Xbox 360 News

The idea of running "gone gold" stories is something from the 90s, back when the concept was a PC developer's regular way of announcing development on a game had finished, producing a gold master.

It only makes sense to give Duke Nukem Forever, a game that should have been finished more than a decade ago, an honorary "gone gold" story, with Gearbox Software revealing today that Duke's done. More than likely, Duke Nukem Forever was finished weeks ago; "gone gold" stories tend to be a company's way of of getting one more headline before the game ships and players have the game.

"Always bet on Duke, I did," said Gearbox president Randy Pitchford in the press release. "I bet on all of the developers who have ever been a part of this legendary project and I bet that none of us want to live in a world without the Duke."

Now, it's time for the game to finally do the talking.

Since L.A. Noire was released earlier this week on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Rockstar Games has been filtering through reports of freezing, crashes and stories about overheating consoles. For a while, the company was theorizing the most recent PS3 firmware was to blame. That quickly changed yesterday.

There was no real theory floating for the issues plauging Xbox 360 owners, but Rockstar issued a statement today addressing it, pointing the finger at media folk like myself for inspiring mass hysteria.

"With the launch of L.A. Noire a very small number of Xbox 360 console owners have reported issues with the game freezing or locking up while playing," said the company in a statement. "We posted some troubleshooting tips on our support site for these very few people, a common practice for any game publisher. Unfortunately this was erroneously picked up by some news outlets as a 'story,' reporting that L.A. Noire was causing issues to Xbox 360 consoles - which is categorically untrue."

I don't remember accusing the game--or Microsoft's hardware--of anything devious, only reporting what Rockstar itself was saying on its own support website. Regardless, people are running into problems, which should hopefully be addressed in a patch coming to both platforms sometime in the near future.

"As soon as we have more official information about the first patch and the timing for its deployment, we will post the information here," said a company spokesperson on Rockstar's support website.

Platinum Games is a busy studio but it's putting the breaks on Anarchy Reigns, an online multiplayer-focused brawler, and moving it from the previously announced fall release date into January 2012.

There were reports this morning of a delay in Japan. While publisher Sega of America has not responded to requests for comment on the status of the game over here, that's not actually necessary. A quick glance at Anarchy Reign's product page on Sega's own website answers the question at hand: January 2012.

I'm still waiting on an official comment from Sega, though, and I'll let you know when that shows up.

Anarchy Reigns also marks the return of Jack Cayman, the chainsaw-wielding brute from MadWorld.

You'll just have to wait a little longer, Jack.

UPDATE: This one just got a tad more confusing. Stay with me here!

Microsoft has not responded to my request for comment on today's reports about disc drives, but Eurogamer's gotten more. The issue has nothing to do with the upcoming firmware update but, as it turns out, a previous update.

"Additionally, this disc read error message is tied to a change in the disc reading algorithms in a recent software update and is not specific to older or newer versions of Xbox 360," the company said in a statement.

As such, if you haven't had an issue with your machine playing retail discs so far, you're out of luck when it comes to getting a brand-new Xbox.

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The spring update for Xbox Live is imminent, bringing an important security change to the way Xbox 360 machines read discs, freeing up a substantial amount of space to developers on each disc. The update breaks the ability for a "very small number" of Xbox 360s to read retail discs, however, prompting Microsoft to reach out to affected consumers, offering them a replacement Xbox 360 S.

== TEASER ==

Kotaku first broke the news, based on an email received by an Xbox Live user. You can imagine their surprise. Xbox Support's Twitter account then verified the email, based on other folks receiving similar emails, were true. Microsoft then released a statement to Eurogamer, elaborating on the issue itself.

"Following a recent update to our system software, we have become aware of an issue that is preventing a very small number of Xbox 360 owners from playing retail game discs," the company said. "This issue manifests itself a as a unique 'disc unreadable' or 'disc unsupported' error on the screen. We are also able to detect this issue over Xbox Live and are proactively reaching out to customers that may be impacted to replace their console."

I've contacted Microsoft separately for more information but have yet to hear back. Let me know if you've heard from Microsoft. My Xbox 360 is several years old, but I've heard nothing from them yet.

There's been a not-so-steady stream of games supporting Microsoft's Kinect device since its splashy launch. I still haven't plugged the thing back in since moving back to San Francisco, despite having been enthusiastic about the premise, especially Dance Central.

Aaaaand while the concept is gimmicky, I'm sorta stoked at GameSetWatch stumbling upon a German ratings entry for Hole in the Wall.

Hole in the Wall airs on Cartoon Network, best summarized by its own damn name. Contestants are forced to position themselves in ridiculous poses to pass through a...hole in the wall.

The ratings entry listed Hole in the Wall as being a downloadable game for Kinect, which is something Microsoft has strangely shied away from in the moths after Kinect's launch. Getting a downloadable game up and running using Kinect's hardware might have proved less daunting and help fill software gaps.

