After the Microsoft E3 Press Conference, Marc Whitten, Chief Product Officer for Xbox revealed more about the new additions to Xbox Live service. In a letter to members, the Chief Product Officer mentioned many new features coming to Xbox One and Xbox Live, including a new reputation system. The system will be unified across Xbox Live and all games, and will give the player more control over who they play with. “Your new Xbox Live Reputation plays a prominent and valuable role rewarding healthy participation while reducing troublemakers and cheaters,” wrote Whitten.
In addition, the Smart Match system will match players with more suitable opponents. Skill, language, and reputation will be a factor. In addition, waiting in lobbies will be eliminated with asynchronous matchmaking. This allows a player to play a game, watch TV, or other media on the console while the matchmaking works.
Twitch, the video streaming service and community will be coming to Xbox One. The service will allow Xbox Live Gold members to stream games using the hardware integrated the console. The Twitch community, a sub-community to Justin.Tv, currently broadcasts gaming events and tournaments across multiple platforms.“Live broadcasting has continued to grow in popularity, but sharing your console experience has never been this easy,” said Twitch CEO Emmett Shear in a press release. “Xbox Live Gold is enabling the ability to both upload your gameplay directly to Twitch and to stream Twitch content on Xbox One. The impact of this level of console integration will be a true game changer.”
It is expected, but not confirmed, that Twitch will be integrated in to many, if not all of the Xbox One games.
Many details were revealed at the Microsoft Xbox One reveal event today in Redmond, Washington. While many exciting features were revealed, it’s what the Xbox One will not do that’s catching many gamers’ attention. Due to a change in hardware, XBLA and 360 games will not be compatible with the new console. A Microsoft rep said: “We designed Xbox One to play an entirely new generation of games – games that are architected to take full advantage of state-of-the-art processors and the infinite power of the cloud.” While the new system will not be backwards compatible, Xbox 360 owners will still see new games and updates through the near future.
Xbox Live achievements, on the other hand, will transfer to the new system. Microsoft will be touting a new achievement system that has “richer detail and spans across your games and experiences,” so achievements will no longer be restricted to just one game. You can also compare your achievements to your other friends.
More details about the Xbox One will be revealed at Microsoft’s E3 presentation on June 10.
The notable Windows IT Pro blogger that stated last month the new Xbox reveal would be delayed has released more speculations about the new Xbox. Now Paul Thurrott of WinInfo blog says that Microsoft is planning on an early November 2013 release, reports OXM. Thurrott originally revealed that the next Xbox reveal would be pushed from April 24 to May 21. He believes that the reveal date was moved back in order to better compete against the Playstation 4 announcement in February. The next console will be “based on the “Core” version of Windows 8″, Thurrott suggests, using the apps platform that the Windows Operating System boasts. It will also include a Blu-Ray drive.
Thurrott also states that two different models of the new console will be available at release. The first, priced at $499, will be a full version of the console. The second version of the console will be sold at $299, but will require the buyer to make a two-year Xbox Live Gold commitment. The price per month for XBox Live will be around $10 per month.
Of course, we remind our readers that this is all speculation, but as we get closer to the reveal date of May 21, we expect details to continue to trickle until the reveal event. Three weeks later, XBLAFans will be at E3 to cover Xbox Live Arcade games as well as the new Microsoft console.
Source: WinInfo blog via OXM
Last month, Lab Zero Games had conducted an extremely successful fundraising campaign to back the DLC for their popular 2D Fighter, Skullgirls. Over the course of a few weeks, the team raised over $829,000 for 4 DLC characters, as well as stories and maps for most of them. Much to the surprise of CEO Peter Bartholow, PayPal, which is the money transferring company used by the fundraising website Indiegogo, froze the funds in Lab Zero’s account. “Whee! Paypal’s freeze on our account is making it so that I can’t pay people today,” Bartholow angrily posted on the NeoGaf message board. “I think it’s sketchy, but their logic sort of makes sense.”
