SuperSite Blog : Video games

Get Tinker and Texas Hold 'Em ... For Free

pthurrott — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:00:21 GMT

Microsoft will soon make the Vista-era Ultimate Extras games Tinker and Texas Hold 'Em available for one and all, for free, via Games for Windows Live:

Tinker and Hold 'Em are coming to Games for Windows!

Need a break? If you like classic platform puzzles, or just want to play a quick hand of cards, we have a couple of great new games coming soon to Games for Windows!

Tinker
Even robots get lost, sometimes! Help this one get home by solving puzzles that untangle a surreal and misleading world...but be careful! Tinker only has a limited amount of energy, so you'll have to use it wisely or he'll be lost forever! A classic mental challenge for the entire family, Tinker features an original score, compelling visuals, and 60 levels of classic puzzling fun!

Hold 'Em
Pit yourself against the computer for a high-stakes experience that won't empty your pocket! Play with up to five computer opponents, and customize the look of the card deck and playing table. Have fun and bet what you want — the computer can't make you pay up!

Here's the best part...both of these games will be absolutely FREE!!

Keep an eye out here on www.gamesforwindows.com, both here and in the forums...we will be sure to let you know when these games are released!

Thanks to Resplendent for the tip!

Latest Xbox 360 reliability study: Industry-worst

pthurrott — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 19:36:02 GMT

As an Xbox 360 user from day one, I will again assert that this wonderful console is a double-edged sword. It has the best games and the best network of any console. But when it comes to reliability, the Xbox 360 puts up Yugo-like numbers. It's just an industry joke. The latest evidence comes courtesy of a new study by SquareTrade:

Game Console Failure Rates: Wii 9 times more reliable than Xbox 360, 4 times more than PS3

SquareTrade analyzed failure rates for over 16,000 new game consoles covered by SquareTrade Care Plans and found that the Wii experienced one-fourth of the common failures that the other systems have.

You can download the entire study in PDF form. Among the details:

Looking at the first 2 years of ownership, 2.7% of Wii owners reported a system failure, compared with 10.0% of PlayStation 3 owners, and 23.7% for Xbox 360 owners.

That seems low to me. The Xbox 360 number, that is.

Excluding "Red Ring of Death" failures, which are covered by Microsoft’s 3-year warranty, 11.7% of Xbox 360 owners reported a failure.

There are other kinds of Xbox 360 failures? :)

While the RROD problem continued to be the major issue for Xbox 360s purchased through 2008, early indications point to the problem abating in 2009.

The most common types of problems seen with the PS3 and Xbox 360 were disc read errors and output issues. The Wii had more power and remote control issues than the other 2 systems.

Microsoft does not deny that Xbox 360's failure rate is 54 percent

pthurrott — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:56:41 GMT

So, Microsoft has responded to a recent survey that found that the failure rate for its Xbox 360 video game console is an astonishing 54.2 percent ... by not denying that it's a face. Here's the response:

"Microsoft stands behind the Xbox 360 as a superior entertainment console with one of the best warranties in the industry. We are constantly improving the design, manufacture and performance of the console through extensive testing of potential sources of any problems. Xbox 360 is pleased to maintain the title of 'most played console' and the vast majority of Xbox 360 customers have enjoyed a terrific gaming and entertainment experience since their first day, and continue to, day in and day out."

Um. Wow. So... It has a great warranty (which its unreliability makes a requirement). And they're making it more reliable over time. There you go, folks.

Xbox 360 failure rate is 54.2 percent

pthurrott — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:47:30 GMT

I know, I was thinking exactly the same thing when I saw this. They still publish The Seattle Post Intelligencer? :)

But seriously. If this is true, Microsoft has some explaining yet to do. Actually, I'm surprised it's not higher. I've had at least 6 Xbox 360s Red Ring on me. And at least one of them did it twice. Only my two newest consoles--the only two we have left, one for me, one for my son Mark--have yet to die. One might be excused for feeling that it's going to happen, inevitably.

Xbox 360 gamers know the Red Ring of Death all too well. When one of Microsoft's gaming consoles experiences a hardware failure, three of the four red lights ringing the Xbox's power indicator illuminate.

Since the Xbox 360's launch in late 2005, system failures have gained their fair share of attention. Last year, Microsoft even set aside $1 billion to extend Red Ring of Death warranty coverage to three years.

In fact, a Game Informer survey of 5,000 readers found that the Xbox 360 has an astounding 54.2 percent failure rate. That means 54.2 percent of Xbox 360 consoles fail in one way or another.

That's well above the reported failure rates of Sony's PlayStation 3 (10.6 percent) and Nintendo's Wii (6.8 percent).

