via Eurogamer


The spring Xbox Live update may be just around the corner, and ready to introduce support for "motion sensor devices".

That's according to a list of features leaked to Kotaku that originated from a supposed internal source at Microsoft.

There's no date attached to the leaked spring feature list; last year it went up on 6th June and we'd heard about it as early as April.

Most of the 80 bullet-point tweaks are rather trivial, but a couple caught our eye: "Option to donate Microsoft Points to anybody with a Windows Live ID," and, "Calibration options for motion sensor devices."

The first because we are greedy and the latter because, er, what is this "motion sensor", eh? It could, of course, be some sort of Live Vision support, and not necessarily the bizarre Wii remote-alike device blueprints that popped up on the Internet in April.


The full and rather lengthy list can be found below:


Xbox LIVE

• Option to delay sign-in to Xbox LIVE upon booting console (to allow user to set Online Status).
• Option to promote Child Account from Family Settings.
• Disallow Child Accounts (over 18) to override Family Settings by launching Privacy Settings through a title.
• Option in Family Settings for Child Accounts to enable child-oriented/non-mature advertisements.
• Introduce a group chat (4) for Private Chat and conferences through Video Chat.
• Support to indicate media being watched to gamercard status (video content from Marketplace only).
• Extend height for Bio field in Personal Profile, easier navigation through text.
• More fields present in Personal Profile - recent achievements, interests, games, movies, links, custom section.
• Compact Personal Profile for new fields (navigating to field will open it up).
• Mandatory option to delete duplicate titles from gamercard (excludes Games for Windows - LIVE). User disconnected from Xbox LIVE when booting any title until action complete.
• Option to remove payment information from gamertag.
• New payment methods for international users.
• Download History on Account Management better organized - games, genre, type, download date, miscellaneous.
• Long descriptions of items on Marketplace can be scrolled using right stick.
• Better organization of free content on Marketplace.
• Option to 'ping' when testing connection.
• Allow re-connection to Xbox LIVE if Ethernet cable is re-inserted whilst powered on.
• New strip colors available to developers, staff gamercards.
• New corner icon available to ambassadors.
• Re-introduce Messages button for Inside Xbox updates only.
• Option to store up to 10 messages permanently on server (excludes invites, status messages).
• Increase character limit for text messages between friends only.
• Option to disable invites from non-friends or all players.
• Option to disable invites from titles not on gamercard (excludes demos).
• Option to have smaller items moved up in Active Downloads.
• Automatically re-connect to Xbox LIVE if disconnected unexpectedly (set intervals).
• Option to download gamer picture (if available) from a gamercard being viewed.
• Display random tips to replace static text on Xbox LIVE and Games blades.
• New button on Marketplace for optional dashboard features - uses Storage Device memory.
• Option to donate Microsoft Points to anybody with a Windows Live ID.
• Option to purchase Membership for charities (includes benefits).
• Integrate file-sharing for selected titles on Xbox LIVE and Games for Windows - LIVE.
• Disable notifications to friends of user repeatedly signing into service (set period).
• Option to see 'snippet' of text message in notification.
• Windows Live Mail integration - includes support for Xbox LIVE Vision.
• Web feeds integration - text, images, audio. Includes support for specific item codes on Marketplace.
• Option to display gamer picture or standard picture as display picture in Windows Live Messenger.
• Support for headset, Xbox LIVE Vision in Windows Live Messenger.
• Support for limited 'winks' that display on dashboard interface. Option to disable 'winks' and 'nudges' added.
• Notifications separate from Windows Live Messenger to Xbox 360 notifications.
• Disable multiple languages from being used in any Xbox LIVE editable fields.

Games

• Option to delete titles from gamercard with 0 gamerscore and 0 achievements (excludes some titles that will be re-added to launch another title).
• Organize My Games at the Games Library section better (includes disc-based titles) - sort by genre, platform (Games for Windows - LIVE), percentage completion.
• Support to display friends leaderboards for disc-based titles.
• Show dates

...

via Games Industry


Sony has reported that for the financial year ended March 31, 2008 it sold 9.24 PlayStation 3 consoles globally - up 5.63 million on the previous year - while software sales jumped by 44.6 million to hit 57.9 million across the 12 months.

Meanwhile the PlayStation Portable also performed well in terms of hardware sales, adding 4.36 million units over last year to bring it a total annual sales figure of 13.9 million.

The PlayStation 2, despite its ageing hardware, still shifted 13.73 million units - a decrease year-on-year of 980,000, but a strong performance nonetheless.

