East Bay Express has a story called The Buzzmakers about 4orty 2wo, the studio responsible for the ARG (Alternative Reality Gaming) marketing promotions for the film A.I. (The Beast) and Halo 2 (The Haunted Apiary/I Love Bees).
There's a lot of detail in this nine-page story, including how staffers spent months tracking down working payphones.
So much has gone on recently that it's almost impossible to write a complete piece on each one before the news recedes into obscurity. Here are a few items of note and my take on each, then, before things pile up so high I can't get out from under them:
By their prices, you shall know them
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that Microsoft says Xbox games will need to be recompiled to work with Xbox 360. This would seem to indicate-- although it is not yet clear-- that even your old games will have to be repurchased in order to run-- unless the console can recompile it by itself, which seems extremely unlikely. Not good news for those banking on this feature.
So, Microsoft lets the bomb drop this week that the Xbox 360 will be backwards compatible-- sort of. That "sort of" should include Halo and Halo 2, according to Newsday via HBO.
Much has been written, here and elsewhere, about backwards compatibility for gaming consoles, both with regards to the Xbox's successor, Xbox 360, and to consoles in general.
We asked our readers if backwards compatibility for the new Xbox was important; 43% of you said you wouldn't buy one if it wasn't, and only 17% of you thought it wasn't important or wouldn't affect their purchase decision.
Robert X. Cringely's latest I, Cringely column looks at three major changes, or "inflection points", as he refers to them with all due credit to Intel's Andy Grove, happening in the computer-audio-video-entertainment convergence we've all been waiting for now for nearly a decade. Those changes involve Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo and Google.
News is trickling out of E3 like treacle after an explosion in a molasses factory. So far:
Voodoo Extreme is reporting from the Microsoft press conference at E3 that the Xbox 360 console will be able to play the some Xbox titles via emulation. On his blog, Major Nelson also repeats the claim issued by Robbie Bach at E3: that the Xbox 360 will play "the most popular" Xbox titles.
According to Forbes, Final Fantasy XI is indeed coming to the Xbox. The article does not go into any detail on the specifics, so it is unclear whether the original Xbox or Xbox 360 is the intended platform. The Final Fantasy series of RPGs has been a stalwart for Japanese console makers, Sony in specific over the past iterations of the PlayStation.
A few stories today also on whether or not the Xbox 360 is going to play games for the original Xbox.