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Greetings, Gamers! I am pleased to announce that United Nations Gaming (UNG) is finally recruiting new members. Before I get into recruitment details, perhaps a little backround on UNG. United Nations Gaming is a fairly new, global Gaming Community, for Xbox Live. at UN Gaming, we envision a world where anyone can game, regardless of race, creed, ethnicity, colour, or favourite bubblegum flavour. Within UN Gaming, gamers can relax in knowing that they have friends, family, and a whole community of gamers supporting them. Why, you might wonder? How could this be? This is because UN Gaming has a NO TOLERANCE rule for ANY form of discrimination. If ANY member is reported to have been discriminating another member, I will personally expel that person from UNG. There will be no exceptions, unless the allegations are false. Now, if you are a gamer who just wants to play Xbox with others like you, UN Gaming is the place to be. Joining is simple. You can either: a) Message me on the Forums @ UNG Firefly Message me on Xbox Live @ UNG Firefly c) e-mail me @ [email protected] d) Message me on Facebook @ Joshua Yasyszczuk e) Message the Community on Facebook @ www.facebook.com/unitednationsgaming I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Josh Bieuz

Will anyone be getting the Xbox One specifically for Halo? Amazon has only sold out 25K units for the X1, sounds a little low to me.

Hey All, Just wondering and want to know everyone's opinion, When the Xbox One comes out, what would happen to the Xbox 360, and is the Xbox One worth getting? Like there are some good thing about it like: Pros (Good things): Awesome 60 fps reached! Exciting Games (Halo 5, CoD Ghosts, AC (Assassins Creed) Black Flag and many more!!!) Cons (Bad Things): Way too expensive ($500 estimated) Internet connection from it to Internet meaning your internet will be drained ALL the time even if Xbox is turned Off. No Offline Mode for private gaming Games NOT selling on discs, you must but them online like from the console itself, not at JB or Eb Games or anything, also meaning you kinda, cant buy your friend a game. So as you can probably see, there are quiet a lot more Cons than Pros about the Xbox One. So the main quetion here is: It is Worth Getting??? For just like Games and stuff? Give me your opinion by leaving a reply!!! P.S:If I made a mistake about anything or am wrong about anything, tell me and I will have the information removed thanks!!!

