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June 2006 - Posts

Xbox Community Featured on OnTen.net Video

posted Friday, June 30, 2006 12:38 PM by johnporcaro
Laura Foy and Duncan MacKenzie, over at OnTen.net, got to sit down with some members of our community.  Listen in, as she talks to folks from some of our favorite community sites: dreamstation, Gamer Tag Radio, Gaming Steve, Heaven Games, Strategy Read More
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Hanging Out at Gnomedex 6.0

posted Friday, June 30, 2006 11:48 AM by johnporcaro
Ya, we're geeks, and we can prove it.  Today, we're hanging out at Gnomedex, Chris Pirillo's gathering of tech enthusiasts, bloggers, and web junkies. We've created a "Games Lounge" for folks to take a few minutes to hang out and play a few Read More
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No Internal HD DVD Plans

posted Friday, June 30, 2006 11:13 AM by cesarmenendez
Saw a few stories online about an Xbox 360 with a built-in HD DVD drive: not true. We have no plans to release an Xbox 360 with an internal HD DVD. What we showcased at E3 was an external HD DVD drive, and we're sticking with that. We've always had Read More
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Football Gamers From Around The World Set For Xbox Cup Kick Off In Berlin

posted Thursday, June 29, 2006 10:00 PM by johnporcaro
Gaming Finals Matches Drawn Read More
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Let the competition begin!

posted Thursday, June 29, 2006 2:51 PM by stacik
Tonight in Berlin Peter Moore stood onstage with the adidas VP of Marketing for the Xbox Cup Group Stage Draw. Teams will begin competing in knock out rounds at the adidas World of Football Stadium tomorrow, with the final round of 4 determined by the Read More
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Direct X 10: The ExtremeTech Interview

posted Thursday, June 29, 2006 12:16 PM by johnporcaro
ExtremeTech was able to track down Chris Donahue (Director Biz Dev) and David Blythe (SW Architect), to pick their brains about the next big graphics API.  You can download a podcast of the interview, or read it in all its geeky glory.  The Read More
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Forza 2 Wallpapers Now Online

posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006 5:38 PM by johnporcaro
Gotta quit posting about forzamotorsport.net everyday, it might make you wonder why I'm even needed around here...  But... The Forza 2 team just put up some very sexy Forza 2 wallpapers.  Here's my favorite... Read More
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Chris Di Cesare on Interactive Marketing at MI6

posted Wednesday, June 28, 2006 7:42 AM by johnporcaro
Microsoft Games Director of Marketing Chris Di Cesar spoke at the MI6 Game Marketing conference yesterday.  Chris is the guy behind many of our big programs, including I Love Bees and Zero Hour.  Next-Gen covered the speech, reporting that Read More
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Forza Team Hangs Out at Le Mans 2006

posted Tuesday, June 27, 2006 6:05 PM by johnporcaro
Tough work, but somebody's got to do it.  Check out ForzaMotorsport.net's coverage: 24 Hours of Le Mans as Told by Dan Greenawalt Attending this race is about being part of the history. More than anything, I went to soak in the ambience. Read More
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GRAW Chosen as Number 1 Girliest Video Game EVAR!

posted Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:19 AM by cesarmenendez
In response to Arthur's " THE 10 MANLIEST VIDEO GAMES OF ALL TIME", the fine folks at Aeropause write about The 10 Girliest Video Games EVAR! The winner? Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter. But how did this game beat out the My Little Read More
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N3 Doesn't Require a Hard Drive

posted Tuesday, June 27, 2006 11:16 AM by cesarmenendez
It’s true, you’ll be able to play this game and hack down hordes of enemies, with or without a hard drive. As for the confusion: I checked with the Xbox.com production team on this one, and the site was listed with "hard drive required" incorrectly Read More
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Ninjas are Way Cooler

posted Monday, June 26, 2006 5:34 PM by johnporcaro
Gotta get one of these for my truck... Read More
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Forza 2 Trailer Director's Cut Video

posted Sunday, June 25, 2006 8:12 PM by johnporcaro
Catch the cool Forza 2 trailer from E3?  Forzamotorsport.net just posted a short "Director's Cut" video with behind-the-scenes commentary from the dev team.  Che Chou posts: "There's yet another version of the Forza Motorsport 2 E3 trailer Read More
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Xbox Live Arcade Portfolio Manager Answers Qs

