xbox 360

Xbox Live Indie MMORPG Fusion: Genesis to feature Windows Phone add-on

October 13, 2011 | By Surur

Starfire Studios, made up of a team of 4 developers who previously worked for Rare, creators of Viva Pinata, are releasing a new Xbox Live Indie game, Fusion:Genesis, for the Xbox 360 console.

The game has MMORPG elements, and will be accompanied by a Windows Phone 7 companion game, Fusion:Sentient, which will be published by Microsoft Game Studios.

The Windows Phone game allows the breeding of AI pet units to trade in an auction system with the console version.

Read more about the game at Gamasutra here.

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Multiple great Xbox Live Indie games coming to Windows Phone 7

August 7, 2011 | By Surur

WP7Connect interviewed some of the winners of the Xbox Live Indie Games Summer Uprising, an event organized to highlight the best Xbox Live Indie games available on the Xbox 360, and found many of them also plan to bring their games to Windows Phone 7.

Above is T.E.C. 3001, a game in which you guide a robot through a virtual space to collect leftovers of energy for human kind. The game was originally conceived as a Windows Phone 7 game, but the developer, Phoenix Game Studio decided to take it to the Xbox 360 first. They are however definitely planning to bring it back to the smartphone also however.

WP7Connect also showed off a RPG called Doom and Destiny which will be coming in the next few months and KamiCats, a platformer, which should be available by November.

Hopefully the communalities between these two Microsoft gaming platforms will see even more great games coming to Windows Phone 7.

Read more about these games at WP7Connect.com.

Thanks Justin for the tip.

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Xbox 360 and Windows Phone ad integration demoed

June 24, 2011 | By Surur

Microsoft demoed its NuAds at the Cannes International Advertising Festival, featuring some integration with Windows Phone 7.

Two features of NuAds feature a Windows Phone 7 element. Near me allows watchers to say “Xbox Near Me” to locate a nearby retailer and saying “Xbox Schedule” sends you a calendar reminder about an upcoming show.

The biggest weakness of the approach is that most people do not watch actual linear television on their Xbox, an issue Microsoft is attempting to address with their Mediaroom project. Even then we can see Microsoft’s products gaining strength and value due to integration, something which we hope to see a lot more of.

Xbox 360, Kinect and Windows Phone 7–Microsoft’s answer to the Wii U?

June 10, 2011 | By Surur

Nintendo’s Wii U has recently been announced and not has not been received well.

Nintendo revealed its Wii U game concepts at E3 a few days ago, which consists of a controlled featuring a touch screen, a large number of sensors and wireless connection to the console.

Now that sounds a lot like the above concept, shown off by Microsoft 4 months earlier, featuring integration between Kinect, Xbox 360 and a Windows Phone 7 handset. The combination offers much of features of the Wii U, but in a much more manageable package, and likely a lot cheaper than Nintendo’s version.

I don’t know if the Wii U needs answering, with Nintendo’s stock dropping more than 10% after the announcement, but if it does Microsoft appears to have been ready for some time.

via MobilityDigest.com

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Microsoft promoting Windows Phone on Xbox Dashboard with interactive ad

June 9, 2011 | By Surur

We always argue for greater cross promotion of Windows Phone 7 using Microsoft’s existing properties, so it is nice to see an example of it in action.

In the above video Laura Foy runs an interactive demo of Windows Phone 7, and if the user likes it and decides to keep it their avatar gets a new Windows Phone to play with.

The promotion is a great way for Microsoft to remind their 50 million Xbox users that Microsoft offers a way for them to take their experience on the road, and I hope we see a lot more of the same in the future.

Thanks Stan for the tip.

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Fable Coin Golf exclusively coming to Windows Phone 7, integrates with Xbox 360

February 25, 2011 | By Surur

A bit lost in the hubbub about Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies, Microsoft also announced that they will be releasing another game which allows players to add to their console experience by playing on their handheld.

Fable Coin Golf, which integrates with the legendary Fable game and its new Traitors Keep ad-on, will for once be exclusive on Windows Phone 7, unlike Fable KingMaker, which had both an Android and iPhone client which came out even before the Windows phone 7 version did.

Fable: Coin Golf draws upon the wealth of traditional British pub games and lets you transfer gold earned in the game to your Fable III game on either Xbox 360 or Windows. In addition, you can unlock three exclusive weapons that can be used in the Traitor’s Keep game add-on.

The game will be launching in March.

Via MajorNelson.com

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Xbox Team shows How Marketing should be done

January 28, 2011 | By rush24

If there is one part of Microsoft consumer division that has their stuff together when it comes to promoting their products, it has to be the Xbox team with Kinect. We always talk here about how important it is having working devices for prospective consumers to try out. The Kinect team seems to understand this. They set up an Xbox with Kinect Sports at a mall and the video shows what happened next. I wish the Windows Phone team could do the same.

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Thoughts on Microsoft’s CES Keynote Part 1: Xbox+Kinect

January 11, 2011 | By rush24

Disclaimer: If you dislike my opinions against Microsoft’s convoluted consumer strategy, you may want to skip my next series of posts with the above title. I prefer Microsoft products, but I strongly believe they are headed to irrelevance in the consumer space if they continue along this path.

Microsoft’s Keynote at CES by CEO Steve Ballmer has come and gone. I watched the event live and even before I was done, I was ready to throw something at the screen! I can sum it in up in two words, utter disappointment! I’m sure this post and the next ones in this series will lead to comments that “Rush the drama queen is at it again” but I think it is a high time for someone in the Microsoft fanbase to say, “the emperor is not wearing any clothes!” I have spent the past few days writing, rewriting, reading, trying to find a positive spin from the whole event but no avail. Paul Thurrott, a strong MS follower, has come a similar conclusion in his latest post, Windows Everywhere? Wake Up, Microsoft! It’s 2011!

For a consumer focused event, Microsoft brought nothing dramatic apart from obvious things like gesture control for Netflix and Hulu Plus on the Xbox, news of updates for Windows phone 7 including copy and paste, and CDMA phones coming in the first of the year. The new products previewed namely Surface 2.0 and Windows on ARM and SoC will not be available directly to consumer or the next few years. They showed Windows 7 based tablets/slates again! more on that later, which will suffer the same fate as the previous x number of Windows tablets over the past decade.

Xbox+Kinect

Mr. Ballmer started out by rattling of impressive numbers for the Kinect Sensor of 8 million units sold, way above the project 5 million estimate and 50 million Xbox consoles sold worldwide. Then came news of the addition of gesture control for Netflix and Hulu plus along more content from ESPN. These were things they should have implemented at launch so I don’t consider it revolutionary. What I wanted to hear were the fixes to the flaws on the console which include…

The inability to read external NTFS formatted drives
Enable gesture control for the whole UI not just portions of it.
Extensive file support like Boxee or WD TV live
An Xbox 360 Windows phone 7 remote app similar to the iPhone remote app
The Avatar Kinect was cute but why would anyone over the age of 12 want to use it instead of actual video Kinect chat? I would have preferred to see group video chat like Skype instead
There is no web browser on the console. Is it really that hard to implement?
Where are the 3rd party apps like YouTube, Twit.tv home automation, etc and SDK for developers to make this possible?
DLNA capability to stream videos and pictures from WP7 phones or other compatible devices to the Xbox wirelessly
Blu Ray support thru an external drive
A pictures and video hub similar to WP7 where pictures and videos from local and online services like Facebook, Flickr, Picasa, SkyDrive existed with the ability to add comments.
Nothing was ever demoed or mentioned about Mediaroom or Xbox 360+ att uverse
Paul Thurrott has more things MS can do to fix the Xbox 360 in 2011 here

For all the Xbox 360 capabilities, Microsoft has done a poor job marketing its multimedia features. I have had the opportunity to setup a few consoles for friends and relatives whom I convinced to purchase the Xbox with Kinect, most who had no idea that the device could do so much more than just play video games. They were particularly impressed with Video Kinect and the ability to watch and record live TV using the Windows Media Center Interface from an attached Windows 7 computer equipped with a TV tuner. They also enjoyed being able to view photos and (compatible) videos from their computers right in their living room.

I think this is one instance where Sony has done a great job with their PS3, It does everything campaign. In addition, although Sony’s Move controller has not done as well as the Kinect, the company still has a strong presence outside the US as this article indicates. With an install base of 50 million consoles, Microsoft has a huge advantage over Apple TV, Google TV and all the new entrants who showcased their products at CES, in the battle for consumer’s living rooms. It is now up to them to play their cards right and speed up their development process to match that of their nimble competitors. Whether that happens before its too late remains to be seen.

Next Windows Phone 7

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Watch Amazon Videos on your Xbox 360

December 30, 2010 | By rush24

The Xbox 360 is already a very capable multimedia player that provides users with ways to watch movies via Netflix, or rent the latest releases through the Zune service. There are times however when a movie is unavailable on those two services so it is nice to know that there is another option to satisfy the film aficionado’s craving for the latest or that one “must see flick.”

