Is this earth-shattering news, or just “yeah, duh”? The Daily is reporting an exclusive scoop today that Microsoft is working on its own answer to the likes of AppleTV and Boxee, in the form of a Kinect set-top box that doesn’t require an Xbox to run. Read more »
Oh, Microsoft. You and your oddball marketing campaigns. Read more »
Back at E3, Xbox promised us live TV, but was mum on details. Today, Microsoft is explaining how they’re going to make live TV a reality on your Xbox 360 this holiday season: with the help of almost 40 entertainment providers around the world. Read more »
“Metro” is the codename of this Fall’s annual Xbox Live update, which among other things is going to make your dashboard look an awful lot like Bing mixed with Windows Phone 7. Here’s a breakdown of the major changes you can expect. Read more »
Every Summer, Microsoft gathers a killer lineup of great Xbox Live Arcade games and releases them once-per-week over a month or so. It’s happened for several years now, and many Xbox users have begun looking forward to this tradition because the games in the “Summer of Arcade” are usually top-notch. Here’s this year’s complete roster, along with screens from each game! Read more »
This morning in Los Angeles, Microsoft promised to show off “the future of gaming,” and their vision of the future clearly looks an awful lot like Kinect. Let’s go over the highlights — and loads of screens & vids… Xbox always has a lively show, keeping things moving fast from one game to the next, never spending too much time on any one thing. For my money, they typically put on the funnest, showiest, and overall best media event at E3. Sure, it’s Microsoft and they’re nerdy, but at least they have lots of money to throw around. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6t6XegJtlns Halo 4 was announced as the start of a new trilogy starring Read more »
Nintendo has Club Nintendo. Now Microsoft has created “Xbox Live Rewards” to reward players for doing things they already do. What’s the reward? Microsoft Points, which you can use to buy anything on Xbox Live, just like other MS Points you purchase with your own money. So what do you have to do to earn MS Points through Xbox Live Rewards? Most of them involve spending your hard-earned money, but on the upside, you’re spending it on stuff you’d buy anyway. Stuff like buying or renewing an Xbox Live membership, buying downloadable games and items on Xbox Live, including specially-designated Xbox Live content. UK users can activate Sky on their Read more »
So there’s a press release making the rounds today about how Microsoft’s new Xbox motion controller Kinect has sold one million units in its first 10 days. This is big news for Xbox because Microsoft has made big noise about wanting to sell 5 million Kinect units by the end of this year, and they claim that these initial numbers put them on track for that. But I can’t help wondering how this news stacks up to Kinect’s motion-controlling competition. First-week ticket sales mean everything at the box office, so why not apply that same prognostication factor to gaming? One million units in ten days is a great pull quote, Read more »
Today Microsoft has unveiled a major overhaul to the Xbox Dashboard which comes complete with a ton of new features and enhancements. While the aesthetic improvements may seem small — on-screen selections are now flat panels, similar to the Zune interface — but there’s a lot that’s been changed under the hood, with a serious eye toward Kinect-friendly alterations. Here’s a look at everything that’s been upgraded in this free update: 1) The user interface. The entire dashboard appearance has been upgraded with a streamlined appearance that’s designed to make browsing via Kinect a snap. The Xbox Live Marketplace has a whole new organization, making it easier to get to Read more »
Xbox.com has just undergone a major upgrade and overhaul, and Xbox Live users will find lots of enhancements to their overall experience. The facelift’s biggest new feature is the new Avatar editor where you can now create and edit your Xbox Live Avatar right from your browser. This is something Xbox users have longed for, for ages, and it’s a fully-interactive Silverlight application that lets you purchase or preview new items, including in-game reward items. Other new enhancements include: New layout for messaging, where you can view messages, friends, and game requests more easily Your Account center now has basically all of the same functions as what you can access Read more »
