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Halo 2 Matchmaking: Monthly Game Breakdown
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: First Person Shooters, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
If you are a regular reader of Major Nelson’s blog you cannot help but notice that Halo 2 is still topping the “Original Xbox Top Live Games” list. Halo 2 has been seated in the top ten for as long as I can remember and recently has kept the number one position many weeks running. Several factors can contribute to the long lasting success of Halo 2. The lack of any other killer app for the original Xbox has lead many to use the Xbox as simply Halo 2 console. The ease of matchmaking and fun gameplay has also contributed to the long championship rein of Halo 2. Whatever the reason Halo 2 is a lasting force in the Xbox and Xbox 360 world.
Last week Bungie announced that over half a billion games of Halo 2 have been played on Xbox Live. They followed up last weeks announcement with the news that Halo 2 matchmaking is still plowing through roughly 20 million games a month. To put that into context 20 million, is the same number of games being played when Halo 2 was released. Whether you believe Halo 2 is still in the top spot because it is an amazing game or because the Xbox competition was lacking retaining this many players a year and a half later is an amazing accomplishment.
Read More 
| Bungie
Gallery: Halo 2 Matchmaking: Monthly Game Breakdown
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Undocumented Xbox 360 Dashboard Feature Allows Cache Clearing
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
According to some crafty users on the NeoGAF forums, there’s an undocumented feature in the latest Xbox 360 dashboard update - a cache clear. The instructions are listed from the post below
Go to the system blade and then memory. Press Y on either the HDD or a MU and then press X, X, Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X, X. Once you do this a blade will pop up saying: This will perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage devices. Do you want to continue? Pick yes or no.
Of course, Microsoft officially wants you to use this option only when instructed by technical support, so proceed at your own risk. Users on the NeoGAF forum suggest that this may help to fix load time issues that have been encountered by folks after playing many games or playing games that load lots of info to the cache (Oblivion, for one). After clearing your cache and re-running a game, you might notice quicker load times. Best of luck, if you decide to try it.
Read More | NeoGAF Forums via 1up.com
Gallery: Undocumented Xbox 360 Dashboard Feature Allows Cache Clearing
Video Game Software Sales Down 10% in May
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,
After promising sales in April the video game industry was brought back to reality in May. Console software sales are 10% lower than May 2005. The drop has alarmed many analysts even though overall sales, hardware and software combined, show a rise from last May. One major reason for the decreased sales is that the video game industry is in a transition to next generation consoles. This transition has gamers waiting to purchase next-gen titles, couple this with only 2 new Xbox 360 games in May and lackluster sales are more easily explained.
Michael Pachter, an analyst from Wedbush Morgan Securities, summed up the situation, saying “We think that this trend foreshadows continuing weak sales until the holidays, as we expect continued monthly year-over-year declines of 30 - 40% for current generation software sales, with next generation software sales growth failing to offset these declines. We do not expect next generation software sales to offset the decline in current generation software sales until the fall, when a strong lineup of Xbox 360 games is anticipated and launches of the PS3 and Wii are scheduled.”
My own predictions call for decreased Xbox 360 software sales over the next months with increased Nintendo DS hardware and software sales due to the release of the Nintendo DS Lite. I am curious if Xbox Live Marketplace content is counted into the overall software sales for the Xbox 360 since there are currently more releases on the Marketplace than in retail stores.
Read More | Game Daily
Gallery: Video Game Software Sales Down 10% in May
Xbox 360 Spring Update Problems
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Rumors, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
The Xbox 360 Spring update was recently released, and Microsoft trumpeted the 125 improvements in the patch, but reports from users on the official Xbox.com forums show a bunch of users having problems with games, the dashboard, and video playback after the update. Now, despite the number of posts in the forums, this could be a small number of people affected with this. On the other hand, Microsoft has a known platform on which they fully control the hardware, so one would expect fewer issues in deploying a major patch like this than on PCs. One of the suggested fixes was to clear the Xbox 360 hard drive and re-download the affected content using the new cache clearing code built into the dashboard. However, this hasn’t seemed to fix the issue in all circumstances, and for some gamers, they can’t re-download the content because it is no longer available from the Xbox Live marketplace. At any rate, it looks like discontent is growing in the forums right now, but there’s no real smoking gun that suggests a root cause.
Read More | Xbox.com “Freezing after update” forum thread
Gallery: Xbox 360 Spring Update Problems
Meijer Buy One Get One Half Off Videogames
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Hot Deals, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Meijer is having a sale on video games this weekend. Their entire selection of video games is buy one get one 50% off on Saturday from 6 AM to Midnight. Meijer is located in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky (store locator). They have a good selection of video games for Xbox, Xbox 360, PSP, PS2, Gamecube, GBA, and DS. In the past I have had luck getting Best Buy to price match Meijer, in case you do not have a Meijer nearby. This would be an excellent sale to stop by for anyone picking up a Nintendo DS on Sunday.
