Posts Tagged ‘Microsoft’

E3 2011: Halo 4 Announced

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) began yesterday with its pre-show press conference. The big announcement of the day was made by Microsoft, when they announced the next entry in their popular franchise of first-person shooters, Halo 4!

Microsoft made the announcement via a cinematic trailer at the end of its 2011 E3 press conference. Halo 4 marks the first proper Halo title created outside of original creator Bungie, who signed off the series with 2010′s Halo: Reach. With Bungie no longer leading development, Halo 4 will mark the first major release from 343 Industries, Microsoft’s internal Halo studio.

To add to the already big announcement, Microsoft also announced that they are making a remastered version of Halo: Combat Evolved, the first game in the series. The remake will be titled Halo: Anniversary, and feature single-player and multiplayer portions of the original game. Microsoft has said that the single-player campaign will feature online co-op, a multiplayer mode that’s fully integrated into Halo Reach’s community, brand new graphics, and the ability to switch back to the original game’s graphics. Halo: Anniversary will be released on 11/15/2011 exclusively for Xbox 360.

Microsoft closed their conference with the promise of a new trilogy. After showing the CG teaser trailer for Halo 4, Halo 5 and 6 were both effectively announced as future titles. The teaser that was shown features the Master Chief and Cortana, after the events of Halo 3′s Legendary ending. Further details about the game’s storyline weren’t given outside of the short CG trailer. Halo 4 is set to be released holiday season 2012 for the Xbox 360.

Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5 Billion

Just days after reports that Google and Facebook were interested in partnering with (and possibly buying) VoIP company Skype, Microsoft has made its own announcement which will keep Skype all to itself. Microsoft has confirmed the purchase of Skype for $8.5 billion in cash.

Microsoft has stated that it sees Skype’s technology and services being applied across the board to both its consumer and business customers. This means enterprise customers will receive a new way to communicate over voice and video, but also customers who own products such as the Xbox 360 (with the Kinect) and Windows Phone 7 will be seeing the benefits from its introduction.

This is actually the second time Skype has been bought out. After Skype started in 2003, it was purchased by eBay in 2005 for $3.1 billion. In 2009, eBay sold the majority of its stake to a private investment group for $1.2 billion less than it originally paid. Now that Skype is going to be fully owned by Microsoft, there may be worries that the service could disappear from non-Microsoft platforms. In lieu of this, Microsoft has been quick to state that Skype will continue to be supported across all devices going forward.

Many people have questioned why this acquisition took place due to the fact that Microsoft’s own software already has considerable overlap with Skype. Windows Live Messenger offers free instant messaging, along with voice and video chat. Live Messenger currently boasts around 330 million active users each month. Skype, on the other hand, only has around a third the number of active users, 124 million each month.

Although Skype’s instant messaging and voice/video call features are broadly similar to those found in Windows Live Messenger, they are arguably more refined and well-liked. There is one key difference worth mentioning though: about 8 million Skype users pay for the service. Skype also has points of presence across the globe, making it easy to buy phone numbers in foreign markets to cheaply establish an international telephone presence.

With this large acquisition now official, what everyone is wondering is what Microsoft intends to do with Skype beyond integrating it into existing services and platforms. Microsoft is shelling out a lot of cash with the $8.5 billion price tag, and you have to wonder how much of that is a premium to ensure Google or Facebook weren’t chosen partners instead.

Whether or not Skype stays in the number one spot for VoIP communications while under Microsoft ownership remains to be seen. Facebook and Google can be expected to further develop and break into the the voice and video market, so Skype will have to keep innovating and producing features in order to keep its competitive edge.

Microsoft Bing Uses Google Search Results

According to a report on their official blog, Google has run a sting operation that says it proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google and also the sites they select from the search results.  Apparently Bing has been using that information to improve its own search listings.  Bing’s search results potentially improving (or getting worse) through this tactic is the equivalent of copying exam answers off of the smart kid who sits next to you in class.

Google reports that “it all started with tarsorrhaphy.”  Google was looking at the search results for an unusual misspelled query [torsorophy].  The correct spelling—tarsorrhaphy—along with results for the corrected query, were being returned by Google’s search algorithm.  At that time, Bing had no results for the misspelling.  Later in the summer, Bing started returning Google’s first result to their users without offering the spell correction.  I’ve included the screenshots of this occurrence below, which were taken directly from Google’s blog.  To be able to return such a result without the correct spelling led to further investigation.

Google reported that over the next few months they noticed that URLs from their search results would later appear in Bing with increasing frequency for all kinds of queries, even including search results that were considered mistakes in the algorithm.  To test their suspicions, Google created about 100 “synthetic queries”—queries that you would never expect a user to type, such as [hiybbprqag].  As a one-time experiment, each synthetic query had a webpage which had nothing to do with the query inserted as the top result.

Engineers at Google were tasked to enter the synthetic queries into the search box on the Google home page, and click on the results (the inserted results).  Within a couple weeks, the inserted results started appearing in Bing.  The report states that Bing is most likely using a combination of Internet Explorer 8 and the Bing Toolbar to mimic the search results.  More details and screenshots of Google’s experiments can be found on their initial report posted to the Google blog.

I for one have always had a positive experience using Google as my main search engine.  Since Bing was announced, Microsoft has been trying to break into the search engine market with various promotions and television commercials.  This large push to gain users (and essentially pull them away from Google) has led me astray from using Bing, and these findings by Google just make me want to use it even less.

