Frustrating XBOX Live Problems during the Holidays

I am expecting to see huge numbers from Microsoft’s Video Gaming division this holiday season. It’s hard to say if they’ve dropped the ball or not with their XBOX Live service, during what is likely the most important time for the service to be 100%. But we’ve already seen comparisons such as “XBOX Live starting to have the stability of the 360 systems” pop up all over the place.

It’s not good when a paid service experiences issues during the whole holiday break. We’ve seen a bunch of updates from Major Nelson reassuring us that “the service was never completely offline.” The problem with that statement is that while it’s great for people who where not affected, it’s sort of a smack in the face for the rest of us. Everyone that I know that uses the service has experienced some sort of issue during these last 10 days, including myself. Most of us have had problems quite a few times during the last week, and it’s damn frustrating.

I don’t doubt for a second that when Major Nelson said “The entire LIVE team has been working day and night to ensure that you can have a great LIVE experience,” he was not exaggerating. The LIVE team understand they need to provide exceptional service, especially since it’s paid.

All that being said, I honestly believe that Microsoft needs to offer some compensation to all the LIVE users for these very frustrating problematic times. A free week or two of Live? Maybe 800 MS points? I have no idea what, but it would certainly be a shame not to take responsibility and make this right.

Video: Greatest Halo 3 commentary on a possible level glitch/bug EVAR1!!11!

This guy is my freaking idol! Here’s the deal. There seems to be something funky going on in this Halo 3 game. He tries to snipe someone and obviously hits him a bunch of times, but does no damage at all. While shit like this obviously is an issue, this is probably lag or possibly even a spot glitch in ‘Last Resort’. It happens, and if it’s a real issue hopefully it will be fixed.

What makes this video phenomenal is this guy’s 5 minute commentary on a 10 second clip. Especially the last third of the movie where he starts to completely lose his mind.

Quote: “Three to the face, two to the fucking left eye”

Here’s the video:

Halo 3: Over 1 MILLION users logged in and playing Halo 3 on XBox Live right now!

I am not sure what Microsoft’s XBox Live record of the number of users playing a specific game at any given time is, but there are currently over 1 MILLION Halo 3 players on XBox Live logged in and playing. I would assume that this should set a record for a number of XBL users in a specific game.

That is a hell of lot of people playing Halo 3 on a Friday night!

1,080,888 to be exact! Here’s a photo:

Bungie and Microsoft break up; Bungie now a privately held independent company, Bungie, LLC

Well, it’s now official. Bungie and Microsoft are no longer sleeping together. As of 10/1/07 Bungie has been released from Microsoft and is now a privately held independent company, Bungie, LLC. This news comes 10 days after the release and already massive success of Halo 3.

What does that mean for the Halo franchise? Will Microsoft look to other developers for the next Halo game, or do they have an exclusive deal with Bungie? Is it even remotely possible that we’ll finally see the release ofHalo DS? Probably not since MS owns the Halo IP, but one can dream.

Bungie quote: “This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios, and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

Microsoft quote: “Our collaboration with Bungie has resulted in ‘Halo’ becoming an enduring mainstream hit,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “While we are supporting Bungie’s desire to return to its independent roots, we will continue to invest in our ‘Halo’ entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson, on a new interactive series set in the ‘Halo’ universe. We look forward to great success with Bungie as our long-term relationship continues to evolve through ‘Halo’-related titles and new IP created by Bungie.”

Official Bungie press release:

Bungie Studios Becomes Privately Held Independent Company

Bungie and Microsoft forge new long-term relationship.

KIRKLAND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2007 — Bungie and Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of Microsoft’s “Halo” franchise, to become a privately held independent company, Bungie, LLC, in which Microsoft will hold a minority equity interest. As part of this transaction, Bungie and Microsoft have forged a deep and long-term development and publishing relationship focused on the continued success of the “Halo” franchise. It is also the intent of both parties to expand their partnership to include new IP created and owned by Bungie.

Bungie’s critically acclaimed Xbox 360® exclusive “Halo 3” achieved $300 million in global sales in its first week. Released on Tuesday, Sept. 25, “Halo 3” is the fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.

