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Xbox Rewards Challenge Live
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade,
The Xbox Rewards site is now live, but seems to be getting hammered as Xbox 360 gamers flood into the site to register. Right now, the only challenge available is the previously announced Old Spice Experience Challenge; this challenge runs from now until April 7th, according to the site. As previously mentioned, gamers will qualify for prizes depending on their Gamerscore level, earning anything from Xbox Live Arcade games, to Microsoft Points, to a full copy of Fusion Frenzy 2 for the Xbox 360.
Read More 
| Xbox Rewards
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Major Nelson Wants Your Marketplace Ten Commandments
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Microsoft’s Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson has a post on his blog asking gamers for their “Ten Commandments” of the Xbox Live Marketplace. Unsurprisingly, a number of the complaints range around some common issues users have with the Marketplace, such as:
- Charging to unlock content already on the disc (the fantastic 108kb downloads)
- Charging for content that other platforms get for free
- Releasing broken content
- No price reductions for content, ever
- More consistent Marketplace releases
If gamers have any requests for changes, improvements, or rules that the Xbox Live Marketplace should abide by, submit them to Major Nelson now; Microsoft has listened in the past, they will listen now.
Read More | Major Nelson
Microsoft And Old Spice Reward Gamerscore
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade,
Microsoft announced today that they are teaming up with Old Spice to bring Xbox Rewards to online gamers. The rewards program requires a Windows Live ID and Xbox Live gamercard, but gamers only need either a Gold or Silver level subscription. Rewards challenges will be split into three levels according to Gamerscore: Level 1, from 0 – 4,999 Gamerscore, Level 2 from 5,000 – 9,999, and Level 3 at over 10,000 Gamerscore. The first challenge starts February 12th, and requires that gamers increase their Gamerscore by 1,500 points by April 12th. Rewards depend on the user’s current Gamerscore Level:
- Level 1
- The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami (Retail Value $5.00)
- Exclusive Old Spice Level 1 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
- An experience upgrade to Xbox Rewards Level 2
- Level 2
- The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami
- Exclusive Old Spice Level 2 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
- 100 Microsoft Points
- An experience upgrade to Xbox Rewards Level 3
- Level 3
- The popular Xbox Live Arcade game Contra (rated: E10+) from Konami
- Exclusive Old Spice Level 3 Xbox Rewards gamer picture
- 200 Microsoft Points
- Old Spice T-Shirt (Estimated Retail Value $10.00)
- A copy of Fuzion Frenzy 2 game (rated: E10+) (Estimated Retail Value $50.00)
Microsoft promises to be watching out for “foul play,” so those looking to cheat the program with copied game saves might have issues cashing in their prizes. It will be interesting to see how well this incents the Gamerscore program in the future; the best rewards are at Level 3, which is initially tied to Gamerscore, however, if each challenge increases the gamer’s level in the reward program, more people may be hitting the highest level faster than Microsoft expects. If Microsoft later adjusts the level system or the prize levels, this may cause disillusionment with the program.
Read More | Xbox.com
Aquazone: Worse Microtransaction Offender Than EA
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace,
While Electronic Arts has been busy monetizing nearly every facet of its Xbox 360 releases, from tutorials to unlockable items and cheats, a Japanese developer has stepped up to try and take the crown away from EA. 1up reports that Frontier Groove, publishers of AquaZone recently released 18 new fish for their aquarium simulator to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Should a user wish to purchase all 18, the cost will run over 5000 points, more than $60. 1up also discovered that the size of each download is the minimum size allowed by the Xbox 360, 108K, which strongly suggests that gamers are paying for content that is already on the retail disc. Interestingly, AquaZone has been one of the weakest supporters of the Gamerscore program, and is probably one of the reasons that Microsoft is enforcing new standards for that as well.
Read More | 1up
Microsoft Standardizes Gamerscore
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade,
Microsoft’s Gamerscore and Achievements program has been remarkably successful, with people going so far as to pay for additional Achievements. Still, there seems to be uneven support for the program from game developers. Now, Microsoft is moving to standardize the program so that gamers can expect a more uniform experience. A post on the Gamerscore blog lists some of the changes to the program.
First, base points will be standardized for game titles. A retail disc-based game is required to have 1,000 Gamerscore available; Live Arcade games are required to have 200 Gamerscore. Microsoft says that this base score can come in a combination of regular and add-on content as long as the add-on content is free. Game publishers will also have the option of adding another 250 Gamerscore to disc games from paid or free content as well. By standardizing the program, it seems Microsoft is strongly encouraging developers to think about Achievements when developing the program and further differentiate Xbox 360 titles from their counterparts on competing systems. Hopefully, any Achievements added in the new program won’t be superficial tack-ons to meet a points goal.
