Tag Archives: microsoft

SXSW: Big Business Hones In On Indie Spotlight

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The annual South by Southwest conference has always been viewed as a place for independent artists and startups to shine. Musicians, filmmakers and new tech companies all compete for awareness among the show’s influential show goers (who often act as evangelists for what they like when they return home).

With the surge of growth in SXSW, though, large companies have invaded the show, looking to capitalize on that same audience, to build awareness for their new products or try to woo some of those evangelists to sing their praises when they return home.

Some, though, just want to cash in on the crowd.

Read more at CNBC.com

Halo: Reach launches first expansion pack

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“Halo: Reach” players are getting some more maps.

The “Halo: Reach” Defiant Map Pack goes live today, with two new multiplayer maps, a firefight mission and new achievements letting players earn up to 150 Microsoft Points.

Read more (and learn how to win free codes) at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Video Game Sales Outpace Expectations in February

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The video game industry got some long-awaited good news in February.

Software sales came in slightly better than analysts were expecting, while hardware sales shattered forecasts. For the month, game sales fell 5 percent versus a year ago, according to the NPD. (Analysts had expected a drop of between 6 and 10 percent.) Sales of gaming hardware were up a surprising 10 percent, though.

Read more at CNBC.com

Game hardware sales soar in February

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Gamers went on a buying spree in February, shocking analysts and rocketing the video games industry into positive sales territory for the first time in over two years.

Buoyed by an unexpected 10 percent jump in hardware sales and a 22 percent surge in peripherals (led by Microsoft’s record-setting Kinect), video game industry sales are now 4 percent above where they were a year ago year to date, according to the NPD Group.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

 

Video game industry posts a February surprise

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The video game industry pulled a rabbit out of its hat in February – and that rabbit looked a lot like an Xbox 360.

A surprise 10 percent jump in hardware sales and a 22 percent increase in peripheral sales not only led the industry to an increase over the February 2010 numbers, but put it in positive year-over-year country as well, according to data from the NPD Group.

Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog

Xbox scammers bilk Microsoft for $1.2 million

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That long string of numbers and letters you have to type in when redeeming a Microsoft Points card might seem random, but a group of hackers recently discovered it wasn’t.

Today, Microsoft is licking its wounds after taking a $1.2 million loss once that information was made public.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

PlayStation motion controller Moves beyond video games

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Within days of its retail release, hackers were already finding some innovative ways to use Microsoft’s Kinect motion controller. Now they’re going to get their chance with the PlayStation Move.

Sony has announced plans to make the software development application for Move available to students, researchers and enthusiasts later this spring. The company says it’s hoping the action will lead to increased innovation in gaming and other fields.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Gears of War 3 to hit shelves Sept. 20

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September is shaping up to be a bullet-ridden month for the video game industry — with three of the year’s most anticipated shooter games scheduled to land at retail.

Microsoft announced Wednesday that Gears of War 3 will release on Sept. 20. That’s just one week after id Software’s long-in-the-works shooter Rage is expected to hit the streets and a little over two weeks after Sony will release Resistance 3.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

 

Brutal Legend developer heads to Sesame Street

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Heavy metal, mind control…Big Bird? One of these things is not like the others — and to Tim Schafer and Double Fine Productions, that’s just the way they like it.

Due this fall for the Xbox 360, Sesame Street: Once Upon a Monster will let young gamers join Cookie Monster, Elmo and other familiar Muppets in a living storybook via the console’s controller-free Kinect system. Players young and old will interact with characters and solve problems through dancing, jumping and other physical interactions.

Read more at Yahoo! Games

Behind The Scenes: Microsoft’s Attempt To Woo Conan O’Brien For Xbox Live

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[In exclusive comments made to Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris, the executive producer of Conan O’Brien’s talk show discusses how Microsoft tried to woo the comedian to take his show onto Xbox Live – and why it was ultimately too much of “a leap of faith” for the Conan team.]

U.S. talk show host Conan O’Brien has been a familiar face on late-night TV for the past 18 years, and even when he had his nasty falling-out with NBC in early 2010, most people expected he would wind up at another network – which, of course, he did.

But before TBS came calling, Microsoft did its best to entice the comedian to bring his show to Xbox Live to help launch an original content channel on the console. The company and the performer have never addressed the reports of the conversation.

Read more at Gamasutra