Cheap Microsoft Xbox

Square Enix’s new Los Angeles studio is still hiring, but they now have a small core staff of coders. To ease the new kids gently into the world of Squeenix development, the new studio is going to focus on downloadable games.

“We started the in-house development team a couple of months ago and we’re starting with downloadable content because the team is still small,” explained the studio’s US president John Yamamoto. “All formats – Xbox Live, WiiWare, PlayStation Network – are all viable formats for us”

The LA studio will also be investigating middleware solutions, after successfully using the Unreal Engine 3 for The Last Remnant. “I want to [...] evaluate lots of middleware,” said Yamamoto, “because western middleware is much more advanced compared to Japanese middleware. So we will study and feed back information to Square Enix in Japan.”

Square Enix LA studio to focus on digital titles [GamesIndustry.biz]

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Questions are being asked in Orange Country, Florida after a Sheriff’s Deputy apparently confiscated a man’s Xbox 360 in lieu of a speeding fine. I Am Not A Lawyer, and my knowledge of Florida traffic law is pretty minimal, but isn’t this a bit… unorthodox?

Orange County deputies seized Kenyatta Hillman’s Xbox and 8 games after stopping him for speeding and allegedly smelling marijuana in his car. Although a serial number check did not reveal the Xbox as being stolen, a deputy took the console anyway, telling Hillman that he wanted to make sure that nobody stole it(!)

When Hillman tried to claim his console back, the sheriff’s office were unable to locate either the Xbox or the games. A spokesman later confirmed that the console would be returned ‘On Friday’.

After they finish Left 4 Dead, presumably.

Deputy Takes Man’s xBox During Traffic Stop [WF TV 9]

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Are we done with Tenacious D yet? That one album was quite funny (who doesn’t love a Dio joke?) and the videos are pretty good whenever Dave Grohl shows up. That movie got made, also.

Fans of movie comedy guy Jack Black and acting and music guy Kyle Gass can try to prolong the magic by singing, strumming and thwacking along with the Tenacious Twosome on Xbox LIVE this Thursday. JB & KG will be appearing on LIVE to promote their new DVD The Complete Masterworks 2.

Xbox LIVE Gold members can have a chance at playing with the band by sending a friend request to JBTenacious or KGTenacious and hanging out on LIVE for half an hour before the Game with Fame session starts on Thursday, November 20, 8:30 P.M. ET.

Play with Jack Black and Kyle Gass of Tenacious D [Xbox.com]

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Ahh, Huxley. Were it not for the Korean Open Beta – which apparently exists, and has players and everything – we would have to keep checking Snopes to see if it was still considered real or not.

This just in – you will be surprised to hear that the MMO/FPS game has had its Western PC release pushed back until “the first half of 2009″. The promised Xbox 360 version is even deeper in the mire – no release date has yet been suggested.

The massively multiplayer shooter is loosely (extremely, I would have though) based on the visionary SciFi novel “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. The challenge now for Webzen is to ensure a release date before the novel’s fictional timeline begins in 2540 AD. Not long now, chaps!

No Huxley US launch in 2008 [Big Download]

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You can tell when expectations of a game are running high when people starting murmuring about DLC expansions before the thing is even on the shelves. Incidentally, how’s that episodic GTA thing working out, Rockstar?

Speaking in a Gamercyde video interview, PoP producer Ben Mattes said that they didn’t want to mess around with extra costumes or pimped weapons. If DLC hype is worth doing, it is surely worth overdoing.

“If we’re going to do it, it’s going to be a new story, a new experience, maybe a prequel, maybe a sequel – we’re going to do something that really offers a lot of value for the player. In terms of when: sometime next year – I’m not sure of exactly when, it’s all still in discussion.”

Prince of Persia[Gamercyde via Eurogamer]

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Shane Kim, the VP for business development in Microsoft’s game division, was down in Berkeley, Calif. this weekend to show off the new Xbox experience at the University of California’s Play conference. Venturebeat’s Dean Takahashi writes about Kim’s wide-ranging discussion, of NXE, the economy, the development cycle. But we like it when people start commenting on competitors, so let’s pull out some choice quotes there.

“I can tell you how that conversation goes at Microsoft. They say, ‘I don’t think that’s a game,’” Kim said in regards to Wii Fit. “But the guy at Nintendo says, ‘I don’t care. I’m selling a whole bunch of that stuff.’”

Kim went on to say (these are Takahashi’s words, paraphrasing Kim’s) “that it never pays to bash Nintendo. Rather, he said he loved Nintendo because it’s broadening the audience and is showing Microsoft what it needs to accomplish.”

Now, as far as Sony goes, Kim was asked how long Microsoft would keep making the Xbox 360. “One day longer than the lifespan of the PlayStation 3,” was his reply. Ten years plus one day?

Microsoft’s Shane Kim Loves Nintendo, Talks up New Xbox Experience as Social Network[Venturebeat via GoNintendo]

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