Xbox Live to be down on June 16th

June 10th, 2009 1 Comment   Posted in DLC, Microsoft, Online, Xbox 360

Major Nelson has recently reported on his official blog that the Xbox Live service will be down for up to 24 hours starting on Tuesday, June 16th at 12:01 AM PST. This downtime includes the ‘My Xbox’ portion of Xbox.com along with making it impossible for users to post on the Xbox forums.

This window of downtime will give Microsoft the chance to prep the service for the new Xbox Live features that were announced at this year’s E3. Those features include Last.fm, Twitter, Facebook, Last.fm and more.

However, please make note that you will not gain access to these features once Xbox Live goes back up as they will not officially go live until later this year.

Nintendo shuts down Smash Bros. Brawl user online service

June 4th, 2009 1 Comment   Posted in Fighting, Nintendo, Wii

It was recently announced over at the Smash Bros. Dojo that the service that allows users to upoad things like replays and custom stages will be no more. Below is the following announcement taken straight from the site:

As of June 30th, 2009, the current service that accepts user-generated snapshots, stage designs, and replay data will no longer be available. Please note, however, that we will continue to distribute such data after that date.

Hmm, no word as to why this service will be ending or if it will ever return.

Oh yeah and before you get too worked up please make note that this announcement won’t affect your ability to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl online, you just won’t be able to upload user created content anymore.

Halo 3’s render-to-video service enters public beta

May 13th, 2009 No Comments   Posted in Microsoft, Movies, Online, Video, Xbox 360

Bungie has recently announced on their website that their Render-to-Video service has entered a public beta. If you don’t know what this service is, it lets users converted saved ingame clips into actual video. This is a much needed feature for those who like to compile Halo 3 montages or other machinima.

Don’t throw away your capture card yet as this service will cost you Bungie Points. What are Bungie Points? Bungies answer to Microsoft Points, I guess. Honestly though, you’ll be able to exchange 1 Bungie Point for 1 minute of standard definition video or 5 points for 1 minute of high definition video.

Bungie says the beta will run until July with the actual service going live sometime around Bungie Day (July 7th).