Last night Microsoft hired out New York’s iconic Times Square to launch Kinect to North Americans. And with such an audacious event came the need to put on a bloody good show. Launch pictures from Gamesradar.

Microsoft expecting to sell more than 3 million units by year’s end. So will you help them achive this? Vote at the end of the post.

Update: added gallery

Kotaku took pictures of rapper/crooner Ne-Yo leading hundreds of dancers in a choreographed routine. You could say he was the controller. Those pictures also showed how not only all traffic through Times Square was blocked for the evening, but how all of Times Square’s gigantic televisions flaunted Kinect-based advertising throughout.

The queue was said to stretch for three blocks.

Microsoft US bigwig Aaron Greeberg was astounded by what he saw. “Kinect has taken over all of Times Square… Never seen anything like it,” he tweeted. He too shared a picture from the event, this time of a Kinect advert on a Times Square telly.

Website Broadway World also shared some snaps, this time of surprise guest, actor Mark Wahlberg. He looked muscular in grey.

Kinect is on sale now in North America. Expect statistics and a Microsoft PR cacophony when they wake up.

Microsoft has set a target of 5 million Kinect sales by the end of 2010. (What we need now is a Blue Peter-style fund raising tube-graph to keep track of Kinect’s progress on.)

Source: Eurogamer

Links:

Screw reviews, look what people think!

Official XBox Magazine reviews

Eurogamer review

Kotaku review

Techradar review

Joystiq review

Engadget review

Shacknews review

How to configure your room 4 two?

17 games being launched in November for Kinect

Gamespot Kinect Launch Center

Kotaku loves and hates

Kotaku example of bad controlling the game

Kotaku sports review

Kotaku adventure review

Kotaku dance

Kinect and the End of the Civilization

And now some voting time, sorry, but you have to do this still with the mouse…

It finally happened. After weeks of waiting for Microsoft’s appearance on this year’s E3 event they announced that this fall Central Europe will get their XboX Live support (Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Greece). You will be able to migrate from your current non-your-country XboX Live account (if you have any) to your current location.

We would like to thank the creators of We Want Live action – thanks to them console gaming will be getting bigger after this summer, hopefully the prices for new XboX 360 games will drop too ;-)

Oh and thanks for listening Microsoft.

Now, since the action is finally over we are taking off the banner for We Want Live from our page but we will never forget what you did for the gamers around the globe.

By the way, not only Central Europe gets XboX Live support, the following countries are included as well: Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Republic of South Africa.

They also announced this little thing:

Click to enlarge.

Source

Update: Here’s more thanks to Dragoon – http://abstract360.com/2010/05/rumor-e3-2010-line-up-leaked/

Update 2: Confirmed fake! http://twitter.com/jeffgerstmann/status/13410527050

So you all hoped that there will be no weekend deal report again and you don’t have to spend money on this weekend? You thought wrong! :D

Don’t be afraid, take out your credit card and read on :)

GamersGate presents this weekend deal: Painkiller: Resurrection for 29.95€ 17.97€ (-40%) (Steam price: $29.99/£19.99/29.99€). GamersGate has always other (daily) deals running, so check them all out here or just follow them on Twitter :)

Steam is teasing with Aliens vs. Predator selling with 33% discount. (US: $49.99 $33.49 / UK: £24.99 £16.74 (25% lower) / EU: 49,99€ 33,49€ (35% higher)). And also it has 68 metascore points, so it’s all up2u :)

GameTap is offering Mass Effect 2 with discount – $49.95 $29.95 (Steam price: $49.99/£29.99 / 49.99€). Beware, offer ends @ 20. March 2009 as they said in their newsletter :D Also they are offering Universe At War: Earth Assault 75% off – $4.95 (Steam price: $19.99/£14.99/19.99€).

Impulse is offering 13 titles (including nice software), unfortunately EA games have geo-restriction. But still, you can see the list here.

X-fire has a good price for Empire: Total War text-011″>€49.99 €16.99. (Steam price: $29.99/£29.99/49.99€)

GamesPlanet has slightly better deal for Empire: Total War –66% = £29.99 £9.59 (10.68€) (Steam price: $29.99/£29.99/49.99€). PS! Offer is available until 30th March, so take your time :)

GetGames are offering also games for good price: Universe At War –75% – $19.95 $4.99, Commandos Complete –33% – $19.99 $13.33, Serious Sam HD (with deathmatch multiplayer!) 50% – $14.99 $7.49. About SSHD DM read more here.

G2Play is offering too-good-to-be-true deals :) Recently released games (ie C&C4, DAO: Awakening, Assassins Creed 2, BFBC2 etc) for nice prices. Check them out here.

Microsoft ;) is offering Kane & Lynch: Dead Men for 50% less price – 800points. They reveal next deal on my birthday :)

So have fun and don’t spend too much :)

People from We Want Live managed to contact Polish Federation of Consumers. And according to them Microsoft is selling a broken/missing product on the Polish market and the Polish XboX 360 users can easily get their money back by returning their consoles to the shop. And there is a chance that you will be able to do the same…with XboX 360 games that don’t have working multiplayer features.