“This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft’s platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios, and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

“Working with Microsoft was great for us, it allowed us to grow as a team and make the ambitious, blockbuster games we all wanted to work on. And they will continue to be a great partner. But Bungie is like a shark. We have to keep moving to survive. We have to continually test ourselves, or we might as well be dolphins. Or manatees,” said Jason Jones, Bungie founder and partner.

Bungie’s management retained the services of Don Leeds, senior managing director of B-Hive Global, LLC, to assist in the structuring of the deal and negotiating on their behalf. Bungie will remain in Kirkland, Washington, and is always looking to hire excellent talent.

About Bungie

Bungie was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and to sell enough of those games to achieve its real goal of total world domination. Over the past 10 years it has produced games such as the “Marathon” trilogy and the first two “Myth” games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. Bungie’s “Halo” franchise is an international award-winning action title that has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 18 million units worldwide, logging billions of hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE®, and spawning action figures, books, graphic novels, soundtracks, apparel and more. The critically acclaimed “Halo 3”, released on Tuesday, Sept. 25th 2007, is the fastest-selling video game ever, achieving $300 million in global sales its first week, making it one of the most successful entertainment properties in history. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.

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Official Microsoft press release

Microsoft and Bungie Studios to Evolve Relationship

Companies to forge new long-term relationship.

REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 5, 2007 — Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of the “Halo®” franchise, to embark on a path to become an independent company. Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie, at the same time continuing its long-standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft-owned “Halo” intellectual property as well as other future properties developed by Bungie.

The critically acclaimed Xbox 360®-exclusive “Halo 3” achieved $300 million in global sales in its first week. Released on Tuesday, Sept. 25, “Halo 3” is the fastest-selling video game ever and already one of the most successful entertainment properties in history.

“Our collaboration with Bungie has resulted in ‘Halo’ becoming an enduring mainstream hit,” said Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios. “While we are supporting Bungie’s desire to return to its independent roots, we will continue to invest in our ‘Halo’ entertainment property with Bungie and other partners, such as Peter Jackson, on a new interactive series set in the ‘Halo’ universe. We look forward to great success with Bungie as our long-term relationship continues to evolve through ‘Halo’-related titles and new IP created by Bungie.”

“This exciting evolution of our relationship with Microsoft will enable us to expand both creatively and organizationally in our mission to create world-class games,” said Harold Ryan, studio head for Bungie. “We will continue to develop with our primary focus on Microsoft® platforms; we greatly value our mutually prosperous relationship with our publisher, Microsoft Game Studios; and we look forward to continuing that affiliation through ‘Halo’ and beyond.”

Bungie Studios will remain in its current location in Kirkland, Wash.

About Bungie Studios

Bungie Studios was founded in 1991 with two goals: to develop games that combine brilliant technology, beautiful art, intelligent stories and deep gameplay, and then sell enough of those games to achieve its real goal of total world domination. Over the past 10 years it has produced games such as the “Marathon” trilogy and the first two “Myth” games, hailed as classics by critics and gamers around the world. Bungie’s “Halo” franchise is an international award-winning action title that has grown into a global entertainment phenomenon, selling more than 14.8 million units worldwide, logging nearly 1 billion hours of multiplayer action on Xbox LIVE®, and spawning action figures, books, a graphic novel, apparel and more. Bungie released “Halo 3” on Sept. 25, 2007 to universal critical acclaim, and first day US sales of over $170 million, making it the biggest opening day in entertainment history. More information on Bungie can be found at http://www.bungie.net.

About Microsoft Game Studios

Microsoft Game Studios is a leading worldwide publisher and developer of games for the Xbox and Xbox 360 video game systems, the Windows® operating system and online platforms. Comprising a network of top developers, Microsoft Game Studios is committed to creating innovative and diverse games for Windows (http://www.microsoft.com/games), including such franchises as “Age of Empires®,” “Flight Simulator” and “Zoo Tycoon®”; Xbox and Xbox 360 (http://www.xbox.com), including such games as “Gears of War” and franchises such as “Halo,” “Fable®,” “Project Gotham Racing®” and “Forza Motorsport®”; and MSN® Games (http://www.games.msn.com), the official games channel for the MSN network and home to such hits as “Bejeweled” and “Hexic®

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.mspx.

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Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE - Momentum Facts ‘n Stats

Here are some fun facts just released by Microsoft to hold you over until you get your little hands on Halo 3.