The tie-up that Bartholow was speaking of was the potential for a large amount of chargebacks. The fear was that PayPal would could not honor their commitments to deliver the new DLC for Skullgirls, thus PayPal being responsible for the money. Bartholow wrote, “They also asked if we’re good for the $700,000 if something goes wrong. I said ‘No,’ because, well… we’re not? The whole point of crowdfunding is to give us the money to develop stuff, not take out a loan.” After contacting PayPal and sending the proper documentation, Lab Zero’s funds were eventually unfrozen, with the exception of $35,000 being held as collateral.
With threats of chargebacks still looming, Lab Zero has continued to pay their staff. Delays in the production of Skullgirls DLC are not expected.
Source: Venturebeat, Eventhubs
In an effort to continue growing the popular game Skullgirls, the developers have set yet another stretch goal. Lab Zero Game’s CEO Peter Bartholow confirmed to XBLAFans via e-mail that they have added a fourth character to their donation stretch goals. Originally, the developer added a mystery character as incentive, which was revealed to be Robo-Fortune. The threshold for Robo-Fortune is $725,000, and at the time of this article being published. Robo-Fortune is a character inspired by Robo-Ky, and will recycle the frames of Ms. Fortune. “With that money, we should be able to redraw her head and give her some new moves and animations too,” Bartholow stated.
With donations currently at $718,483 with 12 hours left to go to donate, the DLC is expected to reach that goal. Lab Zero Games has also added a fourth mystery character as incentive. If they manage to reach $825,000, the mysterious character will be created, and at $850,000, they will create a story mode and stage surrounding the mysterious character.
Though it’s not yet official, it looks like Minecraft fans in the United States can look forward to another MineCon. According to Joystiq, Lydia Winters, director of fun at Mojang, told a South by South West (SXSW) Interactive Festival panel in Austin, Texas that the next MineCon will “most definitely be held in the US.” The specific location is yet to be determined, but Winters said it was being discussed at SXSW.
Last year’s MineCon was held in Disneyland Paris Resort, and the first event was held at Mandalay Bay Hotel and Resort in Las Vegas.
Source: Joystiq
Reverb Publishing has announced that Sanctum 2, a hybrid tower defense and FPS, will be available this spring on the Xbox Live Marketplace. This announcement comes nearly a year after the game was said to be in development. The original Sanctum title, developed by Coffee Stain Studios, was popular on the PC and Mac platforms. Sanctum 2 will have players take on the role of four different soldiers. Each of these soldiers has unique weapons and abilities to use to fight off hordes of alien enemies using defense towers and FPS mode. The co-op multiplayer mode will allow up to four players to work as a team to protect the Cores.
Reverb Publishing will make Sanctum 2 available to play at PAX East along with its other spring title, Beatbuddy, and XBLA Fans will be taking both games for a spin during the show. Stay tuned to the site afterwards for our hands-on reports of the two games.
Fans of fighting games and Snoop Dogg (also known as Snoop Lion) are finally going to get a game with both of their loves rolled up into one! 505 Games and Echo Peak, a new developer based out of the UK, are collaborating on Way of the Dogg, a rhythm-based fighting game. According to the official website, Way of the Dogg stars a character named America Jones (AJ), who is a fighter faced with many personal challenges. Snoop leads the way and helps train AJ to ”find the beat that drives the fight” and learn the “Way of the Dogg.” Gameplay will consist of players matching the beats of popular Snoop Dogg hits to combat their opponents. It is unclear if the gameplay will feature a joint multiplayer mode (OK, that one was a reach.)
This is not the first time Snoop Dogg has played a role in a game. Most recently, he made a cameo appearance in Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and he appeared in True Crime: Streets of LA and Def Jam: Fight for NY prior to that. Details are still being hashed out for Echo Peak’s debut effort, but Snoop believes the game will be popular. “Everyone knows that Snoop is down with the biggest and best video games,” said Snoop Dogg in a 505 Games press release. He adds, “whether it’s droppin’ my hits on the soundtrack or showing the world I can go toe-to-toe with the best fighters on the street but [sic] the Way of the Dogg is the first true gamification of my music.” Developers are planning for the game to be released on XBLA and other platforms by the end of the year.
