£30 and £20 shaved off UK Premiums and Cores respectively

From Friday, 24th August 2007, new estimated retail pricing will come into effect for Xbox 360 in the UK. The Xbox 360, which includes a 20GB hard drive and one wireless controller, will be reduced by £30 to carry an estimated retail price of £249.99. The entry-level Xbox 360 Core console, will be reduced by £20 to carry an estimated retail price of £179.99.

Xbox 360 Elite will carry an estimated retail price of £299.99 when it launches in the UK this Friday, 24th August.

Worth point out that Bioshock will be launching the same day as the price drop!

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Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (UU’s)
1 Gears of War
2 BioShock (Demo)
3 STRANGLEHOLD (Demo)
4 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas
5 Guitar Hero II
6 Madden NFL 08
7 Forza Motorsport 2
8 Call Of Duty 3
9 Track and Field
10 Oblivion

Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Track and Field
2 Hexic 2
3 Ecco the Dolphin
4 Marathon: Durandal
5 Spyglass Board Games
6 Bomberman LIVE
7 Sonic The Hedgehog
8 3D Ultra™ Minigolf Adventures
9 Golden Axe
10 Carcassonne

Original Xbox Top Live Games
1 Halo 2
2 Battlefield 2: MC
3 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
4 Counter-Strike
5 Madden NFL 07
6 Call of Duty 3
7 Splinter Cell Chaos
8 Madden NFL 08
9 PGR 2
10 Conker: Live Reloaded

These lists are based on global unique users connected to Xbox Live or in the case of Arcade, full versions purchased this week. If the Xbox 360 list and the original Xbox list were combined, then Gears of War continues to be the top Xbox Live title.
The arcade list is based on full versions purchased.

via majornelson.com ...

The GameSpot News Blog writes about Matt Richtel of the New York Times blogged about the reasons behind differences in the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 editions of some games. Later he revisited the topic after hearing back from EA about the issue.


Its worth pointing out that the same tactics were used in the last Gen when PS2 games sometimes got prioritized over Xbox games. Does this mean the tide is turning? Something for the Fanboys to fight over

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Introductory gameplay video now available from Codemasters


The story:
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Codemasters have revealed, with the new free downloadable content for Overlord, gamers will be able to go head to head with an all-new split screen multiplayer mode. The mode is soon to be available as a free content download for Xbox 360 via Xbox Live Marketplace.

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NAMCO BANDAI Games America announced that they have released the first official Beautiful Katamari demo on the Xbox LIVE, today. The fun and totally addictive demo is available starting today for download and will have Katamari fans spinning with delight as it gives them a sneak peak at what’s to come in Beautiful Katamari when it releases later this Fall on Xbox 360.

Unfortunately it's only available in north America (USA, Canada and Mexico) ...

Activision today announced details surrounding new downloadable content for Guitar Hero II on the Xbox 360 . Guitar Hero fans now have the opportunity to download three original recordings from The Black Parade album from My Chemical Romance, beginning today, costing 500 Microsoft Points.

My Chemical Romance track pack includes the following master recordings:

· Teenagers
· Famous Last Words
· This is How I Disappear

The three My Chemical Romance tracks available for download can be found on their latest platinum-selling album, The Black Parade. ...

Microsoft announced at the Gamefest 2007 (Dream-Build-Play winners ) effectively immediately, some game content published by Microsoft Game Studios and owned by Microsoft is now available for noncommercial use by consumers. Under a license similar to the Creative Commons license, consumers may now use gameplay footage, screen shots and other gameplay elements from popular Microsoft Game Studios titles such as the “Halo” franchise, “Forza Motorsport” and “Age of Empires” to express their own imagination and creativity. Details on the game content usage rules have been posted at http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/developer/rules.htm along with samples of permissible and nonpermissible use.

Does this mean you can make homebrew games based on MS franchises? Well they are a few strict rules. Firstly it only applies where MS owns the complete copy right:

* Age of Empires
* Flight Simulator
* Forza Motorsport
* Halo: Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3
* Kameo
* Perfect Dark Zero
* Project Gotham Racing
* Rise of Nations
* Shadowrun
* Viva Piñata

Things you can't I do?

* You can’t reverse engineer our games to access the assets or otherwise do things that the games don’t normally permit in order to create your Items.
* You can’t use Game Content to create pornographic or obscene Items, or anything that contains vulgar, racist, hateful, or otherwise objectionable content.
* You can’t sell or otherwise earn anything from your Items. We will let you have advertising on the page with the Item on it, but that’s it. That means you can’t sell it, post it on a site that requires subscription or other fees, solicit donations of any kind (even by PayPal), use it to enter a contest or sweepstakes, or post it on a page you use to sell other items (even if those other items have nothing to do with Game Content or Microsoft).
* You can’t use the soundtracks or audio effects from the original game. We often license those from third parties and don’t have the rights to pass them on to you.
* You can’t infringe anyone’s IP rights in your Item, even if the IP rights being infringed don’t belong to Microsoft. Among other things that means you can’t use any of Microsoft’s trademarked logos or names except in the ways described in the pages linked from www.microsoft.com/trademarks.
* You can’t add to the game universe or expand on the story told in the game with “lost chapters” or back story or anything like that.
* You can’t grant anyone the right to build on your creations. We don’t mind if other people help you out, but you have to be clear with them that it’s not you giving permission, it’s us. (That’s how we make sure everyone plays by the same rules.)

So what does this mean? Well it could mean that we are now allowed to make "fan games" based on MS franchises, as long as you don't abuse the IP and you carefull how use the trademarked logos or names. Also its worth point out: "We can revoke this limited use license at any time and for any reason", so they can change there minds at any time, but I would guess MS are just making sure that this does not bite them in the ass at some stage.

So, anyone up for homebrew Halo?

thanks to yaustar for the heads-up


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At Gamefest 2007, the annual Microsoft Game Technology Conference, MS today announced winners of its Dream-Build-Play game development contest.

Tied for first place were David Flook of Ontario, Canada, and James Silva of New York with their respective games: “Blazing Birds,” an action-packed, robotic sports game modeled after the game of badminton, and “The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai,” a highly stylized game of mayhem and revenge. For their accomplishments, Flook and Silva were offered publishing contracts with Xbox LIVE Arcade, $10,000 each and several other prizes.


Steve Olofsson of Sweden and Daniel McGuire of the United Kingdom received honors as runners-up for their games: “Gravitron Ultra” and “Yo Ho Kablammo!” respectively. Because of the amazing creativity demonstrated by these top four winners, the Xbox LIVE Arcade team also extended invitations to publish on Xbox LIVE Arcade to Olofsson and McGuire, along with $5,000 and other prizes.

A total of 16 others were recognized with third-place honors. More than 4,500 members of the gaming community from more than 100 countries enrolled in the Dream-Build-Play challenge. Final results have been posted on the Dream-Build-Play Web site ...