Late Night Consoling

After extremely mixed signals regarding whether or not Microsoft ever plans to outfit its Xbox 360 with an HD-DVD drive for high definition movie playback, the company has taken a more solid stance. It's still rather inconclusive, though. "There are currently no plans to release an Xbox 360 equipped with a next generation DVD player," said a Microsoft representative. This statement comes after suggestions from various Japanese and American executives--including Bill Gates himself--that later revisions of the system may very well include support for HD-DVD, the next-gen optical media format opposing Sony's Blu-ray standard. It's worth noting that there's nothing actually limiting the Xbox 360 from playing high definition movie content; an HD movie trailer is available through Xbox Live Marketplace and HD video content can presumably be streamed from a PC using a compatible version of Windows. This issue is entirely related to the use of a specific storage medium, one which could never be used for actual games since it would break compatibility with current model consoles.

One thing is for sure, though: they won't be using Blu-ray.

Sega apparently managed to get some pretty big names together to collaborate on an upcoming title. Design was handled by Masahiro Sakurai, the ex-HAL Labs designer responsible for the Kirby and Smash Bros. franchises and currently doing a stint at Nintendo on Super Smash. Bros for Revolution. Hideo Kojima called him "one of the few great game designers left in Japan." On sound there's Tomoko Sasaki, who did composition, arrangement, and lyric writing for NiGHTS Into Dreams (SAT), Sonic Team's hallowed-by-some 3D flying platformer...thing. Programming it is Ken Naito of Climax's Genesis action/RPG Landstalker. And what did these guys get together to do? Some kind of insect-centric handheld LCD Tamagotchi-esque thing. It goes on sale in Japan in February.

It better be a pretty amazing Tamagotchi.

Microsoft's entertainment divisions, home of the Xbox and Xbox 360, are undergoing some reorganizations, according to a leaked internal email. Xbox has reportedly lost upwards of $4 billion for Microsoft since its inception due to a focus on gaining market share and credibility in a tough industry rather than profits. Now, it seems that Microsoft has been pleased enough with the performance of Xbox executives that they're putting them in charge of some newly formed subdivisions of the entertainment group. Xbox CFO Bryan Lee will head up Entertainment Business, focusing on music, TV, and video. Xbox co-founder Robbie Bach has already taken the reigns of the new Entertainment and Devices division, and will be overseeing more than just Xbox.

Of course, that wacky Xbox PR duo of J "Extreme" Allard and Peter "Human Energy" Moore have some new assignments in store as well. Allard will be head of "design and user experience" for Xbox and Xbox Live but also for all of Microsoft's entertainment products. Peter Moore will preside over the business of gaming at Microsoft, in charge of both Xbox as well as Games for Windows, an initiative Microsoft has been pushing harder recently after admitting it has done damage to PC gaming in recent years.

Xbox Live Arcade continues to be my favorite part of the Xbox 360. In addition to hosting classic arcade games and casual puzzle games, it is living up to the expectation of providing an alternative platform for independent developers. Reflexive Entertainment's tongue-swinging Wik: Fable of Souls is now for sale over Xbox Live Arcade for 800 marketplace points ($10) with a demo available for free download. At this year's Independent Games Festival, the game picked up three awards, including the Seamas McNally Award for Downloadable Game of the Year. Wik: Fable of Souls is also available for PC at its official site.

Ever play SimTower, back before The Sims when they were making SimEverything? Well, despite being branded with the Maxis name, that one was actually developed by Vivarium, the company headed up by rather eccentric designer Yoot Saito. Saito is possibly best known for the odd marine life simulator Seaman (DC) and is currently working on military pinball/strategy/hamburger game Yoot Saito's Odama (GCN). Anyway, SimTower is coming to Game Boy Advance under its Japanese name The Tower. It will be out by March in North America.

Another shot was fired this week in the ongoing conflict between Sony and the PSP homebrew community. An exploit was found in the save file of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories which allows unsigned code to be run on PSPs with firmware version 2.00. It was demonstrated with a mere Hello World demo, but further progress will no doubt be made.

1UP chats with Xbox head J Allard and SCEA president Kaz Hirai about the upcoming generation for Xbox 360 and PS3. Sadly, the two do not actually talk to each other.

Mac software developer Panic is the only company approved by Katamari Damacy creator Keita Takahashi to sell official Katamari merchandise, and the company now has a line of shirts on sale (as well as commentary from Takahashi and merchandise co-designer Ryo Kimura). Remember, these are the only officially sanctioned products besides the games themselves and the soundtrack, which goes to explain why they're so weird.

Gamerscore Blog, part of Microsoft Developer Network Blogs, has posted answers to several questions from the Xbox 360 community regarding the most recently backwards compatibility patch.

GameSpot has a developer interview on Reflections' Driver: Parallel Lines (PS2, Xbox).