Read More | Meijer (PDF link)
Gallery: Meijer Buy One Get One Half Off Videogames
How To Talk Trash on Xbox Live
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Culture, First Person Shooters, Internet, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
Do you often find your trash talk lacking? Do you feel like you can’t get a word in edgewise on Xbox Live? Are you sick of being berated by masters of smack? Your hook-up has finally arrived. Check out Fireborn’s “How to talk Smack on Xbox Live”. Enjoy the educational video and remember, on Xbox Live its not how you play, but what you say!
Read More | YouTube
Gallery: How To Talk Trash on Xbox Live
New Super Mario Bros. Tearing Up US, Japanese Charts
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Xbox 360,
New Super Mario Bros. is tearing up the US and Japanese sales charts. The sequel for the DS added another 334,000 sales this week in Japan to push it over the million sales mark, and Nintendo DS titles occupied seven of the top ten sales spots in Japan. The additional sales is also driving adoption of the DS in Japan, leading all console sales with 135,614 units sold. The next highest on the chart is the PSP, at 24,595 units, marking an over 5:1 sales ratio. On the US side, New Super Mario Bros. debuted at number one, pushing Kingdom Heart 2 for the PS2, Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion for the Xbox 360 down in the standings. While in the US, Xbox 360 titles lead the pack, the PS2 is selling strong, with 232,000 units sold versus 221,000 Xbox 360 consoles in the same month.
Read More | Gamasutra
Read More | The Magic Box
Gallery: New Super Mario Bros. Tearing Up US, Japanese Charts
Oblivion Patch Issues Reported
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PC, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360,
Gamers with the new Oblivion patch have been reporting a number of new issues since release. Primary among the issue are slow loading times in certain areas. It has been said that clearing the Xbox 360 hard drive cache will clear up these issues, but with this issue in Oblivion, and the issue that was seen earlier in MLB 2K6 with caching, perhaps it is too easy to fragment the Xbox 360’s cache. Will gamers be looking for a Norton Utilities 2006 Xbox 360 in the future to manage their hard drives?
Other issues include spurious game lock-ups, but there are few enough data points that this might not correlate with the patch release. On the other hand, while numerous quests have been fixed in the game, if gamers have already hit the bugged quests and gotten the corrupted data in their save file, some quests will still be bugged even after the patch. Bethesda’s offered solution: “start new characters if they want to experience these quests.” For those who have been playing since the game’s release, this is probably not the most ideal solution. Other issues have been reported against the downloadable content modules with the patch, as well.
There was a fairly large public beta for the PC patch, perhaps there should have been the option for this on the Xbox 360 side as well, as it sounds like despite all the work that has been accomplished with the patch, there could have been more polish before the release. With issues like this, though, it is largely a lose-lose situation for the game developers. Gamers rant daily about when they will get the patch, and when the patch is release, invariably new issues spring up that weren’t caught in QA.
Read More | 1Up
Read More | Patch Thread on Offical Forums
Gallery: Oblivion Patch Issues Reported
Want to be a video game tester for Microsoft? Microsoft is currently looking for gamers to test first party titles and devices. Other than getting your hands on a game ahead of the general public, Microsoft will throw in a “gratuity selection” as a parting gift. The offer appears to be available to gamers in all locations and the sign up process is quick and simple. The tests are 2-3 hours in length and involve the latest games and devices at Microsoft. Sign up today and maybe you will get a chance to play test the rumored Microsoft portable gaming console. Note to Microsoft, its time to get some Xbox 360 controllers in your play testing pictures.
Read More | Microsoft
Gallery: Be a Microsoft Game Tester
99 Nights Coming This August
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Corporate News, Xbox 360,
Microsoft today announced that Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s latest endeavor, 99 Nights, will be hitting the US this August. The game was released in Japan on April 20, and received a respectable 31/40 from hard to please Weekly Famitsu. The game is a departure for Mizuguchi, who previously created Meteos for the DS, and Lumines for the PSP. Whereas previous efforts have focused on puzzle-based and rhythm mechanics, 99 Nights could be best compared to Koei’s Dynasty Warriors series. Possibly the strongest features of the game are the large, expansive battlegrounds, and the massive numbers of enemies to face, clearly showing off the power of the Xbox 360. The action is mindless, and violent enough that the game has received an “M” rating from the ESRB.
Read More | GamerscoreBlog
Gallery: 99 Nights Coming This August
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