Nintendo may catch lots of flack for bringing gaming to the casual market, but their methods have certainly not fallen on death ears. While the DS was far from the first touch-screen device, it was one of the first mass-market commercial ones. It has since been followed up by Apple’s iPhone and a slew of other touch phones. Now, Microsoft is getting in on the party.
Microsoft recently previewed some of the tech for their Windows 7 OS (one can hardly wait for Windows X OS) and the big hoopla seemed to be over the addition of multi-touch capability. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s essentially the same tech in the iPhone. Not only that, many of the demos shown (rotating and resizing photos, zooming in on maps) are ripped directly from the iPhone’s interface. So, great, Microsoft rips off Apple again, right? What does it have to do with gaming? Plenty.
Cheating is a splendid thing. It allows you to get ahead without any of the effort of those you hope to emulate. No wonder so many people do it. Microsoft, however, is not a fan.
That’s why as of Tuesday, Microsoft struck back (yes, the evil empire struck back). Those who had been artificially inflating their Gamerscore and Achievement totals found a nasty little surprise. Microsoft reset them. That’s right, all the way to zero.
Sure, playing Ace Combat or Microsoft Flight Simulator is fun, but does either fully capture the reality of flying a plane? Hardly. Well, that is unless you add a $17,250 hardware setup along with Microsoft’s software.
That’s exactly what HotSeat is offering with their Flight Sim Chasis. The setup includes three 22-inch LCD monitors and a beast of a computer. It’s powered by a quad core processor, 4GB of RAM and an NVIDIA 512MB graphics card. All of this to run Microsoft Flight Simulator X with the Acceleration Expansion Pack (preinstalled, naturally). (more…)
This video is both remarkable and pointless. Did you know you can render 3D graphics in Microsoft Excel? Did you care? Probably not for both, but upon seeing you’ll have a hard time arguing it isn’t a little cool to make such a bland work tool actually do something fun. Now, where are the modders with the Star Fox ports to Excel?
Ever so slowly, the two gigantic balls of clay meld into one. Soon, will anyone be able to tell where one ends and the next begins? If you’re the type to freak out and cite 1984 when just about anything in business happens, it’s probably time to get out your tin foil hat. Microsoft and Electronic Arts are in business together.
Microsoft owned subsidiary Massive Inc. and Electronic Arts have inked a deal for in-game advertising in EA games until through 2010. Massive Inc. is an advertising company specializing in placing ads within online games. Basically, the type of ads you see randomly changing in games from time to time. The deal is an extension of a current deal, but it will greatly expand the number of titles EA places Massive’s ads in. (more…)
Almost immediately after the death of the HD-DVD format, rumors began to swirl that Microsoft would introduce a Blu-ray add-on drive for the Xbox 360. Microsoft itself had even hinted they might do as much if HD-DVD were ever to fail. Now, it seems something is actually coming of all those rumors. Microsoft and Sony are in talks to develop such a drive.
The confirmation comes from Stan Glasgow, Sony Electronics US president. Yes, this is the equivalent of cats and dogs lying together. The two bitter rivals are playing nice for a bit as they both hope to gain something. Sony sells more Blu-ray drives and Microsoft hopefully avoids the cries of “obsolete” by Sony’s marketing team. They end up helping one another out because they both need one another. (more…)
Rob Enderle over at TG Faily has a fairly interesting piece up about the potential future of Google in gaming. What, Google? Did you think Apple was the only computer company considering a move into gaming? According to Enderle, Google may very hold the future to gaming.
Cloud computing, centralized computing or whatever buzz term you’d like to use is being touted as the future of computer software. Essentially, the desktop will be the browser and all software will run remotely on computer servers. This is the same idea that was kicked around in the late 90s with the idea of workstation PCs in every home instead of desktops. Technology hadn’t quite caught up then, but with services such as Meebo and Google Documents it finally is. (more…)
It’s true; the big, bad Microsoft has pulled its support for the HD-DVD player add-ons for the Xbox 360 after news of Toshiba’s withdrawal from the format war. So all those HD-DVDs you invested in? Well, sorry to say there aren’t any new ones are coming out soon. Support for HD-DVD drives is now out the window. Feel free to yell or hit something in light of you spending that money. Rumor has it by the end of the year Microsoft will be releasing a Blu-ray player add on for the 360. That seems like a good idea. Maybe the next Xbox will have a Blu-ray drive in it. One can only store so much gaming goodness on a regular DVD.
Hey you can still use your HD-DVD add on as an DVD player with up scaling abilities, which is what many companies are calling their left over HD-DVD players. Or you could make it into as a giant paperweight and desk ornament for your home office. (more…)
A recent article in the popular gaming magazine Gamepro hinted that the FPS giant Epic might be the next company to be picked up by the evil empire Microsoft for a cool $1 billion. Travis Moses, assistant editor, points out in his article that due to their work on Gears of War, intimate knowledge of the 360, and it’s success with the Unreal engine it would be an ideal partner for Microsoft in an attempt to create a tighter grip on the console market.
However, unlike other developers that have joined forces with Microsoft, Epic’s VP Mark Rein scoffed at the possibility that they would be bought for such a low price. When contacted, Rein stated that if Epic ever were to sell its price would be at least double the $1 billion figure speculated by Moses. Rein stated, “I have not seen the actual GamePro article but if they’re going to make predictions about us selling Epic we would prefer if they started at $2 billion, because we don’t want anyone thinking that we’re cheap.” (more…)
Almost since the launch of the original Xbox there have been rumors of an X-Boy or some other cleverly titles portable gaming system. While it seems that every major console manufacturer must eventually dive into the portable market only to be eventually rebuffed by Nintendo, the rumors have persisted without much to actually show for them. That all changed this week when Microsoft added games to the Zune music player.
To be fair, the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP are hardly shaking in their boots at the arrival of Zune games. They’re more on the level of the games already offered on Apple’s iPod. Still, the games are being developed using Microsoft’s XNA Studio, the same system used to develop titles for Xbox Live Arcade and the PC. Does it sound like Microsoft might have some big, long-term plans for XNA?
So, it isn’t exactly the X-Boy many had hoped for. Yet, the full force push behind XNA may spell trouble for both Sony and Nintendo. While Nintendo’s dominance of the handheld market seems fairly cement, there is definitely room for a competitor to chip away at it. Sony has fumbled their way with the PSP and will almost certainly try with a PSP2, but a Microsoft developed system could make a large impact by trying new things neither Nintendo or Sony are ready or willing to. (more…)
Ever so slowly, the two gigantic balls of clay meld into one. Soon, will anyone be able to tell where one ends and the next begins? If you’re the type to freak out and cite 1984 when just about anything in business happens, it’s probably time to get out your tin foil hat. 
Almost immediately after the death of the HD-DVD format, 
Rob Enderle over at 
It’s true; the big, bad Microsoft has 
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Almost since the launch of the original Xbox there have been rumors of an X-Boy or some other cleverly titles portable gaming system. While it seems that every major console manufacturer must eventually dive into the portable market only to be eventually rebuffed by Nintendo, the rumors have persisted without much to actually show for them. That all changed this week when 
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