August 2006 - Posts
By now we all know what the Xbox Live Vision camera looks like. That's it over on the left in case you just woke up from a 12-month nap. One of our designers posted some early concept drawings on his blog of the camera, as well as some of the other upcoming accessories.
Also, you may recognize his Gamertag WildChicken...or at least the name, since he was a designer on 'Crimson Skies' and creator of the very popular 'Crimson Skies' game mode, 'Wild Chicken.'
The Xbox PR team just released some interesting data that I think some of you may find interesting. Check these numbers out!
- The Xbox Live Marketplace just passed 50 million downloads. That is double the 25 million mark from just three months ago.
- In the first week of Madden '07 releasing, Xbox Live members unlocked over 600,000 achivements and hosted more than 2-million hours of Madden gameplay.
- 'Texas Hold 'em' set a one day record as the fastest download item ever on the Marketplace. There were over 100 downloads a minute in the first 24-hours of release.
Other Xbox Live statistics:
- More than 50 million downloads of gaming and entertainment content from Xbox Live Marketplace to date
- Over 2 billion hours spent on Xbox Live by gamers across the globe since the launch of the Xbox Live online gaming network in November 2002
- More than 60 percent of Xbox 360 owners are connected to Xbox Live
- 1,300,000 text and voice messages are sent via Xbox Live every day. Currently totaling half a billion sent messages between the Xbox Live community per year, this figure is set to explode with the launch of the Xbox Live Vision camera on September 19, 2006 in the U.S.
- 65 per cent of all connected consoles already downloading and playing Xbox Live Arcade titles
- Over 8 million downloads of Xbox Live Arcade games following the launch of Xbox 360
- Over 2 billion Microsoft Points sold to date
Edit: Fixed formatting and a spelling error
Xbox Live members in Belgium and The Netherlands can now download the following MTV Videos:
MTV Boiling 2 (Part 1)
MTV Boiling 2 (Part 2)
MTV Boiling 3 (Part 1)
MTV Boiling 3 (Part 2)
MTV Boiling 4 (Part 1)
MTV Boiling 4 (Part 2)
This content is free and only available to Xbox Live members in Belgium and The Netherlands.
Edit: Correction, I was given bad data: Each video is 80 points.
Xbox Live members can now download a demo of 'FCIP' from the Xbox Live Marketplace. This content is not available in Asia.
You can now download 'Spell Tomes' for 'Oblivion' This content is 80 points and not available in Mexico, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Spain, France, Italy or Japan.
[Details at Obliviondownloads.com]
After much anticipation, I am happy to announce that we have opened up user registration on this blog. With over 75,000 total comments and a million hits a week, it became time to do something about the noise to signal ratio in the comments section. I'll always have the ability for people to post anonymously in the comments, but in an effort to build the community I have decided to implement a registration approach that would allow you to use your gamertag to post your comments. Since using Passport was not an option, Litheon and I decided to try another approach that is pretty unique and custom to this blog. It's quick, easy and can be done completely from your computer. First you need to sign up here and follow the easy instructions. (Don't have a Gamertag? You can get one free here.) After you successfully register you Gamertag, when you post a comment you'll get nifty background color based on your Xbox Live membership level. You'll also be able to rate posts (and do other things we have planned for the future.)
It's important to mention that this is a beta test, and there may be some issues during sign-up. If you have any issues, questions or comments on the system please post them on this page.
Remember: When you sign-up here, it not connected in any way with Xbox.com or your Xbox Live Passport information. Never share your user name/password with anyone!
Thanks to Litheon (the tech brains behind the blog) for working on this and making it happen.
Edit: If you have any issues, questions or comments on the system please email gtauth at majornelson dot com (make sure to replace the words with their appropriate characters) with a description of the problem and your gamertag.
Edit: Why do you need an email address to sign up? Simple: The system needs a way to send you an email with further instructions. Once you sign up, your email address stays private. It won't be used for SPAM or sold or shared with anyone else. Relax, it stays here...and only here.
Could not get to PAX? Xbox.com just posted a video that I did when I was there on Sunday that shows some of the 'color' of the event.