However, when the results hit newsstands in the September 2009 issue of Game Informer, gamers were surprised with the results. No, they didn't think 54.2 percent was a high rate - they thought it was low.

Ahahaha. There it is. Yep. Xbox 360 owners know. You should read the full post. The data here is awful, no matter how you look at it.

Microsoft adds Tenure icon to Xbox Live Gamertag

pthurrott — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 22:11:12 GMT

For the past few weeks there's been a gold badge at the top of my (and others') Gamertag inside of Xbox Live games on the Xbox 360. I honestly had no idea what it was. Turns out it's a Tenure icon, which indicates how long (cumulatively) you've had an Xbox Live Gold account.

Your Xbox LIVE user account tenure is graphically represented on your gamercard by a number that represents your years of tenure. Here are some key points about this value:

The tenure icon that is displayed is based on the total time that your Microsoft billing account is associated with an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription.

If your subscription is canceled and downgraded to Silver, your tenure will pick up where it left off the next time that you subscribe.

Tenure is displayed as the number of years on the service.

Consider the following scenario. You are an Xbox LIVE Gold subscriber who signed up in January 2005. In January 2007, you chose not to renew your Xbox LIVE subscription. Instead, you became a Silver member. In January 2009, you renew your Gold membership by purchasing an annual subscription. In this scenario, the count for the tenure icon is "2." The tenure icon will be updated to display "3" when your most recent cycle is completed in January 2010.

Like many people, apparently, I'm surprised that my tenure isn't longer (i.e. a bigger number). Also, it's unclear why this is only on the console and not on the web interface for Gamertags.

Xbox 360 has the most active users in 2009; Wii has the least

pthurrott — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 21:45:02 GMT

So I'm not surprised by this. Xbox 360 users tend to be a bit more hard core than Wii owners.

According to survey data compiled by Nielsen, the Xbox 360 dominated the charts, while the ubiquitously successful Wii came in dead last by a huge margin, ranking below the PS2, original Xbox and GameCube.

The chart is tracking the percent of console owners who use their gaming hardware on a regular basis. Everyone and their dog owns a Wii by this point, but very few actually play them consistently, according to Nielsen's findings.

Too bad you can't monetize usage as easily as a console/game sale.

Thanks Dave.

Microsoft kills Xbox 360 'coffin'

pthurrott — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 22:50:27 GMT

This one is interesting to me, because I had three Xbox 360s repaired last year, and in each case, Microsoft sent out a box so that I could ship them safely. Apparently, they're no longer doing that. From Joystiq:

Microsoft – the manufacturer of the RROD-prone Xbox 360 – has confirmed to Joystiq that it's discontinued its policy of providing a prepaid box with shipping label, more commonly referred to as the "coffin," for all Xbox 360 repairs. As of May 26 the policy was discontinued "in an effort to expedite the repair process." Customers will have the option of receiving an e-label to slap on the box they ship their bricked consoles in, but the days of the "coffin" are now over. A Microsoft spokesperson tell us, "Customers can now ship their consoles themselves using an e-label provided by Microsoft and do not need to wait for an empty box to be shipped to them."

Apparently Microsoft's accountants were getting tired of that budget line item signifying thousands of dollars spent on providing cardboard boxes to the millions of consumers with defective units (often multiple times). We likely should have seen the writing on the wall when we recently contacted Microsoft to find out what recourse customers had if customer service wasn't offering coffins.

And you thought you were on your own with a RROD before. Now you really are.

XBOX Technical Support

pthurrott — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 21:39:08 GMT

This should give anyone pause. There's been a lot of talk about the Red Ring of Death stuff over the past year because that $1 billion warranty thing, but let's be serious, red-ringing is only one of the Xbox 360's many, many problems. There are others that Microsoft, amazingly, has yet to address. This one they chalk up to user error. But I've seen it happen several times on my own Xbox 360s. And it's the machine, not the user. Anyway... See what happens when a customer service expert runs into Microsoft customer support. It's not pretty.

I spend part of every day working with customers, sort of "the buck stops here" technical support. So I have more than a little compassion for people who, day after day, must suffer through clueless customers. But Microsoft's XBOX Technical Support has set a new low.

It all started when my brand new XBOX 360 made grinding noises and ate the demo DVD that came with the system.

Scratched DVD. Easy problem, right? No, not in Microsoft land.

...

This whole thing should have been one phone call that lasted less than five minutes. Instead, Microsoft's collateral damage is as follows:

Support reps on the phone for two hours.

Paid to ship console to and from customer.

Paid to replace customer's console (which probably had nothing wrong with it.)

Paid to ship bad DVD back to customer, in a separate envelope.

