Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Microsoft to offer community-created games on Xbox 360

Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday that it will offer games developed by hobbyist game developers on the Xbox Live online network.

Seven games, created using XNA Game Studio 2.0, will be available immediately for Xbox 360 users to download from the Xbox Live marketplace. New community-created games will soon be playable by Microsoft's 10 million Xbox Live members.

The games, expected to exceed 1,000 by the end of 2008, would double the size of the Xbox 360's game library.

To distribute a game on the Xbox Live service, game creators must use Microsoft's XNA Game Studio software, which requires a 99 U.S. dollar per-year subscription, or be an XNA Creators Club member. Each game will be vetted for quality and appropriateness by the online community itself.

In addition, Microsoft announced that game developers also will be able to build games for the software maker's Zune digital media players.

The announcement heralds a new push by Microsoft to bring the community closer to the development process. Neither Nintendo nor Sony has announced a similar program for their respective next generation consoles.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Toshiba officially quits HD DVDs, concedes defeat

Japan's Toshiba Corp. on Tuesday officially announced it will give up on its HD DVD format, conceding defeat to rival Sony in a long-running DVD format war.

"This was a very difficult decision to make ... but when we thought about the trouble we would cause to consumers and our partners, we decided it was not right for us to keep going with such a small presence," Toshiba Chief Executive Atsutoshi Nishida told a news conference in Tokyo.

The electronics maker said it would stop selling its HD DVD machines by the end of March. But it will continue to provide after-sales support for people who have already bought its next-generation DVD players and recorders.

The decision ends the battle with a consortium led by Sony over who would set the standard for the next generation of discs, a fight that confused shoppers and stalled a move to the new technology in the 24 billion U.S. dollar home DVD market.

Analysts say the end of the format war will reduce consumer confusion and should encourage the Hollywood studios to bring out more movies on Blu-ray.

Blu-ray and HD DVD both offer cinematic-quality images and multimedia features, but the movie studios were eager to see the emergence of just one standard, while many consumers had been reluctant to buy a machine that might become nearly useless.

The death knell for HD DVD was the last month's decision by Warner Bros. Entertainment to drop the format and release only Blu-ray discs and DVDs.

"That had tremendous impact," Nishida said. "If we had continued, that would have created problems for consumers, and we simply had no chance to win."

Warner joined Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Co. and News Corp.'s Twentieth Century Fox in shunning the HD DVD, leaving Universal and Paramount Studios in the HD DVD camp. Universal on Tuesday said it would "focus" on releasing Blu-ray discs, but did not say if it would cease putting out HD DVDs.

Toshiba has sold 700,000 HD DVD players globally, while 300,000 more HD DVD drives have been sold for Microsoft's next-generation Xbox 360 video game console. Many more have been put into laptop computers.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Microsoft to offer community-created games on Xbox 360

Microsoft Corp. announced Wednesday that it will offer games developed by hobbyist game developers on the Xbox Live online network.

Seven games, created using XNA Game Studio 2.0, will be available immediately for Xbox 360 users to download from the Xbox Live marketplace. New community-created games will soon be playable by Microsoft's 10 million Xbox Live members.

The games, expected to exceed 1,000 by the end of 2008, would double the size of the Xbox 360's game library.

To distribute a game on the Xbox Live service, game creators must use Microsoft's XNA Game Studio software, which requires a 99 U.S. dollar per-year subscription, or be an XNA Creators Club member. Each game will be vetted for quality and appropriateness by the online community itself.

In addition, Microsoft announced that game developers also will be able to build games for the software maker's Zune digital media players.

The announcement heralds a new push by Microsoft to bring the community closer to the development process. Neither Nintendo nor Sony has announced a similar program for their respective next generation consoles.