Aaron Greenberg of the Xbox 360 team lampooned Sony earlier this month, saying how slow they are in delivering their products. He isn't through yet though. In the latest Major Nelson podcast, he states that Sony has "a history of over-promising and under-delivering." Ouch. More in the full article.

If you're all excited about DICE's upcoming environment-bustin' FPS Battlefield: Bad Company ( Sony PlayStation 3 , Microsoft Xbox 360), there's some good news to share with you. Senior producer Carl Magnum has revealed in a recent interview that they'll come out with it real soon. How soon? Find out in the full article after the jump.

It's certainly bad enough that the PS3 version of Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto IV (Xbox 360, PS3) won't be getting the episodic downloadable content promised on the Xbox 360 release of the game. To complicate things a bit further, Microsoft's Vice President of Interactive Entertainment Don Mattrick mentioned that the multiplayer elements of the game might even possibly be an Xbox 360 exclusive. Find out more about the upcoming title's different features in the full article.

(Editor's Note: Epicness was never this awesome!)

It's another great week again! We have quite a lot of reasons why we're celebrating, and not least of them all is the fact that QuickJump QuickPeek's finally hit its 30th edition!

Let's pop them corks and let the champaign flow. Everyone's got a reason to party this weekend!

*Originally posted Jan 19, 2008 at 02:49PM

News in the recent days that Sony's Blu-ray format has secured an exclusive deal with giant retailer target may prove to be half true according to a recent post by Major Nelson, who was able to have a few words with the HD-DVD people in the Comic-Con.

"It turns out that the Target 'exclusive' for Blu Ray is *not* an exclusive," says Major Nelson. "Sony bought some end aisle placement (normal in retail) and just called it exclusive. Target WILL continue to carry HD DVD products. I am told to expect a comment from Target next week."

Looks like there's no reason for HD-DVD supporters to panic just yet. In any case, the truth should come out in a week or so. We'll update you as official announcements are made so keep it right here.

In case you're not aware, there's an iTunes rankings for game podcasts. Now, Europe-based FM-broadcast gaming radio show One Life Left has been reported to top the iTunes rankings, even besting established podcasts such as that of gaming site 1UP and Microsoft's Major Nelson.

One Life Left is broadcasted on Resonance FM which, by the way, is funded by London's Arts Council. The program is presented by "gaming miscreants" Ste Curran and Robert Howells with newsreader Ann Scantlebury. Over a dozen British industry veterans contribute to One Life Left regularly.

In its 33 weeks of existence, this is actually the first time that One Life Left has topped the iTunes charts. The latest issue will be titled "The Danger of Words" and will feature bits about the Kotaku-Sony hoopla over PlayStation Home (recently revealed at the Game Developers Conference 2007), GTA IV, Crackdown, GRAW 2, and even travel and telephones.

N'gai Croal notes in his blog that Sony should address the problem of them not having an active presence in the realm of blogging. He cites Ozymandias (Andre Virgnaud) and other Microsoft bloggers like Major Nelson, Gamerscore, and Game Tycoon as a nice example Microsoft reaching out and making a connection with the citizens of the internet.

Although Ozymandias' motives are, as N'gai Croal puts it, "hilariously transparent" Ozymandias' blog does well to bash anything and everything Sony. Furthermore it provides that consumer to company link that Microsoft needs.

N'gai notes that Sony fails at giving consumers information that they really need, straight from the company they purchased or acquired the products from. For example he says that when PS3 firmware updates are released, nothing in the download process really explains what the updates to. Yes, the updates page on the official Sony site gets updated from time to time, but it's nothing as powerful, reassuring, and as effective as say, a Major Nelson blog update. Often times people will have to go to sites like like QJ, or at NeoGAF for immediate word on the matter.

Remember PS3 Firmware Update v1.3?

The gap is there. A Sony "fan-boy" would sooner trust an obscure post by 0okm or a quick how-to from Pranav, than wait for the Sony site to update. A Microsoft "xbot" will go to Major Nelson's blog. Big gap right there.

Click on Full Article to read the rest of this post.

After Electronic Arts got its hands on it, it would be so easy to think so. Funny thing is, this bold online console gaming experiment called microtransactions could have been a good idea - DON'T HIT ME YET, I said "could," and even I have my doubts it could ever be, okay? Then EA got its hands on it, ran it in Marketplace and, frankly, they botched it.

For example: Madden NFL 07 tutorial vids? Haven't you guys heard of GameFAQs and YouTube? Then 200 MS points to max out a Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07 golfer? What's this, pay-per-GameShark? After that, pay to unlock The Godfather uber-guns, then PAY for the in-game money to buy them? What's this, the offer we can't refuse? And latest of all, NFS Carbon unlocks at a price? It's highway robbery, we tell you, highway robbery!

And when you have Xbox Live community shepherd TriXie "crying rape", and Major Nelson becoming very worried about it, you know it's over for microtransactions, man. At least as far as we're concerned, and not the publishers. Don't forget: Carbon also comes out on the PS3 and Wii, which will have their own online portals. OMG, is EA going to do this same thing to those consoles' players too?

The original intent of microtransactions was to give gamers the power of choice. Something like iTunes, where you can choose which songs of an artist's complete itinerary you'd like to keep. If you don't like a specific feature or extra of a game, why do you have to pay for it when you don't have to ask for it in the first place?

This mentality runs into a brick wall that dates back to the pre-online console days. We're used to seeing our games in one complete package. Expansion packs were just that: expansions that did nothing to detract from the original game. For the money we pay for a "full game", we rightfully expected a full game, and not what in effect is a demo at 1,200 MS points (example: Lumines Live! Fun, but sadly not complete).

We used to be optimistic that microtransactions could mean bright things ahead. Now, we're not so sure. Read up on this writer's "Theory of how to make micro work" in the full article. Don't worry - he's not being paid per click. He's being paid a low, flat rate.


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Alex Donaldson over at RPG Site has a rather lengthy article asking if Sony needs a "Major Nelson" figure. Before I give my take on this, here's a little background for y'all.

For those not in the know, "Major Nelson" is the XBL Gamertag of Larry Hryb. Mr. Hryb is the XBL Director of Programming for Microsoft. So whenever he has things to say over at his blog, people listen. And as evinced by fan reaction, most people welcome it.

People like Major Nelson are so effective for Microsoft because fans feel like these people are fans too. Instead of "them, the console people" milking money from "us, the players", this results in "we, the console community."

So Alex Donaldson asks: Who for Sony? Who could be that "go-between" needed to bring the company closer to its fans. After all, Sony fans are some of the fiercest and most loyal of all. Who from the company could make Sony more available to the fans?

In the humble opinion of some of us, Nintendo still has to find their own Major Nelson, but they at least have the "gaming god" Miyamoto, who's quite good with the fans (that's him in the picture trying to be Link). So I say, Sony should hire Gabe from Penny Arcade. He did more for Sony with that "White knight? Well goddamn it" panel from their strip than Sony marketing did for Sony in the past few months. Then again, the Penny Arcade guys would probably like to stay independent.

Back then, Sony did well with the PS1 by targeting the older audience. They put ads for the PS1 in clubs, in sports events, and in parties for reasonably older fans. The PS1 was the big boy's console from the faceless company. All the younger kiddies wanted what their big brothers were playing.

Now that the world is online, Sony can't afford to be the faceless entity you get your entertainment drug from. Yes, as some say, Sony just has to get the product out (and out ASAP), but in a war this heated, Sony's drug needs a good pusher.