This may just be a once off thing for me, since it's not exactly my type of thing to do reviews, but since I recently beat the game Pokemon Y and have had many other discussions with members on the forums, I thought I'd put a review on the game on 9 different criteria. Note this is all my experience with the franchise, so this may differ to anyone else who plays it, but should be similar with some who read. Note for spoilers, if you haven't played the game yet, and/or haven't completed up to the post-Champion stage, stop reading. This may contains spoilers that can be game changing. Story 5/5 One of the best stories out forward on the table, even if it isn't the best because Pokemon Diamond/Pearl took that spot, it certainly beats it in so many other areas. The TeamFlare business took a long time to pick up, I even thought it wouldn't be in the game since so much was focused on the Mega Evolutions, but it made its entry and stamped well. The morals and emotions created from this game were very different from the older games, something very new. Being able to create a thick emotion into each character is something I've only seen N from Pokemon White/2 and Black/2 accomplish at a moderate level, but this was taken to a whole new level. Each main character having their own moments expressing their feelings and thoughts to the player was something I wasn't expecting from a Pokemon game, but hope it returns in the future games if there may be any. The specific tasks that were on demand were an interesting addition and the ways of learning the game were done quite well. The scripted points of the game, such as meeting a Pidgey at the beginning immediately reminded me of Red/Blue/Yellow which was great since GameFreak went back that far. The Team Flare business and the story behind it all was very intriguing and fascinating to know the backstory behind everything and more. Even the end of the game showed more to me which shows the writers did a fantastic job. Region design 4/5 This region was unusual when I first observed it, I thought it was going to be a dramatic fail, how wrong I turned out to be. It was very original in design and works extremely well with the terrain features added. Every little detail was put in that someone would notice it and smile, even if it made no difference to the level. The Hometown is always one that must be done with absolute perfection, that gives the best first impression to the gamer, I was rather disappointed with Pokemon Diamond/Pearl's town, on the other hand Pokemon Heart/Gold and Soul/Silver were fantastic in how they introduced the player into a new location, and Y/X didn't fail. It was a simple and quick way of introducing the player into the world, and the town design was flawless. Seemed a little cramped, but after dancing around like one does when bored I found it much more enjoyable. The towns were carefully crafted to perfection, and the massive creation of Lumiose City was absolutely stunning, instantly became one of my favourite major locations of any Pokemon game. The variety in locations proved to be well done also, from a standard zubat cave to a spooky swamp, or from a windy desert to a hidden forest, it all seemed to fit in well and nothing seemed out of place on the map. New Pokemon/Evolutions 4/5 The 70 new Pokemon were well done, they weren't fantastic, but it wasn't anything like Pokemon White/Black's monstrosities. These had a lot of thought put into them, especially the Mega Evolutions, some seemed silly which is why it's 4/5, but regardless, it was a solid performance. Over the games, especially White/Black, good Pokemon designs have been hard to design, originality being a problem. With this, it was great, with the less amount of Pokemon to create, lack of originality wasn't a problem. Even with the standard caterpillar to butterfly or tiny bird to big bird, it was done well. Some were pretty dull like a few Fairy type creatures, but seeing as it is a new type, I forgave that. Some were pretty awesome too, like the Chestnaught, the final form of the grass starter, Chespin. The lack of new Legendaries I thought was a good idea, with only 3 new ones in the game, it was much easier to create a decent few that were vastly different from previous games. A Fairy deer, a giant Dark bird and a Ground alien beast all seemed to fit in well with the story. With the addition of the bird trio from Gen I and Mewtwo with his MegaEvolutions, it was good that they didn't go over the top like in Gen IV and V. Initiatives 5/5 This game defined initiative for the Pokemon franchise, Mega Evolutions for a start is such a massive part of this game and they work so well, having to pick the one Pokemon who gets the power boost each match can be tough even. The Roller Skates also were such a clever design, I prefer them over running shoes AND the bike. Finally a major game changer was the character customisation, it was good that you couldn't radically change your character, but small hair details or eye changes with the ability to change your clothes was such a great idea. Mega Evolution was a brilliant inclusion, even though it is limited for a selected bunch of Pokemon in a variety of types, it's still quite useful. I found it most effective with Lucario and Aura Sphere seeing as I annihilated every Pokemon I used it against in the Elite 4/Champion. Though some designs look ridiculous like Mewtwo, others look amazing like Charizard. The Roller Skates were