Today’s Microsoft press conference held one big piece of news for 360-owning movie fans: a new partnership between the software giant and the pioneer of online movie rental, Netflix, will link the console to Netflix’s streaming movie service.
You’ll need both an Xbox Live Gold account and a Netflix subscription to join in the fun, but assuming you don’t mind shelling out for those, you’ll have instant access to over 10,000 streaming movies and TV shows. Microsoft tells us they should start streaming within 30 seconds of being selected, so lucky subscribers won’t have long to wait. Previously, the only way to enjoy Netflix’s streaming service on your TV was either to hook it to a PC, or to pay extra for a $100 set-top-box.
As if that wasn’t enough, you can also get together with groups of Xbox Live buddies to watch the same movies simultaneously. The prospects for heckling, arguing over bathroom breaks, and movie-inspired drinking games are nothing if not impressive. Plus there won’t be anyone around to steal your chips. Sold.
That wasn’t the only news to come out of the press conference, of course, and here’s a round-up of the day’s other announcements:
Final Fantasy XIII will come out on the Xbox 360
Gears of War 2 hits the mean streets on November 7
Resident Evil 5 will feature online co-operative play; launches March 13
Fable II will be out in October
Xbox Live is getting a cleaner facelift, and Mii-like avatar characters
You’ll be able to install Xbox 360 games to the console’s hard drive, cutting load times
Rock Band 2 will include AC/DC’s “epic rock anthem” Let There Be Rock, and Bob Dylan’s Tangled Up In Blue
Xbox Live will gain a new service called Primetime, “the world’s biggest virtual game show stage”. First out of the gate is a quiz show called “1 vs. 100″, which pits one lucky Xbox Live player against 100 others.
The 360 will get a motion-sensitive microphone controller, and a karaoke game (”Lips”) to go with it
New game “You’re In The Movies” promises to — well, put you in the movies, courtesy of an included video camera and a set of comic backgrounds
In the two days leading up to the year’s biggest video games trade show, E3, it’s become something of a tradition that the competing console manufacturers face off in a series of lavish press conferences. Now that 2008’s round of announcements, demonstrations, trailers, and posturing are over, which console came out on top?
Despite rumors of price cuts, Microsoft opted to expand the hard drive of its mid-range offering instead of delivering any real savings to consumers. All the same, the 360’s Dashboard interface is undergoing a serious overhaul this year, and looks to be coming out cleaner, with more downloadable games, and including custom avatars that are, not to mince words, a complete rip-off of Nintendo’s Miis. (”Where else could you get an avatar creation system but on Xbox Live?” one developer commented. We have no idea.) On-demand movie and TV programming courtesy of Netflix will expand the 360’s already bulging video abilities, and a new motion-sensing microphone controller will deliver new horrors to the terrifying world of karaoke games.
Sony put together a similar performance, shuffling its PS3 package offerings to little real effect (although you might pick up a bargain as retailers clear stock of the older lines). It’s also expanding its video offerings by offering online movie rentals from an impressive portfolio of studios — and you can take them on the road on your PSP, too. Unlike Microsoft’s offerings, which have a vague “fall” ETA, Sony’s new online features should be available by the time you read this.
That wasn’t all, though. Sony’s press conference rolled out a set of game trailers that had fans cheering: a new God of War game on PS3, a vast-looking massive action game named MAG, and a couple of promising superhero games: one massively-multiplayer title based on the DC superhero universe, and one futuristic, open-city game from the Sly Cooper studio. It’s a great selection, and one that leaves Microsoft’s roster of Gears of War 2 and Fable II looking a little tired.
Mind you, that wasn’t the end of the software story. Although the Sony execs weren’t visibly injured, Microsoft’s press conference delivered them a metaphorical punch to the gut: the absolutely huge Final Fantasy series is no longer a PlayStation exclusive. Final Fantasy XIII will be coming to the 360, and unless you count the oddball, massively-multiplayer XI (we don’t) it’s the first time any of the modern Final Fantasy games have gone cross-platform. If nothing else dropped jaws at the Microsoft do, this announcement sure did.