Leadership: Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE are leading the charge into the future of gaming and entertainment, bringing the best games, an active community and a growing catalogue of high definition entertainment to all members of the household.

More than 11.6 million Xbox 360 consoles have sold across the 37 countries where it is currently available. Xbox LIVE is currently available in 25 countries across the globe.

According to U.S. NPD data, gamers have bought more software for the Xbox 360 (24.3 million units), than software for PS3 and Wii combined (19.8 million units).

Faster than expected, Xbox LIVE has eclipsed the 7 million member milestone and is on track to reach 10 million members by the end of June 2008. In fact, in the last year we’ve added a new Xbox LIVE member every 8 seconds.

Gaming: With the greatest lineup in the history of video games, Xbox 360 is hands down the best gaming console on the market.

There are more than 250 games available today on Xbox 360, including 86 Xbox LIVE Arcade games.

Xbox 360 is the next-gen console with the largest games attach rate at an astounding 6.3 games sold per Xbox 360 owner.

Xbox LIVE members have spent more than 3.2 billion hours playing games on Xbox LIVE with their friends around the world. That is equal to 137 million days or more than 376,000 years of gaming.

To date, Xbox 360 owners have unlocked more than 600 million Achievements. All of those unlocked Achievements have created a total combined Gamerscore of more than 14 billion.

There have been 2.5 billion game sessions hosted since the launch of Xbox 360, with more than 5.6 million hosted each day so far in 2007.

Xbox LIVE Arcade has been a huge hit on Xbox 360, with nearly 70% of all connected consoles downloading and playing Xbox LIVE Arcade titles.

Xbox LIVE Marketplace currently offers nearly 200 free trials and demos, giving owners more free playable content than any other console.

Entertainment: Xbox 360 is the center of digital entertainment in the living room, offering the best in high definition games, movies and television along with access to all your friends, digital music and pictures.

Xbox 360 continues to lead with the largest library of on-demand high-definition movies and television in the U.S. on-demand market. Twenty-nine movie studios and TV networks continue to provide a growing catalogue of premium high- and standard-definition entertainment content that to date totals 2,800 hours.

Xbox LIVE Marketplace is now the leading provider of on-demand high-definition content in the U.S., providing more than twice the number of hours as leading cable operators.

Xbox LIVE Marketplace is home to a growing catalogue of more than 9,000 pieces of individual gaming and entertainment content, downloadable at the click of a button.

There have been 290 million downloads of gaming and entertainment content from Xbox LIVE Marketplace

Social Networking: Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE offer the largest, most active online community of friends, family and rivals worldwide.

Xbox LIVE is the largest social network in the living room with 2.6 million IM, text and voice messages sent over the service every day.

Since Xbox LIVE launched, 3.1 billion games sessions have been hosted on the service.

The average Xbox LIVE Gold subscriber has 23 friends on their Xbox LIVE friends list.

More than 1.2 billion cross-game invites have been sent since the launch of Xbox 360.

Xbox LIVE Top 10: Check out the list of the top 10 games played over Xbox LIVE, as well as the top 10 worldwide downloads for Xbox LIVE Arcade and Xbox LIVE Marketplace Demos since Xbox 360 launched in November, 2006.

The top 10 games played over Xbox LIVE worldwide:

1. Halo 2
2. Gears of War
3. Hexic HD
4. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
5. Call of Duty 3
6. Call of Duty 2
7. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 3
8. Elder Scrolls: Oblivion
9. Crackdown
10. PGR3

The top 10 Xbox LIVE Arcade downloads worldwide:

1. Aegis Wing
2. Uno
3. Texas Hold ‘em
4. Geometry Wars Retro Evolved
5. Bankshot Billiards 2
6. Street Fighter ‘II Hyper Fighting
7. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1989 Classic Arcade
8. Worms
9. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
10. Contra

The top 10 Xbox LIVE Marketplace Demos downloads worldwide:

1. Crackdown
2. Lost Planet E3 2006
3. Dead Rising
4. BioShock
5. Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas
6. Forza Motorsport 2
7. Sonic the Hedgehog
8. Saints Row
9. Superman Returns
10. Colin McRae: DIRT

Source: MSFT Press Release.