a lovely little inclusion, the attention to detail was amazing also. Being able to slightly touch the circle pad and make a slow movement that changes animation from the full speed and normal speed was an awesome feature. Music/Sounds 5/5 Just about perfect, that's all that needs to be said. The music has so much emotion in this, the excitement of a rival battle to the challenge of Team Flare, the happiness from Serena/Calem's theme to the terror of the champions theme were all great, nothing was bad. The Pokemon cries were so much better, even Pikachu I loved with his traditional anime cry, too bad this couldn't be carried over to every Pokemon. But one is still more than none which every other game had. The difference sort of styles that the music had was incredible. From a fun rival theme to a hard Team Flare boss theme always proves to be energising. The Legendary music for Yveltal (Pokemon Y mascot) wasn't that memorable, however was fitting for the moment. The end game music also had a fitting aspect for the 3000yo King who just reunited with his long lost loved Pokemon. My favourite theme I found was the Serena/Calem's theme, which played a couple of times in the game, been listening to it when I've been writing this actually. The Pokemon battle cries and fainting cries were very impressive I thought, more realism was focused in this game, well as much realism as one can make for a fantasy world. The quality of the voices is swell, and utilised the engine of the 3DS quite well. Graphical layout 5/5 Absolutely stunning, the beautiful battle animations were perfect and even the small details like blinking made this game so special. GameFreak clearly put everything they had into this game, and their artists do need more credit, it was fantastic what they achieved here. The battle animations with full 3D models of each Pokemon suits this game like I didn't believe, the rapid movements of each character Pokemon and Human alike makes it a much better experience than previous games, small details in everything is a comment theme of this game, down to the tiniest movement. The attacks are very vibrant in both colours and animation, making for very interesting games. Along with that, the environment also has obviously had massive treatment to it, each location having small things to it added to make it unique from previous generation game locations such as a bug forest which makes an appearance each game. Characters 5/5 Perfect, the characters were nothing less. The 4 companions you have with the one main rival were created so well, the two guys weren't exactly non forgettable, but offered humour from their remarks. While the two girls (or one girl and boy if you chose female character) were quite detailed and expressed well, the emotion shown from them was clear as daylight. Az was an unusual character expressed well at the end and Team Flare's boss was a great character, even the professor was good. Starting with the 4 young teens who start with you in the group of 5. Trevor and Tierno weren't that interesting I found, I kinda hated Trevor a bit, until the end, as for Tierno, I had no idea what he was smoking. Selena and Shauna were my two favourite characters out of the whole game, they made the group of 5 kids a diverse ones. One being a strong willed rival who was very determined and the other being scared way too easily but offered an emotional characteristic which was a pleasant change. Az, the mysterious giant who turned out to be an ancient king at the end, and ancestor to the Team Flare's leader was a heartless sod when going through the game, I thought that they could've made this character a lot better, boy did they prove me wrong. Although he had little screen time, he was proven to have changed his way of a cruel king to someone who deeply cared for others. I was also surprised at the amount of action Professor Sycamore had in the game, though it barely changed him as a character, it was good seeing such an important non-playable character share time in the game with you. Post game 4/5 The post game was rather good, new areas unlocked, a few decent legendary Pokemon and a whole new little city. Though it may not seem much, it never really is. However, as always with the NationalDex being unlocked, the task of catching them all really starts again. I can't get much into detail with this, as I've just been slightly introduced into this part of the game, and with the possibility of DLC being added later in the game, ie. extra legendary pokemon, it's unclear what I'm yet to uncover. However from what I've found, it's a decent expansion on the game, which I greatly enjoy. User interface 4/5 Almost everything was well done, the one major let down for this new user face was the bag system, it was too clogged up and messy and takes a long time to find something as simple as a repel. Apart from that, menus are easily accessible and it doesn't take long to do tasks you wish to do. Conclusion Finishing, this game exceeded my expectations by a long shot, in didn't think this would do better than Gen V, but it smashed that. And rivals my favourite generation being Gen IV, it just depends what secrets I uncover in the months to follow that I play this game. I strongly recommend this to any gamer with a 2/3DS, preferably the 3DS as it makes the best of what this game offers. Pokemon fan or just wanting a fun time, this game definitely offers a lot. Final total score of the game. 41/45 - A+

Another month and another two free games for Xbox gold subscribers with games with gold, October with bring us Magic and Might and Halo 3. Magic and Might Clash of Heroes a puzzle role playing game is first to download for free from October 1st. Halo 3 is second and it will be available to download for free from Octobers 16th. View full article

Xbox One can read the HDMI signal from a PS4 and thus allow Microsoft's console to host Sony's, an executive has confirmed. Because of the Xbox One's HDMI-in port, users will be able to feed the PS4's HDMI cable into the rival system. The on-screen result would be a PS4 running within an Xbox One overlay. Microsoft executive Albert Panello confirmed that Xbox One users could theoretically multi-task between both consoles. "Any application can be snapped to a game... so if you wanted to be playing Ryse and Killzone at the same time, you could snap that," he said, as quoted by Gamespot. Killzone is a PlayStation-owned IP, with a new instalment in the series due for the PS4's launch. Panello's comments also imply that any games console outputting through an HDMI cable can be displayed on the Xbox One, from Xbox 360 to PS3. The Xbox executive, who was speaking to gathered journalists at the Tokyo Game Show, also warned users against vertically standing their Xbox Ones. How nice will it be to sit back, relax, and play both consoles without even thinking? Full articles at CVG View full article

I just wanted to ask, what's the bright idea behind smashing the playlists together? Was it really so difficult to keep up on a separate big team playlists? I'm just curious as to the new updates on the Halo 4 frontier as this is a very disappointing game on the multiplayer flip side. I'm not here to start a fight as I am generally curious as to what the meaning is behind this. I understand games have to evolve to keep up with the current gaming demands but we all loved being able to chose between Big Team Slayer and Big Team Objective! I understand that people want to have more variety in their gaming experience but this is why there was a general assortment of playlists, as different as they were. Are you truly making a large portion of us chose between Halo 3, Reach before 4 even comes into play? I call shenanigans! And now with the new DLC, don't get me started on that... Season pass my a$$. Pardon my language Yours faithfully Halo, XxxHarley

Im just testing to see if it works. If it does then you guys should do yours too!

Hi, I am Logic Venom (Xbox Live Gamertag: MayhemMachine97 ), I am the leader of Team Logic. Team Logic was recently created after the demise of BoS Clan, a clan I co-led and co-owned. As one of the former leaders of BoS Clan, I have moderate experience on running a clan. I recently created a clan called Neco Asylum but my co-leader left and chaos ensued, I am now restarting the clan as Team Logic. I am creating this clan to start off with a new team and a way to meet new people. Some of the things we plan to do are: - Active Forums - Weekly Events - Competitive Teams and QS Teams - Elite - News and Event Team - Graphics Team - Gamebattles and Clan Battles - Team Logic YouTube Channel - Multiconsole and Multigame support We play: - Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (Xbox 360) - Halo 4 - Minecraft (PC and Xbox) On the requirements' side of things, we don't ask for much. All you need to have is: - Need to be mature (age doesn't matter) - Needs to have a mic/headset - Decent to High Skill Level in FPS games IF INTERESTED PLEASE REPLY WITH THIS!! Gamertag: Gender: (optional...it wont change if you can join or not) Country: Mic: Yes/No Or you can send me a message and/or friend invite on xbox live Here's mine: Gamertag: MayhemMachine97 Age: 13 Gender: M Country: USA Mic: Yes How can I contact you with any questions? Message me on XBox at MayhemMachine97 or at my Skype at Flamestorm_97

This months free games for gold subscribers kicks of with Crackdown, an open world third person shooter set in a fictional pacific city. It is available to download for free from August 1st-16th. The second is Dead rising 2, an open world horror survival game of a zombie apocalypse. The Dead case DLC (a prequel to dead rising 2) also comes free and they will be available to download from August 16th-31st. View full article

Feel free to post any unique ideas that would be cool to be welcomed to the halo franchise! or something cool in general! My ideas: -A support upgrade that adds an extra ability to the pulse grenade. it pulls in people from a specific radius to effectively slow them down and pull them out of possible camping spots. -armor ability cycling, for recon settings 343 could switch grenade cycling to "x" and AA cycling to top of d-pad. you could then switch armor abilities to add more dynamics to some gameplay.also an ability to set armor ability versatility(such as thruster pach is 60% more powerful type of thing) -option to remove sprinting and a completely classic halo playlist -a covenant mech such as a drive-able locust from halo wars that can climb on walls or more vertical terrain and shoots a powerful focus rifle beam from its rotatable head!(must have) -weather options in forging, more customization friendly gametypes(hummhumm flood mode) and trait zones -more forge support- greater focus on forgers and weekly or regular competitions for exclusive prizes. -precision theater mode and multiplayer theater so you can have fun with yur friends and smoothly track a sniper bullet into someones head(great for machinimas!!!) -deeper and more depressing halo music like forgotten from halo 3... fingers crossed -halo wars 2 game that is directly linked to the halo game after buy and download. -FLOOD REAKINGGGGGG FIREFIGHT!!!!!! no more spartan ops!!!! -an unlockable halo timeline like in halo wars... matchmaking competitive gaming prizes such as reaching a high skill rank in a certain playlist to get badass armor... -a new grenade that is completely black and expands like pulse grenade but rolls and does less damage, also an effective way to hide! when it comes in contact with a pulse grenade they both explode for a good amount of damage.(half strength of fusion coil!!!) -the ability for spartans(you) to start a big team slayer game by falling from the sky in an ordnance pod odst style and possibly have that work in firefight too!!! -an auto-sentry AA that goes to the position you point at and shoots and stays in place if u hold a certain button while releasing it. -return of brutes and brute vehicles! they didnt all die on sanghelios hopefully the arbiter saved the!!!! yay -a grand forging competition where the top three winners get to have there maps remade as actual legit maps and sold as 400 ms point dlc. -return of unsc air vehicles -longer campaign Any more ideas?

Well let me put this simply cause i hate typing using my xbox console's internet explororer. XD! I am looking to join a Halo machinima crew i have all versions of the game for Xbox 260 except 3 but i do have the Halo 3 Multiplayer disk that came with ODST not sure if it's the same but oh well. I have spent a great many hours in Forge and i feel i am fairly decent at it, i can do some body acting and maybe voice acting i do have a set of Turtle beach headsets and would like to join a crew who already have a capture card as i do not have one. If you are interesting in procuring my services for your machinima endevours please message me here and on xbox my GT Is LeonAnders, thank you for you time. LeonAnders

Thank you for clicking on the ranger clan, we are a relatively small clan, but hope to be big very soon, we would like to say that we are now looking for calm members for are halo 4 clan;the only requirements are. You're not in an another clan, you MUST have a mic, no hacks cheats or mods, and you get on halo regularly. We are a clan that aims To be the best but we also have fun, if you're one of the first few people to join are clan,you will be put in a high ranking posttion.If you would like to try out send a message on Xbox live to TXxHEaDshO7xX7,or Mr Finalist,Make sure you put in the message you would like to try out for ranger clan. Hope to see some of you real soon!!! P.S if you have any problems, or can't reach Thoes people's gamer tags, just send me a message on here, and I will work quickly and diligently to fix your problem, or help you get In touch with the clan.

Hey Guys, we all know that Halo 5 is coming onto the Xbox One and that alone, if that does continue (and it will), what will happen to the 360??? It would probably lose, more than 3/4 of all the players that play on it, because of the Massive switch over from 360 to One, will 343 shut everything down (Like all online Servers) like with Halo 2? or would they keep it there, but with very small amounts of people... P.S:Of course Im not just talking about Halo 5, but other games too, but main thing is, what will happen to 360 after the release??? Tell me what you think here...

The Xbox One has been getting an awful lot of hate lately. I don't understand why. MS already confirmed there will be no fee for used games and it won't always need to be online. People keep saying it's just a glorified cable box, and MS doesn't care about the games. But before the reveal even started, MS said it would mainly just be showing off its hardware, and save the games for E3. Which they did. People are so misinformed, they just jump on the hate bandwagon without knowing any facts. Why don't we wait till E3, when they actually show off some games before we start giving our opinion? How are we supposed to know if a console is bad or good when we haven't really seen what it can do?

A few hidden games has appeared on the xbox dashboard, this brief article from polygon with go through them and try to see what these could be. Title speaks for itself, of course you have the big image Quantum Break, and Forza 5. I wouldn't look too far into Halo, it's just a logo and we'll inevitably get one.... But the other images 1. Bottom left green Crackdown agility orb, I don't know why they would use that unless we're getting a sequel (a real one this time). 2. Bottom right has the Rare logo, if its an HD realization of a old franchise I wouldn't know what it is. 3. Middle right is almost certainly Ryse (roman buildings) 4. Top right, most intriguing to me, kind of gives me Fable vibe (Seer eyes) I wouldn't look too far into the image between Forza and Halo, kind of looks like the Demo stuff 18 seconds in there. (I guess it could still be from a game?) *-Update:* As Tom Warren points out the one betwean Forza and Halo is likely the the family kids game set on an island he reported on. http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/11/4212054/next-xbox-launch-titles-ryse-forza View full article

One of the main questions that have been buzzing around while we await to get out first main look at the next gen consoles is what will the next gen xbox and playstation's graphics will be like? Well we won't have to wait too long as E3 is on the horizon but in the mean time Ubisoft has given their view on what to expect. This article is from Examiner In the June 2013 issue of Game Informer, Mallat discussed in an interview that Sony and Microsoft’s next-generation consoles – PS4 and the Next Xbox, Xbox 720, Durango or whatever you like to call it – will “blow us away” with their visuals. Although the graphics will be impressive, he believes these systems offer more than solely stunning visuals. "I think minds will be blown by the graphics as a hook, as an entry door," stated Mallat, but continued to share that there is more to these consoles than graphics. One of the greatest benefits the next-generation brings is freedom to developers. "I think that amount of power gives a lot of freedom to our creators and then it's up to them to tailor and tame that power to what suits the game the best." "To me, what's lying beneath that or beyond that will keep our players involved. When you think about that, even on current generation systems it always takes some time for developers to tame the machine - especially the PlayStation 3." As Sony has demonstrated, social interaction will play a pivotal role in the PS4’s online infrastructure. Mallat believes social interaction and connectivity will be what makes these system a true next-generation experience. "This time we may see creating amazing games on the visual side of things very quickly," said Mallat, "but to me the social complement and connected thing will be the next-gen experience compared to the current generation system.” "That being said, you'll be blown away by graphics." View full article

At a time when Microsoft (MS) is planning to unveil it's next generation XBOX it may be just the time to reflect on the past. Some companies will, seemingly, will unabashedly promote their newest products well beyond any realistic measure in order to get the biggest sales return possible. A story I recently read by Andrew Groen of Wired took a look back at all the hype offered by Microsoft surrounding the XBOX 360 and he provided an interesting retrospective of sales versus reality. These insights may better help the gamer to weed through the onslaught of hype, as experienced most recently with Halo 4, and the reality, as seen by the current population that still plays the game. The reality there is an unfinished game was sold to the consumer to hit a sales period for the holidays instead of taking the time to finish the product, which without a doubt, would have given the playing population a fully functional game that met the standards spoken to by it's producer and maintained a much stronger presence in the gaming world. The jubilation they thrived in briefly about sales was soon darkened by the reality of the disenfranchised fan base. This decision also affected a supporting company, Certain Affinty, whose reputation, and most likely income, depended on DLC content and their work on forge for Halo 4. Hopefully these companies will see this reality for themselves in a manner that will allow them to continue to produce quality products and experiences for their consumers without loosing sight of the consumers need to be able to trust in the very products and services they provide. The story as offered at wired.com 7 Years Later, Has Microsoft Kept Its Xbox 360 Promises? BY ANDREW GROEN - 04.25.13 - 6:30 AM Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wasn’t shy about predicting that Xbox 360 would change the world of entertainment as we know it, but has the company delivered on its huge promises? Photo: Jonathan Snyder/Wired.com Microsoft was more than a little bombastic when it began hyping up the Xbox 360 before its 2005 launch. “In the next generation, Xbox 360 will transform the way people play games and have fun,” said Robbie Bach, former president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, at the company’s 2005 press briefing at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Certainly it did, but not necessarily in the ways that Microsoft promised. Xbox 360 was a great gaming device, one that Microsoft continually improved upon in a way that was unheard of in the game business until this generation. It constantly added significant new features, upgraded the user experience and moved from an also-ran to a major player, forcing the competition to follow suit. The PlayStation 2 you bought in 2001 was the same exact machine in 2005, but the Xbox 360 you bought that year would be unrecognizable now. Xbox 360 did change everything. But many of the things Microsoft talked about at the beginning of the generation turned out to be so much vaporware. And often instead of pursuing them, Microsoft allowed the competition to. It’s pretty clear Microsoft was shining us on about… well, a lot. On Wednesday, Microsoft officially announced what all of us have known was coming for years now: It will unveil the next generation of Xbox hardware at an event in Redmond, Washington on May 21. This follows the sort-of unveiling of PlayStation 4 by Sony in February, at which it made grandiose pledges such as saying that PlayStation 4 will “make you feel emotions that you have never felt in real life.” Sure it will. As we pointed out at the time, Sony made many similar promises about PlayStation 3, many of which failed to materialize. What about Microsoft’s hype about Xbox 360, back in 2005? Here’s what executives said, and what really happened. “A product with games at its core, surrounded by limitless connected digital entertainment.”— J Allard, then Xbox chief experience officer, at the 2005 E3 press briefing. “Limitless” was obvious hyperbole, and yet it ended up being truer than even former Microsoft evangelist Allard probably believed at the time. At the time, “connected digital entertainment” meant people would use their vast knowledge of 2005 technology to plug in an iPod to hear songs through the TV. Today, 360 users can access the internet, Twitter, Facebook, ESPN apps, live presidential election coverage and thousands of movies, TV shows and songs. Verdict: True ^ “For us to say we’re going to go through a whole generation without an HD capacity drive — I think that would be naive to assume that we’ll be sitting here at the end of the Xbox 360 generation and no such device will have shipped… We’re not going to be sitting here in five years saying, ‘Oh jeez, we don’t have HD DVD-type storage.’” – Steve Ballmer, Engadget interview, published May 2005. We suppose that Ballmer was technically correct: After launching Xbox 360 with a standard-capacity DVD drive instead of a high-density disc, Microsoft did release an HD-DVD drive that plugged into an Xbox 360 via USB. This was only for watching HD-DVD movies, not playing games, and Microsoft hastily discontinued it when HD-DVD lost the format battle to Blu-ray — a battle that may have been won solely because Sony put Blu-ray into every PlayStation 3. Had every Xbox 360 played HD-DVD discs, Blu-ray might have gone the way of Betamax. Seven years later, Microsoft is sitting here saying, “Oh jeez, we don’t have HD-DVD type storage.” Just call him Naive Steve. Verdict: False ^ “On the [Xbox Live] Marketplace… she might never pick up a controller, never take a run in the halfpipe but she’ll be able to design and sell stickers, shirts, boards, soundtracks and even design her own skate park for those hardcore gamers.” — J Allard, 2005 Microsoft E3 Press Briefing. The “she” in this particular statement was the infamous “Velocity Girl,” the online screen name of a hypothetical young female non-gamer who would use her Xbox 360 as a place to create and sell her own designs and products. Microsoft promised an online modding community where users could sell their digital wares for cash on the Xbox 360 marketplace, but the company never really even tried. Throughout the system’s lifespan Microsoft never implemented any large-scale programs that would have brought about the non-gaming hipster-design revolution that it prophesized. We’ve seen a couple small attempts over the years, though. The Forza Motorsport storefront, for instance, allows players to create car designs and other goods to sell for in-game credits — but not real cash. Players creating items and selling them at a profit has actually has become a reality — but it’s Valve doing it on the Steam service, not Microsoft. Verdict: False ^ “It’s a future where my games are always personalized to match my desires.” — “Kim,” the ultra-hip introduction presenter at Microsoft’s E3 2005 press briefing. In the early days of its marketing campaign, Microsoft used cringe-inducing statements like this to brag about how much Generation Me was going to be able to “express themselves” through their Xbox 360. While Microsoft has done some great work in making the console itself more flexible to the user’s interests (you can even still buy those staggeringly pointless faceplates that Microsoft abandoned years ago), the games themselves have rarely fit that description. Downloadable content has provided an avenue for players to somewhat personalize some games, but giving a company more money for new digital character outfits hardly counts as “personalization.” Verdict: False ^ Microsoft executive Robbie Bach had to walk a careful verbal tightrope when he talked about Xbox’s backward compatibility. Photo courtesy Microsoft “We will make money, and a lot of money in this next generation!” — Steve Ballmer, interview with Engadget published May 18, 2005. Microsoft spent four tough years with the original Xbox in which it operated the division at a big loss — reportedly $4 billion over four years — in order to try to gain a foothold in the videogame market. So investors wouldn’t have been pleased if Microsoft said they’d have to wait another generation for the profit to begin flowing. Though Xbox 360 also operated at a loss for its first few years, Microsoft’s fortunes finally turned in late 2008 when it posted the first net profits for the Entertainment and Devices division (which includes Xbox, Windows Phone, PC gaming and Zune) since its entry into consoles. It got off to a rough start, though. Xbox 360 faced a $1 billion setback when Microsoft extended the system’s warranty to three years due to the dreaded Red Ring of Death error, resulting in a disastrous $1.9 billion operating loss for the division in 2007. It will take more time for Microsoft to erase the massive multi-billion dollar loss accrued in the early years, but the division is now profitable and Microsoft is now a major market player. Verdict: Somewhat true ^ “Tonight we are pleased to announce that Xbox 360 will be backward compatible with the top-selling Xbox games.” — Robbie Bach, E3 2005 Microsoft Press Briefing. This is Microsoft’s most infamous statement prior to the launch of the Xbox 360. When Bach made this announcement, the crowd went wild before he finished his sentence, allowing him to mumble the “top selling” bit. It seemed, at first, that he had just said the Xbox 360 was backward compatible with original Xbox games, and anybody who purchased a 360 would be able to catch up on the first Xbox’s library of games. We soon found out that you really have to parse every single word of Microsoft’s statements. It indeed only intended to make the top-selling Xbox games backward compatible with Xbox 360, not the entire library. And it didn’t even do that, not at first: Less than a third of the Xbox’s library worked on Xbox 360 at launch, and the emulation software that ran the games was often glitchy, sometimes to the point where the game played much worse than it did on the less powerful machine. Many of the “top-selling” games were actually missing, since they were harder to emulate than the cheapo games: Splinter Cell didn’t work, but Barbie Horse Adventure was good to go. Over the next two years, Microsoft did work to add more games, eventually getting about half of the library emulated and adding most (but not all) of the biggest games on the platform. Verdict: A sneaky half-truth ^ “Microsoft will inevitably succeed in Japan.” – Takashi Sensui, general manager of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business division in Japan. The worldwide videogame business was a much different industry in 2005. Though Japan’s influence has recently begun to slip, in 2005 it was seen as a major key to success, and the original Xbox tanked miserably there. With Xbox 360, Microsoft devoted considerable resources to changing that, but not even two exclusive RPGs from one of the most famous designers in Japan (Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi) could overcome the widespread apathy toward Xbox 360. In June of 2011, Microsoft announced it had sold 1.5 million Xbox 360s in nearly six years. To contrast, the Nintendo DS has sold over 33 million consoles there to date. Hardly a good showing. Verdict: False ^ “We’ll get there by making games more approachable for people who didn’t grow up with a game controller.” — Robbie Bach, 2005 E3 press briefing, on expanding the market. Microsoft didn’t manage to do this when it launched Xbox 360, but Nintendo did the next year with the Wii’s motion controller. It was later revealed that Microsoft had turned down the rights to the underlying core technology of Wii. After Nintendo’s success, it was much more receptive to the idea for Kinect, a different type of motion controller. Kinect has brought about some of the most wretched games in the history of the console. But it did have a couple of highly successful, demographic-expanding, controller-free games like Dance Central. On the other other hand, Kinect has mostly been successful at selling to small kids who can’t yet handle a controller, not grownups who never learned to use one. Verdict: Half true ^ “Wouldn’t it be cool to have the game that has the person on the PC being the general who is driving the strategy, and the person on the console on Xbox Live executing the strategy? That is a completely new genre… and it leverages everything that Steve [ballmer] talked about that we’re putting in place.” — Robbie Bach, interview with Engadget, published May 18, 2005. Seven years later, no game even remotely approaching this type of PC-console cross-play has been released. There have been some instances of console and PC players being able to play the same game together, but unfortunately for Microsoft they were mostly on PlayStation 3. The only game that seems somewhat similar to this dream is Dust 514, a multiplayer shooter which is bound to the outer space MMO EVE Online. In Dust 514, players can coordinate with groups in EVE for funding and even artillery bombardments which can help them win battles. But this, too, is a Sony exclusive. So yes, it would absolutely be cool, but Microsoft hasn’t bothered to do it. Verdict: False ^ View full article

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According to Microsoft's official Facebook page, an announcement for the next Generation Xbox console will be made. Here is the quote: View attachment: XboxAnnounce.png View full article