Megaton News

Microsoft embracing the racist culture of the Xbox Live community.

From a Kmart ad posted by someone on HighDefDigest meh…

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp sees potential for its Xbox 360 video game console to stay on the market longer than the five-year lifespan that is typical for gaming hardware, an executive said on Tuesday.

Asked about long-term prospects for the game industry, Mindy Mount, chief financial officer for Microsoft’s entertainment division that includes the Xbox, pointed to Sony Corp’s (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research) PlayStation 2, which is still going strong after 7 years on the market.

“Look at the PS2; they’ve gone long-time and seem to have pretty good legs on what they are doing,” Mount told a BMO Capital Markets conference on interactive entertainment.

“If we were able to do that, as CFO I think that’s great, because every year you draw it out you increase profitability,” Mount said.

Microsoft launched the Xbox 360 in November 2005, replacing the original Xbox that debuted four years earlier to challenge Sony for dominance in a video game industry that is on track to hit $40 billion this year.

Mount said features such as high-definition graphics make new machines attractive when compared against older hardware, but hinted that she sees less need to rush out an all-new console.

“At this point from the technological perspective, there are some real advances … that make it worth having a next-generation console,” Mount said. “Right now there aren’t that many things on the horizon that you think, wow, that’s going to be a game-changer.”

From the BioWare community coordinator:

I have recieved an update from our publisher about what regions the LCE or bonus disc will be available. I know it isn’t what many of you wanted to hear, but I did say we’d let you know when we knew.

USA
LCE available through select online retailers
LCE not available in stores
Bonus disc available online or in stores (selected merchants, check your local stores) for preorders  

Europe
LCE available in store (check with local retailers)
Bonus disc not available

Canada, Australia, Latin America
LCE not available through online retailers
LCE not available in stores
Bonus Disc not available

 From the state of Florida and the TCPalm:

A juvenile fan of the video game Halo 3 is accused of punching his mother after she forced him to end his game Sunday night and fighting with sheriff’s deputies as they tried to restrain him, according to reports released Wednesday.

Indian River County Sheriff’s Deputy Sean Harnage reported responding to the family’s home at about 11:30 p.m. Sunday in reference to an “out-of-control child.”

The parents told deputies their son was playing Halo 3, and it was getting late and he needed to shut it off. When the son refused to turn off the game, the parents reportedly took the air card out of his machine so he couldn’t play anymore.

Reports show the son became enraged, went through the house looking for the air card, and then punched his mother, prompting the parents to call the Sheriff’s Office.

After the boy retreated to his bedroom and locked it, the mother knocked on the door and told him he needed to come out and talk to the deputies, the report stated. But the juvenile allegedly responded with profanity.

Harnage and another deputy entered the room using a key from the parents to arrest the son, according to the report. The son fought the deputies - at one time punching Harnage on the lip - until they handcuffed him.

He was later turned over to state juvenile authorities on charges of battery-domestic violence and battery on a law-enforcement officer.

The son’s and parents’ names are being withheld because of the juvenile’s age.

Good thing they were able to get this kid behind bars before he could get his hands on Manhunt 2.

Yes it’s official you should believe all internet rumors posted on any random newspapers user blogs. From a Microsoft press release:

Microsoft Corp. today announced a plan for Bungie Studios, the developers of the Halo franchise, to embark on a path to become an independent company. Microsoft will retain an equity interest in Bungie at the same time continuing its long standing publishing agreement between Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie for the Microsoft owned “Halo” intellectual property as well as other future properties developed by Bungie.

Bungie Studios will remain in its current location in Kirkland, Wash.

After Microsofts more than 1 billion dollar warranty extension for RROD problems, reports of new heatsinks, and finally the release of the cooler running 65nm chips we presumed Microsoft had gotten it’s hardware act together, and it would soon be safe to pick up a 360 without fear of it melting half way through Mass Effect. Well N4G is reporting the first case of the Red Ring Of Death on one of the new 65nm Xbox 360’s complete with pictures.

