Living LIVE News Report 01.09.12
Posted by Trace Aber on 01.09.2012
New trailers from Mass Effect 3 and Soul Calibur V, plus news and thoughts on Microsoft throwing a bone at indie developers but cheating third-party services, Gotham City Imposters getting delayed and more!
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Welcome everyone to another issue of the Living LIVE News Report, and as always, I'm your host for the evening, Trace Aber.
Microsoft Loves the Independent Developers This Week; Likely to Switch Again Next Week
After weeks of being regulated to the dark depths of the new dashboard, the developers hooked up with Xbox Live's Indie Channel finally got some good news. Alright, Microsoft didn't fix how you find the games or even the location, but they did do some nice things like allow for larger games, better pricing options, and the number of titles a developer is allowed to release. You can read the full statement from the XNA Game Studio Team Blog below;
Higher maximum CCGAME size
Since the start of Xbox LIVE Indie Games, CCGAME bundles submitted for Xbox LIVE Indie Games were limited to a maximum size of 150MB. We've heard all the great feedback on this subject and today we are pleased to inform you that developers are now able to submit CCGAME bundles up to 500MB through App Hub for publishing on Xbox LIVE Indie Games.
New limit for 80 point games
Another area we're adjusting today is the requirement that titles larger than 50MB be priced at either 240 or 400 points. After raising our maximum size we've decided to also raise this limit. Starting today you can apply the 80 point price to any game with a CCGAME size under 150MB, which is three times the current limit of 50MB.
More titles per developer
The last change affects a fewer number of developers, but we still believe it's an important update. Originally developers were limited to just eight titles on Xbox LIVE Indie Games. When Creators Club became App Hub, we raised the limit up to ten. We're happy today to let you know that we're again raising this limit up to twenty titles per developer.
While these additions are sure to help developers, it still interesting that Microsoft has not given much thought to making not just the indie games, but games in general, to the dashboard. I know where everything is it, but it bothers me that I can access apps and advertisements easier than the actual content. It's not something I immediately noticed, but having spent a few weeks with it I can't help but to see it. Still, good on Microsoft for at least giving developers a bit more breathing room.
According to the report, the software development kit given to their partners limits the video quality to 720p, which while still a good resolution, is not as good as Microsoft's 1080p. This means that Microsoft's host service's videos appear much clearer, which is both clever and wrong. Digital Foundry goes more in-depth;
While the Xbox 360 has no problem whatsoever decoding 1080p video, it is no longer being rendered in native resolution. To illustrate the issues, here we see the same full HD video being run on an older NXE dash at 1080p, and the new Metro offering at both 720p and 1080p. As you can see when clicking on the thumbnails, just about all the detail is being resolved on the older front end, but the Metro dash's 720p and 1080p images are effectively identical in terms of core resolution.
Why would Microsoft do this, you ask? "'Metro' is positioning the Xbox 360 as a competitor against the next generation of Smart TVs we can expect to see appear this year," reports Digital Foundry, "and, via its new Video Marketplace apps, as a one-stop shop for video content on demand."
Interestingly, during the dashboard beta the complaint about video quality was reported repeatedly. All threads in relation to the complaint were either deleted or marked as fixed despite not fixing the problem, making the entire thing seem extremely shady. Microsoft did recently comment on the issue, claiming they're taking it under consideration. Something tells me they won't be considering it for too long.
Microsoft Phishing Scam Continues, but They're Trying!
In the never-ending saga of the Xbox LIVE FIFA 12 phishing scam, a 23 year-old Xbox Ambassador named Susan Taylor lost over $300, but thankfully had the money restored by Microsoft. Still, it does suggest that the scam is not only continuing, but that people may potentially be losing big money over a game they don't even play.
For those who don't remember, the scam involves the scammer obtaining a user's login info, buying a family gold pack that they then purchase Microsoft Points for the accounts. After buying apparently $300 worth of points, they set up new Xbox Live Gold accounts and deposits the points into the new accounts. Hackers then sell the accounts on the black market on the cheap.
Susan was able to track down one of the purchases of the loaded accounts, who revealed some helpful information about the scammer, as well as the website, which he described as a Polish EBay. Thankfully, Microsoft has decided to speak publically on Susan's situation, due to the popularity of the story.
"The online safety of Xbox Live members remains of the utmost importance, which is why we consistently take measures to protect Xbox Live against ever-changing threats," Microsoft said in an official statement. "However, we are aware that a handful of customers have experienced problems getting their accounts restored once they've reported an issue. We are working directly with those customers to restore their accounts as soon as possible and are reviewing our processes to ensure a positive customer support experience. While we do not ordinarily comment on specific cases, Microsoft can confirm that the account in question has been reinstated to its rightful owner and all unauthorized charges are being refunded in full."
Microsoft also points out that there has been no breach to Xbox LIVE's security, but that doesn't seem to be helping those affected by the scheme. While it's certainly not Microsoft's fault that the scam is going on, it still causes some people to question whether or not they want to risk losing that much money. This is where I remind you to use separate logins for separate accounts and all that, which is definitely true in a case like this. I hope that Microsoft is able to refund all of the customers affected by the scam, but they haven't made an official statement regarding any other case.
Does anybody actually know anybody who's had their money stolen from this scheme, or even worse had it happen to themselves? It'll be interesting if any official numbers are released once this whole thing has settled.
Gotham City Impostors Delayed
Due to the extensive feedback received during the console beta of Monolith's upcoming arcade title Gotham City Imposters, Warner Bros. has delayed the game a month, releasing in February. Originally scheduled for January 10, Warner Bros. has a pretty good reason, though;
Given the vast amount of feedback and data we received during our Beta, the Gotham City Impostors launch date is being moved to the February time frame. Your participation was tremendous. Many thanks for playing. Please stay tuned for more details in the coming weeks.
So it seems they're pushing the game back to make it better, something I think everybody can agree with. Sure, it sucks we'll have to wait a month, but it's better than waiting longer after the release of a subpar game. How's the beta going, for those involved?
The Digital Downloads Arcade Games
NFL Blitz (1200MP) Games on Demand
Backbreaker ($19.99)
Super Street Fighter IV ($29.99)
Signing Out
That does it for me this week. Be sure to check back next week as we discuss all of the latest Xbox 360 news, including releases, rumors and reviews! Also, don't forget to bookmark 411Mania! And a note to all of the Indie Game developers out there – if you have an upcoming title that's going to be released soon drop me a line at traceaber@gmail.com and let me know. I'll write a full review of your game to be posted on 411Mania.com, which is a great way to get your game promoted!
The metro dashboard was just launched to match their metro look on the phone and upcoming windows 8. There was very little thought about layout it seems, how to maximize content sales, and so on. It's fine but hardly groundbreaking.
Posted By: Wii60 (Guest) on January 15, 2012 at 12:20 PM
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