Read More | Gamerscoreblog
Call Of Duty 3 Map Pack Broken
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Activision, First Person Shooters, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace,
Gaming blog 2old2play is reporting that the Valor Map Pack, the 800 point content add-on for Call of Duty 3 shipped in a non-functional state. Referring to multiple complaints on the Xbox forums, it appears that a small percentage of people have gotten the content working by deleting previously downloaded content, but a majority can not get the maps to work. A post by a Treyarch employee indicates that they are working on the problem, but this appears to be an ongoing quality assurance issue for Xbox Live content. Xbox Live Arcade games and downloadable add-on content for other games have shipped in partially functioning states, and retail games have also seen issues. It appears that Microsoft’s certification testing team can find some issues; anticipated releases like the Crackdown demo have been delayed because of problems found during certification. Balancing the release process against the risks of not finding issues can be difficult, but it seems like major issues are going unnoticed.
Read More | 2old2play
Live Arcade Download Limit Grows To 250MB
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace,
1up is reporting that Microsoft is lifting the 50 MB size cap for Xbox Live Arcade downloads. Citing anonymous sources, 1up states that the new maximum size for Arcade games can now be as high as 250 MB. With special dispensation from Microsoft, content can become as large as 650 MB. Officially, Microsoft is denying the changes to their program. However, it is known that Konami has already received an exception for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Microsoft’s reasoning for the 50 MB limit was initially to provide Core system users access to Xbox Live Arcade content, but with a 256 MB Memory Card coming, this limit may no longer be necessary. The changes to the file limitations may in part be related to the competition; Sony has no such limits for their downloadable content, and Microsoft may feel that additional resources for Xbox Live Arcade titles may be necessary to keep up.
Read More | 1up
Oblivion Expansion Shivering Isles Coming This Spring
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Internet, PC, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
Bethesda Softworks announced that Elder Scrolls: Shivering Isles, an expansion for Elder Scrolls: Oblivion will be coming to the Xbox 360 and the PC this Spring. The expansion should add more than 30 hours of gameplay to the already expansive title, and will be available through retail channels for the PC, and via Xbox Live for the Xbox 360. Given that the expansion will add a completely new realm to the Elder Scrolls universe, one expects that this expansion will be one of the largest Xbox Live add-ons to date, and possibly one of the most expensive. No mention of the add-on was made for the upcoming Playstation 3 version of the game; this could possibly be included on disc, but this doesn’t seem to be a likely option at this time.
The full press release continues below.
Click to continue reading Oblivion Expansion Shivering Isles Coming This Spring
Read More | Shivering Isles Screenshots
Microsoft Wants Your Help to Improve Xbox Live
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Internet, Strategy, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
It’s fairly safe to say that Microsoft is currently in the enviable position of currently having the most versatile and robust online service of all the next-gen consoles. With everything they’ve learned from the original Xbox, and their year head start on the other two next-gen consoles, the Xbox 360 was able to gain this upper hand in the online department. But does this mean the big M$ is going to rest on their laurels? Heck no. In fact, Microsoft wants suggestions from you, Mr. Xbox 360 owner, on how exactly Xbox Live can become even better.
Head on over to MajorNelson’s blog to check out his call for suggestions. Interestingly, MajorNelson seems to be focused on the question of how Xbox Live can be made better for Xbox users, while the original call from Ozymandias is more interested in the question of the “Live” service pertaining to multiple devices (i.e., Zune, PC, Xbox, etc.), so it’s not clear what the focus of their new developments will be. Given that the big Bill has recently admitted that the Xbox 360 is M$‘s way of getting its tentacles into your home entertainment center, though, it’s a pretty sure bet that they’re eventually working on dominating your entire living room.
Read More 
| Ozymandias’ Blog
Read More | Major Nelson's Blog
Xbox Live Video Marketplace to Make About $100 Million
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Marketplace,
If estimates from Emerging Media Dynamics are correct, Microsoft could end up with a nice chunk of change in its pocket thanks to the recently unveiled Xbox Live Video Marketplace. The firm estimates that by 2011, Microsoft could make as much as $726 million via downloadable movie and video content, with about $92 million of that being made this year.
With all those videos being downloaded, Microsoft had better come out with a larger add-on harddrive soon. Something tells me that all that media isn’t going to fit on the piddly 20 GB drives that current 360 owners are using.
Read More | GamesIndustry.biz
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