Xbox 360 Message Board

Microsoft is cleaning out its digital shelves with a sizable sale on Xbox 360 games and add-ons this week. Ending April 21, the sale spans 11 games and hundreds of pieces of DLC. Five of the games feature popular DC comics superhero Batman in some capacity, such as 75 percent off both Batman: Arkham Asylum and Arkham City through Games on Demand ($4.99 / £3.74 / 4.99 euros each). Additionally, Injustice: Gods Among us is half-off ($19.99 / £17.49 / 24.99 euros), Lego Batman 2 is 67 percent off ($6.59 / £4.94 / 6.59 euros) and XBLA game Gotham City Imposters is 75 percent off ($3.74 / £2.49 / 3.59 euros). All of the above deals are valid for those with a paid Xbox Live Gold subscription.

Among the other games on sale for all Xbox Live users is Saints Row 4, which is half-off this week ($14.99 / £12.49 / 14.99 euros). Three other games are discounted through Games on Demand: Borderlands 2 is 65 percent off ($6.99 / £6.99 / 10.49 euros), Lego Marvel Super Heroes is 33 percent off ($33.49 / £30.14 / 43.54 euros) and Prototype 2 is 75 percent off ($9.99 / £4.99 / 7.49 euros). Lastly, XBLA games Pac-Man Championship Edition DX+ is half-off ($4.99 / £3.37 / 4.74 euros) and Assassin's Creed: Liberation HD is 33 percent off ($13.39 / £10.71 / 13.39 euros) for the week. [Image: Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment]

There's something lurking in the shadows of this Contrast trailer, and it smells like secrets. Well, and a fire-breathing shadow dragon, but we're not sure how to best describe that scent. Contrast is on Steam, Xbox Live Marketplace, PS3 and is currently free for PS4 owners with PlayStation Plus.

Konami has issued an apology to owners of the Xbox 360 version of Pro Evolution Soccer 2014 for errors related to the game's online features. Some users report being unable to download a required data pack to activate online multiplayer, and instead have been greeted with an error message claiming the "download file is broken."

Konami Digital Entertainment President Shinji Hirano said the publisher "would like to apologize to any users who have been unable to enjoy PES 2014 online and would like to reassure fans we'll be fixing the issue as quickly as possible."

An update on Konami's European support page for the particular online problem noted that the publisher is "still in discussions with Microsoft trying to understand what might be causing this," and recommended that players attempt to download and install data pack 1.00, as "some players have reported intermittent success" in doing so. Konami added that it plans to update its support page on Monday with more information.

A number of retailers are offering Xbox 360 bundles for $50 off. Among those participating in the deal are GameStop and Walmart, while picking up a new Xbox 360 from Target, Best Buy or Amazon will net you an additional $50 gift card on top of saving $50 on select bundles.

The $200 Kinect-less 4 GB Xbox 360 is not included in the deal, but the Nike+ Kinect Training bundle is, along with other packages that include games such as Darksiders 2 and Batman: Arkham City. The sale is for a limited time, though no end date is listed at any of the retailers.

Rockstar is looking into the possibility of retailers breaking Grand Theft Auto 5's street date over the weekend, GamesIndustry International reports. The game is just two days away from beginning its life of crime.

Rockstar told GamesIndustry that it is "in the process of investigating early 'sales' to determine how and why that is occurring." Its investigation follows photos posted online by users showing supposed copies of the game.

In addition to the new characters, stages, and modes, Tecmo has announced that Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate will update its Grade Point system, add a new Character Points system, an online two vs. two tag mode, and have 231 costumes to choose from when the game launches on September 3 for Xbox 360 and PS3.

Character Points will let you know how good an opponent is with the fighter they've selected, as well as their world ranking. Meanwhile, the four-player online tag mode will pit two teams of two players each against each other. Both winning players in an online tag match earn Grade Points, which count towards unlocking new costumes.

Sadly, we're relatively certain none of the costumes will be a thong bikini for the sexiest of DOA's fighters, Bass.

Microsoft is clearing out their Xbox 360 inventory before the Xbox One launches later this year with some impressively generous sales.

A slew of notable games can be picked up for under 20 bucks. At the time of this writing, The Darkness 2, Max Payne 3, Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, Ninja Gaiden 3, Quake 4, Street Fighter x Tekken, Silent Hill: Downpour, Soul Calibur 5, SSX and Syndicate are all available for $10. Dead or Alive 5 and the action-crazed Asura's Wrath are $11 each. Assassin's Creed: Revelations is stabbin necks on its own for $13. The Devil May Cry HD Collection is $15 and, if it offends you, a great way to pretend the reboot never happened.

