Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft VP Shane Kim has been anything but a stranger to these pages over the years: we first had a sit-down with the man way back in the halcyon days of early 2006, and as recently as this summer he was discussing the probable-possibility of Xbox games making their way onto mobile devices. Now, after nineteen years with the company and a career spanning the original Xbox through the present day (and Project Natal), our man has officially announced his retirement at the end of the year. Apparently his duties will be split between Dennis Durkin, who’s been named chief operating officer of the company’s video game unit, and Phil Spencer, who will oversee Microsoft Game Studios. Kim has yet to proclaim any post-Microsoft plans, saying he intends to relax and spend time with friends and family. Now that that’s out of the way, Microsoft, when can we expect to see Live Anywhere up and running?

Filed under: Gaming

Microsoft Xbox head honcho Shane Kim retires, declines to offer us a piece of cake originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The promotional video and leaked shots already made it clear but now it’s official: the Zune HD will be a gaming and application platform. In addition to a few casual games, calculator and MSN Weather apps pre-loaded onto the Zune HD, the official Microsoft press release touting the launch contains this little nugget of gaming gold:

“Later this year, Zune plans to release free applications such as Twitter for Zune and Facebook for Zune, in addition to fun 3-D games such as “Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition,” “Vans Sk8: Pool Service” and “Audiosurf(TM) Tilt.” Games can be added to Zune HD via Zune Marketplace over the Wi-Fi connection or when connected to the Zune PC software.”

Hear that Nintendo, Sony, and Apple? There’s a new handheld gaming platform in town. All that remains to be seen is how it will integrate with the Xbox 360.

Update: A bit more is revealed in a Seattle Times Q&A with Brian Seitz, Microsoft’s Zune marketing manager. At the moment, the strategy is to keep all the apps and games free and developed in-house or in close collaboration with third parties — no third-party SDK for devs to freely crank out apps just yet. Seitz is clear that games will be the primary focus of the “sometimes-connected” Zune HD and the Windows Marketplace is Microsoft’s priority for handheld app development:

“So what we didn’t want to do was build two parallel app store experiences that didn’t work together. Right now our product roadmaps didn’t line up perfectly for us to snap to what they’re doing or vice versa… Down the road if there’s a way we can work with Windows Mobile or another group inside the company that’s building an app store and take advantage of that, that’s something we’ll look into.”

Man, Windows Mobile 7 and the rumored OneApp app store can’t get here soon enough.

Filed under: Gaming, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Zune HD gaming and app downloads confirmed: Twitter, Facebook, and 3D games on the way (updated) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 03:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Because of a scheduling snafu, we missed the first segment of the TechCrunch50 conference on Monday. But we were in time for the “New Frontiers” segment, which included a couple of interesting hardware products.

Spawn Labs
has developed a so-called HD-720 platform that allows a PC user to log in to a game
console, such as a Microsoft Xbox 360, from a network-connected PC. As of now, Spawn only works with the Xbox 360.

To set up products, you’ll need the Spawn HD-720 applicance, which connects to
a game console. A game cline tis needed for the PC. With a username and
password, the PC and the applicance connects, and the game can be
played in 720p resolutions. If bandwidth is limited, the video
resolution will degrade to maintain the frame rate.

The problem is latency: on a network it’s 100 ms. The company knows
ways to get to 70 ms,  playing across the Internet can add up to 50 ms.

You should already have a pretty good idea of what extra sauce Mad Catz will be bringing to Modern Warfare 2’s November 10 release, but here are some up close and personal snaps of the hardware anyway. Monochromatic camo patterns — all the rage in that war-torn near-future world — are evident throughout and will cost you a cent under $50 for either of the Xbox 360 or PS3 Combat Controllers, the Combat Keyboard or Sniper Mouse, or a cool hundred for the Elite Keyboard with a blood-red backlight. And if you want to spruce up your current hardware, gamepad faceplates and Xbox 360 Skinz will be available for $15 and $30, respectively. Feeling like a badass comes as a free extra.

[Via Joystiq]

Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

Mad Catz Modern Warfare 2 peripherals break cover, reveal pricing originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Sep 2009 04:34:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like Engadget editors aren’t the only folk who prefer technology that’s slimmer, cheaper, and better. According to an article at GamesIndustry.biz, a group that charts retail sales in the UK is saying that sales of the PS3 increased over 999 percent in the week since its British debut of the newer, slimmer form factor. And if that wasn’t good news enough for Sony, the console has also outsold the DS, Wii and Xbox 360 by approximately 3:1. Although the last time it was the lead hardware format in the UK was the first week of 2008, the PS3 has never lagged as far behind the others as it has Stateside. But still — a near 1000 percent increase? If true, that makes the States’ 104 percent increase seem lackluster in comparison. Then again, maybe the Brits never realized that Disney Sing It! High School Musical 3 is available on platforms other than the PlayStation. That could explain a lot of things, actually…

Filed under: Gaming

PS3 Slim sales up nearly 1000% in the UK, Noel quits Oasis (again) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 Sep 2009 10:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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