Tag Archives: Microsoft

Mar 6 2013

TRION ANNOUNCES DEFIANCE SEASON PASS !

DELIVERING DYNAMIC POST LAUNCH CONTENT

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif. – March 5, 2013 – Trion Worlds has unveiled some details about the action packed Season Pass for the highly anticipated online open-world shooter Defiance™. Players who want to save big on the first 5 DLC packs rolling out after launch can now pre-purchase the Defiance Season Pass for $39.99USD, a 20% savings*. Gamers will get a massive amount of content including a new playable alien species, new weapons and vehicles, missions, and rewards, plus two bonus items, an exclusive digital Hellbug combat cap and a Lock Box. The Defiance Season Pass is the ultimate content package for the true Ark Hunter!

The Defiance Season Pass can be purchased for $39.99 (PlayStation®Network) / 3200 Microsoft Points (Xbox LIVE) / $39.99 (PC). Once purchased, the content packs will be automatically available as they go live.

Defiance, which delivers massive co-op boss battles and fierce multiplayer action in an evolving sci-fi universe, is scheduled to launch globally on April 2, 2013. It will be available on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, and Windows PC.

Defiance is rated M for Mature by the ESRB. For more information on Defiance, please visit http://www.Defiance.com.

*Based on five DLC Packs at a suggested retail price of $9.99 each and Season Pass at a suggested retail price of $39.99.
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** Terms and Conditions: Redeemable for five (5) Defiance™ DLC Packs. All DLC packs will be activated and applied to your account as they are made available during 2013 and 2014. Digital items will be activated and applied to your account upon your first login after the commercial release of the game. REDEMPTION AND GAMEPLAY REQUIRE: (1) INTERNET CONNECTION (SOLD SEPARATELY), (2) TRION WORLDS, PSN AND/OR XBOX LIVE ACCOUNTS (AS APPLICABLE), (3) A VALID COPY OF THE DEFIANCE GAME, AND (4) ACCEPTANCE OF LICENSE AND USAGE TERMS. Xbox 360 versions require 10 GB storage and Xbox LIVE Gold membership (sold separately). Pricing and release dates may vary by territory and platform.

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Feb 1 2013

World Exclusive: Durango Unveiled (XBOX 720) Real or Fake ?

As we promised during the weekend in the next weeks we will unveil Durango and Orbis. All the technical info you want to know about the next generation machines from Sony and Microsoft.

The first one is Durango. In this article we present the system overview with the general components and some technical details about them.

How are durango components connected?

Here you can see the Durango system block diagram:

Durango Arquitecture

Let’s check what’s inside the box:

CPU:

- x64 Architecture

- 8 CPU cores running at 1.6 gigahertz (GHz)

- each CPU thread has its own 32 KB L1 instruction cache and 32 KB L1 data cache

- each module of four CPU cores has a 2 MB L2 cache resulting in a total of 4 MB of L2 cache

- each core has one fully independent hardware thread with no shared execution resources

- each hardware thread can issue two instructions per clock

GPU:

- custom D3D11.1 class 800-MHz graphics processor

- 12 shader cores providing a total of 768 threads

- each thread can perform one scalar multiplication and addition operation (MADD) per clock cycle

- at peak performance, the GPU can effectively issue 1.2 trillion floating-point operations per second

High-fidelity Natural User Interface (NUI) sensor is always present

Storage and Memory:

- 8 gigabyte (GB) of RAM DDR3 (68 GB/s)

- 32 MB of fast embedded SRAM (ESRAM) (102 GB/s)

- from the GPU’s perspective the bandwidths of system memory and ESRAM are parallel providing combined peak bandwidth of 170 GB/sec.

- Hard drive is always present

- 50 GB 6x Blu-ray Disc drive

Networking:

- Gigabit Ethernet

- Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi Direct

Hardware Accelerators:

- Move engines

- Image, video, and audio codecs

- Kinect multichannel echo cancellation (MEC) hardware

- Cryptography engines for encryption and decryption, and hashing

World Exclusive: Durango unveiled |.