In terms of software sales, the PS2's enormous installed base led to sales of 154 million units, down 39.5 million on the year but still almost triple the other PlayStation platforms.

The PSP only showed minimal growth, however, adding just 800,000 games over last year to a 55.5 million total for the year to March 31. ...

via Eurogamer


Criterion has fixed the frame-rate issues in the 360 version of its Bogart Burnout Paradise patch and re-released it to the masses.

The problems began on 28th April, prompting the developer to recall the update and get its wrench out.

Bogart is the first of several planned updates for the game, with Cagney due at the end of June, Davis due in August, and Eastwood out in the autumn.

Cagney will bring with it a Hunter Olympus car, fresh Freeburn modes, 70 new timed multi-part challenges, liveries, custom soundtracks for the PS3, plus plenty of bug fixes and updates.

Davis is our favourite because it introduces motorbikes, and also adds a day and night cycle to Paradise City.

Eastwood, on the other hand, will be the first of the island updates you can get to from Paradise City. Head over to the official site for the first aerial footage of it.

These downloadable additions a part of the much talked about ongoing commitment Criterion has to its Burnout Paradise community. ...

via IGN


Atari today announced the forthcoming European release of NAMCO BANDAI Games' Family Trainer exclusively for Wii. Family Trainer lets all the family and friends get physical by engaging the whole body in a variety of easy-to-understand, fast-paced and wildly entertaining activities. Family Trainer is scheduled for European release in September 2008.

The game includes the specially designed Family Trainer mat controller which, when combined with the Wii Remote, lets players get totally physical in a series of crazed challenges. Unlike other games for the Wii which only focus on the arms, Family Trainer gets the feet involved too for total body gameplay. Simple controls and intuitive play make the game easy to just pick up and play, and let players of any age get involved, get physical and have maximum fun.

There are over a dozen frantic single and multiplayer challenges to choose from all based on outdoor challenges amusingly interpreted for the world of Family Trainer, such as river rafting, mine karting, log jumping, rope skipping and much more. The activities take place in a variety of colourful locations including jungle forests full of ancient ruins, a haunted mansion complete with hordes of zombies, and a fairytale world where riding on toys and floating amongst the clouds is the order of the day.

Players can challenge friends or family members on the same mat, or cooperate together, for example trying to balance a runaway mine kart as it hurtles round a gravity defying track. Players can track their progress and set new records for their friends and family to beat, bringing a dose of healthy competition into the madcap mix. ...

via Joystiq


Curious to see what sort of "trouble" is brewing in Viva Piñata's candy-colored paradise? The six screenshots Microsoft released this morning don't offer many clues (Graveyards? Volcanoes? Evil tiki guys?) but should be enough to whet your appetite if you're eager to get back to Piñata Island.


Screenshots ...

via Computer and Video Games


A recently-released PS3 promo video offers a glimpse of what could be the next iteration of the PS Store, packing a search feature and video content.

At one point in the ad, screens of the PS Store whoosh past, revealing a search feature along the bottom panel of the Store that isn't in the current version.

In another fly-by shot, it also shows a video download page donning the logos of TV networks NBC, HBO, Cartoon Network (yes!) and MTV, among others. Could this be the first glimpse of what Sony has in store for PS3 video downloads?

Although no announcement has been made, Sony is expected to reveal plans for a video-on-demand system for PS3 for launch this year.

Check out the snapshots below taken from the trailer courtesy of eagle-eyed Scrawlfx.com, where you can also see the full, otherwise unexciting video of a guy acting like a complete plonker.


Screenshots ...

via Eurogamer


Since you've already stared lovingly at the European WiiWare launch line-up, some of which are due out on 20th May, we thought you might like a bit more information on each of the games. Prices listed are based on US and Japanese equivalents, as Nintendo was unable to confirm European pricing when we asked.

• Dr. Mario & Germ Buster (Nintendo) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)

Like a semi-sick man wandering barefoot around a British hospital, Dr. Mario has picked up some new friends - although support for Miis, online gameplay via Wi-Fi Connection, the ability to share a game demo with friends via WiiConnect24 and a new Germ Buster mode are probably less fatal than MSRA. Otherwise it's the classic Nintendo puzzle formula: kill off viruses in a bottle-shaped gameplay area by using pills to create lines of a single colour. There's support for up to four players, two locally.

• Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King (Square Enix) - 1500 Wii Points (GBP 10.50 / EUR 15)

As you know if you read our roundup of US WiiWare titles last month, My Life as a King is more of a construction game than an RPG, tasking players with rebuilding a young king's homeland using the Wiimote and some hired help. It also promises to have "Add-on data download" according to Nintendo's press bumf.