posted Sunday, June 25, 2006 8:02 PM by johnporcaro
Last week, Xbox Live Arcade Portfolio Manager Ross Erickson got to answer a few questions from the Dreamstation.cc Podcast guys.  Ross answers some questions we hear a lot, like what it takes to get a game onto Xbox Live Arcade, what kind of testing Read More
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Let's Kill Dave

posted Sunday, June 25, 2006 7:18 PM by johnporcaro
I don't know all the reasons Dave Weller named his blog "Let's Kill Dave," but he mentioned it has something to do with his Xbox Live experiences with Halo.  You'll have to ask him.  From the blog: I'm David Weller, the Community Manager Read More
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Level Designing with Gears of War

posted Sunday, June 25, 2006 11:01 AM by johnporcaro
Tina over at onten.net ventured on over to North Carolina to visit with Epic Games.  Her goal, to capture in 6 minutes what it takes to design a videogame--or at least a level.  Check out Level Designing with Gears of War.   (Thanks Read More
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What Are You Waiting For?

posted Friday, June 23, 2006 3:24 PM by johnporcaro
As you’re all aware, there have been rumors of a price drop for the Xbox 360 coming along later this year.   The official word from folks in the know is that there are currently no plans for a price drop this fall.  If you’ve been holding Read More
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Forza Motorsport 2 - Under the Hood of a Trailer Video

posted Friday, June 23, 2006 2:40 PM by johnporcaro
After a successful E3 announce and trailer debut, John Wendl and Dan Greenawalt of the “Forza Motorsport 2” development team take you behind the scenes and give you an inside look at what went into making the ground-breaking trailer. You can download Read More
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Jon Stewart reports on US Congress Video Games Debate

posted Friday, June 23, 2006 2:38 PM by johnporcaro
I'm a big, big fan of The Daily Show, and its sibling The Colbert Report.  Politics aside, it was hugely funny, if not a bit spot on, when Jon Stewart ripped into the US House of Reps, as they debated video games.  This you gotta see... Player Read More
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Play Xbox 360 Ad-Woman*

posted Friday, June 23, 2006 1:43 PM by cesarmenendez
I know the wait between my blog posts has been pretty easy actually horrible, but I can explain! I had a busy week, what with all the World Cup Matches and Oblivion strategic and business decisions we make around here. But now I'm back, with a cool idea Read More
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Take a few days off, and...

posted Thursday, June 22, 2006 8:26 PM by johnporcaro
As much as I love video games, I love my job even more.  Working with community, reading/writing blogs, visiting forums, talking up community with marketers, it's all a real personal passion of mine.  So when I got a chance to attend the "Word Read More
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Xbox Live and Warner Bros. Pictures Team Up To Bring Superman Returns Content to Gamers in North America

posted Thursday, June 22, 2006 5:00 PM by johnporcaro
High-definition "Superman Returns" trailers and TV spots arrive on Xbox 360 Read More
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Bienvenido a Barcelona...

posted Thursday, June 22, 2006 1:55 PM by johnporcaro
Looks like X06 is coming back to Spain, on September 27-28.  The guys in Europe are hosting the now infamous Xbox bash at the Catalan capital.  Chris Lewis, regional vice president, Xbox, EMEA, said: “We are really looking forward to X06 Read More
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Microsoft Announces X06

posted Thursday, June 22, 2006 2:00 AM by johnporcaro
Microsoft to present the next-generation of gaming against the dramatic backdrop of Barcelona Read More
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Get on the Grid (eh)

posted Tuesday, June 20, 2006 11:45 AM by cesarmenendez
You can probably tell from my blatant Canada reference that this post will have *something* to do with Canada. It's true. If you don't live in Canada, move along, eh, move along. . . Ok, now that it's just us, I wanted to tell you about a web page Read More
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Peter Moore Q&A at BFME Community Day

posted Monday, June 19, 2006 3:06 PM by johnporcaro
At the recent Battle for Middle Earth Community Day, community members had a chance to sit down with Peter Moore in a roundtable discussion.  Godfree and Paladino teamed up to record the session, and it's getting some attention from Next-Gen and Read More
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J Allard: pwnd?

