Archive for February, 2006
Still trying to figure this one out. The rumor appeared in the official March Xbox360 magazine — so you would think it was not so much a rumor but a way to announce a new PS3 like feature, no ?
According to this scan from the March 2006 issue:
“a DirecTV blade might be added to your Xbox 360 Dashboard to accompany the Xbox Live, Games, Media, and System blades. In that blade, you could download TV episodes in high definition, HD movies on demand, and standard-definition streaming DVR (i.e., TiVo) functions.”
Sounds interesting — and definitely a feature that the PS3 was rumored to have. Also makes sense as Microsoft begins to position the Xbox Live marketplace as a true competitor to iTunes, and downloadable TV episodes is a great space for msft to compete in.
Technorati Tags: direct tv
February 20th, 2006
Hot on the heels of the xbox360 game news, Edios today unveiled the real life model for their upcoming series, a 20 year old Londoner whose current employment is that of a sales clerk. Karima Adebibe, pictured below, was selected from thousands of hopefuls.
more photos here and here
Technorati Tags: lara croft
February 15th, 2006
“Within the next four to six weeks, anybody will be able to walk into a store and buy an Xbox 360.”
- Peter Moore @ DICE convention
RE: the global launch he adds:
“Was it controversial? Yes. But it’s what we needed to do to bring next-gen gaming to a global audience. There have been short-term shortages, but we’re driving a clear advantage as we go forward. It was the right decision. There were component shortages, but they’ve been fixed. Now we’re starting to cook. We’re building a vibrant, rich and profitable business model for the future.”
RE: Xbox Live usage among Xbox360 owners — Moore announced that 54% of Xbox 360 owners use Live. This is a huge increase compared to the original xbox Live usage rate of 10%.
Overall, Moore, who is the Xbox chief at Microsoft, told the audience that there have been 4 million pieces of content downloaded from Xbox Live since launch.
RE: the try-before-you-buy model (first used by shareware developer Apogee back in the day). Geometry Wars was given as an example, where 36 percent of all people who downloaded the demo went on to download and purchase the full version of the game. According to Moore, the average Xbox Live Arcade conversion is 20 percent — with the worst performing game coming in around 10 percent.
He bosted that “Nothing normally converts from sample to purchase at a rate of 35 percent. It’s proof positive that we are dragging gaming into the online era.”
As I’ve mentioned earlier on this blog, the future is an on-demand, all digital distribution system, and Xbox Live is definitely pushing the envelope in the right direction.
February 12th, 2006
Let me first preface this quick review by saying that I love soccer — or ‘football’ as it really should be called. I played football growing up, it was my first sport, and I watch about an hour of week of various games/highlights etc. I also follow the world cup very closely, and will even purchase some football jerseys when I am travelling in a new city.
OK, with that disclaimer out of the way, let’s get in to the game.
The good: Stadium details are strong, uniforms look very real, and the FIFA franchise has always had the best commentary — and this version is no exception.
The bad: What happened to improving on prior efforts ? The gamepaly is a step backwards. The physics seem off — as if the ball is guessing where it should be, and the camera angles reveal all kinds of visual problems - ghosting and strange player models.
The ugly: I think the PS2 and Xbox versions were better, and visually on the same level. This game was rushed out, or simply neglected by the EA folks. Online play is also poorly setup, using their own EA lobby method instead of the superior microsoft default one.
Conclusion: Stay away from this title. Major step backwards, and a worrisome pattern with EA rushing out sports titles for Xbox360 — which in my mind includes Madden 2006.
February 9th, 2006
not HD related, but our friends in Mexico and Colombia can finally join the fun. Read all about it on gamerscore blog
February 7th, 2006
Original review, update #1
So I’m now over a month into the Gamefly Xbox360 rental experiment, and wanted to share a few more observations.
Game availability: I don’t want to jinx it, but every game I’ve wanted has shipped out without any delay or short wait time. Perhaps this will change as people finally get their Xbox360’s — but for now, I have no complaints — and I know that availability is a major problem with some of the other game rental services.
Shipping Process: As I mentioned earlier, it took a week or so to receive the initial games, and I was concerned that the total return trip, confirmation of receipt, and then the shipping of the next game could really take a while.
But fear not ! Even for people like me in NYC, the total turn around has actually been less than a week for most of my games. How is this so ? Gamefly is using the power of technology to quicken the ‘confirmation’ / return process. They have partnered with the post office, so that as soon as the USPS scans the return envelope, they communicate that back to GameFly, and GameFly immediately ships out yor next game ( they call it FastReturn). pretty smart, eh ? here is the official blurb:
FastReturn will start the processing of your next game as soon as we receive confirmation from the U.S. Postal Service that a game has been returned in the mail. You may no longer need to wait until we receive the returned game in our warehouse before we send the next available game in Your GameQ!
How does FastReturn work?
When you return a game in the mail, the U.S. Postal Service will scan the return and send a confirmation to us. We will then send the next available game in Your GameQ BEFORE we have received the game in our warehouse.
Conclusion and thoughts after 1 month: So far so good. Between Xbox Live demos and new games arriving with GameFly I have no complaints. I think one immediate lesson of this experience is that it confirms that the day is drawing near where everything is on-demand. Why do we need NetFlix and services like GameFly ? With decent broadband access I’m happy to wait 2-3 hours to download a full game or movie. Don’t get me wrong, these serices have setup great businesses — but I wonder what these rental services plan to do when microsoft, sony, time warner, and others roll out full on-demand offerings ? Time will tell.
gamefly, xbox360
February 5th, 2006
The folks at hdbeat put the Netgear XE104 through it’s paces, and have a very complete review of it. Devices like this Netgear, in theory, allow you to stream HD content over your network from a media center PC to your Xbox360. Makes a lot of sense, given how distributed our content is these days, and how we are trying to keep the living rooms as un-cluttered as possible. Unfortunately this device did not pass the test. The review concludes with this blurb:
There could be other factors involved and yes, one of them is the wiring in your house. Our house used for the test is only two years old, so it’s unlikely that the wiring is the culprit. Our XE104’s cost us $85 each, but we’re getting our money back. Simply put, these units just won’t cut it for HDTV streaming between a Windows Media Center PC and an Xbox 360 in our environment.
Read more.
February 4th, 2006
Got a few emails about this, so I figured I would post. People are buzzing about the latest Tomb Raider game, and it’s ‘next gen’ engine that will debut this spring.
New screenshots were released today, and the trailer that has been out since October is probably worth checking out — especially if you are waiting on some xbox360 porn :)
If anyone knows when the demo will be out on Live please let us know. I’m sure many of you played the first game on your PC a few years back, but has anyone actually kept up with this series ? Maybe this new version will breath some life into the Tomb Raider franchise. Stay tuned !
Technorati Tags: xbox360, tomb raider
February 4th, 2006