In contrast, it was hard to dodge the grumbling on the way out of the Nintendo event. Where were the classic franchises we all know and love? Where, for that matter, was Mario? Nintendo fans had to make do with a new Animal Crossing title, and an oh-so-vague mention of a Grand Theft Auto game on the DS handheld. Accessories like the MotionPlus controller plug-in and the WiiSpeak microphone (pictured below) are all very well, but don’t we have enough bits of plastic cluttering up our houses already?
Which, naturally, is Nintendo’s modus operandi since the release of the Wii. For every disgruntled Nintendo hardcore fan, there’s a whole houseful of delighted non-gamers enthused at the thought of getting together to play music without needing a bunch of instruments or, you know, any skill. But can Nintendo really deliver a music game experience that’s as compelling as Rock Band?
Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, this year’s E3, so far, belongs to Sony — and if you’re still on the fence about which new system you’re going to spring for, your decision just got a whole lot tougher.
Activision’s “Guitar Hero World Tour” is one of this year’s most eagerly anticipated games, but the company has big news for fans who can’t wait for that: Metallica will be releasing its next album, “Death Magnetic,” as a “Guitar Hero III” download on the same day that the CD arrives in stores.
“It’s exciting, 27 years into your career, to be doing something first,” said Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich. “In five to 10 years it’ll be a normal thing to release an album to ‘Guitar Hero’ the same day as the record.”
To make its big announcement, Activision eschewed a booth at the E3 Media & Business Summit in Los Angeles in favor of a reception at a former cathedral. A big chunk of the video games community — namely, the companies that make them and the journalists who write about them — is in Los Angeles this week for the annual gathering where most of us get our first look at games for the holiday season.
Sony has filed a new patent on June 26 2008 for a “hand-held device with touchscreen and digital tactile pixels”. Details of the patent can be viewed by clicking HERE.
Questions most asked are “Is Sony getting into the phone game” and will utilize its PSP technology?
Check out the Patent filing here
Blizzard hype for Diablo 3 makes Diablo II Top Selling PC Game on Amazon..
Read full story @ PC.iBlogGames.com
Sony is launching its long-promised video download service on the PlayStation 3 this summer, though it has yet to get most of Hollywood aboard.
At a Tokyo press conference on Thursday, vidgame topper Kaz Hirai announced plans to allow users to download movies and TV shows via the PS3 game console starting this summer in the U.S. and soon thereafter in Europe and Asia. Company has said such a service was in the works since the PS3 debuted in 2006.
Read the full story @ PS3.iBlogGames.com
Three new fallout 3 screens have been released. Take a peak.
Click for More Fallout Screens
Wii Fit leaves path of destruction in British houses
Damaged good are eveywhere in Britain thanks to Nintendo and the Wii Fit…
Read the full article @ Wii.iBlogGames.com
Author Mario Puzo’s estate reportedly is suing Hollywood’s Paramount Pictures for $1 million over proceeds from a video game inspired by “The Godfather.”
Puzo, who died in 1999, wrote the book on which the classic gangster pictures and new video game are based.
The Los Angeles Times said his estate is suing the studio for not sharing the profits from the game with Puzo’s heirs.
The lawsuit said Paramount and Puzo agreed he would receive a “significant share” of “audiovisual” products based on “The Godfather.”
Puzo’s son and executor, Anthony Puzo, said in court papers “The Godfather” video game is included in the deal because it features characters from the book and movies.
“You hear them. You see them. That’s audiovisual to me,” the estate’s lawyer, Bert Fields, told the Times.
The Times said Paramount declined to comment for its story.
New Motley Crue single sells more over video game.
Motley Crue’s latest single has sold more over Rock Band than iTunes, according to recent figures released by the band’s management.
‘Saints of Los Angeles’, the first single from the glam rocker’s ninth studio album, was released over Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store as downloadable content for Electronic Art’s Rock Band on April 15. A Reuters report revealed the song managed to secure 47,000 downloads on the Xbox 360 alone, whilst in the same period the song only mustered 10,000 downloads on services such as iTunes and Amazon.
It’s not the first time that a band has released a single over a game, with Def Leppard recently offering their new song ‘Nine Lives’ over Activision’s Guitar Hero III, and Metallica are rumoured to be debuting tracks from their new album over Rock Band.
IGN Entertainment