[Watch the video (WMV)]
If you followed the announcements at the Game Developers conference a couple of weeks ago, you what this means...it's time to download the free beta of XNA Express. There is about 92 MB of gaming development goodness waiting for you to download and give it a try. Have fun, and maybe one day I'll be posting about the Xbox Live Arcade title that YOU have developed with XNA. By the way, I have XNA's Chris Satchell lined up for this weeks show, so if you have have any XNA questions...now would be a good time to post them.
[Download XNA Game Studio Express (Beta)]
Xbox Live members in the U.K. can now download the Cuban Brothers Game with Fame trailer.
Xbox Live members in all regions can now download the arcade classic 'Time Pilot' from the Xbox Live Arcade. You can download a free demo of the game, or purchase the full game for 400 points.
[Details on Time Pilot from Xbox.com]
Edit: Apparently it's not out yet, I'll try to get to the bottom of this It is now ready for download.
Two new BIA picture packs are now on Marketplace for 40 points each. This content is available in all Xbox Live regions.
As promised, here is a PDF file of the BC update that was released yesterday. You can always get this list from Xbox.com, but this file may be handy for those of you that work in a store, or like to carry it around with you while diving in the bargain bin.
[Download the August 2006 Back Compat list in PDF format] (98k)
Once again, I am loving the native save to PDF feature of Word 2007
Xbox Live members in the U.S. can now download the 'Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway' trailer from the Xbox Live Marketplace.
There is a backwards compatibility update now available over Xbox Live. This free update brings the complete list of original Xbox games that you can play on your Xbox 360 to almost 300.
August 2006 Back Compat titles added/updated:
Aggressive Inline
Aquaman: Battle of Atlantis
All Star Baseball 2003
All Star Baseball 2005
Burnout 3: Takedown
Catwoman
Crash Bandicoot: Nitro Kart UPDATED
Counter Strike
Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth
Dead to Rights
Digimon Rumble Arena 2 UPDATED
ESPN Major League Baseball
Fatal Frame 2
Ford vs. Chevy UPDATED
Freaky Flyers
Gauntlet: Seven Sorrows
Tom Clancy´s Ghost Recon - Island Thunder
Half Life 2 UPDATED
The Incredibles: Rise of the Underminer UPDATED
IndyCar Series 2005
Kabuki Warrior UPDATED
Lego Star Wars II
Links 2004
Magatama UPDATED
Maximum Chase
Mortal Kombat: Deception UPDATED
MTX: Mototrax Featuring Travis Pastrana
Namco Museum 50th Anniversary Arcade Collection
MX vs. ATV Unleashed
Outlaw Tennis
Over the Hedge
Sid Meier's Pirates
Richard Burns Rally
Rogue Trooper
Serious Sam
Shincho Mahjong
Smashing Drive
Sneakers UPDATED
Spy Hunter: Nowhere to Run
The Legend of Spyro: A Beginning
TAZ: Wanted
True Crime Streets of LA
The Suffering
Trigger Man
Torino Winter Olympics 2006
Vietcong
Wrath Unleashed
X-Men II: Wolverine's Revenge
For those Xbox 360 owners that do not have access to Xbox Live, you can download the update from Xbox.com. Got more questions? Read the Backwards compatibility FAQ on Xbox.com.
I'll work on a printer friendly list (like I did last time) and post it soon.
Xbox Live users in the U.S. can now download the full length TV show 'Battlestar Galactica: The Story So Far' in standard def from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Just in case you are wondering, this marks one of the first times that a complete TV episode has been digitally delivered to your Xbox 360 over Xbox Live. The file size is 492.20 MB.
[Battlestar Galactica official site]
There is an auto update now available for 'Street Fighter II’ Hyper Fighting.' Xbox Live users will be automatically prompted to accept this auto update the next time they sign in to Xbox Live with SF:II. When I asked what the update does, I got this from the marketing team:
The title update will address connection and time out issues that have been reported by players. In addition, the Leaderboards will be cleared in order to offset players that have cheated by causing intentional disconnections.
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