Looks that might change beginning at E3, though. Twisted Pixel Games has also announced a downloadable Kinect game, the awesome and bizarre-looking on-rails shooter, The Gunstringer.

As the market and appetite for downloadable content continues to expand, we're starting to see more and more companies experiment. An exciting development for gamers is non-localized content. It costs money to localize even the smallest of games, a price tag that prevents a great many from ever arriving.

Sony recently partnered with MonkeyPaw Games for a series of non-localized (read: no English, all Japanese) releases through PlayStation Network, and Microsoft joins them on Tuesday with Cave's Deathsmiles IIX. Like most Cave games, Deathsmiles IIX is all about dodging streams of bullets, and gamers will have a chance to pick up the game in its original form for $29.99 via Games on Demand.

According to Cave's official Facebook page, the studio's Xbox 360 producer, Makoto Asada, was "approached by Microsoft with the opportunity, and we will be giving this format a try for getting some of our Japan-only shooters released overseas." Makes it sound like Deathsmiles IIX won't be alone.

Right now, Deathsmiles IIX is only going to be available in North America, though a representative on Cave's Facebook page noted that could change, depending on the response here and demand abroad.

Earlier this week, Microsoft updated its Xbox Live Indie Games program to hand control over the release date to developers. No, that feature did not exist before. And no, Microsoft did not inform independent developers who were creating and publishing games for the platform that it was coming before the announcement.

Such information would have been incredibly useful for 25-year-old Jason Wishnov of Iridium Studios, who just launched Sequence on the notoriously underdeveloped service, launched by Microsoft back in November 2008.

"It's a fantastic feature," said Wisnov to me over email, "though [I'm a] bit bitter about its introduction literally four days [after] my game's release. I had a hell of a time coordinating a traditional marketing blitz when I was literally unable to tell people when my game would be available to the public. Without a focused date, all marketing for my game had to be done after release, as a race against the clock; indie games slowly slip from the new releases list within a week, after which their visibility is fairly wounded."

Sequence, an RPG with rhythm game mechanics rooted in Konami's Dance Dance Revolution, has seen less than a thousand sales since its launch earlier this week, despite great reviews. Wishnov was hoping Sequence would be his ticket out of his day job and into full-time game development, a common sentiment among developers publishing in the independent market. No one who releases on Microsoft's platform expects guarantees on success, but the lack of communication is seen as a big and frustrating issue.

== TEASER ==

Prior to this change, game developers submitted into a peer review system when the game felt done. Fellow developers then download the game, make sure it's up-to-snuff, rate the content inside for age appropriateness, and following a "sufficient" though undisclosed number of sign-offs, the game is live. The developer has no control over this process. Once the game passes, a few hours go by and the game suddenly appears onto the Indie Games channel. If you're not paying attention, you could just miss it.

This new change allows developers to halt the process at peer approval. If the developer wants the game to stay in the system for a while, providing time to build up a public relations campaign, it can.

Wishnov spent two-and-a-half years developing Sequence. He missed control over his release date by a few days. Had he been aware of the changes that were coming, he might have held the game back.

"The XBLIG [Xbox Live Indie Games] team isn't exactly great at keeping us informed of pending developments," he added.

He's not alone in that sentiment, either.

"It's hilariously disconnected," said designer Nathan Fouts of Mommy's Best Games, best known for Shoot 1UP and the upcoming Serious Sam: Double D. "They have no formal communication with registered developers. At most it's a post on the forums, or a news post on the app hub site. I had no idea the new feature was coming. In the past they say they keep us in the dark so they don't disappoint us. You know what disappoints me more? Getting kept in the dark. C'est la vie!"

Fouts left Insomniac Games to pursue his own games and has been one of the most vocal evangelists--and critics--of Indie Games, praising the opportunities it offers and cursing Microsoft for overlooking it. Fouts has been asking Microsoft to give developers control over the release of their games since Indie Games was called Community Games. Microsoft changed the branding to Indie Games in June 2009.

"If you consider how most games, movies, books, albums will say when the release date is, it allows fans to prepare," added Fouts, whose livelihood is based on selling his wares. "They can juggle what entertainment they'll be purchasing, or just to help them to remember when to look to download things."

There have been bonafide success stories on Indie Games, including James "Dishwasher" Silva of Ska Games, who's sold more than 200,000 copies of the intentionally goofy I Maed a Gam3 W1th Zomb1es. DJArcas, who doesn't disclose his real name, recently broke records with FortressCraft, a controversy-laden riff on Minecraft, selling more than 16,000 copies on its first day of availability.

Until I'd pointed it out, DJArcas wasn't even aware the change had been made.

