Free Xbox Live weekend – starts now An announcement from Microsoft reveals that you can have all access to the Xbox Live Gold subscription all weekend for free. Not too shabby.
Here are the details -
“Play your favorite Xbox 360 games and raise money for your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. Sign up to participate and gather donations from friends and family—the more you play, the more they give. In support of G3, Xbox LIVE is offering a Free Gold Weekend to everyone on the weekend of August 18, 2012.”
From 8/17 until 8/19, not only do you get to play online games for free on your Xbox, but you’ll also be helping your local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital raise funds while doing so. It’s a good time to be a gamer.
Xbox Live content update, August 21: Counter Strike: Global Offensive, NHL 13 demo, more Microsoft has updated its schedule for Xbox Live Marketplace, and the content releases kick-off today with a demo for NHL 13, a sale on Forza 4′s May TopGear Car Pack, Left 4 Dead hitting Games on Demand, and tomorrow, the release of Counter Strike: Global Offensive.
Also available tomorrow is JOJO’s Bizarre Adventure HD as well as various discounts for TNT Racers, Faery and other titles.
Games on Demand titles releasing today are: Ratatouille, Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City, Metal Gear Solid HD and the aforementioned Left 4 Dead.
On August 28, the latest DLC for Mass Effect 3, Leviathan, lands and a sale on Assassin’s Creed: Revelations DLC starts.
The Gunstringer: El Diablo’s Merican Adventure will also go on sale the 28th, and the Rockstar Publisher Sale also begins the same day.
Finally, on August 29, Rock Band Blitz will release on the XBL Marketplace.
Modern Warfare 3 continues Xbox Live activity dominance
Full charts for the week of August 13 below, courtesy of Major Nelson’s blog.
Xbox 360 Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)
1. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 2. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition 3. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4. FIFA 12 5. Halo: Reach 6. Modern Warfare 2 7. Battlefield 3 8. Skyrim 9. Gears of War 3 10. GTA IV 11. NBA 2K12 12. Forza Motorsport 4 13. Madden NFL 13 Demo 14. Halo 3 15. Madden NFL 12 16. NCAA Football 13 17. Mass Effect 3 18. Red Dead Redemption 19. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare 20. Call of Duty: World at War
Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions purchased)
1. Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition 2. Dust: An Elysian Tail 3. Trials Evolution 4. The Walking Dead 5. Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD 6. Deadlight 7. Hybrid 8. Castle Crashers 9. Pinball FX2 10. Magic 2013 11. The Expendables 2 Videogame 12. Gotham City Impostors 13. Full House Poker 14. Awesomenauts 15. Dungeon Defenders 16. Fruit Ninja Kinect 17. I Am Alive 18. Joy Ride Turbo 19. Trials HD 20. REAL STEEL
Top Indie Games (Full Versions purchased)
1. CastleMiner Z 2. CastleMiner 3. Avatar Laser Wars 2 4. Avatar Deathmatch 5. Total Miner: Forge 6. The Impossible Game 7. Miner Of Duty 8. Fortress Wars 9. Avatar Paintball 10. The $1 Zombie Game 11. FortressCraft Chapter 1 12. Miner4Ever 13. Comedy Night 14. Block World 15. End Of Days: Infected vs Mercs 16. Avatar Legends 17. Avatar Block War 18. Toy Stunt Bike 2 19. I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MB1ES!!!1 20. Dead Pixels
Games for Windows Top LIVE Titles (based on UU’s)
1. GTA IV 2. Age of Empires Online 3. Batman Arkham City 4. Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition 5. Fallout 3 6. Microsoft Flight 7. DiRT 3 8. Resident Evil 5 9. F1 2011 10. Batman: Arkham Asylum 11. Fable III 12. Fable III (again; don’t ask me) 13. Gotham City Impostors 14. Colin McRae : Dirt 2 15. Resident Evil Racoon City 16. Bulletstorm 17. F1 2010 18. Street Fighter X Tekken 19. Street Fighter IV 20. Bioshock 2
Microsoft: multiple Gold-exclusive free-to-play games planned for Xbox 360 Microsoft has several single and multiplayer free-to-play games in the works for Xbox 360, beginning with online brawler Happy Wars and Signal's intriguing action-RPG Ascend: New Gods.
