According to the latest Nielsen video game ratings, the Xbox 360 is the first current-generation console to top the PlayStation 2 in terms of minutes played per month.

According to the graph provided by the Niesen website, the Xbox 360 actually came out on top of the PS2 in terms of overall percentage of minutes used, the first time a current-generation console has managed to top Sony's last-gen console. It went on to lose the lead in June, perhaps due to one particularly active Nielsen family going on vacation or something. That's the thing with the video game Nielsens...it's relatively easy for one user to make a difference. Then again, it could be indicative of a larger trend, so good for the 360!

Microsoft also points out that the Xbox 360 was also tops in terms of active user percentage, maintaining 11-12% of the active users from January through June of this year, as seen in the graph below. Note that the Nintendo Wii has the lowest percentage of active users during the period, even losing to the Gamecube. That's rather depressing.

http://kotaku.com/5334947/xbox-360-t...ielsen-ratings ...

Digital developers are being offered the opportunity to compete for grants of GBP 10,000 to create content for Sony's PlayStation Network.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe will host a three-day pitching event in October, in conjunction with Pixel-Lab and Northwest Vision, with successful companies awarded the grant, executive production and mentoring with SCEE, as well as the chance to take the project further and pitch to XDev Studio Europe.

It's the second year of the Get in the Game commissioning project. Two of last year's successful pitches are currently in consideration at Sony.

"It was reassuring to see a commitment of public funding like this from Northwest Vision & Media and it's clearly helped the teams involved strengthen their skills in many areas," offered Phil Gaskell, senior producer at XDev Studio Europe. "I'm confident we'll be taking some of the ideas generated through this initiative to market."

Toby Barnes, managing director of Pixel-Lab added: "We were really pleased with the final quality of the pitches last year, the teams had made huge leaps in terms of understanding the commissioning process, their audiences, and what was expected of them.

"We are really looking forward to this year’s new entrants and are expecting the bar to be even higher."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...r-psn-projects ...

Digital developers are being offered the opportunity to compete for grants of GBP 10,000 to create content for Sony's PlayStation Network.

Sony Computer Entertainment Europe will host a three-day pitching event in October, in conjunction with Pixel-Lab and Northwest Vision, with successful companies awarded the grant, executive production and mentoring with SCEE, as well as the chance to take the project further and pitch to XDev Studio Europe.

It's the second year of the Get in the Game commissioning project. Two of last year's successful pitches are currently in consideration at Sony.

"It was reassuring to see a commitment of public funding like this from Northwest Vision & Media and it's clearly helped the teams involved strengthen their skills in many areas," offered Phil Gaskell, senior producer at XDev Studio Europe. "I'm confident we'll be taking some of the ideas generated through this initiative to market."

Toby Barnes, managing director of Pixel-Lab added: "We were really pleased with the final quality of the pitches last year, the teams had made huge leaps in terms of understanding the commissioning process, their audiences, and what was expected of them.

"We are really looking forward to this year’s new entrants and are expecting the bar to be even higher."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...r-psn-projects ...

The BBC is reporting that so-called augmented reality has arrived — in the UK at least. From the article: 'Via the video function of a mobile phone's camera it is now possible to combine a regular pictorial view with added data from the internet just as the fictional Terminator was able to overlay its view of the world with vital information about its surroundings. For example, UK-firm Acrossair has launched an application for the iPhone which allows Londoners to find their nearest tube station using their iPhone.' The page features an impressive video demonstrating AR in action

http://hardware.slashdot.org/story/0...For-the-iPhone ...

Wanna know what all's inside the update you're gonna download today, besides the fresh taste of exclusivity? Microsoft's dropped the official list of everything that's new. Honestly, it's the little things I'm more excited about.

Here's what I like:
• Account recovery is faster—great if you play over at your friends' places a lot, 'cause it takes damn near forever.
• Party invites are less clunky
• You actually get notifications when your subscription's about to expire
• Achievement browser's better, and you can launch games from it (yes!)
• Active Downloads and other screens like that are actually easy to get to
• Under My Xbox, there's a handy troubleshooting section called Solutions that brings together all of the info that was scattered throughout the UI (scary you need this though, I mean, we're talking about a game console, right?)
• And while it's not as good as having more than 100 friends, you can sort your friends list in different ways

All of that just seems to add up a nicer experience that frustrates you less often. Plus, you know, there's all that other stuff we already told you about. I wish I could download it today too, but my Xbox went all RRoD on me two days ago. Enjoy it for me, kay?

http://gizmodo.com/5334853/xbox-360-...gs-that-matter ...

Microsoft claims Netflix will be "exclusive" to the Xbox 360 games console at the bottom of its dashboard update page. Pardon our wariness on the use of that term, since we cover the games industry and "exclusivity" lasts about as long as a relationship on Gossip Girl. Despite our reservations, the information seems quite explicit, as the note reads: "Xbox 360 will be the only game console to offer this movie-watching experience."

