Microsoft’s new Kinect fitness initiative goes live today in the US.
Kinect PlayFit takes the form of a new dashboard for Xbox 360 that keeps track of your efforts in compatible Kinect titles, aggregating all of the information in a single resource.
Confirmed currently compatible games include Dance Central 2, Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012 and Kinect Star Wars, The Verge reports.
PlayFit will also offer additional Achievements and Avatar Awards as well as online leaderboards.
The service is expected to roll out to other non-US territories by the end of the week.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/kinec...s-in-us/099297 ...

If you’re looking to replace the hard drive in your Xbox 360 without just buying an official unit, you may be out of luck. There is a tool which will let you do it if you are using aWestern Digital drive as the replacement. But if your new drive is a Seagate this tool will not work. [Darth Circuit] set out to make his Seagate work in the Xbox 360, but his manual changes ended up bricking the drive because of just one little error.
The tool that does this with WD drives is called HddHackr. [Darth] started his quest by finding out what the program actually does. In order to stand in for the original drive the new one must have the same model number, serial number, LBA, and firmware revision. Once these values are changed in a binary file it is written to the drive at a specific location. He changed these values on the drive itself, and got pretty far. That is until he tried a new command which ended up locking him out of the drive. Right now it’s pretty much a brick but we hope someone can pick up where he left off and turn this work into something useful for others. Good luck!
http://hackaday.com/2012/07/10/brick...n-an-xbox-360/ ...

Both the PS4 and Xbox 720 will fail if they do not reject physical media in favour of digital distribution, the co-founder of Codemasters has boldly claimed.
In what amounts to a scathing attack on games retail, David Darling stated: “Sony and Microsoft cannot let the retailers dictate game prices going forwards if they want to break free from the current over-priced model, their next consoles, PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 need to be digital only, or they will fail.
“Consoles have become like dinosaurs heading for extinction as their natural retail habitat begins to change. These ancient beasts must now adapt to a new environment where platforms like Steam, Facebook and Apple’s App Store are pushing innovation.
“The industry is transitioning from boxed to digital games. Physical media like DVD is dying out and gaming is rapidly moving to digital distribution. If hardware manufacturers such as Sony and Microsoft do not manage this transition soon, they will be overtaken and left behind by companies who are embracing digital distribution wholly and completely.
“If the next generation consoles have media drives like DVD to keep distributors and retailers happy so they can sell physical product this will make the machines uncompetitive. They will not be able to compete on price. The retailers will say to Sony and Microsoft “you can’t sell game X at retail for $60 and then sell it in your App Store for $2.” However, console-makers will need to sell games for $2 or else they will not be competitive with Apple.”
What must not be forgotten, however, is that Darling does have a vested interested – he is currently the CEO of digital games firm Kwalee.
Why Darling believes that big-budget core games and smaller-scale digital titles can co-exist is uncertain. He also does not address the fact that the type of software that is currently predominant on console would take an age for consumers to download.
Indeed, he even attacks those who may still harbour a preference for disc-based games.
“Luddites are always resistant to change,” he adds. “In the 1812 the new technology they didn’t like was the mechanised weaving loom. In 1986 it was the CD when they preferred old vinyl music records.
“Today there is resistance to the idea that physical media, such as DVD, and its retailers will disappear completely and give way to digital distribution. But changes are happening very quickly.
What is true, however, is that publishers will need to find a way to compete on price. Yes, there will always be consumers willing to pay £50 to play the big triple-A titles. But they are likely to become an increasing minority.
Next-gen consoles certainly need to embrace more flexible pricing models if they wish to grow the core market.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/ps3-x...pricing/099051 ...

We sit down with the corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios to talk about all things Xbox

Microsoft

www.microsoft.com

Microsoft's E3 showing this year didn't offer any huge surprises, but the content to satisfy the core was certainly there. More importantly, from a global business viewpoint, Microsoft its continuing its march into living rooms everywhere. The company makes no bones about it - with Xbox TV, Music, Kinect integrations and more and more video partnerships, the Xbox platform is quickly becoming a well-rounded entertainment center for gamers and non-gamers alike.
Following the press conference, GamesIndustry International met with Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Studios, to discuss the evolving Xbox strategy, the competition, Halo 4, the role of Kinect and much more.
Q: What is your general reaction to your competitors this year? Nintendo was showing off the Wii U while Sony was showing Last of Us, Beyond, etc. What was your overall thinking on those two camps?
Phil Spencer: I think, to not not answer your question, it is worth noting that there is another competitor that is not here that has a developer's conference next week (after E3).
Q: Apple?
Phil Spencer: Right, so if we think about where our ambition is, our ambition is to create an entertainment platform for everyone on the planet. We think there are a couple keys; having unique content on our platform. We started off with Halo, but we obviously have a breadth of content on our platform from big core games to things like the Nike fitness program that we showed, to things like Dance Central and our sports offerings. It's a real breadth of content on the platform. Live and the connected service is pretty key to what we do.
The partnerships that we're able to drive I think are important. I'd like to point out Nike yet again; it's them talking about what we do as opposed to us talking about us. It's nice, really validating to have a worldwide brand like Nike come out and decide that this is the system that they want to go and innovate on and we can go and create something that is uniquely different.
"If you look at our top franchises in our first-party, they do incredibly well relative to other first-party franchises"
Phil Spencer

