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Not
the busiest week in the Microsoft rumour mill but there’s still a
few choice-cuts for all you Xbox360 faithful today. First up is the
conformation of what most of the gaming community had suspected for
a while now, not only will Assassins Creed, UBi Soft’s
impressive looking Crusades themed Action game be coming to PC and
PlayStation3, it will also be sneaking on to Xbox360. Given the
Xbox360’s history of PC to console ports, and of course the ease
of conversion through Microsoft’s XNA development environment, and
the fact that Assassins Creed was originally titled Project
Assassin and demonstrated as an Xbox360 game, this comes as no
surprise to many in the videogame industry. Great news for Xbox360
gamers, but yet another set back for SONY’s PlayStation3 whose
list of exclusives seems to get shorter every week.
Fifty
million downloads from XboxLIVE! Marketplace was
Microsoft’s big news this week. In addition to this Microsoft was
keen to announce several other, ahem, fascinating statistics:
-
XboxLIVE! gamers
have logged on for two billion hours since the service started for
the original Xbox way back in 2002.
-
Sixty percent of
Xbox360 owners have logged on to XboxLIVE!
-
Texas
Hold ’em has been the fastest downloaded XboxLIVE!
Arcade
game yet, with over one-hundred downloads per minute with in the
first twenty-four hours of the game’s release.
-
Sixty-five percent of
Xbox 360 consoles that are XboxLIVE! connected have
downloaded games from the XboxLIVE! Arcade.
-
Eight million XboxLIVE!
Arcade
games have been downloaded since the Xbox360’s launch.
Hardly
pant wetting stuff, but does once again confirm Microsoft’s
dominance of online console gaming. However, with Nintendo’s Wii
and SONY’s PlayStation3 promising free online gaming, how long can
Microsoft expect to be able to charge for the privilege?
So,
think you can do better than the guys at Relic, Rare or Bungie?
Well, your time has come. Microsoft have made the Beta Version of
their upcoming XNA Game Studio Express. Although currently only for
Windows game creation, the Beta should help all those budding
Kojimas, Miyamotos and Meiers get feel for the environment before
it’s official launch together with XNA Creators Club this
Christmas. The Subscription is currently stated as $99 per year or
$49 for a four-month trial. This is the first time retail game
development has been viable for the general public so many people
are keen to see how it eventually turns out, hopefully better than
the hit-and-miss success of SONY’s Net Yaroze. XNA Game Studio
Professional should be available in Spring 2007.
Despite
it being for the original Xbox and being available for two years,
the all conquering Halo 2 is still the most played XboxLIVE!
title. However that doesn’t mean that the Xbox360 community
has been neglecting their exclusives. Here’s a list of the top
played Xbox360 games, worldwide:
1. Madden
NFL 07
2. Call
Of Duty 2
3.
Texas
Hold 'em
4. Tom
Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter
5. Saints
Row
6. Dead
Rising
7. The
Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
8. ChromeHounds
9. Test
Drive: Unlimited Demo
10. Battlefield
2: Modern Combat
That’s
it for this week, check back next Tuesday for all your Xbox360 news,
right here at Electronic Articles.
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