Microsoft Corp. today announced the broader availability of Xbox 360 consoles and provided details about the new games and entertainment experiences available to gamers this season.
Beginning this week, Microsoft will distribute two to three times the number of Xbox 360 consoles to the retail channel weekly. With component supplies in full production and third manufacturing partner Celestica Inc. now producing the next-generation console along with partners Wistron Corp. and Flextronics Corp., Microsoft is producing more Xbox 360 consoles than ever.
"Today we have turned a major corner," said Peter Moore, corporate vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "With more consoles on their way to retail, 80 games available by June, and new content and experiences coming to Xbox Live® all the time, there has never been a better time to own an Xbox 360."
Blockbuster Games on the Way:
The Xbox 360 games portfolio expands this spring with new next-generation titles from leading developers and publishers that cater to every genre, age, skill level and budget. Gamers can choose from a range of truly next-generation games such as "The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion" (Bethesda Softworks/2K Games), an Xbox 360 console exclusive with beautiful next-generation graphics and a huge world to explore; "Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter" (Ubisoft Entertainment SA), the latest version of the successful Tom Clancy series that once again pushes the boundaries of multiplayer boundaries on Xbox Live; and "Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend" (Eidos Interactive Ltd.), the next-generation debut of the very popular Lara Croft series.
In addition, new titles are coming to Xbox Live Arcade all the time, including "Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting," "Uno" and the free full version of "Texas Hold 'Em Poker" by Riverbelle. Great titles that gamers can expect this season include these:
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We have made some progress with a new read/patch/write app and no doubt you will all be plugging in your drives to your PC and having some fun shortly - all for free too as no modchips required (and yes we still want to play!)
Obviousley the only use for this is piracy - hence you wont see any modchips (not from us at least - however they wouldn't be needed anyway - however we do have a few cheap tools to make life much easier - more on that soon) Still a long long way off from unsigned code - but it's a start....
Thanks to The Specialist for reviving the scene! We understand he doesn't want to release anything due to possible backlash - but there are many of us who would - and will.
In a bid to capture the huge audience for handheld entertainment gadgets, Microsoft is designing a product that combines video games, music and video in one handheld device, according to sources familiar with the project.
The Microsoft product would compete with Sony, Nintendo and Apple Computer's products,
including the iPod. And Microsoft has some of its most seasoned talent from the division that created its popular Xbox 360 working on it. Game executive J Allard leads the project, and its director is Greg Gibson, who was the system designer on the Xbox 360 video game console. Bryan Lee, the finance chief on the Xbox business, is leading the business side of the project.
SAN JOSE, Calif. — March 20, 2006 — In the face of escalating game development costs, expanding teams and ever more complex hardware technologies, Microsoft Corp. today delivered a pre-release version of the first XNA™ Studio tools and unveiled the XNA Framework to attendees of the Game Developers Conference 2006 in San Jose. Microsoft also announced that the company is opening its Xbox Live® Server Platform to game developers and publishers, allowing them to innovate and extend the Xbox Live experience in their titles.
XNA Studio Eases Game Production Challenges
XNA Studio represents a set of tools and technologies Microsoft is building to help streamline and optimize the game development process.
“Developers need a better way to make games and manage the production process,” said Chris Satchell, general manager of the Game Developer Group at Microsoft. “XNA Studio enables all developers — from major development studios to the two guys moonlighting on a dream project in their garage or dorm room — to create games in new, more efficient ways.”
This community technology preview (CTP) represents the first public opportunity for game developers to get their hands on key components of XNA Studio. Included in the CTP is a pre-release version of XNA Build, which delivers mechanisms for orchestrating, debugging and optimizing the game build pipeline. XNA Build also provides studios with a foundation that helps them easily identify game asset relationships and dependency information to unlock a wealth of benefits, ranging from incremental content builds to assistance in identifying orphaned or unused content. Tools such as XNA Build enable game developers to spend less time building and maintaining their internal tools infrastructure, and more time creating great game experiences.
“Creativity is the core of Ubisoft’s success. Since the very early days of Windows® and Xbox®, and now with Xbox 360™, XNA and soon Windows Vista ™, Microsoft has provided us with excellent developer tools, support and online services in addition to great hardware,” said Martin Sevigny, director of production technology at Ubisoft Entertainment SA. “With this collaboration, our developers can focus on their creation instead of being constrained by the platform.”