We Want Live members gathered over 100 different things that is being treated as proof  by the Federation. It’s mostly scans and pictures of user manuals of the console (which encourage people to create an XboX Live account and plug their console to the Internet).

Will Microsoft finally say something about it? Even though they did respond in few sentences earlier, some sort of longer and more official message should be announced in the media.

There’s a hope for Polish XboX Live and Games For Windows Live. As far as I know the creators of WWL are about to receive an official statement from Microsoft head quarters in USA.

Too bad Microsoft waited a month to do this… We will post more details here as soon as we know something.

UPDATE:

Here’s an official Microsoft statement about XboX Live sevice in Poland:

Xbox is very committed to the Polish market and is appreciative of the passion and excitement that our community of users show for our products, including Xbox LIVE. This year, 2010,  is going to be a historic year for Xbox and our aim is to bring to our Polish community of users the full and best interactive experiences possible on the Xbox 360. We currently finalizing our plans for the Polish market that we will become public at the forthcoming E3 consumer trade show, later in June.  Our Polish community of Xbox users should expect to hear more about how we will take the Xbox 360 experience to another level in Poland.

They didn’t even bother to sign the freaking letter (no one knows who wrote this, it just says Microsoft). I say fuck them and their legal games in Poland, just don’t buy new XboX 360 games if your country isn’t supported – like the upcoming Bad Company 2 (a 100% multiplayer game which has no…multiplayer).

I’ll get back to laughing now! :)

That’s right, it’s less than a day for Microsoft to respond on the lack of XboX Live and Games For Windows Live in Poland (and the most of central, eastern European countries). I wonder if they’re going to send anything at all, at least an e-mail?

We’ll see!

More games coming on next weekends. More information can be found here.

Warning! Games For Windows Live is NOT supported in some countries.

Microsoft has exactly 27 days, 6 hours, 14 minutes and 34 seconds while I write this. 27 days for what you say? Well you probably heard about We Want Live group. They sent a letter to Microsoft and gave them 30 days to respond to their demands for the XboX Live service in Poland (Games For Windows Live too I guess). If your country doesn’t have Live too simply go to their website and see what you can do for you country!

Will Microsoft have the balls to answer? We will find out soon.

Microsoft has announced that on December 15th, Games on Demand comes to Games for Windows Live, which means they are going to start digitally distributing PC games.

The Xbox 360 Games on Demand program has been doing well enough, and services like Stardock’s Impulse and Steam have already proven the viability of the digital download store model, so now we’re getting Games on Demand for Games for Windows Live.

"With Games on Demand, we didn’t just want to create a cut-and-paste version of existing digital distribution services," said Mike Ybarra, general manager of LIVE Engagement Services. "We challenged ourselves to deliver an integrated platform that takes full advantage of the unique capabilities offered by the LIVE service. Our goal has always been to create a seamless online gaming experience for the Windows community, and Games on Demand is a great step toward that end."

The main difference between Games on Demand and something like Steam is the use of Microsoft points to purchase games along with actual cash money, but it’s certainly a start. If they can keep prices competitive, they could be on to something.

Service’s launch lineup will include Resident Evil 5, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and Battlestations: Pacific, along with Live-enabled versions of popular downloadable titles like World of Goo and Osmos. If those aren’t enticing enough, there’s also a free Live-enabled version of Tinker, the Windows Vista Ultimate Extra exclusive for those willing to download the Games for Windows Live client when the service goes live on the 15th.

You can download the Games for Windows Live client at Microsoft’s official website.

People in the console modding community are well aware that in general, console manufacturers look down upon them. Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo have all stated numerous times they do not endorse modding, and with the advent of online play becoming so important, keeping the playing field equal for everybody is an important concern. Instead of "Punkbuster for the console," the typical approach is to ban people from service. As of this week, Microsoft has done just that on a mass scale, banning over 600,000 Xbox Live accounts in the U.S. and Canada.

The bans won’t stop there, either. Rumors indicate Microsoft is aiming to shut off upward of 1 million consoles before the end of the year — it seems likely that the company may target Europe or another large region next. This hasn’t made things easy on Microsoft’s call center, which is getting inundated with calls from angry customers. Microsoft’s goal is to get all modded consoles off their network to cut down on piracy.

Not all hope is lost for the shunned, though. It seems that Redmond has gone after the console itself, and only prevented it from connecting to Xbox Live. The consoles still function, and the accounts in general appear to be still active, so if you are desperate for online play and don’t want to fight Microsoft on it, you can always buy another 360. That’s certainly not what many people want to hear, particularly those who view console modding as a right.

This mass banning will undoubtedly renew debates about whether or not hardware modifications should be permitted. Of course, since Xbox Live is an extended service, Microsoft certainly does reserve the right to kick people off — and this is an example of them demonstrating they are willing to let people go.

Source: TechSpot