If you were one of the unlucky ones to not get the chance to pre-order a fancy Surface tablet from Microsoft, you’re only option is to wait in line at your local Microsoft Store. However, it seems Microsoft is expecting a dim crowd for the launch, so they’re giving the first 100 people in line at every Microsoft Store one year of Xbox Music service.
One year of Xbox Music costs $99, so you’d essentially be getting paid a hundred bucks for waiting in line for a Surface tablet (assuming you’re one of the first 100 people in line). However, that $100 will obviously have to be used for Xbox Music, but it’ll give you the chance to try out the revamped service if you’ve been feeling skeptical about it.
The offer is good at any of the 29 Microsoft Stores across the country, as well as the additional 32 temporary pop-up stores that Microsoft will have on launch day. All you have to do is show up extremely early to the store and just plop down out front until it’s time to buy, and obviously you’ll have to buy a Surface tablet while you’re there — you sadly just can’t take the free Xbox Music and run.
Of course, in order to use the free Xbox Music voucher, you’ll need a Gold subscription to Xbox LIVE, which is $60 a year, but you can usually find them for around $45 at various online retailers and auction sites. However, the generous offer from Microsoft (which will cost the company just over $600,000) should indeed bring a few people to wait in line that were hesitant to do so in the first place.
Eagle-eyed gamers may have already noticed that the Xbox 360’s dedicated Twitter and Facebook apps have gone missing after the latest Dashboard update, and now Redmond has confirmed it’s put the applications out to pasture. According to a Microsoft representative that spoke to IGN, the firm is “retiring the Facebook and Twitter apps” as it works to streamline functionality. When asked if the pair of apps will ever make a comeback, Ballmer and Co. didn’t comment. Still crave to update your friends on your latest gaming exploits through the console? Spreading the news on the digital grapevine is still possible, but you’ll have to access the social networks through the freshly added Internet Explorer app — an experience we hope Xbox SmartGlass will improve.
With this year’s holidays being just around the corner, it’s only natural for companies to start tempting potential customers with cash-saving, too-good-to-pass deals. With that in mind, Microsoft, via the informative Major Nelson, announced earlier today its 2012 Xbox 360 holiday bundles in hopes of luring some folks in; among these are a 250GB console with Kinect, Dance Central 2, Kinect Sports, Kinect Adventures and one month of Xbox Live for $400, while there’s also a 4GB, $300 option that comes with the same Gold subscription, Redmond’s motion-tracking peripheral, Kinect Disneyland Adventures and Kinect Adventures. In addition, the Surface maker said retailers should start offering the console for $50 off MSRP, and that this limited time deal will also apply to the Halo 4 bundle which is due to come out on November 6th. Better yet, these new bundles and promos are available now — so, for those living in the US, now could be a good time to snag one of Microsoft’s renowned consoles.
Is it Fall again already? Must be time for another Xbox 360 Dashboard update. Every year Microsoft Drops the console a little bit of code to match the descending leaves, delivering new features, interface tweaks and additional content to hide behind the Xbox Live Gold paywall. Redmond’s latest update isn’t quite the overhaul it gave the gaming rig last year, but minor changes can have big effects. Join us after the break to see the machine’s latest update, and what it means for you.
Get ready, Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition players, because you’ve got a massive update headed your way. Update 1.8.2 is scheduled to launch tomorrow, and it adds a ton of new stuff for you to see and do. PlayXBLA originally reported an October 16 launch date for update 1.8.2, which was later confirmed by 4J Studios, the developer that handled the porting duties when Mojang decided it was time to bring Minecraft to the Xbox 360.
Perhaps the most important addition in update 1.8.2 is Creative Mode. Yes, you’ll finally be able to build with infinite numbers of every item type in a world with no enemies whatsoever, which is a feature Xbox 360 players have been asking for right from the very beginning. Survival Mode is in for a quite a few additions itself, as 4J Studios has tossed strongholds, ravines, abandoned mineshafts, and villages into the mix. Sounds like it’ll be time to start a new world once update 1.8.2 lands.