Dec 11 2012

Xbox Live Karaoke and Napster Apps Launch Today, New Apps Announced

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Microsoft has announced that 40 new apps are set to launch for Xbox Live before spring 2013.

The list was released to coincide with the launch of the Karaoke and Napster apps for the service, the former is available in all regions (except Japan and UAE) and the latter is only available in the U.K. and Germany.

1. All3M (United Kingdom, United States)
2. Ameba TV (Canada, United States)
3. ARTE (Germany, France)
4. Azteca (Mexico)
5. Canalplay Infinity (France)
6. CBC’s Hockey Night (Canada)
7. CrunchyRoll (Majority of LIVE Regions)
8. Deezer (Majority of LIVE Regions)
9. Eredivisie Live (Netherlands)
10. Fightbox (Austria, Germany, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, United Kingdom)
11. Flixster (United States)
12. GameTrailers (Australia, Canada, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Japan, Mexico, United Kingdom, United States)
13. Globosat Muu (Brazil)
14. Gulli Replay (France)
15. HBO Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden)
16. IndieFlix (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States)
17. Livesport.tv (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Spain, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, Sweden, United Kingdom)
18. Machinima (Majority of LIVE Regions)
19. Maxim (United States)
20. MTV (United States)
21. MyTF1 (France)
22. MyTF1VOD (France)
23. Napster (Germany, United Kingdom)
24. Pathe Thuis (Netherlands)
25. PBS (United States)
26. PopcornFlix (United States)
27. Rai TV (Italy)
28. Sainsbury (United Kingdom)
29. Saraiva (Brazil)
30. SBS (Netherlands)
31. SF Anytime (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden)
32. Slacker Radio (Canada, United States)
33. SPORT1 (Austria, Germany)
34. The CW Network (United States)
35. Televisa (Mexico)
36. TV3 (Spain)
37. Viaplay (Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden)
38. Vidéo à la Demande d’Orange (France)
39. Vimeo (United States)
40. VIVO Play (Brazil)
41. Watchever (Austria, Germany)
42. Zattoo (Germany)
43. Ziggo (Netherlands)

Nov 27 2012

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson » Xbox 360 Black Friday Report

English: Xbox 360 250 GB as shown at the 2010 ...

English: Xbox 360 250 GB as shown at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I just checked the internal data for our Black Friday numbers* and wanted to let you know that over the Holiday weekend:

  • Xbox 360 sold more than 750,000 consoles in the U.S. alone –exceeding internal forecasts.
  • Three month Xbox LIVE Gold Subscription sales increased more than 50 percent compared to last year’s Black Friday week.
  • We saw incredible activity on Xbox over the weekend. For example, on Sunday alone we had more than 14 million people on Xbox LIVE across the world, racking up more than 72 million hours of use in just one day.
  • Compared to 2011, we’ve seen a 43 percent increase in U.S. entertainment application hours logged on Xbox LIVE during the week of Black Friday.

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson » Xbox 360 Black Friday Report :.

Nov 27 2012

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson » Xbox System update going out today

Xbox Live logo since 2005

Xbox Live logo since 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I wanted to let you know that the team has just released a system update for the Xbox 360 over Xbox LIVE. Starting today when you sign in to Xbox LIVE you’ll receive a prompt to accept this mandatory update. If you are signed into LIVE already, you may be signed out and asked to accept the update and you’ll be back online in a few moments.

In this update, we are correcting some issues such as displaying the incorrect playlist name when launching a playlist from Xbox SmartGlass to the console, an error with Xbox Video closed-captioning and an error with Xbox Music that some were experiencing.

Thanks and we will see you online.

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson » Xbox System update going out today :.

Nov 15 2012

Microsoft is rewarding the members who have been on Xbox Live the longest with special consoles !

I hope I get one I been on Xbox live for 10 years and I beta tested Xbox live on the original Xbox !

