Bloomberg News reporter Dina Bass took to Twitter to deliver a confidant recalculation from Xbox's top dude, Don Mattrick. Microsoft revised its Christmas season Kinect sales forecast from 3 million to 5 million which, according to Bass, Mattrick says "would make Kinect the biggest Xbox product launch ever in terms of sales."

It would also dwarf the Xbox 360's 2005 holiday launch in which it sold 1.5 million units worldwide from November 22nd through December 31. Not impressed? It's also considerably more than the PlayStation 3's worldwide sales figures of 1.7 million units just one year later. Last, and perhaps more telling, is that the newly revised estimate also trumps the Wii's relatively impressive 3.19 million units sold worldwide during its first holiday season.

For an accessory, 5 million is a pretty staggering number for just a few short months on shelves. That is, if Microsoft can keep it on shelves and meet demand. Each one of the aforementioned consoles was met with severe holiday season shortages; to come out on top of this numbers game, it would seem that all Kinect has to do is be available.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/03/mi...more-than-the/ ...

The latest Xbox 360 Dashboard update didn't just make the Avatars taller and give you the ability to navigate its menus with your mind -- it also made the illicit enterprise of pirates just a little bit more difficult. According to Digital Foundry, the hardware now institutes a series of checks, which hackers refer to as "AP 2.5," that work in conjunction with "security sectors" embedded in the disc. If the checks come back negative, the player receives a "dirty disc" error and his or her console is flagged for permaban.

Pirates can hypothetically avoid these checks by not updating to the new firmware, though this will prevent them from playing on Xbox Live ... which kind of defeats the purpose of avoiding the permaban. Man, it's hard out there for a buccaneer.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/11/04/ne...racy-measures/ ...

Sad, dreary day at your place? Fret not, as the Boob Tube is just about to get even better. Hulu has just revealed a movement to get Hulu Plus stocked with more content and onto more devices, STAT. Making sure those words aren't empty, we're learning that all 2010 Sony BRAVIA HDTVs will today have access to the subscription programming service, with it bleeding over to Sony's various Blu-ray players, home theater systems, network media players and even the Dash -- yeah, that Dash -- in due time. In related news, Hulu will be soon yanking the invite requirement to get Hulu Plus on the PlayStation 3, and as of next week, any ole PlayStation Network member (as opposed to PlayStation Plus, as it stands today) will be able to grab it. 'Course, even those freeloaders will be forced to pony up $9.99 per month if they're interested in using it, but hey, it's not like Raising Hope is financed with pixie dust, right?

http://www.engadget.com/2010/11/04/h...sers-next-wee/ ...

PlayStation 3 users will get to experience a buffed-up version of Sniper: Ghost Warrior early next year, developer City Interactive has confirmed.

The FPS will be getting updated visuals and plenty of new content. Expect new singleplayer missions, bonus multiplayer maps, new multiplayer modes and new weapons.

"Sniper: Ghost Warrior was our most ambitious project to date and although it was extremely well-received by players, we wanted to ensure that the PS3TM version took the franchise to a higher level," CEO Marek Tyminski explained.

"With exclusive content and modes, we are eager to introduce the best sniper game on the market to PS3 owners sometime in Q1 next year."

It'll need all the extra bells and whistles it can get. The original Xbox 360 version was about as much fun as a vinegar eye bath.

City Interactive has not confirmed whether it intends to offer the new content to existing PC and Xbox 360 users.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...-ps3-in-sights ...

Kinect is every bit as accurate as a traditional controller, if not more so, claims Kinectimal's David Braben.

The Frontier Developments boss and Elite creator told Eurogamer, "People imagine that the analogue stick or D-pad on the controller is extremely accurate as we have got used to the way shooters control aiming with a gun, but that is only because the aiming is incremental. In other words, you are controlling the speed of movement of the gun sight, not the position directly.

"If you were to control the position directly with a controller, then it would be impossible to hit anything - with a D-pad there would only be nine positions - but Kinect is accurate enough to do that without having to drive a cursor around."

Braben went on to explain that correctly calibrating Kinect's controls for Kinectimals was a challenge.

"We had to deal with a lot of brand new issues not even to do with the technology.

"With a controller, a button press is a button press, but with body control, there is a huge range of body proportions and sizes you have to cope with, and some things scale in strange ways, but the up-side is the great range of subtlety that can be extracted from people's movements.

"In the earlier areas of Kinectimals we use some of the traditional gamer mechanics, like gentle auto-aim, to avoid frustration, but this is completely removed by the later areas – you are seeing the raw technology in action, and the accuracy is amazing."

Kinectimals was first announced at E3 in June. Its cutesy reveal - see below - was the subject of much derision from certain corners of the gaming community, but the finished product has turned out rather well, scoring a very respectable 7/10 from Eurogamer's Keza MacDonald.

"It's true that within the hardened gamer press the reception was mixed at first," recalls Braben, "largely because we revealed a very limited taster of part of the experience at E3, when in fact the game is a story-based adventure that encompasses some great Kinect experiences.

"At E3, there was a great deal of positivity too, especially in the wider world. I remember at the show seeing the coverage on the front page of the CNN website showing our tiger - I thought it was great!"

Braben was keen to stress that he doesn't see the game as a kids-only proposition. He believes core gamers should approach Kinectimals with an open mind.

