News

Late last week Microsoft’s most direct competitor in the home console space, Sony, announced a February 20 event that will presumably be the coming-out party for its next-gen PlayStation 4 console, the existence of which has still not been officially confirmed by Sony. Microsoft has joined its cross-Pacific rival these last few years in being equally tight-lipped when it comes to the next Xbox being something instead of nothing, the latter of which essentially being what Redmond would have gamers believe.

It’s total malarkey, of course, as Microsoft has undoubtedly been working on the successor to the Xbox 360 for years and has reportedly been kicking around the idea of holding its own special event to show and/or tell the world what’s in the (next) box.

Unfortunately for curious Xbox fans, proving a shred of any of that continues to be a hurdle that is cleared with all the ease and grace of releasing DLC for a two-and-a-half-year-old licensed XBLA game from a major publisher.

Instead we’re left with rumors, more of which popped up today on Edge. “Sources with first-hand experience of Microsoft’s next generation console” reportedly leaned in close to the Great Ear of the Internet and whispered some things that Microsoft’s PR department may or may not have wanted them to whisper. Trench coats with suspiciously popped novelty-sized collars were presumably donned by all parties involved.

Today’s gossip pertains to several rumors, all of which have been floated out at least once before by other media outlets, but Edge’s source speaking about them again only serves to lend further credence to them being grounded in reality. Word is that the next Xbox console will utilize 50GB Blu-ray game discs, require users to always be online, and, unsurprisingly, have new and improved versions of Kinect and Xbox Live. Perhaps most interesting is the assertion by said source that the Xbox Durango, as the machine has been rumored to be internally codenamed, will employ a system designed to eliminate the possibility of retail next-gen Xbox games being resold by consumers. As mentioned, Durango would require a constant internet connection “in order to function.”

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In an interview with IGN, Signal Studios founder and president D.R. Albright III outlined the future of his company’s upcoming free-to-play RPG Ascend: New Gods. One point of interest …
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Zen Studios’ tower-defense title CastleStorm is set to release on XBLA in April after a year of development, Joystiq reports. The game is a 2-D physics-based defense puzzler (think Angry Birds) with tower defense elements – Knights defend castles from raiding Vikings, who attack with ranged weapons. Online multiplayer and castle editing will also be available.
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• Figurines from Double Fine’s The Cave are available for collectors. All seven characters can be picked up for $35, and fans can also purchase T-shirts and more can …
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FarSight Studios’ The Pinball Arcade  has seen direct competition on the Xbox 360 from the more established Pinball FX 2. Players are divided on which game is better; Pinball …
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Undead Labs’ forthcoming zombie-apocalypse survival simulator continues to shamble toward an “early 2013” release. To help lighten the unbearable wait, Labs has maintained as much transparency as possible, fostering a dialogue with the community that’s more give than take. The latest in that line of communication was supposed to be a teaser trailer Undead had hoped to debut, but alas, it’s not ready. That’s the bad news.

The good news is the reason for the delay: a studio-wide crunch to submit the “first complete version” of the game to Microsoft to begin the initial round of certification testing. A milestone the studio reports being “very close” to achieving.

Fortunately for those of us who look forward to these sorts of things, Labs’ community manager and information conduit, Undead Sanya, has secured several screenshots from the upcoming teaser. We expect the trailer to hit any day now, but in the meantime, we certainly appreciate the sneak peek. Hit the jump to check out the sparse digs you might find yourself holed up in when State of Decay releases later this year.

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Following their bankruptcy filings in late January, game publishers THQ and Atari have recently seen several of their XBLA titles delisted from the Xbox Marketplace. The XBLA games in question can still be found on the Xbox Marketplace, but they can no longer be purchased. A total of four THQ-published XBLA games have been pulled:

• Apples to Apples — Originally released Dec 7, 2011
• Screwjumper! — Originally released Dec 10, 2009
• SpongeBob UnderPants! — Originally released Dec 26, 2007
• Voltron — Originally released Nov 30, 2011

The same fate has not yet befallen all of the defunct publisher’s Xbox Live Arcade games, though. Costume Quest, Elements of Destruction, Nexuiz, Red Faction: Battlegrounds, Rocket Riot, Stacking and Warhammer 40K: Kill Team are still available for purchase.

Only one Atari game is currently unavailable: Warlords, which was first released on Nov 14, 2012. Yar’s Revenge, which debuted on March 3, 2011, was temporarily taken down but has since burst back onto the scene, albeit at half of its former 800 MSP price tag. Haunted House, another Xbox Live Arcade game published by Atari, is also currently selling at half price (400 MSP). And finally The Undergarden is selling at 240 MSP which is 70% discount of its original price of 800 MSP.

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This week’s deals offer some Xbox Live Arcade favorites and a few retro classics at deeply discounted prices. Xbox Live Gold Members can snag the exclusive sales starting today, …
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Once again, fans of Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game will have to wait for the elusive DLC that adds the brand-new online multiplayer mode that was supposed to …
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While physical retail software sales appear to have trailed off at this stage in the  Xbox 360’s life cycle, XBLA has reportedly experienced its strongest year yet in 2012. …
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