The Full Circle: 360 News Report 10.23.2009
Posted by Dan Owen on 10.23.2009
Could Microsoft be adding a rewards program to it's online gaming community? Will that online gaming community see a price increase soon? All of your questions will be answered, as well as some important news for third party hard drive users and more!
Welcome back readers to the #1 Friday Xbox 360 news column on 411mania.com, The Full Circle! This week is the Under Construction edition of the column, as I've decided to chop off the Deal of the Week segment since that didn't seem to be working all that well for the column. I'm working day and night (not) innovating new segments for the column, so bear with me as we move to a bare bones, 3 section format for the time being. If you've got any bright ideas, shoot me a comment below. I promise I'll steal your idea without giving you any credit.
Headlines
Could An Xbox Live Price Hike Be In The Works?
Rumors have been starting to swirl that are saying that gamers should expect the $50 fee for Xbox Live to double in the next few years. Financial analyst Michael Pachter told Gametrailers.com that he expected the price hike to occur soon, saying that Microsoft has hooked everyone on online gaming, so the price hike would be unlikely to result in too many stopping the service.
I'm going to come out and say that I really doubt that Microsoft would make this move. There are a lot of things wrong with it in a strategic sense even if it could be justifiable due to all of the new services Live now offers. MS and Sony are currently locked in a battle for dominance of the video game market, with Sony beginning to get themselves back into the race with the PS3 Slim. More and more gamers are going to own both of the consoles, and a price hike could severely damage Mircosoft's base. People might be willing to pay $50 for the service if all of their friends use it, but $100 might be getting a bit too pricey. If people are willing to give up playing some of their old 360 games online, they could pretty easily make the switch to playing online through PSN, which is free. So not only would MS lose some of their Live fees, they will also lose game buyers who will opt for the PS3 edition of the game so they can play online. Continuing with this, the loss of Live members will weaken the community, which will lead more people to make the switch. This will keep going in a sort-of circle until the Live community is effectively decimated. I'd like to think the Microsoft is a bit smarter than this, so I doubt that a price hike would actually happen.
Blu-ray Accessory Headed For 360?
In an interview with Gizmodo, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer let slip that a Blu-ray external drive might be on its way for the 360. When asked if we would see Blu-ray drives being installed in 360's, Ballmer said, "Well I don't know if we need to put Blu-ray in there---you'll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories." However, who knows when we'll see the accessory, as Ballmer wasn't ready to comment on anything more specific about Microsoft's plans. For their part, Microsoft's PR team denied to comment, which is essentially saying they are doing something but aren't at a point to comment yet.
This is an interesting development. I'm not sure what it will really mean for the gaming side of the 360, though. While a Blu-ray accessory would allow people to play Blu-ray movies on their 360, game makers aren't likely to switch to making Blu-ray games. Not everyone will purchase the peripheral, so making Blu-ray games would eliminate some of the customer base. In the end, I doubt the will change anything for 360 owners on the gaming front.
Rare Comments On Natal
Game developers from game maker Rare have been commenting on Natal lately. They are saying that Natal is awesome, that it is "a massive ocean of possibilities". They said that with the regular controller, you pretty much know what you are going to do and that there isn't a lot of freedom. However, Natal gives them massive number of possibilities. Rare developers even said that, "With a great development team you should be able to create any game experience with Natal."
Reports from game developers continue to disagree with my take on Natal. The fact that there are nearly constant reports that Natal is seemingly the next frontier in gaming gives me hope that this won't be a complete and utter disaster for hardcore gaming, but I'm still having a hard time getting convinced that this can succeed with a game such as Call of Duty or Madden. I can only imagine the lawsuits as people are asked to physically perform a juke in their living room, as I myself have sprained my ankle attempting such a move (though that was admittedly likely due in some part to alcohol consumption as well).
Forza 3 Pirates Being Suspended
Gamers who have been caught playing Forza 3 over live have been having their Xbox Live accounts suspended permanently. The game, which hasn't been released yet, has suffered from being pirated. Stephen Toulouse, the director of Live policy, twittered this: "You know, when you play a pre-release title on LIVE when I know you shouldn't have it, it's not hard for me to figure out. #forza3hammertime".
How dumb are people, really? You are playing a pirated copy of the game over Live, which means you are completely in view of Microsoft, before the game has been released. Who are you kidding, you're probably going to be caught. Shame on you guys, enjoy rebuilding that Gamerscore from scratch.