Microsoft is rewarding the members who have been on Xbox Live the longest with special consoles. As revealed by Xbox Live’s Major Nelson on Twitter

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Oct 15 2012

Xbox Music here it comes !

Xbox Music is the first all-in-one music service that gives you the freedom to stream custom-created playlists for free, subscribe to all the music you want or download-to-own your favourite songs. Through the power of the cloud, it effortlessly integrates the music experience across your tablet, PC, phone and TV.

Jul 4 2012

DLC Fireworks For Call Of Duty Fans This July 4th !

Español: Logotipo oficial del videojuego Call ...

Español: Logotipo oficial del videojuego Call of Duty: Black Ops. Propiedad de Activision (C), la cual es propiedad de Vivendi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Official logo of the video game Call of Duty M...

Official logo of the video game Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3, an upcoming video game to be released on November 8, 2011. Owned by Activision (C), which is owned by Vivendi SA. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Fifty Percent Off All Call Of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 And Call Of Duty®: Black Ops DLC Collection Packs For A Limited Time

Activision To Donate A Portion Of The Proceeds To The Call Of Duty Endowment

SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 3, 2012  – Starting today, Activision celebrates America’s birthday with a historic sales event.  For a limited time, all previously released DLC collection packs for Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3  and  Call of Duty ®: Black Ops  are fifty percent off.  These phenomenal savings for players worldwide on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and Windows PC start today and run for a week. For gamers on the PlayStation® 3 computer entertainment system in the United States, the promotion also launches today and runs for a week; European  Call of Duty® fans can participate tomorrow, July 4th, and the promotion lasts for a week in Europe as well.

The Call of Duty DLC summer promotion content includes:

  • Call of Duty® : Modern Warfare® 3 Content Collection #1
  • Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 3 Content Collection #2
  • Call of Duty®: Black Ops First Strike
  • Call of Duty®: Black Ops Escalation
  • Call of Duty®: Black Ops Annihilation
  • Call of Duty®: Black Ops Rezurrection

A portion of sales from the Call of Duty DLC promotion will be donated by Activision Publishing, Inc. to the  Call of Duty Endowment, a non-profit organization that provides job placement and training services for veterans.

Call of Duty:  Modern Warfare 3  is published by Activision Publishing, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Activision Blizzard, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI), and co-developed by Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software. Featuring some of the most intense combat in franchise history, including Special Ops missions and new multiplayer maps and modes like Face Off,  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 is rated “M” (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood and Gore, Drug Reference, Intense Violence and Strong Language. For more information go to  www.callofduty.com/mw3 or check out @InfinityWard or @SHGames on Twitter.

Developed by award-winning studio Treyarch,  Call of Duty: Black Ops delivers some of the most popular content ever, from multiplayer maps such as fan-favorite Nuketown, to the undead Zombie battle royale contained in Rezurrection. The title is rated “M” (Mature) by the ESRB for Blood, Drug Reference, Intense Violence and Language. For more information, visit  www.callofduty.com/blackops and follow @Treyarch on Twitter. Fans can also follow  Call of Duty on Facebook at  www.facebook.com/callofduty.

About the Call of Duty Endowment

The  Call of Duty Endowment was founded by Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, to help veterans find jobs.  Since its founding in November 2009, the Endowment has provided more than $1.7 million in grants and scholarships to assist returning soldiers with post-military career support, directly contributing to more than 1,000 veteran jobs.

The Call of Duty Endowment is a non-profit, public benefit corporation. For more information, please visit  www.callofdutyendowment.org.

About Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.

Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, South Korea, mainland China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company’s website,  www.activision.com.

ACTIVISION, CALL OF DUTY, MODERN WARFARE, CALL OF DUTY MW3 and CALL OF DUTY BLACK OPS are trademarks of Activision Publishing, Inc. All other trademarks and trade names are the properties of their respective owners.

Xbox 360 is either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.  PlayStation is registered trademark and of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.

SOURCE Activision Publishing, Inc.