"We're always looking at ways to push the boundaries of the console and our digital platform," a Microsoft spokesperson told OXM. "Bringing true free-to-play gaming experiences to Xbox 360 is a natural extension of that. "With the ongoing success of the model on PC, and the interest from both our consumers and our partners looking to explore this system on console, it simply made sense to deliver this experience through great games that would take advantage of it.
"In this pilot program, Microsoft Studios will support free-to-play gaming with Happy Wars, due out in September, as well as the recently announced game Ascend: New Gods which will ship in several months.
"The free-to-play model and games experiences will be available to all Xbox LIVE Gold subscribers, as many of the games planned will be multiplayer games by nature (an Xbox LIVE Gold subscription is required for multiplayer gaming). The games that use the free-to-play mechanic will leverage the Microsoft Points system."
Log and I debated the pros and cons of free-to-play gaming on Xbox 360 in our latest Hot Topic. Developers and publishers are no less divided over the business model, with Epic's Twin Sweeney hailing it as an evolutionary step on from disc-based retail, while Duke Nukem co-creator George Broussard brands it "a waste of time". What are your thoughts? Here's a trailer for the rather tasty-looking Ascend.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD Pulled From Xbox Live Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker HD recently launched on Xbox Live for $19.99 and as of right now, it is not available for purchase (at least in North America). People who bought the game were reporting issues, so they likely pulled it to patch the game and will re-release it very soon.
DayZ – “We’d probably be stupid not to try” an Xbox 360 release, says Bohmeia DayZ has not been officially announced for consoles yet, but Bohemia Interactive’s Jan Kunt believes the firm would “probably be stupid not to try” and release it for Xbox 360.
Speaking with VideoGamer Kunt said the firm was “definitely looking into consoles closer,” and pointed at the success of Minecraft – formerly a PC-only title has gone on to sell close to 4 million copies via the XBL Marketplace. “Obviously DayZ, you’ve seen the success of Minecraft on Xbox Live Arcade, and we’d probably be stupid not to try to do something similar,” said the Bohemia producer. “We’ve always wanted to make games for consoles as well. Obviously we’re a PC developer and have been for some years, but consoles have a huge market and you don’t have so many problems with piracy.
“So it’s really interesting. PC is what it is, and I personally think PC players will stay as PC players, but the console has more penetration into mainstream markets. People who wouldn’t play games on PC, they buy an Xbox or PS3 as a medium to play games. So from that point of view it makes sense to go for consoles.”
A DayZ standalone version was announced in August for PC, and will release later this year.
Fable: The Journey demo out now on Xbox Live Fable: The Journey has received a demo today from developer Lionhead Studios. The latest addition to Microsoft’s Kinect arsenal is a different spin on the classic Fable formula, giving players a first-person perspective on Albion.
The demo appeared on Fable: The Journey’s Xbox.com markeplace hub this morning, revealing a 1.22 GB file size.
Rather than cast players as a blank canvas hero, Fable: The Journey is a more character-driven experience, starring unlikely hero Gabriel and his horse Seren as they venture across Albion’s most treacherous regions.
Fable: The Journey launches on Xbox 360 across Europe October 12th.
Microsoft Points to remain standard on Xbox Live Microsoft has clarified its stance on Microsoft Points, Windows 8 and Xbox Live.
Earlier this week it became clear that Microsoft had abandoned previously announced plans to make Microsoft Points the default currency for Windows 8.
A spokesperson confirmed with The Verge that Windows 8 will use real cash currency by default.
“Current Xbox Live customers may also make a purchase using points,” the representative added. “Microsoft Points continue to be the currency for purchasing content for the Xbox 360 console.”