Not enough for you? Update 1.8.2 also adds a ton of new items to the game, including things like Ender Pearls, chain armor, and melons. You can now sprint if you’re playing in survival mode, and 4J has even made a few biome code additions with this update, adding rivers and oceans. Have a look at the changelog below, but we warn you: it’s really long.
Additions
• Added Creative Mode. • Disabled Achievements and Leaderboard updates if the player is in Creative Mode, or if the world has been previously saved in Creative Mode. • Added a simple tutorial for Creative Mode. • Added sprinting to Survival Mode. • Added flying and sprint-flying to Creative Mode. • Added new items to the game – Melon, Melon Slice, Melon Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Raw/Cooked Beef, Raw/Cooked Chicken, Rotten Flesh, Pumpkin Seeds, Iron Bars, Fence Gate, Stone Bricks, Stone Brick Slabs, Stone Brick Stairs, Brick Slabs, Brick Stairs, Ender Pearl, Web,Vines, 10 more Music Discs, and Chain Armor. • Added new items to the crafting menu – Melon, Melon Seeds, Glass Pane, Fence Gate, Iron Bars, Stone Bricks, Stone Brick Slabs, Stone Brick Stairs, Brick Slabs, Brick Stairs. • Added terrain generation features – Strongholds, Villages, Abandoned Mineshafts and Ravines. • Biome code additions, including rivers and oceans. • Changed the bow to have drawing and firing action. • Added a quick move to the dispenser. • Added a quick equip for armor to the inventory interface. • Added a quick move for ingredients and fuel in the furnace interface. • Brought forward the mining speed changes from 1.2.3 • Brought forward apples dropping from leaf blocks from 1.1 • Brought forward change from 1.2.3 to make pumpkins and melons grow from stems much faster, and not require farmland around the stem to grow on. • Fix to vines brought forward from 1.2.3 to stop them spreading too much. • Added the Food Bar to the HUD. • Added stacking for food items. • Added the eating animation. • Enabled crafting mushroom stew without a crafting table. • Added the blocking move with swords. • Changed all the text descriptions for food to show how much they refill the food bar. • Passive mobs will now flee when hit. • The snout on pigs now protrude from their head. • Skeletons now hold full size bows. • Animals no longer despawn which makes it possible to capture them. • Zombies now drop Rotten Flesh instead of Feathers. • Updated some mob sounds. • Shears can now collect Tall Grass and the new Vine. • Improved sunrise and sunset. • Improved the rain edges (when looking up in rain). • User-placed leaf blocks no longer decay. • Cloud height raised to the top of the map, so clouds can no longer phase through blocks. • Cloud movement syncs with the game’s time. • Both Wooden and Stone pressure plates can now be placed on fences. • Improved chest model with a 3D lock, and opening and closing animation. • Added a countdown timer to the autosave to stop it being such a surprise. • Added the ability to rename an existing saved world. • Added map icons to the in-game player list to match their color in the map. • Added a confirmation dialog on the player choosing to exit without saving. • Added a character display when sprinting or flying. • Updated the How To Play HUD with the Food Bar information. • Added descriptions for Creative Mode and Sprinting to the How To Play menus. • Updated the Download Content menu with pictures of the DLC available. • Removed Herobrine.
Options Changes and Additions
• Changed the Gamertags Display option to mean display/hide gamertags in-game and on maps. • Added an option to select Creative Mode or Survival Mode on creating or loading a world. • Added an option to disable clouds. • Added additional options to the world creation – Superflat land (creates a flat world near bedrock in both the Overworld and the Nether), enable/disable Structures and Bonus Chest. • Added Host options – toggles for Player Versus Player, Trust Players to stop players being able to mine without permission from the Host, Fire Spread, TNT Explodes, and Host Privileges. • Added in-game player options for the host – Can Build and Mine, Moderator, Kick Player, Can Fly, Disable Exhaustion, Invisible. • Store the Online, Invite Only, and Friends of Friends options in the player’s profile. • Tutorial World Changes: • Changed the Tutorial world to enable the new terrain features in it. • Added mini tutorial for sprinting in the Tutorial world. • Added mini tutorial for eating in the Tutorial world. • Added Music Disc Quests in the Tutorial world – players can search the world for the 12 chests, each containing one of the Music Discs that can be played in a Jukebox.