This would seemingly put the kibosh on the rumors of Netflix on Wii -- but we're guessing iPhone isn't considered a game console. We're currently following up with Netflix and Microsoft to find out what the time table is on this exclusivity. Netflix and Microsoft may have an "exclusive partnership," but every relationship comes stamped with an expiration date.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/11/xb...x-exclusivity/ ...

John Carmack has been speculating on the future of gaming technology, predicting that one of the main platform holders is likely to "jump the gun" and release a new-generation console "earlier rather than later".

He believes too that a shift to a cloud computing infrastructure could be on the horizon, as an eventual "power density wall" prevents home technology offering an increase in processing power.

"The whole jockeying for who's going to release the first next gen console is very interesting and pretty divorced from the technical side of things," Carmack told Polish site CD-Action, subsequently reported by Digital Foundry.

"Whether Sony wants to jump the gun to prevent the same sort of 360 lag from happening to them again seems likely. As developers, we would really like to see this generation stretch as long as possible. We'd like to see it be quite a few more years before the next gen console comes out, but I suspect one will end up shipping something earlier rather than later."

When the next-generation of console does launch, it will also be likely that one will rely entirely on the digital model, speculated Carmack. "I think that Xbox Live... the advent of that and the App Store with the iPhone are wonderful signs of the future of digital distribution.

"I think there's a decent chance that one of the next gen consoles will be without optical media... the uptake rates of people who have broadband connects surprised everyone this generation. It's higher than what the core publishers and even the first party people expected."

He also believes that at least 2GB of internal RAM would be the norm, continuing: "We talk about these absurd things like how many teraflops of processing and memory that are going into our game machines. It's great and there's going to be at least another generation like that, although interestingly we are coasting towards some fundamental physical limits on things. We've already hit the megahertz wall and eventually there's going to be a power density wall from which you won't get more processing out there..."

Which could lead to a move in new directions for console makers, the id Software director thinks, with cloud computing possibly becoming dominant.

"There'll be questions of whether we shift to a cloud computing infrastructure... lots of interesting questions about whether you have the computing power in your living room versus somewhere else," he said.

"Certainly the easier aspect of that is 'net as storage' where it's all digital distribution and you could wind up doing an idTech 5-like thing... and blow it up to World of Warcraft size so you need a hundred petabytes of storage in your central game system. We can do that now! It's not an absurd thing to talk about. Games are already in the tens of millions of dollars in terms of budget size and that's probably going to continue to climb there. The idea of putting millions of dollars into higher-sized storage... it's not unreasonable to at least consider."

Meanwhile, id plans to develop technology which ensures it won't be caught off-guard by the introduction of new console hardware.

"What I'm planning to do is set up a new rendering engine that co-exists with the current one... and I intend to develop it like that, so you have an idTech 5 version and then have everything working the same [with] an alternate data set that you can render with a different version," he revealed.

"So the hope would be that if we do get some flashy new graphics hardware on there that we would possibly have the option of releasing a game cross-generational like that. Same game, same design across everything but different media set, different rendering engine... That also allows me to work on something without having to involve the entire team. That's something where we can take a couple of people, go out, work on prototyping proof of concepts while the rest of the company is building the production titles."

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...her-than-later ...

The boss of Electronic Arts' Bright Lights Studio in the UK has said that he would "love" to see classic Bullfrog IP remade for today's systems.

Harvey Elliot, vice president of the studio currently working on the latest Harry Potter game, told Kikizo that titles such as Populous and Theme Park are part of the developer's heritage following EA's acquisition of Bullfrog in 1995.

"For me, I love the old Bullfrog IP, it got me really passionately into games, and I'm really proud that Bullfrog is part of the heritage of Bright Light," said Elliot. "I'm personally a huge fan of Populous and Theme Park, they were some of my favourite games - many years ago, obviously - and I'd love to see both of those remade."

Harvey said that the studio is likely to look at the viability of recreating Bullfrog franchises in the future, but it's important to reassess classic IP realistically rather than through rose-tinted spectacles.

"The thing is, the romance of the idea is often detached from the reality of executing it. If you remember all the old classics you played, if you go back and play them now, they're not the same," he offered. "They were right for their time, and the trick with those games is coming up with what's right for the time now.

"I'm going to look at them at some point, I think there's an opportunity to bring those back in the future, but only if it's right for the time and not just a 'remake' or something. We'd need to do it in a way that's true to the original values, but would still make a great game today."

Other classic Bullfrog IP includes Powermonger and Magic Carpet. A new title in the Syndicate series is also in the works at The Chronicles of Riddick studio Starbreeze.

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/article...llfrog-remakes ...

This one is for all the unlucky souls that didn't make it into the Xbox Live Update preview program: Your wait is over! The Xbox Live Update is finally here, and it's here for everyone. That's right, now everyone has access to the update's many riches and wonders, including better (and "exclusive") Netflix functionality, Avatar Awards, Games on Demand, User Ratings and more. And let's not forget you can also purchase clothing for your digital doll.

Getting the update is easy. Just turn on your Xbox, connect to Live and BAM, instant update. For a quick look at some of the new features, check out the video above, and find a Netflix video tour after the break.

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/08/11/ps...pdate-is-live/ ...