How G4 TV ruined the live E3 coverage on TV

G4TV ruined E3! They said that this year was the first year of E3 live coverage on TV. I was pumped to be able to watch on my TV. For the past 2 years I have been watching on sites like GameSpot.com, which really wasn’t all that bad. Unfortunately for everyone that watched live on TV, G4TV was doing the coverage.

Four times in the middle of a live keynote they go into 4-5 minute commercials. What?!?! We missed 95% of the BioShock demo video, great job guys! How about no commercials when you are “covering” a live keynote event? But it gets worse! At the very end of the show, Microsoft/Bungie start showing off a kick ass Halo 3 video. Everyone has been waiting for this. It’s from the campaign.

Around the middle of the video, they cut from the live video feed into a camera shot of the huge screen that everyone attending the event is watching on. They start to pan out and some douche starts talking over the trailer. What the fuck!! You can hear someone telling him to shut up in the background.. and that’s it. They cut straight to a commercial, never showing the ending of the Halo 3 campaign trailer.

Holy shit! If I had known I would have watched online, or read a blog.

Don’t bother watching the G4 TV coverage of Nintendo’s and Sony’s keynotes on TV in the afternoon. Save yourself the frustration and watch online, or just read the blogs and wait for the videos to be released.

Hopefully next year someone more responsible will be able to cover this event. It’s quite obvious G4TV was not prepared. If your cable/satellite provider doesn’t offer G4TV, consider yourself lucky.

Update:

Here is the video - Watch as G4TV ruins the Halo 3 video:

XBox 360 Elite In-Stock at Amazon

The XBox 360 Elite is back in-stock at Amazon!. I just got notified that the Elite is back at Amazon. The system tends to sell out rather fast, so grab one now if you need it. Remember, it does come with an HDMI Cable so you can get that 1080P resolution right out of the box, assuming your TV supports it.

Also, if you belong to Amazon Prime, you can have the console overnighted for 3.99 or 2-Day for free!

Good luck.

XBox 360 Elite - Pre-Orders from Amazon.com now available

Amazon.com has reopened their pre-orders for the XBox 360 Elite. The Elite went on pre-sale for about an hour earlier this week from Amazon. It’s now back, and it looks like Amazon will be shipping out the systems on the 30th. This is a good chance to pre-order this system without having to purchase extra crap that GameStop / EBGames makes you buy.

Grab it while you can. Remember - If you are an Amazon Prime member you can have the 360 Elite overnighted for $3.99, or choose free 2-day shipping.

3 Red Lights of Death - The bricked XBox 360

It amazes me what companies can get away with these days. My XBOX 360 finally broke after 1.5 years. Now normally I wouldn’t be this upset about it, I’ve had electronics break before - sometimes they’ve just had enough.

Here’s my problem with this issue. Microsoft knows that there is a problem with the first Gen. XBOX 360s. They know this because nearly all the repairs they’ve had to do were for the same issue. Of course I am talking about the 3 red lights of death. It’s a problem that occurs so often, that Microsoft had to change their warranty from 90 days to 1 year.

So now my XBOX 360 is 1 1/2 years old and it has been bricked by the evil red lights. Microsoft knows the problem is theirs with the hardware, but since it’s past the first year I am going to get screwed out of $100. Sure they are now nice enough to cover shipping, where as before they’d make the consumer pay for shipping back the broken product, which Microsoft put out on the market in the first place.

Hey Microsoft - why don’t you just take care of all the fist Gen. 360s that have the same hardware issue. Why screw people that were lucky (or unlucky in my case) enough to not have this problem occur before the first year past.

Coincidentally enough, my 360 broke just in-time for the Elite.

Halo 2 fansboys already crying over Halo 3

Here we go again.. Just mere hours after the first ever official video of Halo 3 footage was release by bungie, Halo 2 fanboys are doing what they do best.

Here are some quotes:

Is anyone else on the same boat? I’m most pissed at the mines. The mines totally kill the warthog, which is one of the games major flagships.

Then the shield, takes all skill away from the game, are you -blam!- kidding me? Just a mistake waiting to happen

I agree with the OP. The mines take no skill and the bubble shield is cheap.

Click this link for more goodness.

How about we all wait to try the actual game before we whine about it and critique it. I feel for the Bungie team.