From the book, 'Xbox 360: Uncloaked'

Quote:As the hardware team wrapped up its work, Microsoft had to consider what to do with its talented team of 200 engineers. Many of the engineers would be tied up on the cost reductions for the Xbox 360 for years to come. They would redesign the parts so they could be simpler and cheaper to build. They would combine the graphics chip and the microprocessor into a single chip at some point. But some engineers needed work to do before the next console had to be designed. Microsoft’s executives hatched a plan to keep them busy. They dusted off the old scheme to create a portable game player. It was about time. Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer decided to realign Microsoft’s top executives so that the company could move faster to deal with its new rivals. It had to start thinking beyond Sony and Nintendo. Microsoft had to compete faster against companies such as Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon.com, Apple Computer, and a host of fleet start-ups. On September 20, 2005, the company split itself into three divisions. The core Windows group would be called the Microsoft Platform Products & Services Division, led by Kevin Johnson and Jim Allchin as co-presidents; Jeff Raikes was named president of the Microsoft Business Division; and Robbie Bach was named president of the Microsoft Entertainment & Devices Division. Bach would no longer be the chief Xbox officer. He would step up beyond the Xbox. His Home and Entertainment Division would be combined with Mobile and Embedded Devices, including gadgets such as smart phones, MSN, music services, and Internet TV. With this portfolio of businesses under his control, Bach could end some internecine warfare within the company and launch a counterattack against rivals in portable gadgets. He now had everything within his control to launch a so-called “iPod killer” that played games.For a long time, Microsoft had watched Apple’s resurgence with frustration. The iPod had become a cultural phenomenon, selling well over 10 million units a quarter. Everything that Microsoft did in music services had fallen short. It created PocketPC software that enabled people to play music on their handheld organizers. It had SmartPhone software that was just starting to break into the cell phone business. It licensed its software to makers of Portable Media Players, but even though it won over dozens of licensees, none of the companies could break Apple’s hold on the market. The smaller players didn’t have enough advertising money to establish a brand, and they didn’t have control of hardware, software, and services the way that Apple did. Apple was so well integrated that it could design a product and everything to go with it. It was time for Microsoft to step up and take on Apple directly, in the same way as it took on Sony with the Xbox and Xbox 360. Different parts of Microsoft had tried to take a stab at Apple. Otto Berkes, the co-creator of the original Xbox, had left the project early in its inception to return to Windows products. He was a right wing hawk when it came to supporting the PC and Windows. Berkes began research to try to make a handheld Windows computer. He didn’t know or care what it would be used for. But he knew if Microsoft could pull it off, people would find wonderful uses for it the way they had done with the ever-evolving PC. He teamed up with Horace Luke to create various prototypes. But the Intel-compatible chips of the time had not been designed with extreme low power in mind. Even Transmeta, which made low-power microprocessors, couldn’t make chips that enabled the tiniest handheld computers that Berkes had in mind. He persevered, even as Luke shifted over to designing SmartPhones. Bill Mitchell, the head of Windows mobile devices, encouraged Berkes to keep at it. Bill Gates held up an early non-working prototype, which Berkes had dubbed “Haiku,” at a Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in April, 2005. But that version proved too hard to make, so Berkes started work on a successor, dubbed “Origami.” This system got traction as Samsung and other computer makers in the Far East decided to launch versions of it in the spring of 2006. But nobody expected the Origami machines, which had 7-inch diagonal touch-screens and couldn’t fit in a pocket, to do any damage whatsoever against the iPod or the Sony gadget. Microsoft needed a game machine that was small. Bach assigned J Allard to take on this “next big thing.” Doing so would make a huge statement that Microsoft was going to ship this iPod-killer and that it would do it with the same precision planning that it had done with the Xbox 360. Allard would run the platform, handling the hardware, software, and services for the handheld. Bryan Lee, meanwhile, would become the chief financial officer for the entire Entertainment and Devices Group and run the handheld’s business side. Peter Moore would take charge of the Xbox 360 and Windows games businesses, effectively replacing Bach in his old job. These promotions set in motion another series of promotions. Todd Holmdahl replaced Allard as the head of the Xbox platform. Larry Yang in Mountain View took Holmdahl’s old job, while Bill Adamec eventually stepped up to replace Yang as the semiconductor chief. Allard picked Greg Gibson to be the project director on the handheld.

Gibson had a proven track record for managing a complex design. He would be able to spearhead the core team as it tackled difficult technical challenges, such as cramming a powerful microprocessor into a handheld device that couldn’t consume a lot of power because of battery life requirements. Microsoft hired Transmeta, the low-power chip company, so that it could use 30 of Transmeta’s engineers on a secret project, and the press began speculating about a connection between a handheld project and the Transmeta team. After all, Transmeta was helping Sony create low-power versions of the Cell microprocessor for handheld applications. The Microsoft project would operate in secret until, once again, the media blew the lid off the story in the spring of 2006. The project reminded Microsoft veterans of other times when the team had considered handheld game players. Back in 2001, Margaret Johnson explored the idea of doing the Xboy handheld with technology from R.J. Mical’s Red Jade project. But that project got scuttled. And the Xe 30 team contemplated handhelds again, but they decided to wait until the Xbox 360 shipped. The hardware gang had moved on to bigger and better things. The handheld seemed like the logical next step for Microsoft in games,

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3151779

Why are they DOING this to us?! Please don't make this game Nintendo! Just give us the WHOLE thing! I don't buy books and then buy extra pages to insert into different chapters to have "added monologue", so don't throw stuff like this at us! Evil, EVIL! On the other hand extra chapters entirely, in other words sequel type stuff, sure sell me that.

