The Full Circle: 360 News Report 11.28.09
Posted by Dan Owen on 11.28.2009
Microsoft executives discuss the massive success of their new Sky Player service, Infinity Ward shares news on potential features of future downloadable content, Datel sues Microsoft, and more in a Thanksgiving edition of The Full Circle!
Hello faithful readers! I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving and didn't get crushed trying to race into your local Walmart during the early morning hours of Black Friday. It was a slow news week, what with the holiday games pretty much all released now and the shortened work week, but there's still some things worth talking about. I apologize for being a bit late this week but hey, at least The Full Circle didn't take a week off!
Headlines
New Downloadable Content Already Planned For Modern Warfare 2
Even though it's record breaking game is only a couple of weeks old, Infinity Ward is already discussing new content they plan to release for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Only a few days after the game was released they made a few new game modes available for the online mode. IW is also already planning releases of new maps for online play as well as new levels for the popular Special Ops mode. In addition to this the developers have been taking comments from their online community fourzerotwo. Some things that could be in the works are more Hardcore game modes for the online multiplayer mode, such as Hardcore Headuarters.
The sign of a great game developer is continued support for the game after it has been released. It's always encouraging to hear developers listening to the comments of the gamers playing their games, too. Hopefully this will continue for a long time. I don't remember for sure since I moved on from the original Modern Warfare game by the time Call of Duty: World at War came out, but I seem to remember complaints that support for the game dropped off after WaW came out.
Sky Player A "Phenomenal Success" So Far
The Sky Player launched for the 360 in Europe has been a huge success thus far, according to Xbox Europe boss Neil Thompson. Said Thompson, "We were blown away – literally – by the response we had, and we took some flak, probably fairly. We didn't scale to quite the scale we should have, and I take that criticism on board and we've learned from it. But now it's up and running, people are loving it, the subscription rates, the download rates for the application and so on are just blowing my mind away, they're blowing the people at Sky's minds away. It's proving incredible popular… It is a phenomenal success at this point." For those that don't know, the Sky Player is a Live and on-demand TV service for Xbox 360 users. Users can connect to the service with just an internet-connected 360, no additional peripheral is needed. The application allows players to watch their favorite TV shows at any time, or view it live and chat with friends over Xbox Live. At this point, there has been no word about a similar application making its way over to the United States.
I think this is a very cool service that Microsoft is offering. While it might seem silly to want something that lets you watch live TV on your television that probably has cable (I realize not everyone has cable hooked up to their TV, but I'm willing to bet that's a very small minority), the ability to chat over Live with friends as I watch a show does appeal to me a lot. It's always more fun watching a show like The Office or a football game with friends, but sometimes you can't always get together with people. This will let me have someone to chat with about the show without having to leave my couch (this actually probably isn't a good thing). More interesting to me, though, is the chance to watch shows on demand. The laptop I have right now isn't the greatest, especially not for watching video, so going online to watch streaming video isn't the most fun. I'd much rather watch it on my nice TV, which would be possible if I was lucky enough to live somewhere that gets the Sky Player.
With the apparent massive success that the Sky Player has enjoyed in Europe, I have to imagine the wheels are already in motion over at Microsoft to try to bring the application to the U.S. My guess is not if this becomes a reality, but when. We might also eventually see things hitting the service like DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket. I know a lot of people who aren't in their favorite sports team's market that would at least consider purchasing something like that instead of springing for satellite service.
Microsoft Being Sued By Third Party Accessory Maker
Third party storage device maker Datel has decided to take a stand against Microsoft's recent console update that made the Xbox 360 incompatible with third party storage units. The move was assumed to be part of Microsoft's overall attack on game pirating. However, Datel alleges that the move was done by Microsoft simply to eliminate competition from the market. From the lawsuit, Datel says, "Microsoft's dashboard upgrade is also intended to foreclose competition from Datel in the sale of other aftermarket Xbox accessories and add-ons, including gamepad controllers, through the implementation of predatory technological barriers. These technological barriers do not constitute improvements of the product in any respect, but rather are arbitrary contrivances intended to perpetuate Microsoft's market power." As of yet Microsoft has not issued a response to the suit, though we can hopefully expect one in the upcoming week.
