SmartGlass

PlayXBLA, Microsoft’s official XBLA blog recently published a mystery screenshot of a secret upcoming XBLA game. However rumours circling the internet indicate that the screenshot is actually from Homerun Stars, …
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After launching on the original Xbox back in 2004, Xbox Live Arcade matured when it made the leap to the 360 and became home to an impressive stable of downloadable titles from small and independent developers. More recently, however, scores of indies have retreated from XBLA in favor of platforms such as Steam, iOS and Android. Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Studios Phil Spencer, speaking with Games Industry International, addressed the current role indie developers play in the Xbox Live Arcade landscape.

“The term indie does not necessarily mean ‘small.’ Some of the most independent studios I’ve ever met are some of the largest studios I’ve ever met,” said Spencer. “I think if what we’re saying is if there is content available for Xbox at multiple price points, both from what it costs to build the content and buy the content, or does everything have to compete at $60 and beyond? I’m really happy with the different price points that we see on Xbox; we just put out Minecraft last month and sold 2 million units. Trials came out and did incredibly well. Further down on price point, I’m playing The Walking Dead, which is an episodic game for $5 or so [Editor’s Note: The two episodes currently sell for 400 Microsoft Points each], forgot the exact price. We have price points for content across the 360.

“The nice thing is we have successes at these different prices; there are real businesses that can be made at the different levels that are available. That’s a strength of the Live marketplace.”

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Weekly Roundup compiles all the biggest news stories, reviews, and releases from the week into one handy post on the weekends.

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Microsoft has released a software development kit (SDK) for SmartGlass just a few weeks after announcing it at E3. The system allows various portable electronics devices – like, say, tablet computers or smartphones – to synch-up with an Xbox to display information based on what’s going on in-game: Showing a world map, for example, or allowing the player to create plays in Madden on your device for in-game use.

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Talking behind closed doors at E3 2012 with Game Informer, Microsoft let slip that Homerun Stars is a thing. The previously unannounced title will have Kinect and SmartGlass …
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Ascend: New Gods, the recently announced XBLA game from Signal Studios has been revealed as one of the first games to utilise Microsoft’s new SmartGlass technology. The action-RPG game is …
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Xbox SmartGlass will launch this coming fall, Microsoft revealed at its pre-E3 media briefing today. Following up on first details of the application being unveiled to content partners …
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