The quality of sound that comes through Xbox 360 headsets will be significantly improved when Microsoft updates the Xbox 360 this Fall.

The refresh, designed to coincide with the launch of Kinect, will upgrade the codec and audio infrastructure that underpins the quality of voice communication from Xbox 360 to Xbox 360, and should make for clear chat between gamers when they play online, Xbox Live Studios boss Jerry Johnson said at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival this afternoon.

"The codec we used when we first launched was a low bit rate codec and we stuck with that," Johnson explained.

"We launched and we said we required broadband. We required a 64k connection, which not many people think of as broadband any longer. But that was the minimum requirement to run the service at the time.

"It's time for us to move on. Especially if we want to think about broadening - a crackly headset on the top of your head – not what people think of when they talk about popular entertainment."

Microsoft introduced voice communication to the original Xbox with the November 2002 launch of Xbox Live.

The quality of sound has long been the focus of complaints from gamers, particularly those who favour team based multiplayer titles.

Some even prefer to use voice over internet protocol Skype to ensure every word is heard.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...ity-to-improve ...

Microsoft has reassured gamers that it remains committed to the hardcore as it broadens the appeal of the Xbox Live online platform.

The hardcore are "the best advocate" of the Xbox 360's movie, telly and music features, Xbox Live Studios boss Jerry Johnson told an audience at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival.

"I know there's a lot of controversy over, are you turning your back on the core gamer? Are you just focused on the Wii bunch? My answer to that is an emphatic no," he said.

"The reason I say that is because I realise that Live was built on the back of the core gamer. It was built to benefit the core gamer, and it was built solely focused on the core gamer when it was originally launched.

"We also know that is our best advocate to continue to grow our user base and grow the engagement with Live."

Johnson used the Sky Player, launched last year, as an example of how core gamers are helping casual gamers discover content on the Xbox 360.

"My wife never let me have an Xbox in the bedroom. Probably not a bad rule, but that was the rule. When Sky launched all of a sudden she was like, you can bring the Xbox in the bedroom. It's okay because I can watch movies on them.

"My wife probably would have never found out about Sky or wouldn't have known about it or wouldn't have even entertained the idea unless I had been there and shown her some of these things.

"We see this time and time again. Those are the people who are reaching out and sharing this with others.

"So, we are still squarely focused on the core, and building mechanics that appeal to the core. But also realising that is a path to actually reach up to the broader audience."

Xbox Live, launched on the original Xbox in November 2002, now enjoys around 25 million active members.

Microsoft will update all the applications currently running on the service around the time of the November launch of motion sensing add-on Kinect.

"Kinect, we believe, introduces the ability to interact with content in a way people haven't even imagined yet," Johnson said.

"There are a lot of different things you'll see that one might expect from Kinect, but some of the magic is going to come from the things that people don't expect."

At gamescom last week Microsoft announced that 60 Windows 7 phone games will be Live enabled and have access to Gamerscore, Achievements and Avatars.

Johnson said Xbox Live will continue to evolve beyond the Xbox 360.

"Expanding into other devices is key to what we're doing. Continuing to take Live broader than the console has always been part of the core concept."

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/20...e-of-xbox-live ...

Xbox Live Studios Soho general manager Jerry Johnson has equated the uptake of Sky Player for the Xbox 360 to that of a top-five retail game.

"If Sky was a title in the UK market, it would be one of the top played titles on an evergreen basis. It's not Call of Duty, but it's up there as one of the top five or ten titles on a consistent basis over time," said Johnson during a talk at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival today.

Microsoft launched the Sky Player, which allowed gamers to watch Sky Movies, Sky Sports and other marquee channels for an additional fee, in October last year. The service was temporarily suspended after it was crippled by unexpected demand on day one.

"It's doing really well," Johnson told sister site Eurogamer.net ahead of his Edinburgh presentation.

"One of the things we're really proud of is the uptake on the party modes, especially around live television. While we don't release specific numbers, we're seeing on a live programme double digit percentages of people watching are in rooms of more than two people.

"When we hit major events or live events like a Premier League football game, we can even see those numbers double. "It's a success, especially for a first run at this. As we start to work at [Kinect], we're going to open up the ability to communicate while watching television. It's a no brainer that this thing is is going to continue to take off."


Microsoft has promised more in-broadcast communication tools for Sky Player users
Johnson also maintained that this November's launch of the Kinect motion controller would not impact Live's dedication to core gamers. "I know there's a lot of controversy over, are you turning your back on the core gamer? Are you just focused on the Wii bunch? My answer to that is an emphatic no," he said.

"The reason I say that is because I realise that Live was built on the back of the core gamer. It was built to benefit the core gamer, and it was built solely focused on the core gamer when it was originally launched.

"We also know that is our best advocate to continue to grow our user base and grow the engagement with Live.. but also realising that is a path to actually reach up to the broader audience."

He went on to confirm that, despite this, Kinect would play a major part in the continued evolution of Live.

"Kinect, we believe, introduces the ability to interact with content in a way people haven't even imagined yet. There are a lot of different things you'll see that one might expect from Kinect, but some of the magic is going to come from the things that people don't expect."

