GDC 2007 Post-Show Roundup: Microsoft

This year's Game Developers Conference marked a sort of industry transition. With the longtime front running industry event once known as the Electronic Entertainment Expo (a.k.a. E3) downsizing this year, the focus now begins to shift to GDC and other remaining large-scale videogame-related events for major announcements and other new developments in the industry. Therefore, for my first-ever post-show roundup, it is my aim to focus on the biggest highlights for each major videogame platform in three separate parts. For part two, I shall aim my focus on events related to Microsoft.

Bigger is better

First off, I have a huge bit of upsizing for several Xbox 360 doodads. For one thing, the console's memory units are increasing in capacity. North American users will notice this April that the $49.99 memory unit for the console now contains 512MB worth of storage, while the existing 64MB unit drops in price from $39.99 to $29.99. Coincidentally, the size limit for Xbox Live Arcade titles triples to 150MB.

Six Million Customers Served

Speaking of Xbox Live, more than six million people have registered for the service with their consoles (although there is no breakdown available of how many pay for the gold-level online multiplayer component vs. the silver-level base service) according to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. Combined, these players have spent more than 2.3 billion hours on the service, which is roughly equivalent to 95 million days (or more than 260,000 years) of online gaming.

Blue Dragon U.S.-bound

On Tuesday, Microsoft announced that the 360's two Japanese Role-players, Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey, will arrive in the States this fall. Blue Dragon, which is already available in Japan, will hit our shores in August; the exact release date for Lost Odyssey is still undetermined other than the stated timeframe.

Episodic Halo Incoming

Also in the works, according to Gamasutra, is a couple of new projects from Bungie Studios supervised in part by Peter Jackson, the New Zealand director responsible for the Lord of the Rings movies a few years back. Although the projects were thought to be dead considering a decisive lack of information since the studio's relationship with Jackson was announced last year (at Microsoft's X06 conference), the two projects are still proceeding forward through initial design, with a Halo-related project being the most developed of the two. However, it will not be any sort of direct sequel to the current trilogy - and it is definitely NOT Halo 3. Instead, the Halo project, like the other new series currently in development, will be episodic in nature.

Live for Windows Detailed, Priced

Finally, there comes word that someone has uncovered Microsoft's Live Games pricing for Windows Vista. Although no mention of this surfaced in any way at GDC, Game Informer magazine has discovered that Live for Windows Vista will follow the same price structure as its Xbox equivalent. A free silver-level service will provide basic services such as achievements and messaging through both Vista and Xbox platforms; however, the sad news for gamers used to playing free multiplayer on Windows will no longer have that luxury as gold-level service requires payment to the Vole itself. Prices starting at $7.99 for one month, $19.99 for three and $49.99 for an entire year, but Xbox Live users get Live for Windows for free (and vice versa) as the services are interchangeable. On the plus side, the Windows version of Halo 2 will add achievements to the package.