posted Monday, June 19, 2006 9:19 AM by Bastelyon
Have you checked out the hidden video on the Project Gotham 3 website?  When you get your car up to 170 mph, hit the "J" key to see a cool video of J Allard and an employee racing over Xbox Live.  Buup, Buup, Buuuu! On a related Read More
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Xbox Cup Winners Announced

posted Friday, June 16, 2006 9:07 PM by stacik
32 teams representing all Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) nations have been chosen to travel to Berlin, Germany June 29-July 2 to participate in the Xbox Cup Championship. Each team consists of 2 players and 1 Ultimate Fan. Read More
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Xbox 360 Launches in Chile

posted Friday, June 16, 2006 2:34 PM by cesarmenendez
A warm welcome to our friends in Chile, as Xbox 360 launched there this week. The team held the launch event at the Cine Hoyts de La Reina, in Santiago with the band Disorder playing. Apparently there were no huevones there to ruin the Read More
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Two Years Notice

posted Thursday, June 15, 2006 1:46 PM by johnporcaro
Hope this isn't starting a new policy!  When most folks around here make a job change, they only have to give a few weeks notice...  Read More
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Xbox 360 Engineer on Tessellating the Geometry of Objects

posted Thursday, June 15, 2006 10:07 AM by johnporcaro
You might have read the reports of the interview Ars Technica did with Microsoft Game Technology Group engineer Matt Lee, where he shared his thoughts about the how the PS3 architecture compares to the Xbox 360's.  What you might have missed is Read More
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U.S. Team Named for Xbox Cup Finals in Berlin

posted Wednesday, June 14, 2006 3:24 PM by stacik
Xbox today announced the team that will represent the United States later this month at the finals of the Xbox Cup in Berlin. The three lucky winners will fly out to Germany to compete against 31 other teams from across the globe on EA SPORTS 2006 FIFA Read More
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I Suppose that's *One* Way to Handle Fanboys. . .

posted Wednesday, June 14, 2006 2:04 PM by cesarmenendez
Saw a EuroGamer article stating that filmmaker Uwe Boll is inviting his most vocal critics to star in his latest picture - as an extra responsible for beating him up. Mr. Boll even issued a press release inviting folks to participate: From Read More
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Jump Rope Ad Wins ADDY Award

posted Tuesday, June 13, 2006 1:12 PM by johnporcaro
Congrats to the ad guys, and especially to our advertising firm, McCann Erickson, for winning the prestigious "ADDY" award for the Xbox 360 Jump Rope spot.  Of course since then, you've seen three others in the "series:" Water Balloons, Joy, Read More
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Backwards Compatibility Update Now Live

posted Tuesday, June 13, 2006 8:43 AM by johnporcaro
Just got word that the new update is live.  I popped Lego Star Wars in my Xbox 360 before I left for work, and reveled in its Lego-ness.  More details, including the updated list, are on Xbox.com. June 2006 titles added:1.   4x4 Read More
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The Battle for Middle-earth II Xbox 360 - Community Day

posted Tuesday, June 13, 2006 8:30 AM by cesarmenendez
Bastelyon took time away from his only real secondary job responsibility - getting his gamerscore up to 10k - to organize a BFME2 community day. So last week (Thursday) we had a few folks from the Xbox and gaming community, Read More
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Update to the Update

posted Tuesday, June 13, 2006 2:00 AM by johnporcaro
I heard that the console team is pushing out an update to the code that went out last week.  Nothing major, no new features or anything like that.  I hear they needed to make a very small change to improve character recognition for the Chinese Read More
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Halo Graphic Novel "Digital Preview" on Marvel.com

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 10:04 PM by johnporcaro
One more post before I leave (that'll teach me to take four days off!)... Saw that Marvel sent out an announcement of a "digital preview" of the Halo Graphic Novel.  It'll be available on July 12 for $24.95 USD.  You'll need to sign up for Read More
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Official Crackdown Site Online

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 8:18 PM by johnporcaro
Have you seen the official Crackdown web site, crackdownoncrime.com?  If you're a fan, or want to figure out what this game is all about, check it out. Read More
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Xbox GM Kevin Browne on Online Advertising

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 7:25 PM by johnporcaro
Kevin Browne, GM for New Media & Franchise Development, delivered the keynote last Friday at the Game Developers Conference’s Focus on Game Advertising Summit.  Kevin explained the unknowns, illuminated the possibilities, and outlined our responsibilities Read More
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More from the Console Team...

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 6:44 PM by johnporcaro
Daryl Welsh posts a bit about personal gamer pictures, and "clearing the system cache" on the Xbox console team blog.  Worth a read if you're interested... Read More
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MSN Games Turns Ten

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 6:39 PM by johnporcaro
Quick! Who knows what MSN Games was called before it was MSN Games?  Before that?  And that?  The year was 1996, and “The Village” began as a retail matchmaking destination for MMOGs  Pretty soon, the Village morphed Read More
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PGR3 Tourney Winners Gear Up in Italy

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 5:07 PM by johnporcaro
Just got word from Darren Trencher that the 12 best PGR3 finalists have arrived in Bologna, Italy for the PGR3 Worldwide Finals.  Out of 36,000 gamers who entered the worldwide tournament these are the 12 best representing regions from Read More
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Happy Birthday Tony!