So what, they predict they will have the storage space to store this sort of data?

http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/4325

Now, right now if you save the game it will... irreperably damage most plasma screens, but it should be good! KILL THE BEARS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8F6YWHOXaU

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3151709

Sorry GR, you poor 360 owner you...

Anyway, this unofficial mod (the reason to prefer the PC version in the end) adds very basic multiplayer. I never expected fully developed multiplayer, but a small mod like this that at least allows your friends to join you in the single player mode is certainly welcome. It's very preliminary, so here's hoping it'll really be added to later. Maybe the mod community will add in all sorts of bonus quests that require multiplayer action.

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3151711

Quote:Top Ten Software Sales:
1. New Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo, DS) -- 200,037 units
2. Brain Training 2 (Nintendo, DS) -- 60,463 units
3. Winning Eleven Soccer 10 (Konami, PS2) -- 52,124 units
4. Digimon Story (Bandai, DS) -- 41,135 units
5. Brain Training (Nintendo, DS) -- 40,878 units
6. Animal Crossing (Nintendo, DS) -- 30,206 units
7. Brain Training English Translation (Nintendo, DS) -- 26,723 units
8. Tetris DS (Nintendo, DS) -- 23,762 units
9. Neon Genesis Evangelion Pachinko -- (D3, PS2) -- 23,587 units
10. Doko Demo Issho: Let's Gakkou! (Square Enix, PSP) -- 16,582 units
Week's Hardware Sales

DS Lite -- 141,487 units
PSP -- 24,653 units
DS -- 22,478 units
PS2 -- 20,737 units
GBA SP -- 4,642 units
Xbox 360 -- 1,407 units
Game Boy Micro -- 1,294 units
GameCube -- 1,002 units
GBA -- 20 units
Xbox -- 15 units

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3151720

Looks like yet more lawsuiting over "hot coffee".

Look you idiots. The content was dummied out! When the game is played without modification, that content is absent! I'd be mad if Final Fantasy IV actually advertised the content they dummied out of the original version FOR the original version, only to find I couldn't access it at all until someone hacked it with a Game Genie. I'd call it false advertising. Why is this any different?

Morons... This really is about as bad as the higher rating Oblivion was forced to adopt because someone found a way to hack the game to remove everyone's clothes.

Penny Arcade was right... Not long before the Etchisketch is sued because someone drew square genitals on it.

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>>> Link <<<

I must admit that I get more drawn to the game with every new screenshot or video. This just might turn in to Sony's killer app at launch. That is, if the gameplay is worth anything.

>>>All images here<<<

The Story

Quote:June 21, 2006 - On October 17, 1849, Frederic Chopin, one of the most influential composers for the piano, succumbed to sickness and died at the young age of 39.

Three hours prior to that, in the world according to Bandai Namco, Chopin, crouched on the floor of his hospital, saw a dream. The dream had anime characters that looked like they were out of a Tales game and a world that looked like it was pulled from a fairy tale. In the dream, people carried about their lives like in the real world. But in the dream world, people with incurable sicknesses had magical powers.
Bandai Namco's new Xbox 360 RPG, Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream ("Chopin no Yume" for the Japanese version) takes place in this dream world. Chopin (yes, the composer) comes into contact with Polka, a young girl who resides with her mother in the village of Tenuto (the names, you'll find, are all musical terms). Polka is near her death, meaning she's got some crazy powers. Unfortunately, people believe that by touching her, they'll be infected with her koodies, so Polka's not particularly popular.
Trusty Bell is the story of Chopin (yes, the composer), Polka, and a Allegretto, a 16-year-old who steals to eat and lives for only one thing: to help Polka.
If Trusty Bell were called Tales of Something-or-other, no one would complain. The game has the absurd premise, peculiar names and colorful artwork of Namco's biggest RPG series. Plus, musical composition is being handled by Motoi Sakuraba, of Tales of fame.
Trusty Bell will also feature a battle system that's heavy on the action. Details are scarce, but based on the screenshots currently circling exclusively in Japan's Famitsu magazine, the battle system supports three characters (including an unknown male character called Beat) and features some sort of combo system. Allegretto makes use of a sword as his primary weapon while Polka, being a cheery girl character and all, resorts to an umbrella.
Music and story look like they will play a big part in Trusty Bell. Bandai Namco has drafted famous Japanese actor Leo Morimoto to perform narration for the game's Japanese version. Performing the piano numbers that Chopin left to the world (before having his RPG dream) will be Russian pianist Stanislav Bunin.
Trusty Bell is in development at tri-Crescendo, a studio that worked on the sound components of tri-Ace titles like Radiata Stories, Star Ocean and Valkyrie Profile and also worked on programming, sound and the battle system for Baten Kaitos, along side Monolith Soft . The game is currently without a final release date in Japan.