Q: Was there anything in the other conferences though that stood out for you? People have said that SmartGlass is a reaction to the Wii U tablet. Is there any truth to that?
Phil Spencer: No, our SmartGlass was driven by the fact that people use multiple devices at home to consume content. Whether they're watching TV with their laptop up or sitting with their phone while browsing the web, we could use the power of Live to connect all these devices in an intelligent way and turn your TV into a smart TV. Your specific question on the other press briefings, I went to EA, Ubisoft, Nintendo and Sony and ours. Things that I thought and I am more of a positive than a negative; things I liked were ZombiU, they were nice enough to let me play. I thought that game played very well, and I saw the use of another screen and how that would work.
I think their Pro Controller makes a lot of sense with the platform they've built. They are building a platform that is effectively a 360 when you think of graphical capability. Now they are really making an on-ramp for the back catalog of games that are on 360. It is easy for those games to move over the Wii U. They've moved the buttons around, and they've made a controller that feels familiar for 360 gamers, so I get why they are putting those pieces together. I would have loved to see Zelda or Metroid or some of my favorite Nintendo franchises, which I didn't see.
For Sony, Sony has a big first-party. I didn't get a sense of what all their first-party studios are working on, but I thought God of War looked good. It's a franchise I like, I love the character and I think they do a good job with that. We are here to create entertainment, and we look at E3 and really wanted to create a breadth of content there. I felt good about how we showed up to really think about young, old, male, and female. We have more gamers than we ever have, whether they are on their phone, tablet, PC or console. We really want to embrace that huge community of gamers out there.
Q: It's nice to hear you say you've enjoyed some of the stuff from your competitors. Sometimes executives won't admit that.
Phil Spencer: I don't know if Microsoft cares - I work for Microsoft after all - but I own a Vita, I own a Wii, I own a PS3, and I play a lot. At the core, I'm in this industry because of the content we create and the experiences. I think there are great experiences that come from all over. I don't try to claim that everything that is ever created is something that we touch, that would be somewhat ridiculous.
Q: You mention Sony first-party, and they are sort of renowned for their studio system. You oversee the studios for Microsoft. I guess the knock on 360 is that you don't have as many first-party IP. It is a few select ...

Xbox 8, or perhaps Xbox ∞ (Xbox Infinity) could be the name of the successor to Xbox 360.
The speculation has arisen after Fusible reported that Microsoft had acquired two URLs – Xbox8.us and Xbox8.org.
Not only has it acquired them, but it fought to do so, winning two disputes with a Chinese resident who had already registered the pair. Microsoft has not, however, sought action against the Chinese owner of Xbox8.com.
Of course, with Windows 8 on the horizon, Xbox 8 may be nothing other than some sort of cross-compatibility. Or Microsoft could simply be protecting its IP.
Internal Microsoft documents have referred to the in-development system as both Xbox 720 and Durango. Xbox Loop has also been widely touted as a possible moniker.
Microsoft has also acquired XboxPhone.com, XboxTablet.com, XboxLiveTV.com and XboxCompanion.com. It is currently disputing the ownership of Xboxliverewards.com, Xboxsports.com, Xboxsmartglass.com and Xboxmusic.com.

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/micro...domains/098918 ...

The first playable demo for Resident Evil 6 is now available on Xbox Live for Xbox 360 owners.
Of course, you’re only able to access it if you both purchased a copy of Capcom’s Dragon’s Dogma AND haven’t lost the DLC code that came on a slip inside the case.
The demo will be released on the PlayStation Network, but not until September 5^th thanks to a timed exclusivity agreement between Capcom and Microsoft.
Fortunately there’s not that long to wait until the arrival of the main game itself, which hits Xbox 360, PS3 and PC on October 2^nd.
http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/resid...ox-live/098926
...

