Microsoft announced yesterday that more than 10 million Kinect motion-sensing gaming add-ons were sold since its launch. That put it at the top of the charts as the fastest-selling consumer device of all time. Well, that claim is now a bit more validated as the Guinness Record folks officially certified the number and awarded the Kinect its very own place in the next version of the Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition book. Guinness World Records points out that the Kinect edged out both the iPhone and the iPad to earn this title. Gamers > Apple fanboys. [Guinness World Records via Techland (Hi Doug!)] → Read More
A Web site that illegally generated Microsoft Points has been shut down, but not before costing Redmond a cool $1.2 million in the process. Hackers had discovered an algorithm that would, when called upon, generate Microsoft Points codes at 160 points a clip. → Read More
Looking for a new headset for your 360 audio pleasures? You might have heard of the Chimaera when it was announced back at CES. They weren’t quite fully baked back then, but they’re ready for your dollar now. I just hope you’re well-provided with said dollars, because these wireless surround sound headphones ain’t cheap. → Read More
Last week saw a full-on Mad Catz arcade stick for the upcoming Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and this week we have something a little less conspicuous.(Not everyone wants to store a big arcade stick around the house.) It’s the Marvel Edition Versus Fighting Pad, from Performance Designed Products. If nothing else it looks pretty good, not some slapped-together thing designed to make a quick buck. → Read More
It looks like there will be a Halo: Combat Evolved re-make after all. So says mighty Joystiq. It’ll be available on November 15, 2011, 10 years to the day after the game’s original release for the Xbox. Oh, happy day! → Read More
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 comes out in two weeks—woo!—and that means it’s time to throw your standard-issue controller in the trash and pony up for a proper arcade stick. Mad Catz has one that may interest you called the Marvel Vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds Arcade FightStick: Tournament Edition. The name is quite the mouthful, yes. → Read More
Here’s more evidence that regular people have zero time for things like Google TV, Boxee, and Roku, if only because they’re too complicated for their own good. Hill Holiday, a “caffeine-fueled ad agency,” asked five Boston-area families to participate in a cord-cutting experiment. For one week each family was asked to forgo traditional cable TV in favor of one of the following devices: Apple TV, Google TV, Boxee Box, Xbox 360, and Roku. These devices, of course, are the premier devices for people looking to break free of their cable company while still being able to enjoy television. And how did it turn out for these five families? → Read More
The long-awaited Dreamcast collection for the Xbox 360 and PC now has a release date: February 22. The collection includes Sonic Adventure, Crazy Taxi, Space Channel 5: Part 2 (ha!), and Sega Bass Fishing. No price available just yet. → Read More
If you’re a Flash developer who’s been dying to get a little Kinect love, raise your hand! Yes! Look at all those hands. You guys are awesome.
We’ve seen a lot of Kinect hacks, but so far (they tell me) they’ve all been pretty much put together in C, and while we do talk trash about Flash a lot, I can see it working as a great rapid-prototyping option for a UI designer looking to put together something in Kinect, or a game developer wanting to try out a concept before coding it up from scratch. And Blitz has put together a tool for doing just that. → Read More
It’s the end of the year, and that means many publications are rolling out their annual “best of” list. I don’t know if *we’re* doing anything along those lines, but I *do* have a bone to pick with 1UP. They’ve a delightful little list of 10 things the Xbox 360 did to change gaming forever. You already know most of the list before reading it: Achievement Points, Microsoft Points (1UP calls them “convenient” to use across Microsoft’s various services, as if dollars can’t be used in exchange for goods and services…), Kinect, and general entertainment use (things like Netflix streaming). But the one thing that has my dander up? That the Xbox 360 ushered in an era of HD gaming. Ha! → Read More
Timed exclusivity strikes again. Major Nelson says on his latest podcast that the first DLC map pack for Call of Duty: Black Ops, entitled First Strike (/me rolls eyes), will be available exclusively for the Xbox 360 on February 1. If you were foolish enough to buy the game on other platforms—that is the message Microsoft is trying to send with these timed exclusives, right, that the 360 is the place to do your gaming, so you’d be silly to patronize other platforms?—you’ll have to wait another month. Shucks. → Read More
Now available on an Xbox 360 console near you: Quake Arena Arcade. It looks to be a fairly straightforward port of Quake Live (which is to say, a fairly straightforward port of Quake III), but this time you’ll have to pay 1,200 Microsoft Points for the privilege. Then you have to convince yourself that playing the game with a console controller isn’t anything to be ashamed of—easier said then done. → Read More
There’s two big stories coming out of November’s NPD numbers. The first is that Microsoft somehow managed to sell more Xbox 360s than Nintendo sold Wiis, with Microsoft selling 1.37 million to Nintendo’s 1.27 million. That’s probably the result of the Kinect. The second is that, yes, Call of Duty: Black Ops sold a whopping 8.4 million units. Good on Activision, swimming in piles of coin. → Read More
Microsoft certainly used a lot of words at some Credit Suisse technology conference yesterday, but only a few of them are worth relaying here. The main thing that its Interactive Entertainment Division CEO, Dennis Durkin, said that a whopping 50 percent of Xbox Live users actually pay the $60 per year for Xbox Live. There’s 25 million Xbox Live subscribers, so you’re looking at something like 12.5 million Xbox Live Gold subscribers. How many of these 12.5 million people aren’t jerks? That’s all I want to know. → Read More
Now here’s a juicy rumor. Is someone remaking Halo: Combat Evolved? That would be simultaneously neat and depressing. Neat in that, yeah, I’d like to see what Halo: Combat Evolved looks like at modern resolutions and with textures larger than thimbles. Depressing in that, jeez, it’s come to this? The Hollywoodization of the video game business continues. Of course, Microsoft gave the old standby “We have nothing to announce at this time.” Certainly doesn’t like a denial to me… → Read More
A mighty impressive 2.5 million Kinects have been sold so far. An even mightier impressive 4.1 Sony Moves have been sold, but that’s been available since September. Translation? People, for whatever reason, are still enthralled with motion control. And here I thought people got their rocks off with Wii Bowling a few years back, but apparently not. → Read More
I recently purchased Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on Xbox Live. My friend has it and we wanted to have a coop campaign marathon. It didn’t work and that’s not all of it. → Read More
Well this is potentially huge. A Nielsen survey says that more kids this holiday season are interested in iOS devices than traditional consoles. You know what this means: time to throw your PS3s and Xbox 360s into the village pyre. → Read More
Microsoft has sold many Xbox 360 consoles, but apparently only 60 percent of them are used for gaming. The remaining 40 percent of consoles are used for other, just-as-fun things, like watching Netflix and tweeting <opie & Anthony's Bobo sweet nothings. Mhmm. So said a Microsoft exec at a digital entertainment conference. → Read More