Fixes
• Fix for duplication glitch. • Fix for aspect ratio of things in hand when in splitscreen mode. • Fix for issue with player data not saving (player starting world with no items they had when they saved). • Fix for redstone tiles burning out when they shouldn’t. • Fixed issue with Minecart with Furnace not being able to move another Minecart. • Fixed particle code for flipped 3rd person view.
Oh, look at that – it appears 4J Studios has removed Herobrine with update 1.8.2. It’s a shame too, as Herobrine was really awesome, but what can you do? 4J Studios says that the update will begin rolling out at 2AM Pacific tomorrow morning (October 16), but warns that it may take a few hours before every region has the update. Get ready Xbox 360 players, because you are definitely in for a treat.
Halo 4 will definitely be one of the biggest games of the year, so it really isn’t much of a surprise that some Xbox 360 owners are eager to download a pirated version of the game that popped up on torrent sites over the weekend. Microsoft isn’t taking this leak lightly though, as MCV reports that the company is handing out permanent Xbox Live bans to anyone caught playing the game with their console connected to the Internet. In other words, you might want to think twice before taking advantage of those Halo 4 torrents.
Of course, pirated versions of Halo 4 will only work on modded Xbox 360s, and why anyone would take their modded console onto Xbox Live is entirely beyond us. Some particularly dumb 360 owners are doing just that, though, as evidenced by the email MCV posted. The email is from the Live Enforcement Team, and lets the user know that they’ve violated the Xbox Live Code of Conduct. The punishment? Permaban, baby.
Though the email states that users won’t be able to log into Xbox Live during their suspension (which is never-ending in this case), it’s a little unclear at the moment if Microsoft is banning consoles or just gamertags – two very different things. If Microsoft is banning consoles, that means the console will never be able to access Xbox Live again, effectively bricking it as far as multiplayer and Xbox Live Arcade are concerned. If Microsoft is only banning gamertags, then the infringing gamer could just create a new tag and go online with that, which is a far less severe punishment.
In any case, you’re in for some headaches if you’re caught playing Halo 4 ahead of release while your 360 is connected to Live. Microsoft has launched an investigation to find out who leaked Halo 4 ahead of release, but in the meantime, the company is showing us that it has no problem at all with dropping the banhammer left and right. We’re going to go ahead and suggest that you just wait for Halo 4‘s official release on November 6 – yes, its release is still a few weeks off, but we’re thinking that waiting three weeks is much better than having your Xbox Live privileges taken away.
When Xbox Music goes live tomorrow on the Xbox 360, console owners will be the first to access the Spotify-esque service from Microsoft. Well, some of them will at least — existing Zune Pass subscribers (now an “Xbox Music Pass”) and folks willing to pony up $9.99/month or $99.90/year who also have an Xbox Live Gold account gain access to Xbox Music’s 30 million global song database via data stream (18 million songs for those of us in the US). Okay, okay, a free trial is available for 30 days. After that, though, 360 owners lose access unless they pay up.
Then, on October 26, Windows 8 PC and tablet users get the service for free — with or without the Xbox Music Pass — albeit with ads laced in. Windows Phone 8 is in the same boat with Xbox folks: no song-specific streaming without an Xbox Music Pass. That won’t arrive until some time “soon after” the PC/tablet version. Microsoft says the ad-supported free streaming is unlimited on PC and tablet, but that’s only for the first six months, after which it becomes time limited. A bummer for sure, but Microsoft’s banking on you digging the service enough to snag an Xbox Music Pass. But will you?
Like with Spotify and Pandora, some basic artist info, album/song info, and images garnish playing tracks, though not all artists are created equal — some artists had no images, while others had a detailed dossier. Microsoft says it’s adding more all the time, though. Xbox Music Pass holders can hang on to tracks for offline listening as well, which show up in your library and can be added to playlists. And should you wish to listen to a “Smart” radio station based on an artist/song/album, you can employ the “Smart DJ” (previously “Smart Playlist”) to create just such a station. The whole shebang is tied directly to your Microsoft login, mirroring settings and library data on all your devices (Xbox 360 included) accross the cloud. That same concept applies to playback, as you can pause a song on one device and pick it up right where you left off on another. Songs can also be purchased through the streaming service with or without the Xbox Music Pass, should you really want to hold onto that Barry Manilow track.