"Wow, they finally added that?" mused DJArcas, when I brought it up over email. "Amusingly, it doesn't really bother me; it's more indicative of the failure of the system as a whole, the fact that being in the 'new releases' is paramount to sales. It does mean that you can setup your peer review a few weeks ahead of your release date, and have plenty of advertising showing the date of your release."

But while DJArcas might be shrugging his shoulders, Silva expressed frustration over how differently the Indie Games Winter Uprising might have gone last December, intended to be a month-long stream of releases via Indie Games. The promotion, developed separately from Microsoft, was mimicking other promotions of digital games on the service that Microsoft does run, ala Summer of Arcade. Sadly, the Indie Games Winter Uprising rollout was hurt by several issues, including mostly unknowable release dates.

"We basically had this 'the games will most likely come out in winter' approach," said Silva. "If we could get all of the games approved and then publish them on a well-publicized official schedule, it would look tons better."

Alas, it's too late for the Indie Games Winter Uprising.

But Indie Games is not the end for Sequence's Wisnov, as he's preparing to submit to Steam. The experience appears to have left a bitter taste in his mouth, but given the timing, it's hard to blame him.

"Xbox Live Indie Games channel desperately needed this feature," he said, "and Iridium Studios desperately needed it just four days earlier."

UPDATE: While no surprise, EA has told Kotaku this allegation is "100 percent not true." 

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With Nintendo about to disclose details on Wii's successor at E3, the gauntlet has been thrown and we're looking at endless months of anonymous sources murmuring about what Sony and Microsoft are planning. Speculation's fun 'n all, but everyone and their anonymous mom seems to hear differently.

That said, Develop is a reliable publication and when it claims a source has informed them Electronic Arts possess an early next-generation Xbox development kit (I'm not about to call it Xbox 720, guys), there's reason to believe there's some truth there. That's just about all Develop has filed here, however.

“Quite often when new consoles come around they’re packaged into a PC shell, but actually what’s inside is an entirely new console,” said Develop's source, described as "senior, trusted, well-placed."

Microsoft has said very little about its plans for Xbox 360's successor, pointing to continued strong sales and the successful launch of Kinect as proof there's no reason for Microsoft to move on yet. Nintendo's decision to leave Wii behind, however, may have started putting pressure on everyone else.


== TEASER == Job listings from March (via Engadget) described a team at Microsoft working on "defining and delivering next generation console architectures," which is absolutely not surprising. Of course Microsoft is actively working on a machine to come after Xbox. Eventually, the six-year-old Xbox 360 will be retired.

"Our view is we will be selling Xbox 360 for a long time," said Microsoft president of entertainment & devices Robbie Bach in 2008, when asked about Microsoft's future plans. "We are always working on new technologies. We have people working on those. People ask me how many people I have working on the next generation. On the one hand, it’s everybody. On the other, it’s nobody. People are continuously working on new technology. We started thinking about the next generation before we shipped the Xbox 360. It doesn’t start with a date. It starts way upstream with silicon development. From that comes a series of data points. You start making early technology choices. It’s an evolving thing. Stuff doesn’t become concrete until you get inside a window of when you have to ship, more than 18 months or so out.”

If Microsoft's looking to ship in fall 2012, we'd be within that window. Nintendo has said its next console would arrive sometime in 2012 but has not specified a window--we may not even get that at E3, knowing Nintendo. Previous statements from Microsoft pointed towards an Xbox 360 successor at earliest in 2013.

"I think it's important to say that the Xbox 360 is the console of the long future for us. There is no need to launch a new console, because we're able to give this console new life either with software upgrades or hardware upgrades like Project Natal," said senior director of Xbox product management David Hufford to The Guardian in January 2010, before Microsoft had ultimately billed Natal as Kinect. "The Xbox 360 was designed for a long life, and I don't even know if we're at the midpoint yet."

Sony's known for making similar "long life" proclamations about its hardware, declaring both PlayStation 2 and PlayStation 3 would be around for a decade. In a sense, Sony was correct about PS2. Even though much of the world had moved on to newer hardware, Sony continued to sell PS2 hardware at a decent clip, even releasing supportive software. WWE All-Stars was released on PS2 earlier this year and Electronic Arts will have a PS3 version of Madden NFL 12 when it releases in August.

"This generation is here for a long, long time," said Xbox UK boss Stephen McGill to Xbox 360 Achievements last fall. "I think there's still a lot of legs left with the Xbox 360, so we're years away from contemplating what comes next."

When McGill made that statement, however, Kinect was unproven and Nintendo hadn't announced a new console. Kinect was very much designed to extend the current machine's lifecycle by a few years.

The next moves from Sony and Microsoft may hinge more on the response to Nintendo's machine than anything else. If the market expects another phenomenon, how long can each company wait? It would not be a surprise to see Microsoft fleetingly reference a new console at E3, if only to get folks buzzing.