XboxSold.com BLOG

So far, we haven’t really heard much about iPhone gaming at E3 — the focus has mainly been on the consoles and the PC. That doesn’t mean, however, that people have forgotten about Apple or mobile gaming.

Microsoft is very interesting in trying to horn in on that market, and their latest move shows they’re fairly serious about it. According to Pocket Gamer, Microsoft is now offering iPhone developers up-front cash to port their iPhone games to the new Windows Phone 7s. Unfortunately for Microsoft, developers appear to be declining the offer — there’s too much work involved in recoding the games into Silverlight or XNA framework.

It will be interesting to see if Microsoft ups the ante. Do you think the Windows Phone 7 will be able to take on the iPhone, or is Microsoft just wasting money on a futile endeavor?

Microsoft is paying developers to port iPhone games to Windows Phone 7 [Pocket Gamer via AppleInsider]

Every year, we get a new batch of “Summer of Arcade” Xbox LIVE Arcade games. And every year, we complain about how the prices have steadily gone up. Well, this year is no different, and I mean that in the nicest possible way — all five games are $15 a piece, no joke.

However, I don’t really feel like b*tching; not this time. Seemingly all of these XBLA titles — Castlevania: Harmony of Despair, Hydro Thunder Hurricane, Lara Croft and the Guardian of the Light, Limbo, and Monday Night Combat — are substantial enough to warrant the price tag.

Well, Harmony of Despair arguably isn’t, but it’s a co-op Castlevania game! As in, you get to kill screen-filling bosses with other people. Konami ripped this concept straight from my dreams. What’s more, I feel the need to support any and all 2D, console-based Castlevania adventures with my wallet.

Which of the five do you want?

As you may have heard, The Sims 3 is hitting consoles soon. If you weren’t already aware of that, here’s a new trailer for the game to let you know. Rod Humble, the executive producer of the Sims division at EA, came out on stage at yesterday’s E3 press conference to talk a load of unintelligible nonsense about free will, but what he failed to mention is that The Sims 3 on PS3/360 will have karma powers. Apparently, you can wreak havoc on the game world with them!

I’m someone who has always been intrigued by The Sims as a concept, but for some reason, I’ve never been compelled to actually dive into it. Perhaps I’ll check it out when it’s no longer just a PC game. The Sims 3 will be out on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and DS this fall.

So, yeah. We all have heard about the Scott Pilgrim PSN game coming from Ubisoft. We have even seen it in action. And these new E3 screens are mostly from set pieces we have seen before. But that does not change the fact that they are awesome!

Even taking away the fact that I am a giant fan of retro video games, this game looks like a lot of fun. It’s a 4-player co-op brawler in the vein of The Simpsons Arcade and Castle Crashers, for crying out loud. And look at the gorgeous sprite work. THE GORGEOUS SPRITE WORK! ALSO, THE CHARACTER SELECT SCREEN LOOKS JUST LIKE SUPER MARIO BROS. 2! What’s not to love?!

By the looks of these screens, the potential for this game to be incredible is obviously there. I just hope the game focuses more on solid gameplay rather than clever book/movie references. If so, this really could be one of favorite games of the year. I really am in love with the way it looks. So beautiful …

I am getting my hands on this game in the next couple days, so check back here for my full E3 impressions.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game hits PSN on August 10th.

One of the reasons that EA cited for introducing the EA Sports Online Pass was a desire to keep bringing innovative online features to gamers — features that cost money to develop and implement. At their E3 press conference, EA Sports president Peter Moore debuted the newest one: EA Sports Live Broadcast.

Chances are, you don’t have the physique to be an actual MMA fighter, but using Photo Game Face, you can create a fighter with your mug. Then, you can record a “hype video” — footage of real-life you, spewing trash talk into the camera — and hopefully, an EA Sports MMA community rep will notice it. If you’re noticed, then you have the chance to compete in fights with your created character for real prizes (such as a year’s supply of energy drinks — hooray!).

To top it all off, real sportscasters will provide live commentary during your match, which will be streamed on the Internet and watchable on Xbox 360s! (According to GameSpot, Live Broadcast appears to be an Xbox 360-exclusive feature.) It sounds pretty surreal, doesn’t it? Check it out in EA Sports MMA, due out on October 19th for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

In an announcement that surprised virtually no one, earlier today Activision Blizzard told a group of analysts that Modern Warfare 2 recently broke 20 million copies sold.

