Microsoft has banned somewhere between 600,000-1,000,000 Xbox LIVE users for having a modded Xbox 360 recently. When a console you have suddenly stops working online, what do you do with it? Sell it on the cheap. You may have noticed that tons of these blacklisted Xbox 360 consoles have been added to Craigslist and eBay.
The consoles aren’t completely bricked. Modded Xbox 360 consoles can still play with pirated games but they cannot be played online. According to PC World, over 200 postings in New York City has been added since November 5 on Craigslist with a modded Xbox 360 for sale. Chicago had over 195 listings added during the same period.
What does this mean for people wanting to buy an Xbox soon? Be wary when shopping on eBay or Craigslist for them.
Greg Stroke entered his credit card into Xbox Live so that he does not have to enter it every time into system. One morning Stroke and his girlfriend woke up the next day and found a chewed up controller. It turns out that his dog chewed up the controller to the point that 5,000 Xbox points were purchased for $62.50. It turns out that Microsoft made it so easy to buy games that even a dog could do it. “I just wish they’d make it a little harder to purchase points,” said Stroke.
Turtle Beach has developed a new headset called the Ear Force X41. These headsets are primarily used for gaming on the XBox 360. The X41 is the third generation headset made by Turtle Beach. The Ear Force X41 supports Dolby 7.1 channel surround sound. The Ear Force X41 headphones also has a Digital Signal Processor feature built in. For better smack talking sound clarity, there is a feature called Chat Boost. This makes XBox Live chat louder. The cost of the headphones are $199.95.
On August 11, there be an XBox Dashboard update that will be arriving on XBox Live. Features will include Games on Demand, Netflix improvements, Avatar Marketplace, Avatar Awardables, game ratings, and friend list sorting. This fall there will also be Twitter, Facebook, and Last.fm support. When the dashboard launches on Tuesday, the following 24 titles will be available for download at various prices.
- Assassin’s Creed
- Rainbow Six Vegas
- LEGO: Star Wars
- Mass Effect
- Ridge Racer 6
- Meet The Robinsons
- Burnout Paradise
- Call of Duty 2
- Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
- MX vs. ATV Untamed
- Sonic The Hedgehog
- Need For Speed Carbon
- Viva Piñata 2: Trouble in Paradise
- Test Drive: Unlimited
- Prey
- The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
- Viva Piñata
- Karaoke Revolution American Idol
- Kameo: Elements of Power
- Perfect Dark Zero
- Dance Dance Revolution Universe
Microsoft Research has developed a platform called Kodu Game Lab. The Kodu Game Lab allows users to create XBox 360 LIVE games for download. Kodu is supposed to be easy to use that even a 12 year old girl was able to create a game in a demo. As of right now there is a free trial version of a Kodu Game Lab available for download. The full version costs 400 Microsoft Points ($5).
Below are some of the details about the new video game creation software:
- Developer: MSR Kodu
- Game Rating: Unrated
- Genre: Family
- Players: 1-4
- Co-Op: 2-4
- HDTV 1080p
- Custom Soundtrack
- Only Multiplayer: 2-8
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) listed a job offer on CareerBuilder that revealed their plans for the next Halo game. The new Halo will link the Xbox console with the web and mobile distribution. Unfortunately the new Halo game is not Halo 3: ODST which is to be released this September. It will be part of the next Halo experience after that. The position is Software Development Engineer working out of Redmond, but the environment is like a startup.
After the jump is the full job description: (more…)
Several weeks ago, Microsoft claimed to have about 17 million active users on Xbox Live. There are about 28 million Xbox 360 units that have sold so that makes it about 60% of those who own the console are also on the online service. Basic services are free and the advanced online feature is about $50 per year. About 56% of those who own use Xbox Live pay for the service.
Recently a Microsoft document somehow leaked to the press and revealed that about 56% of the 28 million consoles sold pay for the service. That is about 15.7 million people paying and it comes out to be about $784 million revenue for Microsoft.
Yesterday Sony announced that they have about 20 million users on the PlayStation Network. This includes people using the PSP and PSIII. The PSIII has about 20 million units sold The PSP shifted about 50 million units worldwide. The Playstation Network has about $180 million in download sales to date. Its unclear how much the Playstation Network makes from an overall standpoint.
Based on these numbers, it seems like that the console wars are pretty close in terms of converting users from playing in the living room to playing with people online. And both companies are making a healthy revenue doing so.
Teresa, a former Xbox Live user was harrassed by several other people and was later suspended from using the service because she identified herself as a lesbian in her profile. Other gamers supposedly found this offensive. Words such as “gay” and “Jew” will also get your banned.
“As stated in the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use, a member may not create a gamertag or use text in other profile fields that include comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate content of a potentially sexual nature,” Microsoft reported to Ars Technica. “Profiles that do are asked to change the language and suspended until changes are made. In regards to sexual orientation, for gamertags or profiles we do not allow expression of any type of orientation, be that hetero or other. Players can, however, self identify in voice communication where context is more easily explained to all players involved.”
Microsoft takes harrasment very seriously as demonstrated by this action. It is difficult to maintain policy in favor of different people, but for I recommend not using any sort of offensive word or anything that relates to sexual orientation.
