Xbox News Round-up

Let us know what you think of Lumines Live in the forums.

Plenty of Xbox related news buzzing around today, including new downloadable content and word that the Xbox 3 is already in development.

First up, Lumines Live, the popular puzzle game for the PSP has made its way to the Xbox Live and as of tomorrow will be available to download for the miserly sum of $12 (£6). Lumines Live will undoubtedly be one of the best puzzle games offered through Microsoft's Live service, so if puzzling is your tipple make sure you get involved.

The second piece of news regarding Xbox Live comes courtesy of Bethesda. They have announced another expansion pack called Knights of the Nine for both the 360 and the PC. This add-on will include all of the previous Oblivion content downloads, which are: Horse Armor, The Orrery, Wizard’s Tower, Vile Lair, Thieves Den, Mehrunes’ Razor, and Spell Tomes.

I have to say I personally am not that impressed by the decision to bundle them as many players have probably spent well over the odds to download all these pieces of content individually. I suppose the only saving grace is that Kinghts of the Nine appears to be a far bigger piece of content compared to all of the others. Straight from the press release:

"Knights of the Nine features an all-new faction and quests for noble characters and answers many of the questions surrounding the Ayleid ruins found throughout Oblivion. Players can join a new faction and found their own order of holy knights – leading them into battle against a sorcerer-king and his demonic minions while exploring massive dungeons and searching for legendary relics – the holy armour and weapons of the Divine Crusader."

Mark Rein, the man overseeing upcoming blockbuster Gears of War has responded angrily to the claim that a Gears of War demo is due to be released anytime soon. He posted on the Gears of War forum:

"It just isn't true. There is no demo coming out before the game ships and I have no idea if we'll do one after the game ships or not. Right now there are no plans to do one as I said earlier in this thread."

The final piece of news is possibly the most interesting and certainly the most controversial – Chris Lewis, Microsoft's EMEA VP, has revealed that work may have already begun on the next iteration of the Xbox. He said to UK games site Kikizo:

"Of course we're thinking about that... we're constantly thinking about the next thing, we have to. It's my point about complacency - you can't sit back on your laurels in this business - the consumer won't let you, the developers certainly won't let us. So that's happening right now."

If you're a 360 owner don't get too worried though, the plan is for the current generation to last well into 2010. The question is, why is Microsoft telling us that their new console is already in development now?

Any ideas – drop them in the forums.
Quote M4RTIN 18th October 2006, 14:33
let me be the first fanboy to say

i cant wait for the xbox 720(?) to come out itll completely kill the ps4. :) :)

on another note, the *******s still havent turned xbox live or their website back on :(
Quote bloodcar 18th October 2006, 14:40
It's not surprising that Microsoft is working on the next version. The 360 went into R&D right before or right after the original XBOX's launch. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo and Sony were working on their next next generation consoles as well.
Quote mclean007 18th October 2006, 15:00
Quote:
Originally Posted by bloodcar
It's not surprising that Microsoft is working on the next version. The 360 went into R&D right before or right after the original XBOX's launch. I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo and Sony were working on their next next generation consoles as well.
Totally. The development cycle for these things is really long, and probably gets longer with each more advanced generation. I would be massively surprised if any one of MS, Nintendo or Sony wasn't working on their next gen part already. TBH development probably overlapped with the current / soon to be released systems.

It's like Intel - just because Core 2 Duo is killing everything else right now doesn't mean they're not already working on Core 3 or whatever. They're probably working at least one if not two generations ahead of what's in a bleeding edge rig right now.
Quote Bladestorm 19th October 2006, 02:53
Kind of expecting Xbox3 to be 2 years ahead of PS4 the next time .. both on account of they already have the lead and because of that bit about PS3 not turning a profit for 5 years .. (I can see MS launching in another 3 to really stick the knife in)
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