Public display of complete incompetence.

And the sad thing is, I still don't have a disc that works :-(

As noted in the comments, you can take part in a Xbox 360 game disk replacement program, but only if the game is made by Microsoft and only if you feel like paying $20 to fix something that the console may very well have broken for you. Have fun with that.

Amazon.com launches Xbox Live store

pthurrott — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:17:03 GMT

You know, I was just wondering recently why this wasn't possible/easier. Microsoft's system for buying Xbox Live points electronically is ridiculous and often broken anyway. Here's Amazon to the rescue:

Amazon.com today launched the Amazon Xbox LIVE Store beta, www.amazon.com/xboxlive, offering customers the convenience to purchase and gift select Xbox LIVE games, subscription cards and Microsoft Points cards. Previously games were only available directly from the Xbox 360 console or xbox.com, making Amazon.com the first retailer to offer customers digital access to codes for downloading Xbox LIVE Arcade games. Customers can choose from fan-favorite titles including "Braid," "Castle Crashers" and over 100 other games.

Through the Xbox LIVE Store, Amazon.com customers can easily buy Xbox LIVE Arcade games, subscriptions and Microsoft Points cards for themselves or friends and family. Points can be used to buy games in the Xbox 360 online Marketplace. The Amazon.com Xbox LIVE Store works on a code-redemption system where customers who purchase an Xbox LIVE product will immediately be able to view their Xbox LIVE code after purchase as well as e-mail that code to themselves or the recipient of the gift. Additionally, this code will reside in the customer's Your Games & Software Library so they can retrieve it at any time. This digital delivery mechanism eliminates both the waiting time for the customer as well as reduces the waste associated with shipping packaged games and points cards. Customers can leverage Amazon's recommendation and personalization engine to learn about new games that they also may be interested in based on similar purchase histories of like-customers.

Nice.

Big Nintendo Wii update

pthurrott — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:26:35 GMT

I realize I'm not exactly the Wii's biggest backer, but this does change things a bit:

Wii System Update

Download Wii Menu 4.0 today, and expand the potential of your Wii console with a comprehensive storage solution.

Store downloaded games and channels with ease. View even more media* on the Photo Channel or Wii Speak Channel. Manage the content on your Wii console more effectively.

What’s new with Wii Menu 4.0?

Store more—Add more Wii storage using SD Cards or the high capacity SDHC Card format (up to 32GB).

Improved SD Card support—launch WiiWare titles, Virtual Console games, or channels directly from an SD/SDHC Card.

Let your Wii console move games and channels to an SD/SDHC Card with Auto Manage when system memory fills up.

Download titles from the Wii Shop Channel to Wii system memory or directly to an SD/SDHC Card.

How do I download it?

Updating your Wii Menu is easy! Just select the System Update option in Wii System Settings.

* Images in JPEG format only. Video in Quicktime or AVI format only. Music in AAC format only

Thanks to Michael G. for the link.

Call of Duty 6 coming this November

pthurrott — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:21:14 GMT

Of course, they're not calling it that--it's going to be called Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2--but it's coming this November. And really, that's all that matters. :) Just a teaser for now, with very little in the way of in-game graphics.

Wolfenstein 3D for the iPhone ... DOOM is coming soon

pthurrott — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:56:24 GMT

Nice! Id Software has released a version of the classic DOS game Wolfenstein 3D for the iPhone, and they promise a version of the original DOOM soon as well.

The grandfather of the FPS is at your fingertips!

Wolfenstein 3D Classic is non-stop action and all of the memorable enemies are there for you to conquer, from Hans Grosse to MechaHitler!

Includes all six original episodes with 60 classic levels and unforgettable weapons like the brutal chain gun.

Search levels for hidden secrets that reveal stolen Nazi treasure, health packs, ammo and weapons or even short cuts.

Choose clever new touch controls or drive with the tilt controls to halt the diabolical Nazi schemes.

Wolfenstein 3D Classic makes use of an all new control system designed for the iPhone by technical
visionary and id Software founder, John Carmack.

More: John Carmack on developing for the iPhone

Download Wolfenstein 3D Classic for iPhone (Direct FTP download)

Amazon.com: 13 months of Xbox Live Gold for just $30

pthurrott — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:19:15 GMT

Thanks to Dave A. for the tip: Amazon is selling a 13-month Xbox 360 Live Subscription Gold Card for just $29.95, a savings of $20:

Product Features

Subscription Term Name: 12+1 Months

Buy 12 months and receive an extra month free

Sign up with or without a credit card

Gold lets you experience all Live content the day that it is put up

Use Live Gold to play all of your multiplayer enabled games online

Voice and video chat enabled

That's a smoking deal. Even if your subscription isn't going to expire soon, it's worth snagging now.