To put that in perspective, that’s about 4 copies for every person in Scotland, two copies for every person in Los Angeles, or a copy for almost every single person on the continent of Australia. The craziest part of all this is that, taking into account all the money Activision Blizzard made off Call of Duty, the Wall Street Journal reports that World of Warcraft still makes up 70% of Activision Blizzard’s operating profit.

Whatever they made from Call of Duty was just a drop in their (enormous) money bucket, which pretty much blows my mind. Activision Blizzard could theoretically — not that they ever will, or should — stop production on all console games, and STILL make more money than most game companies could even dream of.

Crazy, right? Maybe that will change though — getting back on topic, it was also announced that preorders for Call of Duty: Black Ops, set for release on November 9th, are already on track to surpass the preorder numbers for Modern Warfare 2. Are you one of the 20 million people who bought Modern Warfare 2?

[via GameSpot]

Over on the Japanese website for Pokemon Black/White, we’re given a look at some of the recently divulged new Pokemon in not-completely-horrible form, which has always been my favorite form when it comes to pictures of pocket monsters (or digital monsters, even).

Besides showing what the gang looks like in-game, there are some great screenshots of the world, the revamped Pokedex, and what looks to be some weird, potentially awesome connectivity between Black/White and the Internet. Huh?

We’ll surely hear more on this later today at Nintendo’s E3 press conference. It’s starting at 9:00 AM PDT! Be there.

Hey, remember that game from Irrational that we’ve heard nothing about and only know its codename of, Project Icarus? Well, we’re going to continue knowing nothing about it because according to Game Informer’s sources, it’s not going to be at E3, as many had hoped.

Here’s where I’d usually fill you in on the game, but we know absolutely nothing except that Irrational Games (formerly 2K Boston), the developer of BioShock, is making it. That’s kind of all we need to know to get excited, but damn if it isn’t disappointing that we won’t hear anything about it.

Another way I could have gone with this story was a metaphor with E3 as the sun and Project Icarus as Icarus. It kept falling apart, though, because this game is going to eventually have a big reveal whereas Icarus just failed.

A third way was to pretend that there was a chance in hell this was a Kid Icarus game. That one just depressed me.

So, Kinect. Kind of a big deal. Or not. Who knows yet as we haven’t gotten our bodies on it proper. We’ll soon get to play with it, but until then, there’s been a ton of stuff that has been revealed so far.

Kinect will be out this November 4 and the price is being rumored to be around $149. That price comes from GameStop’s website, but Microsoft denies the price point. As for the games, well, it all looks like casual filler crap. Some of it does look good, don’t get me wrong, but they’re just not my type of games.

What do you all think? Will Kinect be worth it? Are you planning on getting it? Check out all of our coverage on all things Kinect.

The hardware:
E3 10: Kinect releases worldwide November 4th, 2010!
E3 10: Kinect requires separate power adapter for old 360
E3 10: Retail Kinect pricing ‘purely speculative’
E3 10: GameStop lists Kinect at $149
E3 10: Microsoft press conference live stream/blog
E3 10: A closer look at the final retail Kinect unit
E3 10: Our Kinect reactions… THE VIDEO

The games:
Lose big (weight) with The Biggest Loser for Kinect
Mad Catz ready with Kinect accessories
E3 10: Mizuguchi plays Child of Eden for our enjoyment
E3 10: Sonic Free Riders announced for Kinect
E3 10: Hudson bringing Deca Sports to Kinect
E3 10: Trailer for spiritual sequel to Rez looks amazing
E3 10: Kinectimals is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen
E3 10: The future of Forza supports Kinect [Update]
E3 10: Dance Central lets you dance like a single lady
E3 10: Microsoft reveals ESPN integration with Xbox Live
E3 10: New Star Wars title coming to Kinect
E3 10: Kinect Adventures! looks tech demo-y, kind of rad
E3 10: Kinect Sports by Rare brings full-body waggling
E3 10: Ubisoft reveals Your Shape: Fitness Evolved
E3 10: Kinect Joy Ride brings kart racing to Kinect
ABC News plays with the Kinect
E3 10: Cute girl tickles tiger in Kinectimals
E3 10: Using Kinect to control Xbox 360 apps
E3 10: VideoKinect is Skype having sex with Wii Speak
E3 10: BBC say PlayStation Move more accurate than Kinect
Video of Microsoft’s Cirque Du Soleil crazy event
E3 10: Look! Here is another family playing Kinect!