Michael Washington, has written a good blog post on how to watch Amazon on demand videos on your Xbox 360. A PC running Windows Media Center (Windows Vista/ 7) with the Xbox connected as an extender is required to make it work. So there you have it, one more way to enjoy content on your Xbox 360.

Via Michael Washington @adefwebserver

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Crackdown 2:Project Sunburst now available in Marketplace

December 15, 2010 | By Surur

With the release of the “Deluge” Crackdown 2 add-on, available for download on Xbox LIVE Marketplace, an Xbox 360 game for the first time ties activities and accomplishments earned in the new Windows Phone 7 game, "Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst," with the Xbox 360 game.

Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst is of course a "home tower defence" game that uses Bing Maps to allow you to choose your home territory anywhere in the real world and defend it from an onslaught of Freaks and Cell Terrorists.

By building lethal Agency bases at your home, neighbourhood shops, favourite geographical features and so on, your accomplishments in "Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst" will unlock bonuses in Deluge mode that call in support, such as rocket-equipped Agency helicopters, extra Peacekeepers, and exclusive power-ups. Likewise, scores in Deluge can unlock new weapon upgrades in "Crackdown 2: Project Sunburst”.

The game is now available in Marketplace for $2.99 with a trial mode and can be downloaded here.

Andrew, our reviews editor, is pretty excited, and I expect we will see a full review of the game soon.

Via WPCentral.com

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Telus Windows Phone 7 + Xbox 360 Promotion

December 15, 2010 | By sadoway

Well, seems Australia wont be the only place that you could have got a free Xbox 360 with your WP7. Because of possible slow sales, or lack of demo units (every store I went to was still waiting) Telus is now giving anyone who gets a Windows Phone 7 a 250 GB Xbox 360. Telus is offering the HTC Surround and LG Optimus 7.

I got mine a few weeks ago. Maybe if you got yours early you can call the retention line and they will still send you one in the mail.

Ship times are expected to be 3-4 weeks so dont plan on an early Christmas present.

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Infinity Blade was initially envisioned as a Kinect game

December 15, 2010 | By rush24

Infinity Blade, the highly touted, visually stunning 3D game for the iOS platform that has managed to rake up $1.6 million dollars in just five days, was initially conceived as a Kinect game. Speaking with gaming site Joystiq, Chair Entertainment cofounder Donald Mustard had this to say

We always have some cool ideas on deck, and kind of the inception of Infinity Blade began as a discussion around: ‘If we were going to make a Kinect title, what would we make? What would a Chair Kinect game look like?’," Mustard revealed. "That discussion happened, you know, a year and a half ago. We had this really cool design, and it’s not that dissimilar from the game you’re playing today; it’s just been refined and adapted to the iOS screen, which honestly I think is where the design works the best

Mr. Mustard reiterated that even though the Kinect controller sparked the idea, the iOS version is original to that platform and not a port from a Microsoft game. Luckily, he is open to bringing the game to the Xbox 360 console (and hopefully Windows Phone 7) if the Kinect controller takes off over the holiday season. I think the ball is on their court now with Microsoft’s motion controller projected to sell over 5 million units by years end. Would you guys like to see this game on Xbox live on the 360 console and WP7 devices?

Source gameinformer, engadget, mobiledia

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Not unrelated–Xbox 360 the top selling console in USA for the 6th month running

December 10, 2010 | By Surur

Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7 are very much related.

The NPD numbers for game consoles in USA were released yesterday, and Microsoft was once again the biggest selling console in USA, with 1.37 million consoles sold. Microsoft also announced they sold 2.5 million Kinect accessories.

The Xbox 360 also saw 42% year on year growth, compared to a 25% drop in sales for the PS3, and 50% of all of spending at retail this November was on the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 even beat last years phenomenon, the Wii by 100,000 units.

What is the relevance of all this to Windows Phone 7? Microsoft’s success in the console space demonstrates very clearly that:

1) One can not pick a winner early in the race. The PS3 was meant to dominate, but did not. The Wii did dominate, but is now faltering. A company can come back from behind and take the lead again.

2) Microsoft is not in fact a dying consumer brand, and successfully launched a consumer product, the Kinect, and convinces millions of people to part with hundreds of dollars.

3) Xbox is clearly a very successful consumer brand.

Of course all of these are very relevant to Windows Phone 7, coming as it is from behind the market, in great need of convincing consumers it is worth spending money on. Xbox Live is a central component of the OS, and Microsoft is starting to promote it heavily in their advertising of Windows Phone 7.

There is a growing meme in the blogosphere that Microsoft is irrelevant to consumers – numbers like these should make those who count it out think again.

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