It’s still kind of a confusing mess at this point, but word is that Microsoft is dropping its “Live” branding on all its services. It was discovered through an update that must have released earlier than intended, that the Xbox Live Extras app in the Windows Phone Store was getting rid of the “Live” in its name and would be called just “Xbox Extras” instead.
Today, it seems that the app is nowhere to be found in the Windows Phone Store, which has us believing that the update was released pre-maturely and then later pulled from the store. Most likely, it was probably an update to coincide with Microsoft’s upcoming Windows Phone 8 launch event on October 29, which could mean we could see a branding change come later this month.
However, Xbox Extras wasn’t the only app that seemed to be experiencing update issues recently. The Adobe Reader 10.1 app also was experiencing some issues in the Windows Phone Store, after an “update” to the app was reverting some users back to version 9.0, which meant they would lose the 10.1 version until Microsoft fixed the issue.
Even if it does look like the Windows Phone Store is experiencing problems, this makes us wonder if the company is truly dropping it’s “Live” branding for all of its services. This would mean that Xbox Live would no longer be called Xbox Live, but rather just “Xbox” or some other moniker that they might come up with. It’ll be interesting to see what they come up with later this month.
It looks like Microsoft won’t have a lot of faith in its Microsoft Points payment system — at least in Windows 8. The company plans to make credit cards its default payment method for buying and renting stuff in the Windows 8 store. However, you’ll still be able to select Microsoft Points as a payment method if you choose.
Microsoft made this change just recently, since their previous betas of Windows 8 used the company’s Points system for all video purchases and rentals, which makes us wonder why they made a last-second change like this in the new OS. It’s possible they may be starting to slowly phase out the Points system on all their products eventually, but it might be too early to tell. It was rumored back in January that Microsoft would be getting rid of Microsoft Points, so maybe this is actually the start of what’s to come.
Microsoft Points is currently the main form of payment in Xbox LIVE, and its used to purchase stuff like Xbox LIVE Arcade games, gamertag pictures, and other different types of downloadable content. In order to purchase something, users must buy Microsoft Points using real money and then use those points to purchase the items of their choosing. $1 will get you 80 Microsoft Points, and most XBLA games are anywhere between 400-1200 Microsoft Points, which equates to $5-$15.
We’re not sure why Microsoft made the default payment method change in Windows 8, but we have to say it’ll be a lot easier to buy stuff now. The Microsoft Points system can be confusing, and it’s a hassle to have to buy Points and then buy the items you want. We’re not exactly if Microsoft will completely phase out its Points system, but we’re sure it’ll be a welcomed change.
Here is a quick question before we continue – what do you think of Microsoft’s idea by relying on the concept of Microsoft Points as a mode of payment instead of regular cash? Well, it does seem as though Microsoft has done some thinking through of their Microsoft Points system, and decided that they will make the migration from virtual points system that is then converted to actual currency, to just relying on payments made using real-money transactions via credit cards instead. This cuts away the confusion of performing mental calculations of the “exchange rate” so to speak, and according to The Verge, this change has been introduced alongside the Windows 8 beta program, where it should be implemented on an official bases on the Xbox 360 with a new dashboard update that is due later this month.
As for the Windows 8 operating system, it is due to hit the market sometime later this October 26th, which is not too far away – slightly more than just a couple of weeks. At least you no longer have to remember that $1 of real world money is equal to 80 Microsoft Points.
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Here is a quick question before we continue – what do you think of Microsoft’s idea by relying on the concept of Microsoft Points as a mode of payment instead of regular cash? Well, it does seem as though Microsoft has done some thinking through of their Microsoft Points system, and decided that they will make the migration from virtual points system that is then converted to actual currency, to just relying on payments made using real-money transactions via credit cards instead. This cuts away the confusion of performing mental calculations of the “exchange rate” so to speak, and according to The Verge, this change has been introduced alongside the Windows 8 beta program, where it should be implemented on an official bases on the Xbox 360 with a new dashboard update that is due later this month.