Microsoft seems to be pressing forward 
with its plans to launch its own TV channel.
The company has reportedly held talks with several media companies about acquiring content for a pay-television subscription service that would stream through the Xbox 360 dashboard. The service, assuming it comes to pass, isn’t expected to launch for roughly one year.
This holiday season, gadgets are a good 
worry-free gift to get that bizzer who has everything — particularly since everything that’s tech seems to be changing. From 3D TV and a video-streaming set-top box to a new twist on motion-capture gaming, Variety has put together a list of the latest gizmos that are sure to be as much fun to give as they are to receive.
Adrenalin Misfits won’t be a game that people
talk about in six months. Sadly, many will have forgotten about it. But that’s not to say they won’t have fun with it today. It’s the gaming equivalent of a potato chip: fun to enjoy for a brief moment, but something that leaves you hungry for more. The controls are inexact and might cause some frustration, but not to the extent that families won’t get past it. (Gaming enthusiasts are more likely to notice the problems.) The characters are largely forgettable and try too hard to be edgy, but being able to use your Xbox Live avatar to board down a mountain is novel. Both single- and multiplayer modes (split screen on the same TV) are fun and can be a good bonding experience for families — and might get the kids excited about some real outdoor winter activities.
[As Sony announces a tie-up with Vudu for HD 
movie streaming, Gamasutra editor-at-large Chris Morris looks at how the PlayStation 3 creator has started to gain ground on Microsoft’s array of on-console media content — the next big battlefield for game consoles.]
Long before Kinect, Microsoft had its own way of courting the non-gamer – offer functionality on the Xbox 360 that was unique enough to lure in people who weren’t interested in the latest Haloinstallment. And it was a pretty effective method.
With Netflix integration leading the charge in 2008, the Xbox 360 finally fulfilled the dream of the console as a Trojan horse of the living room. It gave the company a huge competitive advantage for a while, but recently that advantage has been slipping away. Sony, in particular, has gained a lot of ground in that battle and is threatening to overshadow Microsoft’s achievements.
Cementing its status as one of the year’s “must have” 
holiday items, Microsoft’s Kinect has sold more than 1 million units in its first 10 days on the market.
That’s a strong start for the peripheral, which uses motion capture technology to let players use their bodies to control videogames on the Xbox 360. It’s certainly a stronger reaction than Sony saw with its entry in the motion control category earlier this year. The company shipped 1 million PlayStation Move units to retailers in that device’s first month on shelves, but did not sell them all.
DanceMasters is an incredibly fun game that puts 
no pressure on players to learn complicated moves. The point is less about nailing routines as it is about scoring points and moving. There’s plenty of flailing about, but that’s half the fun. The song selection likely won’t be familiar to people who don’t go to dance clubs, though, so you won’t be able to dance to songs you’re familiar with — and only 20 of the game’s 31 songs are initially available. (You have to unlock the others and DanceMasters isn’t real clear about how to go about doing that.) Downloadable digital content will seemingly broaden the catalog, but we would have liked to have seen one or two familiar songs.
[Gamasutra’s Chris Morris looks at the factors that will 
dictate Kinect’s market prospects at launch and down the line, opining that Microsoft’s holiday season looks secured — but that it “might have screwed some of its partners in the process.”]
Two months ago, when Sony’s PlayStation Move hit shelves, I wondered whether Sony had lost its mind. The device, I mentioned, wasn’t intuitive and had some alarming aesthetic issues – a combination that could hurt its chances with the mainstream audience.
Now Kinect has arrived – and while it has just as many problems as Move, it seems poised to thoroughly trounce its competitor this holiday season.
For all the media attention and fanfare, you might
think Microsoft was launching a new console today. And given what the company is spending on marketing its latest peripheral, you wouldn’t be that far off.
Kinect, a motion sensor device that allows users to play games simply by using gestures and voice commands, hit shelves today – and is predicted by many to become one of this year’s “must have” holiday gifts. Microsoft is so confident in the device that is has raised its internal sales predictions for calendar 2010 from 3 million to 5 million.
But is it any good?
Microsoft rolled the dice when it 
decided to get into the video game motion control market. Nintendo, with the Wii, had certainly proven that there was an audience interested in a more intuitive controller, but with over 71 million of the consoles sold worldwide, the potential for market saturation was strong.
As the company rolls out Kinect on Thursday, early signs are showing that the gamble was a wise one.
Microsoft’s anticipated update of 
the Xbox 360 dashboard has gone live, bringing new features to sports and music fans.
The system update, which is mandatory for all users who wish to connect to Xbox Live, brings over 3,500 live and on-demand sporting events per year to the system, courtesy of ESPN3. That partnership will also include scoreboards, voice chat and the ability to “predict the winner” of games via polls.
Read more at Variety’s Technotainment blog
Chris Morris: Journalist 