Japan loves Microsft?

This past week, for the first time ever, the Xbox 360 outsold the Nintendo Wii and the Sony Playstation 3 in Japan. It may only be for a week's time period but it is a great accomplishment none the less. In the past the Xbox was usually second to last or just plain last. Losing to the Nintendo DS was even an obstacle the Xbox faced. The release of two new role playing games(Infinite Undiscovery and Tales of Vesperia )are credited to the Xbox's increase in sales.

Mind Control... Literally.

Oh sweet, here comes a new acronym. This is the worlds first BCI for video games. To answer your question BCI stands for Computer Brain Interface. This BCI detects brain activity in real time. In brain science this means it can sense the small voltage changes in the brain caused by the firing of neurons. Its creator Emotiv says that the EPOC can sense about 30 emotions, actions, and expressions. Simulated force powers. . . that would be the next best thing. Now all we need is a chair to lie down in and an outlet in the back of our head to plug it in to.

(source CNN)

Age of the Retired

Since 1995 the game studio Ensemble has been making memorable games, but this week it was announced that it is being shut down. Ensemble is best known for games such as Age of Empires, Age of Mythology, and their current project Halo Wars. This week Microsoft Game Studios announced that Ensemble will be disassembled after it finishes it's current project Halo Wars. Ensemble has a huge fan base and will surely be missed. Microsoft has stated that it will find jobs either with in the company or on other MGS projects. Their latest game Age of Empires III has sold over 1.5 million copies since it's release. With such success it makes one wonder, why Ensemble? Microsoft has stated that it makes sense fiscally. Well at least those great minds won't go to waste. Hopefully we will see some of their fine work later on, just not under the Ensemble name.

Sorry Colb.

More enemies for the Big M

This year at the Electronic Entertainment Expo Microsoft unveiled a new experience for their gamers on the Xbox 360. They have teamed up with Netflix to deliver streaming movies to their consoles. This allows people with a Netflix subscription to watch over 10,000 movie titles on their consoles. Not only do they compete with other console companies like Sony and Nintendo, they now compete with movie rental companies like Blockbuster and Hollywood video. This is a wonderful addition to their gaming system but seems to be creating some big enemies at the same time.

It knows how you move...

Euphoria is a feeling of happiness, confidence, or well-being sometimes exaggerated in pathological states as mania. Well NaturalMotion has created that feeling for all to see with their new game engine entitled just that, Euphoria.

With euphoria they have managed to create an artificial computer generated body. This body has a skeleton system, nervous system, muscular system, and a sense of self preservation. All of the computer animations using this engine are generated on the fly. This means none of the bodies reactions and movements were planned out before hand or made using a motion capture system. This is a monumental step forward in computer animation. This engine has already been implemented in two games(Grand Theft Auto IV and The Force Unleashed). NaturalMotion is using their own technology to make their own game, Backbreaker, using the football realm as it's setting. Check out the video below that uses in-game footage only.