Latest Greatest XBox 360 News
Well it looks like today is finally the day when we’ll all be able to figure out which of our XBox games will, and won’t, play on the new Xbox 360. Microsoft is expected to release statements about the backwards compatibility of the next-gen console, amidst claims of developer/publisher frustration over the way the issue has been handled. Microsoft has remained mum on the subject in the face of its critics, pointing to today as the day when they would clear up the confusion.
Earlier posts here at Play-Girlz.com pointed out the possibility that Microsoft would be adding pre-loaded advertising content onto new 360 consoles and sadly, it looks like that really is going to be the case. Prodigious Gaming grabbed a quote from Bryan Lee, the chief financial officer of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices subdivision that pretty much cements the idea of in-game advertisements. The purpose of ad enabled XBox 360’s is apparently to subsidize the costs of developing and producing the machine. Says Lee:
We’ve actually got a couple of games out in the market now on the Xbox platform where we’re trialling some ads and we’ve been working with Massive on those couple of games… We feel very excited about advertising as a potential growth opportunity for the business… [in]markets outside of North America, the fundamentals of our business may not hold. Consumers may not be accustomed to paying $50 for software and buying a $200, $300 or $400 device, an ad model may be a way to augment to kind of make the economics work for everyone.
A kinder, gentler 360 through advertising? I’m not buying it.
Although we’ll have to wait for next week for the announcement of the finalized launch list of XBox 360 games, some of them, like Kameo: Elements of Power, are already available(???) at a game store near you. Some accessories for the 360 are also on sale now, so if you see the wisdom in having games and gadgets for a system you don’t have, head out and pick them up. Anyone who doesn’t want to spend money before they have to, how about checking out the Kameo backstory in these nifty little podcasts released by the game developer Rare? Or if you’re sitting at home with your wireless controller as we speak, here are a couple of XBox commercials to keep you drooling and distracted until November 22nd. When I first watched these, the ad below them was for the iPod….I laughed.
