Tag Archives: xbox live

State of Decay: new trailer reveals terrifying open-world zombie outbreak

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farm zed 2 State of Decay: new trailer reveals terrifying open world zombie outbreak

Undead Labs have released a new trailer from their zombie apocalypse survival game, State of Decay.

In State of Decay, you and the few scattered survivors must band together to survive and rebuild in a 3rd-person action game set in a dynamic open world. You choose where to make your stand, designing and fortifying your home base, performing daring raids for food and ammunition, and rescuing other playable survivors with unique talents.

The open, sandbox world develops in real-time, shaped by your actions, dynamically generating content based on your choices and the ever-increasing zombie threat.

Take a look at the new trailer embedded below.

State of Decay is an open world zombie-survival game, currently under development at Undead Labs for release on Xbox Live Arcade in June 2013.

 

‘New Xbox’ means ‘New Xbox update,’ says Microsoft

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Clarifying a remark taken as the first public confirmation of an upcoming successor to the Xbox 360, the tech company explained that the phrase “new Xbox” in fact refers to a “new Xbox update” due for deployment this fall.

The original story was generated by a telephone conversation between staff members at The Verge and Microsoft General Manager Brian Hall, who explained that Hotmail’s makeover was timed to precede “the new wave of products that we have coming out, with Windows 8, with the new version of Office, with the new Windows Phone and the new Xbox.”

“The comments to The Verge were not understood in their intended context,” was the subsequent official line.

“When Brian mentioned a ‘new wave of products,’ he was referring to the full lineup of products coming later this year from Microsoft, including Windows 8, Office, Windows Phone and of course our fall Xbox update which will bring a host of new consumer experiences like Xbox Music, Videos, Games on Windows 8 and Xbox SmartGlass.”

So it’s a incremental update to the existing Xbox 360 console that makes improvements to existing services while introducing a recognition of other now ubiquitous mobile devices, and definitely not a brand spanking new console to save up for that’s coming late 2013, which would be built from the ground up to act as a conduit for all family room entertainment, and built to work with streaming online media and social networks and boasting full phone and tablet integration plus an overhauled Kinect motion and voice sensing camera right from the off. Definitely not that.

Xbox 360 Kinect Said To Add Internet Explorer Browsing

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Microsoft is currently testing a modified version of Internet Explorer 9 on its Xbox 360 console, according to our sources. The Xbox 360 currently includes Bing voice search, but it’s limited to media results. Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer browser for Xbox will expand on this functionality to open up a full browser for the console. We are told that the browser will let Xbox users surf all parts of the web straight from their living rooms.

Microsoft reported to have begun Xbox 720 production

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Despite having confirmed it will not unveil the Xbox 720 during its upcoming E3 2012 conference, new reports have suggested Microsoft has already begun the manufacturing process on its next-generation console.
 

With Microsoft continuing to prolong the lifecycle of its current Xbox 360 gamer industry blog IGN has suggested that manufacturing partner Flextronics has already started piecing together the console that will eventually rival the Nintendo Wii U and heavily rumoured Sony PS4.

“Prior to reaching the manufacturing stage, Flextronics created a new testing group separate from the rest of the company,” the newly outed report has claimed. “This team was solely dedicated to comprehensive marketing, software, and hardware tests of the next Xbox. With that activity concluded, Flextronics started building the hardware.”

Whilst it is likely that such hardware will be for development purposes as opposed to consumer release models, the reports, if accurate, mark an important phase in the next-generation console’s birth with studios already confirmed to have been working on future console titles for some time.

“While we appreciate all the interest in our long-range plans for the future, we can confirm that there will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon,” Microsoft’s head of corporate PR, David Dennis said in a recent interview. He added: “For us, 2012 is all about Xbox 360 – and it’s the best year ever for Xbox 360. The console is coming off its biggest year ever-a year in which Xbox outsold all other consoles worldwide.”

Are you enticed and excited by the Xbox 360’s gaming abilities or do you think the next-gen console is now long overdue?

