. since its launch in September.
Xbox 360 continues to lead in number of games sold per console, setting another record with an attach rate of 7.0 games per console.
XBOX LIVE SETS NEW HEIGHTS: Xbox LIVE’s network is 10 million members strong and growing, achieving membership goals six months ahead of schedule. Only on Xbox LIVE can members experience the largest catalog of on-demand, high-definition content in the U.S., including movies and television shows from our most recent partners: Disney-ABC Television Group and MGM Studios.
Bionic Commando developer GRIN reveals to Next-Gen the opening of a new studio, and the amount of creative influence that Capcom Japan will have on GRIN’s highly-anticipated grappler.
In the US, GRIN, developer of the PC versions of the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter games, isn’t the most well-known studio. But with 190 people across four locations and a decade under its belt, the Sweden-based game maker is a formidable industry player.
GRIN revealed to Next-Gen earlier this week that it is expanding further with the opening of a Gothenburg, Sweden studio. According to GRIN CEO and co-founder Bo Andersson, about 20 people are lined up to begin work in Gothenburg, and the self-sufficient studio is expected to grow to about 50 staff in total. Doors will open on January 7.
“The new studio is working on a very, very big Hollywood sci-fi brand” for Xbox 360, PS3 and PC, hints Andersson. “It’s a real triple-A thing.”
The founding of the Gothenburg studio comes just after GRIN established a beachfront Barcelona studio earlier this year. “Sometimes staff there have this problem of getting sand between their toes during lunch breaks,” a rep from GRIN joked.
With a QA office in Jakarta, Japan and headquarters in Stockholm, perhaps a Stateside presence would be the next step for GRIN.
“One country at a time,” Andersson laughs. “But we have been looking at the US, not only because there’s a lot of talent there, but because of the exchange rate. It starts to become quite beneficial to actually be in the US rather than Europe, which is quite interesting. We already have a collaboration with a partner in Canada, so that’s not too far away.”
Bionic Commando
GRIN’s catalog of games includes the aforementioned GRAW games for PC, as well as the 2003 car combat game Bandits: Phoenix Rising and the 2001 racer Ballistics. But it’s GRIN’s current project, the re-imagining of the classic game Bionic Commando, that has gamers’ attention.
"We step up to the challenge of Bionic Commando with both fear and respect.”“It was the chief of R&D over at Capcom Japan who actually approached us with the opportunity,” Andersson explains. “It was a very direct contact, and very exciting because we didn’t see it coming. They basically called us up and said, ‘look, we have something we want to talk to you guys about, so can we come over?’”
After Capcom gave a presentation of the brand at GRIN’s office, the studio decided then and there that Bionic Commando was a good fit. The developer’s Stockholm location is currently developing the game.
“I think they were just looking at our attention to detail in regards to not only our technology, but our gameplay,” Andersson says.
With such a revered franchise with a big fanbase, he admits that there is a bit of extra pressure to execute flawlessly.
“It’s excellent. I love to work with big fanbases,” Andersson laughs. “It’s a great challenge. We stepped into the Ghost Recon brand on the PC side, where we had to deal with those crazed fans. So we’re kind of used to that pressure.”
But he acknowledges, “The pressure is larger when you deal with such a renowned publisher as Capcom. Still, we love stepping up to the challenge with both fear and respect.”
Puppet House creeps onto Xbox Series, PS5, and PC in 2024 Puppet House, an unsettling horror survival game from Gaming Factory (@GamingFactorySA) creeps onto Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC (Steam) soon! Take on the role a photographer with a penchant..
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Here is a quick snapshot of what is driving revenue for Xbox 360, based on the latest reports from NPD and Microsoft data:
