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Left 4 Dead 2 demo now available to Xbox Live Silver members

For those of you who actually pay for Xbox Live got access to the Left 4 Dead 2 demo earlier this month but Silver members were left in the dark. Luckily, the demo has been unlocked today for Silver members and is available for download at your leisure.

Of course, if you just want the real game you’ll have to wait until November 17th, wait, that’s tomorrow, did you get your pre-order in?

Banned Xbox 360s flood Craigslist

Oh boy, who’d have expected this: after Microsoft banned and bricked a million Xbox 360s, which were modded to play pirated games, XBox 360 consoles are now appearing on Craigslist all over the US, with prices starting as low as $120. While it’s fairly cheap and you might play games offline, you can’t go online with your modded console from Craigslist, and what’ and Xbox 360 without Xbox Live anyway? Oh, and there’s no warranty on modded consoles. Just so you know.

Xbox Live hits 2 million concurent users online

While Xbox Live’s online membership exceeds 20 million (minus one million), but the real milestone was made earlier yesterday, when a whopping 2 million users were online at the same time, most of which were playing Modern Warfare 2 (what else would they play, seriously?). And this news comes after Microsoft banned over a million users from Xbox Live. There’s nothing like large numbers the game companies throw at us. We sure like it.

Microsoft banning 1 million Xbox Live users

Information Week suggests that Microsoft has banned over 5% of Xbox Live members because they use modded consoles. Since there are just over 20 million Live members, it means over 1 million accounts have been suspended because they use modded consoles, which makes them play pirated games.

NCAA Basketball 10 demo hits Xbox Live

Those of you with an Xbox Live Gold membership can now log on and download the NCAA Basketball 10 demo as it was just released today. Alternatively those of you who have a Silver membership will be able to get it on November 12th while PS3 owners will be able to get it on November 19th.

And for those of you who just want the retail game well, that will be out on November 18th.

Left 4 Dead 2 demo hits Xbox Live

Well zombie slaying fans, the demo for Valve’s highly anticipated Left 4 Dead 2 has finally made its way onto Xbox Live and is available for all to download.

Don’t think you’ll be able to hop on and play instantly as the demo weighs in at a hefty 1.69GB. Then again, you can start the demo and pop in Dawn of the Dead to get you in the mood until its done, right?

Left 4 Dead 2 will be out on November 19th for the Xbox 360 and PC.

Xbox Live celebrates Halloween with a banning

Microsoft has announced today that they are setting their sights on Xbox Live members with a modded Xbox 360. And by setting their sights on, I mean they are issuing a massive banning.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the following to IGN:

“We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs. In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE.”

So, any of you readers with a modded Xbox 360 notice that you can’t log onto Xbox Live anymore?

Xbox 360 system update gets pushed out

If you’ve signed into Xbox Live today you may have noticed that a mandatory system update has been pushed out. But don’t get too excited, this is not the update thatincludes Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm. That update will hit next month.

Instead, the update adds WPA2 for the 360’s Wireless Network Adapter.

Exciting? Nope. Necessary? You betcha.

via majornelson

Microsoft testing Xbox Live rewards program

Rumors began circulating yesterday that Microsoft was preparing to test an Xbox Live rewards program and today emails have been sent out confirming that fact.

Below a Microsoft spokesperson comments on the program:

“We are always exploring ways to provide the most value for our members and are currently testing a pilot rewards program with a select base of our Xbox LIVE community in the US. We have no further details to share at this time.”

Yup, same deal, they let us know what they are doing but refuse to give us any details on the matter. Kotaku says there will be a sign-up period to test the program out that ends on October 21st.

As always, we’ll keep you posted.

Resident Evil 5 ‘Versus Mode’ DLC pack gets price reduction

A few months ago the Versus Mode DLC pack was released for Resident Evil 5 which added nothing more than new multiplayer game modes which had players pitting themselves against zombies and eachother. After said DLC was released gamers everywhere whined about how Capcom was charging for a feature that “should have” been included in the original game.

Lucky for them, Xbox Live is cutting the price of the pack to 240 Microsoft Points from 400 Micrsoft Points as their latest Deal of the Week.

Still don’t want to pay for new game modes? Well, that’s up to you.

via majornelson

The Beatles: Rock Band getting ‘Abbey Road’ DLC

The Beatles: Rock Band hit store shelves on September 9th, 2009 to the delight of Beatles fans everywhere. Well, it seems that those of you looking to snag everything The Beatles have one more thing to look forward to: ‘Abbey Road’ DLC.

This DLC pack will be made available tomorrow for the Xbox 360 and Wii but won’t make its way to the PS3 until Thursday.

Below is the DLC pack detailed courtesy of Joystiq:

Xbox 360 / Wii / PS3
Available: October 20 / October 22 (PS3)

• “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” (160 Microsoft Points / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Oh! Darling” (160 Microsoft Points / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)
• “Because” (160 Microsoft Points / 200 Wii Points / $1.99)

• “You Never Give Me Your Money”
• “Sun King”
• “Mean Mr. Mustard”
• “Polythene Pam”
• “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”
• “Golden Slumbers”
• “Carry That Weight” and “The End”
• “Her Majesty”

Additionally, you can purchase the entire pack for 1360 Microsoft Points or $17.

Microsoft to raise Xbox Live subscription fees?

Noted game analyst Michael Pachter has a decent track record when it comes to predicting game news, this time, he’s got rather bleak forecast for us: he think Microsoft will raise the price of Xbox Live subscription service from $50 to $100 bucks a year, saying “…pay 50 bucks a year so that in a couple years, it’s 100 bucks a year. And that’s going up — we all know that”.

Pachter made the comment while noting that Microsoft has given up on the PC platform and wants everyone to play on the Xbox 360 — because that’s where the money is.

Band Hero demo hits Xbox Live

Thanks to Major Nelson we now know that the Band Hero demo has officially made its way onto Xbox Live. For how much you ask? Nothing, it’s a demo, duh.

But anyways, you’ll be able to play both the Party Play mode and Sing-Along mode with 3 different tracks to play along with:

• Taylor Swift – Picture to Burn
• Katrina & The Waves – Walking on Sunshine
• Finger Eleven – Paralyzer

The full, retail version of Band Hero will hit store shelves on November 3rd for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Modern Warfare 2 Avatar items in the works

If you’re an FPS fan then you are definitely anxiously awaiting the release of Modern Warfare 2 and would love to show your support for the game by dressing up your Avatar in some MW2 gear.

Today Robert Bowling has let us know via Twitter that there are in fact Xbox 360 Avatar items in the works:

“Not sure we’ll be doing any Avatar rewards, but we are making avatar items. With some free ones hopefully.”

So, expect to see Modern Warfare 2 Avatar items hit Xbox Live some time before the game’s November 10th release date.

Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm coming to Xbox Live on November 17th

Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm were announced to be coming to the Xbox 360 some time ago and yet the features have yet to go live. Today, it was made known that that both features will officially go live on November 17th.

News come to us from the UK Xbox website that clearly states “Service launches 17th November 2009″. So, for you Twitter addicts out here, you now have another option to update the world on your every move.

via joystiq