The remaining offers are a bit pricier, but they're still decent deals. XCOM, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Darksiders 2 and Borderlands 2 are $20 apiece. Dishonored is creeping in the shadows on its own for $22. Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Far Cry 3 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance are $28 each. Dead Space 3: Limited Edition is slicing limbs and price tags at $33. Tomb Raider's origin story is $37, leaving Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 as king of the hill at $40.

There were previous offers for great games that have already been sold out, so if you see something you like, rush it through the checkout. Of course, removing payment information from Microsoft-anything is an absolute chore. If you'd like to delete your card from their servers after your purchase, start here.

Indie developer Serellan billed its first-person shooter Takedown: Red Sabre as a "spiritual successor to the original Rainbow Six and SWAT 4" when the developer successfully raised $221,833 on Kickstarter in April 2012. Squad-based tactical shooters, where real-life military tactics take priority over the run-and-gun trappings of triple-A shooters, are arguably harder to come by and have become a niche in the broad FPS genre.

Crowdfunding Takedown made more sense to creative director Christian Allen then, who told Joystiq at E3 that "part of [the decision to crowdfund] was figuring out what people really care about and what people really wanted." The project's 5,423 backers saw promise in the game, due in no small part to the team's history; Allen is a former creative director on the Ghost Recon series and was design lead for Halo: Reach. Perhaps equally reassuring for tactical shooter fans is the fact that Allen spent about nine and a half years serving in three different United States military branches: Four years as law enforcement in the Marines and over five with the Air Force and Army.

Takedown: Red Sabre features single-player, six-player co-operative and 12-player competitive multiplayer modes. Like tactical first-person shooters of the past, sprinting through the non-linear maps isn't a viable strategy, as the game places an emphasis on slow, strategic and realistic warfare. Part of that realism comes from the work put into the game's weapons: Allen said that creating just one gun for the game takes about three weeks of development time for the Seattle-based team of about 10 developers.

Microsoft announced this year's Summer of Arcade lineup for the Xbox 360, set to launch on August 7.

Featured games include Activision's brawler TMNT: Out of the Shadows, an Ubisoft-published remake of Delphine Software's 16-bit adventure game Flashback, 505 Games' Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, and Ska Studios' punk-themed multiplayer beat-'em-up Charlie Murder.

Omerta: City of Gangsters now has a demo available on the US Xbox Live Marketplace. The 1920s Atlantic City bootlegging simulation (developed by the makers of Tropico) arrived on PC and Xbox 360 earlier this month.

Unfortunately, especially if you go by Metacritic scores, reviewers of the game haven't been very kind. See if you disagree - and don't forget there's already a PC demo.

Toys 'R' Us' Black Friday ad is 32 pages of red and green deals, and as usual, the toy store's got plenty of gaming deals ready for purchase, including a few deals on consoles.

The biggest hook is a big "buy one, get one for $1" sale going on, with dozens of games available for a buck each when you buy one at a standard price. In addition to lots of great DSi games, even modern Xbox 360 and PS3 games are on the list, including Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Call of Duty: Black Ops, and more current titles like Dishonored and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. All Wii U games are also "buy one, get one 40% off," so if you want to fill out your library for Nintendo's new console, there you go.

Read on for more choice Black Friday offerings. For the complete list of Toys 'R' Us deals, check out the retailer's Black Friday flyer.

The Xbox 360 version of Minecraft has another big update coming and PlayXBLA has run through all of the new features. First and foremost, the Creative mode is going to be included in the game, which allows players to fly, destroy a large number of blocks at a time, and build with as many blocks of each type as they want. It turns the game into a real sandbox creation engine, leaving the player free from worrying about finding diamonds or getting blown up by a Creeper.

There are also plenty of new mobs, new biomes and landscape features, and new crafting items and recipes, and a whole host of bug fixes and stability additions. Unfortunately, if you want to know when the update is going live, you'll just have to wait. Even after digging down deep, all we came up with for a release date was "soon." That's not exactly emerald ore, unfortunately.

Amazon's Xbox 360 Entertainment Bundle includes an Xbox 360 4GB console, three months of Gold, a $10 Amazon credit, three Xbox Live Arcade games and an Xbox 360 media remote, all for the price of just the console, $229. That's a savings of $56 off list price.

The Arcade games shown in the promo image are Lode Runner, Snoopy Flying Ace and R-Type Dimensions. If these are all things you wanted, or even if you just wanted a 4GB Xbox 360 but happen to like free stuff, maybe give this bundle a chance.

Just in time for the upcoming holiday rush, Microsoft has posted news of a new accessory pack, which will wrap up almost everything you need to accompany a new Xbox 360 into one $79.99 kit. The Xbox 360 Essentials pack will include a wireless controller, a media remote, an HDMI cable, and a three-month Xbox Live Gold membership.