I'm not completely surprised by this. Anytime you essentially destroy an entire niche in an industry you have to imagine the companies that occupied that space will try to fight back. Datel has a pretty good case, and the outcome of the case will fall squarely on how good of a case Microsoft can present showing that the third party memory units are conducive of game pirating. Even if they can show this, though, I wouldn't be surprised if the court rules that Microsoft cannot simply shut out all third party units. This very well could be a case that ends up settling out of court, though, especially considering the financial power that Microsoft has. I'll try to keep you up to date as this story develops further.
Microsoft VP Says "No One Can Touch Us Online"
Chris Lewis, a vice president from Microsoft, discussed the Xbox 360's online strength with GamesIndustry.biz. Lewis told the website that, "No one can touch us in terms of developing that service, completely reinventing that service in the way that we did last year with the New Xbox Experience update last November." He went on to laud Microsoft's ability to introduce such a new experience without putting the burden on gamers to go out and buy a new piece of hardware or even pay anything for the software.
Okay, so this isn't the greatest news story I've ever reported,but like I said at the top, it was a slow news week. Microsoft does deserve some credit for putting out the New Xbox Experience for free not because I think they should have charged gamers for it but because, if history has shown us anything, this is the type of thing they typically would charge for. In my opinion Microsoft has seemed to be better than Sony and Nintendo in developing new content for their consoles. They were the first in with Netflix and now are now at the forefront of TV on-demand services with the Sky Player. However, I don't think the 360's online service lead is so big that it can be described as untouchable.
Rapid Fire
A Microsoft executive has confirmed that work is being done on Project Gotham 5, with the game's development already under way. PGR3 was the first "real" racing game I ever owned and since then I've been a big fan of the series.
BioWare was teasing a "big surprise" coming for Mass Effect 2 this week. Gamers were likely disappointed to learn that the surprise was just a redesign of the game's website. Not that it isn't nice, but I'm sure everyone else was like me and hoping for something a bit more substantial that related to the actual gameplay.
There was talk of the million or so Xbox 360 users who were banned for piracy undertaking a class action lawsuit over the bannings. Microsoft's response: "Piracy is illegal and modifying an Xbox 360 is a violation of the Xbox Live Terms of Use. Microsoft is well within its legal rights to ban these users from Xbox Live."
Geoff Keighly tweeted recently that the Halo: Reach footage shown at Spike TV's Video Game Awards will not be CG (computer generated). This could mean a couple of different things; either the footage will be live action or in game footage (with the CG comment relating only to computer generated cinematics, which is the way it is often used in the gaming world). I'm sure the comment was left ambiguous purposefully to get people talking. I suppose the only way to find of for certain will be to tune in on December 12th.
Microsoft execs believe that Project Natal could very well replace the TV remote in the future. They also commented that, in 5 years, they believe that the line between gaming and television won't exist. Given that we've already seen some TV companies experimenting with technology similar to Natal for allowing people to change the channel and navigate movie options, this wouldn't surprise me too much.
Microsoft revealed that over 2 million Xbox Live users have signed in to the new Facebook service in just over a week. This represents about one-tenth of the total Live population.
The free gift that was made available to Xbox Live users who retweeted a message about Final Fantasy XIII has been revealed. The publicity stunt, which we told you about last week, netted gamers a free Chocobo for use with their avatars!
New data coming out reveals that the "Wii bubble" could be starting to pop. The data shows that many Wii owners aren't buying as many games as they were a year ago. It shows that game developers can make the most money for their games by focusing on core gamers. This makes sense when you really think about it, as the "Wii gamers" are unlikely to get bored with their games as fast as we more hardcore gamers.
BioWare has said that they believe they have learned a lot from the disaster that was Mass Effect downloadable content. Even though it hasn't even been released yet, they are already saying that Mass Effect 2 DLC will be "kick-ass".
Trailer Park
Our first trailer is a new trailer released for Final Fantasy XIII. The game was just recently announced to be coming out in the U.S. and Europe on March 9th.
Our second trailer is one for the much anticipated Mass Effect 2, which will hit stores next year. This is the revealing of a new class for your characters.