Sony’s PS3: Complete disaster or just utter disaster?

pthurrott — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:49:00 GMT

Well, one thing’s for sure: The New York Times, at least, can’t decide whether the PlayStation 3 is doing well or not.

In the con category, we have:

Hope Fades for PS3 as a Comeback Player

Early results from this holiday season aren't promising. U.S. sales of the PS3 fell 19% last month from a year earlier, while sales doubled for the Wii console and rose 8% for the Xbox 360, according to research firm NPD. Analysts say they expect PS3 sales for this month to be flat or lower than last year, while sales for its rivals are likely to rise. And Sony may not reach its goal of selling 10 million PS3 consoles in the fiscal year through March, analysts say.

Sony's strategy of selling a pricey game machine with advanced features and cutting-edge components appears to be backfiring as a deepening recession has U.S. consumers more price sensitive than ever.

If Sony doesn't close the gap with its rivals, it could risk making the PS3 an afterthought to game publishers, who focus most of their resources on the machines with the most users. At the end of September, the Wii had a wide lead with nearly 35 million units sold since its launch in 2006 compared with about 22 million Xbox 360 consoles and 17 million PS3 machines. Nintendo last month sold 2 million Wii machines in the U.S., while Microsoft sold 836,000 Xbox 360s and Sony sold 378,000 PS3s, according to NPD.

Meanwhile, over in the pro category, yet another NYT article provides a slightly rosier outlook:

New Sony Game Nears Breaking Even

Sony is closer to breaking even on its new-generation PlayStation 3 videogame console because it costs 35% less to make than the previous model, according to technology-research firm iSuppli Corp.

Integration and key changes in components has brought the latest PS3's cost down to $448.73 from $690.23 for the first-generation model, said iSuppli.

The PS3 sells for about $399 in the U.S., at least $150 more than Wii and Xbox 360. However, the PS3 accounted for 16% of global videogame-unit shipments in the second quarter of 2008, second only to Nintendo's Wii, which accounted for 54% of the market.

Andrew Rassweiler of iSuppli predicted the PS3 may be able to break even in 2009 with further hardware revisions.

Just so we’re clear, the good news here is that Sony may soon stop selling the PS3 at a loss, not that it will somehow “break even” on overall PS3 costs. If these figures are correct, however, Sony still loses $50 for each console it sells. Not counting packaging and royalty expenses.

Sounds like a gangbuster business to me. :)

Xbox Live users: Beware the video game police

pthurrott — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 21:30:18 GMT

CBC News in Canada reports on Microsoft’s efforts to combat stupidity on Xbox Live. And trust me, there’s a lot of it:

Many gamers aren't aware of the fact that at any given time, they may be playing with one of these cops, whose job is to patrol and make the online world safe from video game miscreants. But they are there, and they're willing and able to dispense their own brand of justice.

Stephen Toulouse, lead program manager for policy and enforcement for Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox Live service, discussed his job in a keynote speech at the SecTor security conference in Toronto on Wednesday.

After his speech, he sat down with CBCNews.ca to talk about maintaining law and order in Microsoft's online world.

Toulouse: My team really handles three key things for the Xbox Live service. The first thing, which is our sort of bread and butter, is the terms-of-use stuff. I have a team that does that 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and what they do is pull complaints out of the complaint system. These are complaints that users have filed against other users.

The second thing they handle is some of the policies around privacy and security-of-user information. As I mentioned in my talk, it's a little bit about what are the reasonable expectations that a user might have about being marketed to and when are we going to hand that data over and when are we not. Those policies and procedures are basically subsets at the corporate level.

The third thing my team takes care of is any law enforcement requests. Subpoenas or things of that nature, where we might be able to help in an investigation. Maybe an Xbox is stolen, maybe there's information on the Xbox that law enforcement might need.

So. Hm.

Two things here.

First, I see abuse on Xbox Live every single day. People with offensive gamertags. People just being downright annoying, by doing things like playing their radio into their headset or just babbling incessantly. Cheating, particularly with two well-known glitches in COD5. (And why aren’t those fixed yet btw?) As far as I can tell, this is all talk. I’ve never heard of anyone being banned in any way on Xbox Live. It should happen more often, I can tell you that.

Second, I actually known Steven pretty well. As well as you can know someone that you’ve never physically met, that is. I’ve talked with him many, many times about various Microsoft security issues. He is absolutely credible and believable. I wasn’t aware that he was over working on Xbox stuff, so I wonder if this is a relatively new development for him. If so, maybe he clean up this town. It’s desperately needed.

Thanks to Taber B. for the tip.