DICE general manager Karl Magnus Troedsson has criticised the lack of innovation present in many firstperson shooters today, believing that too few studios take the need for technical evolution seriously.
"The FPS is a very hardcore genre, and the hardcore crowd of the FPS is probably bigger than some other genres," he tells us. "And that crowd has extremely high demands on what the games are and how they develop.
"If they don't see some kind of new, if not revolutionary then at least evolutionary, step of rendering in every game they will start to lose interest. And I think that is what's happening. Because a lot of franchises out there don't take this seriously; to actually make sure that we don't just challenge ourselves on the gameplay aspect, or perhaps some other area like distribution method, but also how it [feels], how it looks and how it sounds.
"DICE has a strong history, for good and for bad, of doing this. We constantly bash ourselves and say, 'We could have done that better'. It might just be a rendering feature but in the end it adds up to the complete experience of what we're doing."
Troedsson points to the coming tech transition - both to new hardware and more powerful engines - and a move away from modern settings as temporary salves, but warns against using thematic switches in place of broader ambition.
"I think we're going to start seeing people moving away from the modern setting, because every now and again settings or themes start to get stale and then everyone jumps over," he continues. "Y'know, at some point dinosaurs are the hottest thing and everyone is making games with dinosaurs, but there are trends. It used to be WWII, and recently it's been the modern era and people are now moving towards near future.
"But it's a bit cheap to just say, 'Okay, we're going to switch and go back in time or into the future and that will be innovation'. It will definitely drive the franchise forward for whatever game, but it's not true innovation, it's more a thematic change that has a perceived value to the gamers out there. But as a developer you can only make so many games in one particular era, and then you personally start to get a bit bored with it."
That propensity toward trends at the mainstream end of the market, rather than a greater diversity of themes, is, of course, what many critics of the genre would point to as its major problem. But it's hard to begrudge big-budget teams' need to minimise risk in the face of a cripplingly conservative buying public. And while Troedsson acknowledges that more needs to be done, spectacle remains high on his list of priorites.
"I think it's our responsibility as game developers to always push ourselves when it comes to the experience of games," he concludes. "To always make sure that when we put games in the hands of consumers that we are proud of what we've done.
"I'm not saying we're going to build an FPS that will make you cry, or anything like that [laughs]. But we want people to be amazed when they look at our games. And I think this is more important than becoming number one in whatever way you look at it - though naturally part of that comes from a very high level of competitiveness here within DICE. We want to make the best game that we can, and we want that game to be the best one on the market. If gamers think that, then we've done our job. We're not there yet, but we're working on it."

http://www.edge-online.com/news/dice...genre-gameplay ...

Microsoft doesn't appear to be too concerned by Sony's big acquisition today

Microsoft

www.microsoft.com

Sony made a huge splash in the games business today, picking up cloud gaming firm Gaikai for a cool $380 million. Rival Microsoft isn't sitting idly by, however. When GamesIndustry International asked for reaction to the Sony news, a spokesperson noted that the cloud will continue to be hugely important for Microsoft.
"The cloud has been a key component of our strategy and a big area of investment with Xbox for many years. Through Xbox LIVE we're serving up gaming and entertainment in the cloud to more than 40 million people," a spokesperson remarked.
"We're committed to delivering extraordinary entertainment experiences across devices in a uniquely connected way through Xbox, Windows Phone, Windows 8 and other popular devices, and we're looking forward to continuing to innovate in this space in the future."
There's been a lot of speculation that Microsoft could buy OnLive, but others think that Microsoft will simply continue to invest and improve its own technology. Cloud gaming is certainly rising in importance, and Microsoft isn't about to let Sony gain the upper hand. We'll keep you posted on any new developments.


http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...tment-for-xbox


...

Microsoft intentionally let the Kinect controller take a backseat at E3.
With its strategy this year being about core games, entertainment services and SmartGlass, the format holder seemed happy to only demo Kinect voice functions in new blockbusters.
And that was the point, Microsoft Studios boss Phil Spencer told MCV, because the firm wants voice to be a persistent part of games.
“That was conscious,” he said of E3’s showings for voice controls in FIFA and Splinter Cell.
“Early on with Kinect we obviously wanted to challenge ourselves and say ‘what would it mean to make a Kinect-only experience?’ We achieved that with some franchises that have hit scale and are selling millions of units.
“Now what you see is Kinect just shows up. It’s going to become a part of everything we do. It’s not that every game we do won’t have a controller but simple things, like in Splinter Cell distracting characters with your voice, is just a better way to do it, it’s more immersive.
“They’ve found the sweet spot, where we ask players to do what they would naturally do and the game responds, as opposed to you having to learn the controls. Voice has to be a persistent part forever more.”
But don’t think the firm is turning its back on camera-controller experiences.
“Wreckateer wouldn’t be as fun with a controller. It’s just fun if you stand up and do that with gestures. Those experiences are very compelling and social.”

http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/consc...t-at-e3/098860 ...