Halo 3 Edition Xbox 360 RROD

From Game Informer:

Our source stated that Bungie is “tired of Making Halo, and didn’t want to do future Halo games.” For an unstated, but significant amount of money, Bungie shareholders bought the studio name back from Microsoft. Our source also revealed that even though Microsoft will retain the rights to Halo, Microsoft also has “the right of first refusal on future games.” This means that Microsoft has the first shot at publishing Bungie’s future titles. How this will come into play if Bungie decides they want future game X to appear on the PlayStation 3 and Wii alongside an Xbox 360 release will make things quite interesting.
…
After every Halo release, members of Bungie have departed to form their own development houses such as Certain Affinity and Wideload Studios. Why would Microsoft actually let go of the company who single-handedly made Xbox what it is today is the big question. And for that, Microsoft nor Bungie have revealed a true answer.

So Maybe this isn’t all bullshit.

Matt Casamassina of IGN has taken a lot of heat for claiming in a podcast that Halo DS had been in development, he’s made promise after promise that he would provide evidence of it’s existence, and he finally has.

From his IGN Blog:

Some time ago, I blogged about playing a cancelled version of Halo DS. The game was the real deal, created by a real development studio and with a very big publisher. But for reasons we won’t discuss, Halo DS was never released. Clearly. Obviously. Still, it would’ve been cool, huh?

My Halo DS blog has haunted me since I posted it because many people were skeptical of my claims. I wouldn’t make something like that up, of course, but that hardly silenced any of my critics. When my brother called me the other day and told me that I even have a Wikipedia page that calls into question my Halo DS blog, I realized I had to at the very least prove that I hadn’t completely hatched the entire thing. So I figured what better way to mute naysayers than to show off the game I played. With that in mind, I present to you Halo DS videos and screenshots below. Please, somebody update my Wikipedia page.

So Matt isn’t a liar, about this at least…

Well this rumor is nearly as ridiculous as the title, the rumor being Microsoft is “letting Bungie go”. Bungie the makers of Halo 3, the Bungie that Microsoft owns 100% of, Microsoft is just letting them go.

It started today with this idiotic blog post by a user (anyone anywhere with internet access) on the Seatle Post-Intelligencer website:

Bungie Leaving Microsoft!! You heard it here first folks
A friend of mine who has someone close that works at Bungie has just been dying to tell me a secret about their future. Since the NDA officially expire today the sent me and email with the details. I have full faith in this contact.

The email is as follows :

“So heres my big secret. You should google Bungie + Microsoft + separation this week.
You know that big ol BILLION dollar franchise Bungie has created for Microsoft, to show their appreciate Microsoft is letting Bungie leave. Of course Microsoft gets to keep all rights to the Halo franchise, but as today Bungie no longer part of Microsoft. Ask anyone who works there to search the global address book, they’re no longer in there. Microsoft was supposed to release the press release today but if they wait till the 10/6 the impact wont effect the quarterly results. However today is the actual official date and the day the NDAs expire, however you still didn’t hear this from me.”

“Apparently MS just wants Bungie to make Halo for the rest of their natural days, and Bungie doesn’t like how MS is constantly trying to “handle” everything they do; the way they market their games, the way they interact with their fans (basically the fact that they do appreciate their fans), and how stingie they are with the profits (comparable to the rest of the industry). So as of today they are their own independent entity. They’ll probably make Halo 4 for Microsoft, however hey are also free to create new intellectual properties for whatever system they want. (Even though they prefer the xbox platform)”

“What a way to say thank you.”

This certainly seemed to be BS, but no one at MS or Bungie commented all day so Kotaku decided it was worth their time to ask:

Those rumors surrounding a Bungie departure from Microsoft sure sound fishy, so we got in touch with some folks who might know a thing or two about it. We were hoping for either a “Yes, it’s true. You’ll find the details of the settlement in the attached PDF” or “Of course it’s not true. Don’t be ridiculous.” Instead we got a double barrel blast of non-confirmation.

The response from a Bungie source? “Talk to your Edelman rep.”

The response from Edelman, Microsoft’s PR firm? “There’s been no such announcement. We continue to celebrate the tremendous success of the global phenomenon that is Halo 3.”

In the meantime, we continue to get e-mails with friend of a friend sourced factoids and ones with none too subtle hints on the matter. We’re drowning in the winking emoticons!

As I wrote earlier, it sounds suspect—hence the rumor tag—but with the closing of FASA Studio, the developer behind Shadowrun, and the acquisition of Project Gotham Racing developer Bizarre Creations by Activision, yet another ripple in the Microsoft Game Studios pool of insanity wouldn’t forcibly knock our socks off at this point.

This is not impossible, stranger things have happened, etc. However this is in all likelihood complete bullshit.