Jun 15 2012

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson » June 19 – 25 Games on Demand Sale

Xbox Live Marketplace

Xbox Live Marketplace (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Earlier this week, I posted a list of content coming soon to the Xbox LIVE Marketplace. In that list, I highlighted a 75% sale coming next week for selected Games On Demand Titles. I have just received the list and wanted to share it with you below. These deals will be available in all Xbox LIVE regions where the title is available.

Up to 75% select GonD titltes June 19 – 25  Standard Price  Discount Price Discount % Savings
Bionic Commando  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WW II  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Bolt  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Bomberman Act: Zero  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Conan  $    14.99  $     3.99 73% -$11.00
Dark Void  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
FaceBreaker  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Kameo  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Meet the Robinsons  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Open Season  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Perfect Dark Zero  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Prince of Persia  $    14.99  $     3.99 73% -$11.00
Rockstar Table Tennis  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
SEGA Superstars Tennis  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Surf’s Up  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Tornado Outbreak  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Virtua Tennis 2009  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00
Viva Pinata Party Animals  $    19.99  $     4.99 75% -$15.00

Xbox Live’s Major Nelson » June 19 – 25 Games on Demand Sale :.

Jun 4 2012

Xbox SmartGlass Fact Sheet

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Xbox Entertainment

June 2012

What is Xbox?
Xbox is the premier entertainment destination for your TV, phone, PC and tablet, and home to the biggest and best games, as well as one of the world’s largest libraries of music, movies, TV shows, videos and sports.1 With Kinect for Xbox 360, Xbox transformed gaming and entertainment in the living room by unlocking a whole new way to play games and find entertainment content — no controller required. More information about Xbox can be found online at http://www.Xbox.com and http://www.Xbox.com/press.

Why is Xbox the answer to my entertainment needs?
Xbox is the destination for all your favorite entertainment, to be experienced in innovative ways. Enjoy games, music, television shows, movies and more on your TV, tablet or phone.1 Entertainment is more amazing with Xbox.

Voice plus gesture control. Compatible with every Xbox 360 console,2 Kinect makes your body and voice the controller. Kinect creates experiences that are familiar, intuitive and tailored for each game or entertainment experience.3

Voice search. With voice search powered by Bing, you have the ability to find the games and entertainment content you want on your Xbox 360, regardless of where it resides on the service.3

Later this year, Kinect voice control and search will become available to an additional 12 countries and six languages, for a total of 15 countries and sevenlanguages, with full voice control and search support. In addition, in some countries and languages, you will be able to search for content genres such as comedy, drama and action, and also will be able to use your voice to search user-generated content on YouTube.

o Supported languages: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Spanish
o Supported countries: Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland, U.S. and U.K.

Entertainment apps. With an ever-expanding catalog of TV, music, movies and sports apps from world-leading TV and entertainment providers, Xbox continues to deliver all of the content you care about in unique ways.

Xbox delivers a deep selection of global and local providers of live streaming and video-on-demand TV and movie programming through a combination of its Xbox Video service and industry-leading partners.4

May 21 2012

Gamers crown Microsoft’s Xbox 360 the UK’s most popular console

Xbox 360 250 GB as shown at the 2010 Electroni...

Xbox 360 250 GB as shown at the 2010 Electronic Entertainment Expo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

IGN’s Great Gamer Survey reveals the thoughts of more than 6500 UK gamers

21/05/12 – Xbox 360 has been named the UK’s most popular games console, in a survey of more than 6500 gamers, readers of IGN.com – the UK’s largest video games and entertainment website.

The Great Gamer Survey marks the first time in three years that IGN has polled its readers on their gaming habits.

When asked ‘Which console they owned and played all the time?’ Microsoft’s console recorded 49% of the vote, followed in second place by Sony’s PlayStation 3 with 38%.
For gaming on the move, Nintendo’s DS and 3DS handhelds were named the UK’s favourite portable devices scooping 35% of the vote, ahead of smartphone with 24%.

The survey also found that gamers are an increasingly social bunch, as 68% said they preferred to play with friends in person, with just 20% stating they would prefer to play online.

With annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) taking place in Los Angeles early next month, gamers are joining the industry in looking forward to the next generation of games consoles, with the latest cycle set to begin later this year, with the rumoured launch of Nintendo’s Wii successor, the Wii-U.    Currently, gamers are most excited by a new Xbox, currently in development under the codename Durango – with 45% revealing they were ‘very interested’ in buying the machine.  Of those surveyed, 55% believed a major graphics upgrade would be the ‘most interesting’ feature in a new Xbox machine.

As the 2012 games release season begins to kick into life, an overwhelming 30% of gamers have revealed they wanted to hear more about Rockstar Games eagerly anticipated Grand Theft Auto V at this year’s E3, some way in front of Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed III, with 12% of the vote in second place, and the Xbox 360 exclusive Halo 4 in fourth place with 11%.

Feb 3 2012

Next Xbox will share content across Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8

The new Windows 8 Start Screen, making use of ...

Image via Wikipedia

Information about Windows Phone 8 leaked out on Thursday that also confirmed some of the details for the successor to the Xbox 360 and Windows 8.

Pocketnow was the first to leak details on the next Windows Phone based on a video from Windows Phone manager Joe Belfiore intended for Microsoft partners at Nokia. Microsoft insider Paul Thurrott, who’s had many a Windows scoop, confirmed many of the details from Pocketnow and added a little more information to the well.

In the video, Belfore discusses many of the hardware and application features coming to Microsoft’s smartphones but, more interestingly for the gaming community, he also talked a little about the next Xbox and Windows 8 as well. Windows 8 will get an app similar to the Xbox Companion App currently on the Windows Phone. The app lets you browse for movies, TV shows, music, games and apps for your Xbox 360.

A new cloud service (or possibly an expanded Skydrive service) will allow content such as movies, music and phots to be shared across the next Xbox, Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. Supposedly, this will be done through new client software and not Zune. Xbox LIVE games across all three platforms will be there as well but not much information was provided on the level of compatibility or integration that is planned. Phone information such as missed calls and data usage can be shared with a synched PC but it is unknown if that type of information would be shared with the Xbox as well.

The Xbox 360 now shares the same Metro user interface as Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7.5 with the dashboard update this past December. Microsoft is clearly looking meld three of it top consumer products together for a unified experience (and more sales).

One of the other interesting bits of news about Windows Phone 8 is that it will add NFC (Near Field Communications) to allowers to securely pay for apps and games with by placing a credit card on the phone instead of storing the credit card number on an online account that can be hacked. Nintendo recently announced that NFC would be integrated with the Wii U controller for much the same purpose. Is it possible we would see this with the next Xbox as well?

Next Xbox will share content across Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 – National Console Gaming | Examiner.com.

Jan 26 2012

Gotham City Impostors public console beta now live!

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Today Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and DC Entertainment announced that the Gotham City Impostors public console beta is now available in the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PlayStation®Network.

Those interested in joining the Xbox 360 version of the beta can go to https://www.gothamcityimpostors.com/beta/ to register for a chance to receive a key. The PS3 version is available in the PSN and can be downloaded without a key.

Gotham City Impostors is a download only title that will be available in the Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®Network and Windows PC. Fans of the game can go to www.GothamCityImpostors.com for the latest updates and news.

Gotham City Impostors is an original first-person shooter where up to 12 players battle for control of an unhinged Gotham City overrun by impostors inspired by the DC Comics characters Batman and The Joker. Players can engage in deliriously fast paced, uniquely vertical, completely unconventional urban warfare to level up and unlock a mind-boggling array of customization options that let them personalize their Batz or Jokerz Impostor with insane costumes and a huge assortment of traditional and homebrew weaponry, equipment, and perks. Gadgets such as the Glider Rig, Grappling Hook, and Spring Boots give gamers unprecedented mobility options, while support items like bear traps, boomerangs, and body armor open up crazy new tactical options. The game will feature maps and modes inspired by DC Comics’ Batman license.

The Gotham City PR Team