XNA Framework Simplifies Cross-Platform Game Development
The XNA Framework contains a custom implementation of the Microsoft® .NET Framework and new game-development-specific libraries designed to help game developers more easily create cross-platform games on Windows and Xbox 360 using the highly productive C# programming language. Using the XNA Framework, game developers will benefit from the ability to re-use code and game assets in developing multiplatform titles, without sacrificing performance or flexibility.
“We’ve been writing games for the last 15 years as monolithic, single code bases that are growing unwieldy and complex,” said Chris Butcher, lead developer at Bungie Studios. “C# on Xbox 360 lets us think about new modes of programming. It lets us get back to creating a game rather than wresting with code, while maintaining the real-time performance that we need.”
With millions of developers worldwide proficient in C#, the XNA Framework is designed to make game development significantly more approachable for independent and aspiring game developers, while enabling rapid prototyping and concept iteration.
“We were proud to be a launch partner with Microsoft for Xbox 360 Live Arcade, and we’ve been pleased with its success so far,” said James Gwertzman, director of Business Development at PopCap Games Inc. “Anything that simplifies the process of creating great casual games and lowers the development complexity for Windows and Xbox 360 is something we’re happy to support.”
Xbox Live Services Open In-Game Innovation
In addition to XNA Studio, Microsoft today announced further enhancements for extending Xbox Live services with the Xbox Live Server Platform. Using this platform, developers can create their own back-end servers to run alongside Xbox Live. Developers will get firsthand experience with this update — which provides easier-to-manage and more scalable technology on Xbox Live — in the next Xbox Development Kit, expected in May. Microsoft Game Studios’ blockbuster Xbox 360 game, “Project Gotham Racing® 3,” offers an early example of how these services can work; up to 30,000 gamers can easily watch other racers play in real time through Spectator Mode. More recently, in the stunning “Burnout: Revenge” from Electronic Arts Inc., the Live Revenge feature and the Save and Share feature were made possible by functionality that will now be distributed through the Xbox Live Server Platform.
By opening the Xbox Live Server Platform, Microsoft provides developers and publishers with the tools and environments they need to create all-new online game experiences, and delivers the benefits of an open platform for innovation while providing the solid foundation of the full-featured Xbox Live service. Developers will be able to tap into real-time Extensible Markup Language (XML) feeds to update things such as weather, rosters or other changing information. The Xbox Live Server Platform can also be used to support the creation of massively multiplayer online game worlds. In addition, it will serve as the enabling technology for game developers to unleash their creativity to bring a steady stream of fresh ideas to the Xbox Live gamer community.
With XNA Studio, XNA Framework and Xbox Live services, Microsoft provides a trio of technologies that enable game developers to manage the escalating demands of game production, effectively deliver game experiences across multiple platforms and provide innovative experiences for casual to hard-core gamers in the rapidly expanding online market.
* SeventhSon on the xboxhacker.net forums has been working on getting the Hitachi-LG GDR-3120L DVD drive working on Linux and Windows the last few weeks. Yesterday I said it was required to open your DVD drive and remove the firmware chip to read the Hitachi-LG DVD firmware and/or to get the unique 16 byte key, but on SeventhSon's page he explains how you can get this drive connected and recognized by Linux and Windows. He even programmed a few cmd-line tools (also available for windows and linux) that will allow you to dump the memory (incl. 'forbidden ranges'), firmware and unique key of the DVD drive on your PC and also tools to write (peek/poke single bytes) to the DVD memory (not firmware) and execute arbitrary MN103 code (this drives used the MN103 DVD chipset) from a PC on the drive.
Microsoft’s next major Xbox Live Project will officially be introducing Halo 1 to the XBL Marketplace. They’re planning to soon allow full Xbox 1 game downloads from the Marketplace futures, for a price that is, and Halo 1 has been chosen to be the first. The problem is, with more to download, how are you going to fit all that onto your hard drive? Easy, buy a new one.
Quote:
In last issue's Rumor Mill, I mentioned that Xbox 360 owners will soon be able to buy full Xbox 1 games via Microsoft's Xbox Live Marketplace. And now I've got the juicy scoop on the first game that Bill Gates' crew will make available. Look for Bungie's epic first-person shooter Halo on the Marketplace sometime before this summer. I only hope the developer makes this version's multiplayer mode Xbox Live compatible.
Terminator: Survivors confirmed for Xbox Series, PS5 & PC via Steam Play as a survivor in the aftermath of Judgment Day in Terminator: Survivors, a new open-world survival game by NACON (@Nacon). Build the resistance and defy the machines in Terminator: Survivors, com..
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