Halo live action web series teaser image released

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The series will be outed this autumn in the run-up to Halo 4’s November 6 release. Titled Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, it’ll be viewable on entertainment website Machinima and online community Halo Waypoint.

The teaser appears to show the back of Master Chief, who will seemingly be equally as central to the series as he will be in the new game.

Trials Evolution breaks Xbox Live Arcade sales records

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Click for a zoom view

Following its official release earlier this week, new reports have revealed RedLynx’s Trials Evolution title has broken a number of Microsoft Xbox Live Arcade sales records.

Being made available for download through Microsoft’s online Xbox content stores on Wednesday, April 18th, new reports have shown that the eagerly awaited Trials Evolution release recorded the highest opening day sales figures the XBLA stores have ever seen.

“After the first 24 hours of sales, Trials Evolution has set a record for the highest grossing day-one sales in Xbox LIVE Arcade history,” Microsoft has confirmed.

Although quickly becoming a record breaker, the Trials HD follow-on got off to a far from fluid start with Microsoft’s Xbox Live servers failing to cope with the high demand seeing a number of the reported 100,000 gamers rushing to download the title in the hours after launch unable to access a flurry of the title’s online abilities.

Have you already downloaded the Trials Evolution Xbox Live Arcade title?

Microsoft Finally Cramming Skype into Xbox

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Earlier this week, a job listing was spotted on Microsoft’s website calling for a software development engineer to join the Skype division. The listing said the potential employee would help bring Skype to web browsers, meaning Skype users may soon see a Microsoft-based Google Voice/Chat competitor in Firefox, Internet Explorer and other browsers in the near future, stamped with the Skype seal of approval.

Now Microsoft’s broad view of Skype is officially getting even bigger. While we already knew Skype would eventually land on Microsoft’s living room cash cow, the Xbox 360, two recent job listings makes the assumptions 100-percent concrete: one for Software Development Engineer, Xbox – Skype, and one for Engineering Manager, Xbox – Skype.

“We’re building the next generations of our products and technology right here in London and Skype is looking to hire a Development Manager to lead the development of our experiences on Xbox,” the Engineering Manager listing reports. “As an experienced Engineering Manager, you will have a strong technical background developing client software and will bring a deep understanding of architecture and resource efficient engineering to the team.”

Now here’s the big question: what of Windows Live Messenger? Does Microsoft plan to eventually merge the two clients, keep them separate, or nuke the long-standing chat tool formerly known as MSN Messenger? Currently PC, Xbox, and mobile users can chat away with each other via the older client, but it wouldn’t make much sense to have two, now would it? Even more, Skype on the Xbox 360 means consumers — whether they’re using the box as a gaming machine or as a multimedia station — can make calls to friends and family without having to leave the couch.

Microsoft acquired Skype back in May 2011 for $8.5 billion in cash from the investor group led by Silver Lake. Since then, little else has been said about what the Redmond company planned to do with the newly-acquired VoIP service. There was fear that the popular service would become “Microsoft-ized,” but CEO Steve Ballmer assured critics that there wouldn’t be a drastic change to the current format, that it will be multi-platform as well as compatible with its own services like Hotmail, Xbox Live and so on.

Those seeking the Engineering Manager job will need experience in C# / Java, XML, HTML, CSS and JavaScript. Knowledge of HTML5 & ASP.NET MVC is a bonus. Other qualifications include extensive experience building and shipping software within an Agile software development environment, a B.Sc. in Computer Science or related field, exposure to XDK, XNA and the Xbox platform or any experience in game development, and more.

As for the Software Development Engineer job, applicants will need a B.Sc. in Computer Science or related field, a solid background and a broad range of experience in Windows development. Experience with C++/ C# and .Net are essential as well as experience in building and shipping software within an Agile software development environment. Exposure to XDK, XNA and the Xbox platform or any experience in game development would also be nice to have, the company states.

Raise your hand if you think Microsoft will sport a little Skype on the Xbox 360 this June during E3 2012. Think that will be too early?