Another new section to the column (at least since I have taken it over), here I'll post some of the comments from the last column to share my thoughts.
For this column I'm just going to steal Dude's thoughts on the new console update since I really couldn't have said it better myself.
I got the recently Facebook/Twitter/Zune/Last.fm update for my 360.
The Twitter function seems to be the best part to me. It is just like the Facebook function, but the appeal of Twitter has never been waiting for a response for me. That is the appeal in Facebook, which kinda disappears when doing it on my 360, simply because I'm using my TV for the function. When it is on my pc or cell phone, I'm not staring a a boring screen, I'm doing something else, like watching TV or playing a video game. I kinda hoped that my XBox would instantly Twitter or Facebook my achievements, which would be an excellent use of this system.
Using the controller for input is so slow. I know that I could use a messenger kit, or get another USB keyboard, but I just can't see spending money on a piece of hardware that I'll have to store long after my interest in this piece of software has waned.
The Zune utility is a joke. Why would I pay money to watch a video when I could watch the same video on the internet for free? I have a Zune subscription and thought that I might have had access to the full Zune music library, which would have added a level of functionality that would have been awesome.
Last.fm is ok. I mean, that idea that I can't play a game while listening to a Last.fm radio station is kind of a drag, but I'll deal.
I guess I'm a bit disappointed. I mean, as much as they were pimping this service, I was expecting more. I was looking for a reason to keep my XBox live Gold Subscription. That 60 bucks a year is 1 new game, or 2 used games that I might enjoy a lot more than what they currently offer.
The Final Word
Well, this was a bit of a lighter column due to the holiday (both in time I had to write and amount of good news out this week). Next week I'll be back at my regular day of Friday. Hit me up with your comments, I love to hear from you guys about just about anything (especially how awesome any and all Minnesota sports are). Till next week, keep on gaming!
As a Wii owner, I can say that there just aren't that many must-have games coming out for it. For every Mad World, ResEvil Darkside or New Mario, there's a shitload of shovelware, minigames, and kid only games.
The need is for more grown-up games. Not necessarily rated M, just games that are designed for more than the casual user.
For Example, it's a damn crime that ResEvil 5 never made it to the Wii. When you consider just how amazing ResEvil 4 was with the added Wii controls (and yes, I had the Gamecube version first), it seemed only natural that RE5 would successfully make the jump to the Wii, too.
Posted By: Spaz Monkey (Guest) on November 28, 2009 at 02:14 AM
Mass Effect 2......drool.....
Posted By: Tito (Guest) on November 28, 2009 at 08:40 AM
The 360 hard drive lawsuit is completely justified.
It's ridiculous that they did that.
Posted By: Kent Baker (Guest) on November 28, 2009 at 12:09 PM
People lacking cable may be a minority but that is already changing pretty fast with networks providing episodes on their websites and cable companies slow to respond to the changing market. Not that cable's tier system was consumer friendly 20 years ago...
Cable/Satellite/etc is already going the way of the land phone.
Posted By: elgrannoche (Guest) on November 28, 2009 at 06:06 PM
"The 360 hard drive lawsuit is completely justified.
It's ridiculous that they did that."
It's about memory cards, not hard drives. Microsoft doesn't allow non-certified memory units, and with hackers using Datel's cards to bypass security it's pretty clear why they have that restriction.
Posted By: Rod Oracheski (Registered) on November 29, 2009 at 01:22 AM
"This makes sense when you really think about it, as the "Wii gamers" are unlikely to get bored with their games as fast as we more hardcore gamers."
What? I'm bored just looking at the Wii game selection, so the owners that have it as their one & only console certainly have to be bored with that game library.
Posted By: Byzdalmyt (Guest) on November 30, 2009 at 01:17 PM
"What? I'm bored just looking at the Wii game selection, so the owners that have it as their one & only console certainly have to be bored with that game library."
Most Wii owners seem to be casual gamers. They don't play it every day and they don't keep up with what's new. They're still playing Wii Sports and thinking it's good enough :p
Posted By: Rod Oracheski (Registered) on November 30, 2009 at 05:03 PM
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