Fall Update Could Mean Problems For Your Hard Drive
The fall update coming soon for the Xbox 360 could mean trouble for a select few 360 users. If you are using a non-Microsoft certified hard drive, your hard drive will cease to work with the update. Previously, gamers could use a standard external hard drive if they knew what they were doing, but the 360 will cease to recognize non-Microsoft hard drives. You've got a short while to try to get things switched over before the update hits, so get on it.
Up until this point I had no idea you could even use a hard drive that wasn't an Xbox 360 one. If I had known that, well, I could have had a lot bigger of a hard drive. I'd be interested to hear from any of my readers if they have done this. **Update** - Based on something I read later, it would appear that this exclusion of non-Microsoft hard drives extends to third party accessory makers, which probably would effect a lot more people.
Microsoft Set To Begin A Live Rewards Program?
Microsoft is beginning a pilot program for some sort of rewards program for Xbox Live. What exactly this will entail is unclear, but they have sent out e-mails to a select few gamers to join the program. The e-mail is below: "This is an exclusive pilot rewards program. That means that the people who get in get stuff. Cool stuff. You want cool stuff, right? Sure you do, we all want stuff. Especially cool stuff. Well, you've only got until October 21, 2009 to let us know you want cool stuff, because after that, the doors close and someone else gets the cool stuff.
So, you click the button below and register to let us know you want in and pretty soon we'll let you know if you got in or not - and not everyone will (that's why it's called exclusive).
This offer is for a select few - you can't send it to anyone else (why would you send something this awesome to someone else, are you nuts?). If you make the cut, you can pass or opt-out whenever you want.
But then you'll never know how it ended."
So there is very little information here. But what I can tell is that there is apparently free stuff involved for using Live in some way. Beyond that, who knows. More details will come out, I'm sure, but for now the letter above is all we have to go on. It really seems like Microsoft is toying with some pretty big innovations for Live, which can only spell good things for gamers. I'll hopefully have more details on this in the coming weeks, since there's never been a rewards program I have turned down (that's not an exaggeration, either).
Quick Hits
EA announced the release date for Mass Effect 2, through Twitter no less. You can look forward to the game hitting shelves in North America on January 26th.
If you would like to see a preview of the new 1080p streaming video, check out the video here.
It sounds like Microsoft will be opening up a "Microsoft Store" in a similar vein to the Apple Store. The first store, which will sell mobile devices, computers, and of course video games, is opening to coincide with the release of Windows 7. It will be located in Scottsdale, Arizona, with another store on its way for Viejo, California.
Speaking in an interview, Infinity Ward's creative strategist Robert Bowling said that the so-called console wars upset him as a gamer. Couldn't have said it better myself!
The "geniuses" at Epic Games have made one of the worst decisions in all of gaming: they created a Gears of War themed snuggie. See below for this most epic of fails.
(Epic's Dana Cowley however updated 411mania with the news that the snuggie proposal was rejected and will not be mass produced - FTW!)
Continuing on the fashion front, Microsoft is coming out with a line of men's pajama pants that are 360 themed. This is actually not that surprising to me, considering I've seen 360 boxers before.
Apparently there was a sequel to Kameo, one of the launch titles for the 360, in the works, but plans on that were canned in late 2007.
Trailer Park
Our first trailer is for a game that has disappointed a bit in sales figures. This is the preview for The Beatles: Rock Band Abbey Road DLC.
Did it occur to anyone that some shops may have broken the street date? There was this example from years back where a number of shops broke the street date for Driv3r's release. This resulted in a number of copies being available second hand before the actual release.
Posted By: WadeMcG (Guest) on October 23, 2009 at 03:16 AM
My main suggestion for the column would be making it weekly, like Joe did (for the most part). This hit-or-miss stuff isn't getting it done, at least not for this long-time Full Circle follower.
Also, why no mention of the mighty Golden Gophers gridiron squad this week? Oh, that's right - they lost, 20-0, to my Penn State Nittany Lions.
WE ARE...
...PENN STATE!
Posted By: Wyatt Beougher (Guest) on October 23, 2009 at 11:34 AM
Haha, that was...rough, to say the least. Not that I was expecting to win, but our offense stunk like no other.
And yeah, it'll be regular, I'm just busy/lazy and have been struggling with illness as well.
Posted By: Dan Owen (Registered) on October 23, 2009 at 01:56 PM
