Speaking at its GameFest event in Seattle, Microsoft has talked candidly about its Xbox Live service, specifically the Xbox Live Marketplace, which makes both free and premium content available for download for Xbox 360 users, and has been a notable success since launch.
Specifically, Microsoft's Marketplace Business Manager Rohan Oommen sketched out a detailed GameFest presentation on the Marketplace, which covered what has been accomplished since the service went live in November 2005 with the launch of the Xbox 360, as well as where Microsoft envisions it heading in the months to come.
At Gamefest earlier today, Microsoft held a panel on their current and upcoming plans for accessories for their Xbox 360 console. Rob Walker, the hardware unit product manager for the company, spoke to the panel and gave some very interesting tidbits and hints about their future plans (and also threw some digs at Nintendo and Sony's controller plans). Walker began by looking back at what Microsoft has released so far, including wired and wireless controllers, the 20 GB hard drive, controller charging kits, A/V cables, TV remote controllers and more. He also touched upon current and upcoming third party accessories from companies like MadCatz, Logitech and more.
Walker then went into the future and talked about things that are on the immediate horizon (i.e. this holiday season) that have already been announced. Microsoft's Xbox 360 racing wheel is a big upcoming product, promising true force feedback support (if you plug in the power cable) and support for current and upcoming titles like Project Gotham Racing 3 and Forza Motorsport 2. Also in the works is the Vision camera which will allow people to have video chat with each other along with features like taking a picture of your face and adding your face to an in-game character, complete with facial animation (no games that support this feature have been announced yet). A wireless headset for voice communication is also due for release this holiday season, as is the much anticipated HD-DVD disk drive add-on. Walker didn't reveal anything new about this accessory that hasn't been revealed before (still no specific price point) but it will still only be used for movie playback and will still hook up to the Xbox 360 via the USB connection. During the Q&A session following the prepared remarks, Walker said that they are still discussing what will happen if the movie companies decide to move to HDMI inputs being required for HD-DVD for keeping copyright protection for their movie disk.
Scener|Flash78 of F360TEAM released a new tool that will convert older Xtreme Xbox 360 images to stealth v3:
RebuilderXTRM3 convert Xtreme images v1, v2 to new v3, making images stealth
* You must have PFI.bin, DMI.bin, video360.iso and a imagen named as image.000
* RebuilderXTRM3 will patch the image with video data, PFI and DMI
* Image file must have SS prepatched
* It's easy: Open a MSDOS windows in Windows XP and execute this command
c:>rebuilderxtrm3
image.000 will be ready to burn
So yes, we still remember Microsoft executives saying “Xbox 360 gamers will never require a hard drive to play games”, only to be shocked by the Football Manager packshot stating that the game did require the HD after all. Similarly, the Xbox guys were even more adamant about that the games would never require a larger disc than the current dual layer DVD, and that HD-DVD would only ever be used for displaying HD movies through your 360. Will that turn out to be “slightly off the truth” as well?
Click here for one page of what Warren News published in their Consumer Electronics Daily newsletter today. Some spicy quotes about HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray, sure that’s a hot topic. The nasty one is at the bottom though:
Better late than never we set up the installation diagram for the NME-360 ltd. edition Chips. Please note, the ltd. edition is only available for samsung drives.
In order to make everybody's life a whole lot easier we present the NME aSSociat0r. This small tool is pretty powerful and very easy to use. Simply select the iso file then select the SS file, press "CREATE" and your NME-360 compatible ISO is being created in just 2 seconds. The NME-360 aSSociat0r can also convert Xtreme Images to NME-360 compatible images with just one press of a button. Download it here or find it in the complete make_backup package. Besides this we are very proud to have successfully tested the powerful SS Merger 1.7beta with full NME-360 support. Stay tuned for a release of this fabulous piece of software.
After searching through the net and contacting publishers about updated release dates and cancellations i have come accross some detailed information which im sure all 360-HQ members will be interested in..
List of Cancelled Cross-platform Games
These cross-platform cancellations are probably the result of growing competition in the GTA-clone genre. GTA IV, The Godfather, and Saint's Row have a large amount of buzz and are probably scaring off less ambitious projects.
This GTA style action game begins with Al Pacino's character surviving the gunfight at the end of the movie, allowing the player to rebuild his cocaine empire. Development is nearing completion on the PS2, Xbox, and PC. The 360/PS3 versions have been cancelled although a PSP version has been added.
Based off of the popular mob drama on HBO, this action game was planned for release on PS2, PS3, and Xbox 360. THQ has cancelled the PS3 version due to lack of dev kits and cancelled the 360 version because it "didn't look all that much better than the PS2 version."
This 360 exclusive features Hitman style assassinations in a futuristic city. Unfortunately because of numerous delays and an unimpressive media response Namco has decided to cancel the project.
Always stay tuned to our Xbox 360 Games area for the most complete info on each specific title.. Our website will associate any forums topics, downloads, media (screenshots and videos), and other areas of the site with the title you are looking at.
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