Duke Nukem Forever is Real

Remember Duke Nukem 3D?  It was the third game in the Duke Nukem series and was released in 1996 for the PC.  High praise for the game caused a third sequel, Duke Nukem Forever, to be announced in 1997.  From then til now, its been a series of release date pushbacks and assorted screenshots or media being released.  The game has even been available for preorder multiple times.  I personally like seeing the pictures of preorder receipts from GameStop in 2001.

When Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. pulled the plug on Duke Nukem Forever last year, most considered this to be the end of the line for Duke.  However, due to recent events, Duke Nukem Forever has been confirmed to be real!  It’s now being developed by Gearbox Software and being published by 2K Games.  To confirm the announcement, a playable demo was on the show floor at PAX Prime 2010 this weekend.

One player’s report of the demo was that “the graphics are buttery smooth, making even the most delicious looking of games, like Mirror’s Edge, look outdated.”  The first part of the demo gets right to it with a fight against a huge cycloptic alien in the middle of a football field. Luckily, you can shoot at him with guns known as Devastators, twin missile launchers that possess a wicked amount of rapid fire.  There is also a driving level in the demo, which features running over aliens in a huge monster truck and knocking over bridges.  There are reports that a demo (not necessarily this exact one) will become available to download in the future.

Few titles have achieved the kind of mythical status as this one, thanks in large part to its perennial absence despite continued leaks and hushed conversations suggesting that the game was still being developed somewhere.  Duke’s unlikely savior is Randy Pitchford, founder of “Borderlands” and “Brother in Arms” developer Gearbox Software.  Hopefully his past success can help Duke Nukem Forever live up to the high expectations from fans.

Duke Nukem Forever is set for a 2011 release and will be offered on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC platforms.

E3 2010: Best Upcoming Game Releases

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, better known as E3, recently took place on June 14th through the 17th.  E3 is an event for the computer and video game industry in which developers present their upcoming games and game-related hardware.  There were quite a few exciting game announcements this year along with new hardware from both Microsoft and Nintendo.  Here are some of the best games that were featured at E3 2010.

Halo: Reach

The latest, and potentially the last, Halo release from Bungie is Halo: Reach.  This game’s storyline is a prequel to all of the previous Halo games.  The UNSC is waging war against the Covenant, and almost all of humanity’s colonies have fallen except Reach.  Players will control Noble 6, a member of a team of Spartans, during the battle for Reach.

We’ve already seen the multiplayer from the beta preview this spring, which was already very polished and exciting.  New features include single use equipment being replaced by reusable and persistent armor abilities such as active camo, a jetpack, sprinting, and armor lock.  From the E3 trailer it was shown that there will be at least some spaceship battles during the campaign, which is a surprising change from Bungie.

As seen in ODST, Reach will feature the latest Firefight version, which has been announced to have matchmaking support.  There will be more customization of what types of enemies and waves can be seen, and a new weapon called the target locator, which allows airstrikes to be called in by the UNSC.  Halo: Reach is set to debut on September 14th, 2010.

Rock Band 3

The latest Rock Band game may be the most advanced music game created thus far.  Harmonix is trying to bridge the gap between video games and real music instruments by creating a new playable keyboard and also a stringed guitar to mimic real instruments and teach players real music skills.  Rock Band 3 will feature a new “Pro” mode, which players will use when playing with the realistic instruments.  The Squier Stratocaster six string guitar will be the featured Rock Band 3 controller.  Players can connect the new controller to PCs and create music on their own, and also it will come with audio outputs that allow users to connect the guitar up to an amplifier and play music.

As for the other details, there will be 83 songs released with Rock Band 3, and all previous content from the first two games and DLC will still be playable.  Somewhat as expected, there are updated graphics and players have more customization over their characters and the game.  As of now exact dates are not set, but look for this game to come out sometime this winter.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Since the release of Modern Warfare, any following Call of Duty game has and will be receiving a lot of press.  The new installment is being developed by Treyarch, which is the less successful of the two CoD development teams (the other is Infinity Ward).  Black Ops is a sequel to World at War which is set during the Cold War.  Players will be involved with missions behind enemy lines in locations such as Vietnam.

Black Ops will feature some new equipment, such as a scoped cross bow weapon similar to the Gears of War torque bow.  The soldiers will also be able to fight with choppers and other types of aircraft.  Treyarch has announced that along with the usual game modes, there will be a four player online co-op mode available.  Black Ops releases November 9th, 2010.

Gears of War 3

The third installment of Gears of War picks up eighteen months after the previous game.  One of the main new features will be a 4 player story based co-op mode.  There will also be new playable female gears.  Anya Stroud, who was the team’s control officer in the first two games, is now joining the battle along with Jace Stratton.  The picture on the right is concept art of Anya.  It’s an awesome picture so you should click it to view full size.  Combat will feature mutating enemies and new equipment such as a double-barreled shotgun, Lancer with a bayonet instead of a chainsaw, and incendiary grenades.

There will be a new mode called Beast, which is the opposite of Horde Mode from Gears 2.  Players are now the fighting on the Locust side, combating the COG.  Killing enemies earns you tokens, which can be used to upgrade your class.  Gears 3 isn’t set to release until April 5th, 2011.

Honorable Mentions

The list of games featured at E3 is way too many than I can discuss in this post.  Here are some other games that were featured and will probably be worth playing once they are released:

• Portal 2
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
• Goldeneye 007
• Fable III
• Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood