Entertainment Electronics Blog

We know Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 7 will have access to Xbox Live, but it looks like their connectivity ambitions between the Xbox 360 and Phone 7 are even loftier than that, including not just turn-based gameplay but eventually real-time multiplayer between Phone 7 games and Xbox 360 games as well.

“So initially we’re turn by turn-based,” said a Microsoft representative to rgbFilter during the recent X10 event in Toronto (via Joystiq). “We are working on real-time phone-to-console, likely initially through Wi-Fi — again, operator networks are sensitive to that. That’s not on day one; day one will be turn-by-turn as well as companion-type gaming where you play a level on the phone and it may unlock a level or a weapon or some special achievement on the console game.

“But, uh yeah — absolutely working on phone-to-console real-time. That is something we’re working on and expect to have in the near future,” the rep concluded. He also confirmed they’re working on multiplayer connectivity between the PC and Phone 7 as well, referencing — believe it or not — 2007’s Shadowrun as an example (which itself was noteworthy in its time for offering cross-multiplayer between the PC and 360).

The rep didn’t get into much detail about how exactly real-time 360-to-Phone 7 multiplayer would work, what kind of games to expect it in, or when it’ll even be ready, so there’s still much to be revealed. Windows Phone 7 is planned for release in October.

Software pirates may want to reconsider downloading that leaked copy of Halo Reach in advance of the game’s September 14 release date. Microsoft is issuing permanent Xbox Live bans for anyone it catches playing unauthorized versions of Reach.

Xbox Live’s director of policy and enforcement Stephen Toulouse commented on his Twitter (via Joystiq), “As with all unauthorized play on Xbox LIVE, anyone playing any unauthorized title runs the risk of account permaban and console,” adding, “Legit store bought copy runs no risk of ban. Key word: UNAUTHORIZED. We have ways of knowing.”

Don’t want your console permanently exiled from Xbox Live? Then don’t pirate games, dummy. And have a little patience; September ain’t that far away.

Halo fans will soon be able to remotely pay tribute to Halo Reach’s Noble Team with the help of a giant robot arm starting next week (via Wired)

Microsoft is launching the Remember Reach site next week, which allow users to view a monument of light honoring Reach’s Spartans. In the game, Noble Team goes missing shortly after the fall of one of humanity’s last colonies.

Fans will be able to help construct the monument by logging onto Facebook, picking a point of light and watching as the robot plots it on an image. The robot is a Kuka KR 140, which is also used to assemble automobiles.

There will be 54,000 points of light to choose from, but they will slowly fade so that new visitors can replot them. Remember Reach goes live next week, and the game will be out September 14.

Burger King is planning a triumphant return to video games later this year, in partnership with Microsoft and the new Kinect device. Kotaku reports that Mike Kappit, chief marketing officer for the fast food chain, commented on the company’s plans. “Our first endeavor with Xbox 360 took the gaming world by storm, so we couldn’t pass up the chance to come together on another cutting-edge program,” he said. He promises this year’s promotion will “stimulate the imaginations of gamers and entertainment-lovers of all shapes and sizes.”

The games offered by the King years ago were actually a success, selling fast thanks to low prices. Big Bumpin, Pocket Bike Racer, and Sneak King may not have been critical smashes, but as XBLA-style mini-games complete with Achievements, they inspired more than a few burger-loving gamers to pick them up.

No word yet on what kinds of games Burger King would develop this time, but we’re hoping for a proper sequel to Sneak King. For too long, the burger-stalking genre has gone without innovation or reform, and the time to correct that is now.

The newly announced publishing deal between Activision and Bungie has significant impact on both companies (and even Microsoft), but one company that hasn’t been mentioned much is Sony. After years of Microsoft exclusivity, this deal finally means we’ll be seeing Bungie games appear on the PlayStation 3.

The company’s press release mentioned “multiple platforms,” which led to speculation of PS3 development. It was confirmed by Sony senior director of corporate communications Patrick Seybold, via Twitter. “Congrats to Bungie,” he said. “Marrying their creative minds and incredible talent to the power of PS3 will be like giving PS3 fans Halo on steroids.” Of course, no jump to multi-platform would be complete without a little corporate cattiness.

It isn’t terribly surprising given the nature of the news — Activision is a multi-platform publisher, after all. Bungie broke away from Microsoft exclusivity in 2007, and Halo Reach will be the final piece of their deal with the console manufacturer. The press release seems to indicate that Bungie is developing one particular new franchise with Activision, but still has the freedom to make other games with other publishers as they like. If Bungie intends to launch any other new titles, Microsoft or Sony could court them for exclusivity.

Microsoft is a massive company that ships quite a lot of products each year. And yet, when CEO Steve Ballmer decided to highlight just one as Microsoft’s most exciting product of 2010 in front of a group of executives, he talked about the upcoming Natal. Ballmer was in South America to speak with customers primarily about Microsoft’s line of Online products, such as Exchange Online and Live Meeting, but it was Natal that was bestowed with that honor — though it wasn’t necessarily the videogame functions he seemed excited about. While we’ll primarily see Natal as a method for playing games when it’s released later this year, Ballmer is also excited about the non-gaming applications of Natal.