Microsoft says you can save a full $55 by buying these items in the pack rather than separately, which does make us wonder where exactly they're shopping. But if you're giving a 360 this year (or know someone who's getting one and could use some extra gear), this might make a nice package under the celebratory symbol of your respective holiday.

[Thanks, Shin.]

Microsoft has announced the 40 finalists in its latest Dream Build Play competition, featuring standout titles developed with the Windows Phone Software Development Kit for the Xbox 360 or Windows Phone operating system.

The games entered were judged on qualities like innovation, the production quality, and the fun factor, and all of the entries were narrowed down to these 40, with 20 on each system. The final prize-winning games will be announced in a few weeks from now in early September.

The finalists come from developers all over the world, and include games like the zombie fighter RPG Dead Pixels, "fantasy flight game" Windhaven, and the electricity-powered puzzler, Super Volt. The final prizes in the competition include cash prizes and possible publishing agreements, but odds are that we'll see more than one of these titles make it out to public release after the competition, with or without Microsoft's involvement.

A couple of big announcements for Microsoft's My Xbox Live today. First, the app has been released for Android devices, giving users of the OS access to Xbox Live features such as Achievements, messages and other social content.

Meanwhile, the iOS version has seen some significant improvements, notably the ability to control the Xbox console remotely. Specifically, you can fire up games from your collection or launch a selection of curated content (featured games, movies, etc.). You can even directly control some applications, such as Netflix. There is, however, a slight delay between phone taps and on-screen reaction, so you're probably better off using a controller. Still, it's pretty nifty and gives us a hint of what we can expect from Smartglass later this year.

Finally, the iPad version of My Xbox Live now features Retina Display support and better authentication. The app is free on both iOS and Android.

Experience a new and dynamic way for your peripherals to communicate with each other with Xbox Smart Glass.

All your favorite sports are in one place, with split-screen action on Xbox 360.

Microsoft was seen running away from the Internet recently with several domain names in hand, all pointing to the company's as-yet-announced AirPlay-style app, Smart Glass. The app, for iOS, Android, and Windows Phone devices, is said to enable push-style media functionality with the Xbox 360.

Of the domains in question, Microsoft registered a series of "Microsoft smart glass" and "Xbox smart glass" addresses. Well, except for xboxsmartglass.com, which was snatched away by someone with faster fingers in China. That rascal! Here's hoping that the company unveils Smart Glass and its hot .info web addresses in the coming days.

The rumored $99 up front Xbox 360 and $15 a month afterwards for two years is official. It includes a Kinect, Xbox Live Gold service, a two-year warranty.

[developing]

Microsoft will be pushing out an update for the Xbox 360 tomorrow, according to Major Nelson, but other than the few moments you'll have to wait while your 360 downloads the patch, installs it and then restarts, the change likely won't affect you in the least. As Major Nelson says, "there are no new features that will show up once your system has been updated," as the update is simply to set up some background technology for further improvements later this year.

So that's kind of boring. We almost wish he'd gone ahead and made something up: A patch that "improved the awesomeness of your Xbox Console by an estimated 3000%" would have been much more interesting than this one.

What's coming up for 360 owners?

The future of the 360 revealed as Don Mattrick talks E3 2011 with Geoff Keighley on All Access Live!

Microsoft shows off the voice controls of Kinect in this trailer from their Press Conference at E3 2011!

Lineup details from an executive at E3 2011 for All Access Live!

Xbox Live gets more multimedia control as announced at the Microsoft E3 2011 Press Conference!

Microsoft announced sorta reiterated this morning that the company has sold over 55 million Xbox 360 consoles globally, along with 10 million Kinect sensors and more than 10 million standalone Kinect games worldwide. The Kinect stat was something the company shared in March and the console totals are slightly higher than previously reported figure of 50 million.

Microsoft's real reason for sending out a pre-E3 press release this morning was to show off the pictured graph. It reveals that the Xbox 360 is selling better with age, breaking the standard console cycle mold. The Xbox 360 has been the top selling console in the US for ten of the past 11 months and has seen a 29 percent year-over-year increase in 2011.

Microsoft's E3 press conference will be held this Monday, June 6, at 9AM Pacific. We'll be there with our liveblogging suits on to see if Microsoft can keep its green line pointed upwards.

Folks in the market for a 4GB Xbox 360 should point their browser to Amazon. The online retailer is offering a $50 credit with the purchase of the $199 console. Surprisingly, the credit isn't restricted to games, and applies to most merchandise sold by Amazon. That's a lot of Blueberry Muffin Tops.