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 3:01 PM by johnporcaro
Happy Birthday to you ooo ooo!  When he was here last week, Godfree from GamertagRadio took this picture of Tony, (better known to some as Bastelyon) celebrating with the crew.  Read More
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GameSpy Hosting Matchmaking Services for Multiple “Age of Empires” Titles

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 10:00 AM by johnporcaro
GameSpy To Provide Full Range of Features for “Age” Franchise Read More
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June 2006 Momentum

posted Monday, June 12, 2006 8:00 AM by johnporcaro
Less than a month after E3, the buzz about Microsoft gaming continues to gain momentum. While others in the industry are clearly focused on launching computers, we are squarely focused on delivering next-generation games and entertainment. Read More
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Our Awards at E3

posted Friday, June 09, 2006 3:33 PM by cesarmenendez
So we did pretty well at E3. A co-worker compiled the full list of all the awards that we won:   Xbox 360 awards highlights include:   Alan Wake – IGN – Runner Up: Best Non-Playable Presentation (Platform). BioShock (Take Two) – Gamespy Read More
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Gosh! Halo vs. Napoleon Dynamite

posted Friday, June 09, 2006 2:50 PM by cesarmenendez
Oh man this is funny Read More
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Crackdown Trailer Posted to Youtube

posted Friday, June 09, 2006 9:50 AM by cesarmenendez
Here's the trailer, embedded:   Enjoy. Read More
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Ten Years and 83 Million Game Players Later, MSN Games Celebrates a Decade of Online Casual Gameplay

posted Thursday, June 08, 2006 9:00 AM by johnporcaro
The year was 1996, and the Internet still had training wheels when Microsoft entered the realm of online games. Originally known as “The Village”, the site began as a retail matchmaking destination for massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Read More
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New “Perfect Dark Zero” Multiplayer Maps Available Today

posted Wednesday, June 07, 2006 5:00 PM by cesarmenendez
Pillar Xbox 360 first-person shooter brings new challenges to would-be agents, adding four new battlegrounds for premium download on Xbox Live Marketplace Read More
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Cesar Obsessed with N3

posted Wednesday, June 07, 2006 4:30 PM by cesarmenendez
Today we announced that N3 is coming to North America, this summer. August actually. Silicon Era has a good review of it, from their hands-on @ E3. woot. Read More
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Ninety-Nine Nights Set to Storm U.S. Shores

posted Wednesday, June 07, 2006 1:00 PM by cesarmenendez
Xbox 360 fantasy action game from Phantagram and Q Entertainment arrives in the U.S. this summer Read More
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Stringer Obsessed with Xbox 360

posted Wednesday, June 07, 2006 11:47 AM by johnporcaro
It’s okay, Sir Howard.  Lots of us are obsessed with the Xbox...  NExtGen comments about Walt Mossberg’s WSJ interview: When talking up the box office sales of Sony's Da Vinci Code movie, Stringer said, "It also beat Xbox 3 in Europe in Read More
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Bungie Video: Making of Halo 3 Trailer

posted Tuesday, June 06, 2006 9:13 PM by johnporcaro
Think making those trailer videos is a piece of cake?  Bungie just released a video they made to show some of the work that went into the E3 Halo 3 trailer.  They posted it on their site.  Check it out! From Bungie.net: In this fascinating Read More
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Shadowrun Team Invites Critics for Face Punching

posted Tuesday, June 06, 2006 4:41 PM by johnporcaro
We're all really excited about Shadowrun, but we also know that some people expected something different that what they saw at E3.  One of those was fellow ‘softie Philip Richardson.  He summed up his early thoughts about the trailer on Read More
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No Guys Allowed (Gamerchix)

posted Tuesday, June 06, 2006 12:41 PM by cesarmenendez
Ok, this is a message for all . . . two. . . female readers of this blog. Our friend Trixie is forming a new group of gamer. . . chix. Aptly named, gamerchix. What's the group all about? Well, from her Xbox.com post: Here's the GamerchiX manifesto Read More
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Jeff Bell Joins Our Group as VP of Global Marketing

posted Tuesday, June 06, 2006 8:52 AM by johnp