“Perhaps for me the most exciting product we’ll bring to market this year, and it really fits in this context, actually comes out of our videogaming group,” he said earlier this week in Bogota, Colombia (via ZDNet). “You might say, why would I talk to a group of CEOs about videogames? Because the technology actually is very general purpose, and we’ll see come into the rest of our lives pretty soon.”

“It’s a technology that we call Natal. It’s a little camera and microphone that sits on top of your TV set,” Ballmer explained for the uninitiated. “And if you want to control the TV, you don’t go get some remote control or big fat gaming thing. If you want to look through TV channels, you just gesture, and the computer recognizes your voice, it recognizes your gestures. You want to see the next sports program, you go like this, it will cycle you through. You want to play a game and you need to jump, you jump. I’m not going to jump too hard; a little bit too high altitude here in Bogota for that, at least for me. But it recognizes you, it knows your voice, who you are, your gestures, what you’re doing.”

He continued, “And if you think about that in a lot of settings, why am I carrying this thing? I’ve already forgotten three times where I set it down. I should just be able to go like this, and the camera should recognize that gesture and control the slides for me, and let these kinds of things freely happen.”

Whether or not that’s something that the average consumer is actually interested in remains to be seen. Either way, we’ll be seeing a lot more of Natal at E3 in June, ahead of its release later this year.

With the release of a batch of Halo: Reach screenshots came the usual amount of obsessive fan analysis, which in turn produced a lot of intriguing rumors — a lot of intriguing rumors that are turning out to be wrong. In Bungie’s latest weekly update, they engaged in a round of “Halo: Reach Mythbusters,” shooting down some of the bigger rumors floating around the net. And the biggest: that Halo: Reach would use Natal motion controls.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the targeting reticule — typically in the middle of the screen for a first-person shooter — is mysteriously off to the left, leading many to wonder if it’s because you can aim the reticule independently using some form of motion controls. The answer is much less elaborate: “Truth be told, it’s just a good ole fashioned bug. Bug #15163 to be exact,” Bungie writes. “Halo: Reach is NOT a Natal title and is being developed expressly with the traditional Xbox 360 controller in mind.”

This screenshot alone created a couple of other rumors, including that the HUD will in fact be yellow (evidently it won’t), and more intriguingly, that a portion of the screen was pixelated (area is circled in the image above) because Bungie was hiding something super top secret. Here we will quote Bungie’s explanation in full, because it’s the sort of awesomely jerk-ish behavior we really respect:
Truth: Here’s how it really went down:
Sketch: Dammit, I really like this screenshot and it’s the only passable first person asset we have right now, but it’s got all this extra UI text in it that’s not in campaign.

Urk: Just pixelate it. Everybody will think we’re hiding super top secret stuff.

Sketch: lol

Stalwart Halo 3 fans who, for whatever reason, skipped out on Halo 3 ODST will soon have a shot at the pseudo-sequel’s exclusive multiplayer maps. Microsoft has announced a February 2 release date for the three-pack of ODST multiplayer stages.

Included in the upcoming add-on are “Heretic,” a remake of Halo 2’s “Midship” level; “Citadel,” a map set in a symmetrical, confining Forerunner structure; and a deserted harbor called “Longshore.” The full “Mythic Map Pack 2″ bundle will set players back 800 Microsoft points, or about $10.

Microsoft is working to get ahead of rumors that started circulating yesterday regarding Blu-Ray support for the Xbox 360. It started when company CEO Steve Ballmer commented that Blu-Ray drives would be coming as accessories, in response to a question about the Xbox 360. Word got out fast, and last night Larry Hryb (a.k.a. Major Nelson) made a blog post to clarify. “Steve was referring to Blu-ray accessories for the PC,” he explained. “As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360.”
It does still seem odd that Microsoft’s main man mentioned the accessories in response to a question about the Xbox 360, if he were merely talking about the PC. But, Ballmer does have a history of making erroneous statements regarding the console, so we can probably chalk this up to a simple misstatement. At this rate, an inaccurate comment about the Xbox 360 is bound to be dubbed a “Ballmer.”

John Carmak, influential game desiner and technical director of id software, has predicted that Sony will be the first to make a move into the next generation of gaming hardware, probably to prevent “the same kind of 360 lag from happening to them again”.

“The whole jockeying for who’s going to release the first next-gen console is very interesting and pretty divorced from the technical side of things,” Carmack told CD-Action, as spotted by Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry.

“Whether Sony wants to jump the gun to prevent the same sort of 360 lag from happening to them again seems likely.

“As developers, we would really like to see this generation stretch as long as possible. We’d like to see it be quite a few more years before the next-gen consoles comes out, but I suspect one will end up shipping something earlier rather than later.”

One of the main reasons behind the success of Microsoft Xbox 360 is its release one year ahead of Sony PlayStation 3 as well as considerably lower pricing. Sony might want to release its PlayStation 4 ahead of its arch-rival. But anyway, I hope this generation could last a long time. I hate they force me to buy these new stuff.