"It wasn't all that long ago - at least that's what it feels like to me - that there were the howls of protest moving from keyboard-and-mouse to controller for shooters – and some have still not accepted it! So, apart from these truly dyed-in-the-wool naysayers who find it hard to accept anything new, I think most will gradually be won over.

"With Kinectimals we have a game with a learning curve that allows a wide range of ages and abilities to share the experience of bonding with and adventuring with a wild animal. There is a relaxed, feel-good ambience to the game that is very accessible and inclusive.

"I hope it will appeal to a lot of people, core gamers included – but no game is truly for everyone; none of LostWinds, RollerCoaster Tycoon, even Elite, appealed to everyone. If your thing is first person shooters and nothing else, then perhaps Kinectimals is not for you.

Whether it's your scene or not, Braben believes Frontier's new game deserves your respect.

"It is truly heart-warming to see children's reaction when playing the game, and to see those who were previously negative or aloof about games in general, whether it is my parent's generation, or partners that haven't yet engaged with them, getting drawn in to play.

"It is the sort of game we can be proud of as gamers."

Find out for yourself when the game launches for Xbox 360 on 10th November.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...as-control-pad ...

Microsoft might compare Kinect's arrival to that of a console, but HMV won't open any shops at midnight to welcome it to the UK next Tuesday.

"We are focusing on in-store demo events rather than midnight launches as we feel these will better show off Kinect's amazing capabilities to the public," HMV explained to Eurogamer.

Those comments arrive moments after GAME confirmed overwhelming support for Kinect's UK launch, promising to open a combined 450 shops at midnight across the country.

With HMV out of the picture, GAME is a cert to be named Microsoft's official UK launch partner later today. The latter told us an announcement was coming soon.

Using our Sherlock Holmes head we can also deduce that GAME on Oxford Street will therefore be the likely target for a special Kinect launch bonanza.

This won't be as spectacular as last night's Times Square, New York Kinect extravaganza, mind you.

Kinect is on sale now in North America, and arrives in the UK and Europe on 10th November.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...idnight-launch ...

Last night Microsoft hired out New York's iconic Times Square to launch Kinect to North Americans. And with such an audacious event came the need to put on a bloody good show. By all accounts, that's exactly what happened.

Kotaku took pictures of rapper/crooner Ne-Yo leading hundreds of dancers in a choreographed routine. You could say he was the controller. Those pictures also showed how not only all traffic through Times Square was blocked for the evening, but how all of Times Square's gigantic televisions flaunted Kinect-based advertising throughout.

Xbox Live's Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb shared pictures via Twitter of the Kinect stockpile moments before launch and Xbox 360 boss Don Mattrick selling his new motion-sensing camera to the first person in line.

The queue was said to stretch for three blocks.

Microsoft US bigwig Aaron Greeberg was astounded by what he saw. "Kinect has taken over all of Times Square... Never seen anything like it," he tweeted. He too shared a picture from the event, this time of a Kinect advert on a Times Square telly.

Website Broadway World also shared some snaps, this time of surprise guest, actor Mark Wahlberg. He looked muscular in grey.

Kinect is on sale now in North America. Expect statistics and a Microsoft PR cacophony when they wake up.

Microsoft has set a target of 5 million Kinect sales by the end of 2010. (What we need now is a Blue Peter-style fund raising tube-graph to keep track of Kinect's progress on.)

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...launch-go-well ...

Kazunori Yamauchi of Polyphony Digital will speak at D.I.C.E. 2011, along with members of 5th Cell, Booyah and Cerny games, plus film-maker John Stevenson.

The event takes place in Las Vegas, 9-11 February, 2011. Both the Interactive Achievement Awards ceremony and the Indie Games Challenge will be taking place as part of the event.

"The D.I.C.E. Summit is the pre-eminent stage for creativity within the world of interactive entertainment," said academy of interactive arts & sciences president, Martin Rae.

"We are pleased to feature some of the leading creative minds from the whole spectrum of interactive entertainment - film to traditional console games to casual games - come to share their philosophy and approach to producing entertainment."

A full list of confirmed speakers follows:

John Stevenson - film-maker, co-director of Kung Fu Panda and previously Head of Story at PDI/Dreamworks overseeing Shrek, Shrek 2 and Madagascar
Kazunori Yamauchi - President, Polyphony Studios, professional race car driver and producer of the Gran Turismo series
Mark Cerny - President, Cerny Games, a true veteran of the video game industry and was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences' Hall of Fame in 2010
Jeremiah Slaczka - Creative Director and CEO, 5th Cell and Joseph Tringali - General Manager and COO, responsible for the multi-million unit selling franchises Drawn to Life and Scribblenauts
Keith Lee - CEO and co-founder, Booyah, responsible for such popular casual games like MyTown and Nightclub City

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...r-d-i-c-e-2011 ...

UK Microsoft marketing chief Stephen McGill has claimed the Xbox maker is not looking to retroactively add Kinect support to existing first party titles.

However, he acknowledged that third party developers could do so if they wished.

"What we're looking at from a first-party point of view is how we can bring new gaming experiences to life," he told GamesIndustry.biz in an interview published today. "We're not looking too much at retrospective stuff,

"That's down to the developers to be honest. I'd imagine that, technically if that's something that they want to do, they can certainly look at that."

While no such projects have been revealed as yet, McGill claimed that "I'm not sure what other developers are going to do."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...the-developers ...