The Xbox 360 itself would not be the sole home of Live, however. While attempts to launch the service on PC have been met with a poor response, at GamesCom last week Microsoft announced 60 Live-enabled games for its Windows 7-series smartphones.

"Expanding into other devices is key to what we're doing," said Johnson today. "Continuing to take Live broader than the console has always been part of the core concept."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...-not-abandoned ...

The PlayStation Move is now less than a month from hitting stores shelves, and it looks like some Sony execs are already busy starting to manage expectations. Speaking with Eurogamer this week, Sony Computer Entertainment senior vice president Ray Maguire chose to compare the Move's launch to that of the EyeToy for the PlayStation 2, saying that "exactly as with EyeToy in the PS2 days, it's a product that needs to be sampled. You need to get your hands on it. You need to understand it. You need to try it." Maguire further went on to say he's "not particularly" expecting "massive" day one sales, but that he expects sales to grow as word of mouth spreads. In other PlayStation news, Sony's Kaz Hirai seems to have effectively ruled out a download-only future for the eventual PS4 in an interview with MCV, with him saying that a "digital future is over ten years away." Hirai then went on to note that "we do business in parts of the world where network infrastructure isn't as robust as one would hope," and that "here's always going to be requirement for a business of our size and scope to have a physical medium." No word if that also applies to Sony's future handhelds as well.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/s...s-ps4-details/ ...

Stop us if you've heard this one before -- an Apple event is looming, and suddenly some cases turn up online that seem to nicely line up with the devices rumored to be announced. These latest examples come courtesy of Chinese case retailer X-Doria, and include a case for what appears to be a 4th-gen iPod touch with a camera, and one that's described as a case for a "nano 6G," but could seemingly also be for a new iPod shuffle with a touchscreen. Of particular note, the apparent iPod touch case seems to reveal a curved back more similar to the current model than the iPhone 4, while the nano / shuffle case looks to be a near perfect match for that 1.7-inch Apple touchscreen that mysteriously turned up in Taiwan last month. What does it all mean? There's less than a week until we know for sure.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/s...surface-onlin/ ...

Teiyu Goto is responsible for the design of the original PlayStation, PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 -- all very different-looking consoles, with one exception: the controller. This, too, was Goto's design, and in an interview with Famitsu (translated by 1UP) he shares some of its history, including the origin of its "handles" and the meaning behind the now-iconic symbols on its face buttons.

According to Goto, Sony management was initially resistant to the idea of the PS1's gamepad being too far removed from the design of Nintendo's SNES controller. "We wanted SNES gamers to upgrade to our system," Goto said of the corporate mindset at the time, "[management] said it had to be a standard type of design, or gamers wouldn't accept it." Goto disagreed, as did Sony's then-president, Norio Ohga. A pilot, Ohga liked Goto's prototype, which featured the now-standard handles, and made his feelings clear in an executive meeting. "They showed Ohga the flat controller again later and said that this is what they wanted, but Ohga was about to throw the model right back at them," Goto recalled, saying that Ohga's outrage let him know that the boss had his back -- and the handles stayed.

As for the button icons, Goto had an interesting explanation. While most people know -- or could guess -- that X and circle were meant to indicate "no" and "yes," respectively, Goto said that "the triangle refers to viewpoint; I had it represent one's head or direction," adding, "Square refers to a piece of paper; I had it represent menus or documents." These icons went on to represent the brand as a whole.

http://www.joystiq.com/2010/08/25/ps...hat-the-butto/ ...

We knew this was coming and here it is: the Netflix application, heretofore reserved only for iPad users, has trickled down to iPhone and iPod touch devices. Version 1.1.0 makes the TV show and movie streaming app universal -- so long as your universe is known as iOS -- and looks to massively expand the available audience for Netflix's mobile effort. What are you waiting for, go get it already.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/n...-latest-app-v/ ...

A little backstory: HP has an annual in-house event for its employees called TechCon, and this year a challenge was issued to the engineers to make the best webOS app (free phones were offered as incentive). Got that? Good. This week, HP CTO Phil McKinney had a brief chat with Pre Central over Twitter, where he revealed that the contest culminated in about 500 produced apps, and that "[they] are in the final stage of selecting 'best app' winners." Does that mean we should expect a large bump to the current catalog of programs? We can't say for sure, but we wouldn't be surprised if many of these are already available to download. Additionally, we can't say anything as for the overall quality of submissions. Edging closer to the 4,000-app milestone is great and all but not if it includes 250 different Angry Birds clones. Still, we're ever-hopeful and can't wait to see what exactly it was that came from the internal coding challenge.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/26/h...apps-says-cto/ ...

Wednesday next week Apple is hosting an international press event, taking place across the globe and linked by satellite. That likely means big news is immanent. Develop will of course be there.
Speculation is rife, and there's a strong chance it could be that Apple's answer to Xbox Live – the long awaited Game Centre – will make its debut along with the unveiling of iPhone OS 4.1.
John Gruber at Daring Fireball has alluded to the fact that an iPod of similar power to the iPhone 4 may also be annouced, and suggests that we may even see iTunes TV rentals, an Apple TV built on iOS, and perhaps an App Store for Apple TV.
The event kicks off on Wednesday. September 1st at 6pm GMT. Keep an eye on Devedop for more.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/3...e-set-to-debut ...