• LostWinds (Frontier) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)

Developed here in the UK, LostWinds is a platform game where you guide a young hero around a 2.5D world on gusts of wind, solving puzzles as you go. We've been playing this already and think it's wicked, and you can find our LostWinds review elsewhere on the site. The best of the launch games? If it isn't then that's good news for whoever's better.

• Pirates: The Key of Dreams (Oxygen)

A "frantic nautical shoot-'em-up" in the words of its creators, Oxygen Interactive, you play as a Navy Captain working undercover as a pirate trying to hunt down and kill Blackbeard. You rescue castaways to man your ship, upgrade weaponry and do other things like cartography. There's also local multiplayer for up to four people and a "turbo" mode, which seems like something other pirate games are missing.

• Pop (Nnooo) - 700 Wii Points (GBP 5 / EUR 7 approx)

Another game we checked out last month, in Pop you simply point the Wiimote at the screen to pop bubbles. Less simply, you're doing this against the clock, and every miss shaves off seconds, and there are power-ups, and chain reactions to master. This has four-player support too - just hook up some more Wiimotes - and there are online leaderboards and messaging via WiiConnect24.

• Star Soldier R (Hudson) - 800 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)

Obviously eager not to be typecast after releasing 738 TurboGrafx shoot-'em-ups on Virtual Console, Hudson's first WiiWare release is a shoot-'em-up where you try and set a high score with a two- or five-minute time limit. Apparently it's got "tons of replayability", ship upgrades and online leaderboards, but it's only for single players. We won't pretend this matters to us, since we hate everyone

• Toki Tori (Two Tribes)

Do you remember Toki Tori on the Game Boy Color? Nor do I, but Wikipedia says it's a platform/puzzle game where you try and rescue chicks scattered around four big environments. The WiiWare version by the same developer, Two Tribes, sounds much the same, but uses the Wiimote for controls and has 70 levels, WiiConnect24 message board functionality and the option of letting a second player draw hints on the screen with a Wiimote to help you out. Eurogamer actually has a system a lot like this where we punch each other and withhold wages whenever Bertie makes spelling mistakes.

• TV Show King (Gameloft) - 1000 Wii Points (GBP 7 / EUR 10 approx)

Last and - call us cynics - quite probably least, TV Show King is a "fun TV trivia show". We bet. Select a Mii and answer questions in competition with your family. There's more than 3,000 general-knowledge questions promising "an alternately serious and hilarious game", perhaps by asking who killed JFK and then asking if his bum looked big in it.

Look out for reviews of all of those very soon. ...

via Eurogamer


Broadband company PlusNet has said the day after Grand Theft Auto IV launched it saw its "two busiest ever hours for gaming in the UK".

The ISP watched 90,000 of you playing it online at one point, which is more than a third of its total subscriber base.

"The demand to play Grand Theft Auto IV online has been absolutely phenomenal. Our broadband usage figures have gone through the roof as customers battle it out on the streets of Liberty City," said Neil Armstrong, product director at PlusNet - over the moon and perhaps not for the first time.

"Our usage data shows that the day after release we had the two busiest ever hours for gaming in the UK.

"Gaming accounted for approximately 7.6 per cent of all downloads in that hour - we'd normally expect to see between 3.5 per cent and 5 per cent by gaming around that time of day," he added.

Between 8pm and 9pm on 30th April - the day after release - usage shot up by 30 percent on the previous day. The "unprecedented demand" continued early into the morning, with 4am to 7am traffic up by 35 percent.

The previous highest hour for online gaming witnessed by PlusNet was between 9pm and 10pm on 4th November, 2007. We're not sure what was special about this date; it was a few days before Call of Duty 4 came out, and the Sunday after Tabula Rasa and Hellgate came out. ...

via Computer and Video Games


A couple of rumours have appeared in the latest issue of US mag Game Informer about Microsoft's future plans for the next Xbox. And there's some good news for Achievement fanboys if this particular rumour does turn out to be true.

Of course we won't know if it's true for a few years yet, it's not like MS would confirm the stories. But those Xbox 360 gamers who pride themselves in having a MASSIVE gamerscore over a car, mortgage, family and cat, should know that all their hard work might not be for nothing.

Yes, as funny as that sounds, Game Informer's rumour section says that MS will have your achievements carry over.

File this one under 'rumour' for the time being but there are at least seven people in the office who said 'awesome' when we told them. ...