Games Toaster

Xbox 360: Streaming music over Live may breach laws

At E3 last week Games Toaster was shown an Xbox Live demonstration which showed the planned function of allowing users to stream their music over Live to other players while playing multiplayer games.

The streamed music could come directly from the senders digital music player or PC, it would be heard by other 360 Live players, but would not be saved on the receiver’s consoles. At the demo Games Toaster was assured this would not breach any copyright or broadcast law, because the music would not be saved.

However, when we contacted the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO), while stressing his comments were not a legal opinion, Brendan Griffin Director of Finance & Broadcast Licensing at the IRMO told us "My initial reaction is yes", and unlike Microsoft stance at E3 saying it just like playing music to your friends, the IRMO added “playing music over the net between individuals is a public performance of the work and usage would have to be licensed. It would not be like playing music in your home”.

Eurogamer.net slams Xbox 360 plans and marketing jargon

Eurogamer, the site who claim to be the most popular multi-format computer games site in the UK, have criticized Microsoft’s 360 plans, saying they were lacking, and labeling most of the was said at the Xbox press conference last night as rubbish.

Their article ‘Xbox 360 fails to convince in LA’ goes into territory most games journalists and publications – even professionals – would never dare to venture into, in what is seen as a heavily PR-controlled media sector.

In at least some hardcore gaming circles in Ireland and the UK, Eurogamer are highly respected and trusted, their sister business orientated site GamesIndustry.biz have similar respect within the games industry worldwide.

E3 2005: Revolution?

Cian Ginty in Los Angeles, CA. At Nintendo’s pre-E3 press conference this morning the company brought a whole new meaning to the phrase ‘backward compatibility’, showing a prototype of their next home console, the Revolution, they said it would allow for download of some games released up to 20 years ago, including games from the N64, SNES, and NES – as well as compatibility with GameCube disks.

The 12cm disk drive will be a slot, not a tray, and a “self-contained attachment” will allow for the use of DVD films and other content. With 512mb flash memory, and a SD memory card port for storage. Built-in Wi-Fi will allow for online and DS connectivity.

E3 2005: Resizing the GBA, again

Cian Ginty, in Los Angeles, CA; Nintendo has become infamous for repacking old software and hardware - with the latter normally with slight design changes - and usually selling them again by the bucket load. The company has now redesigned the Game Boy Advance, making it yet again smaller.

E3 2005: More on Xbox 360

Further to the main reveling on the 360 early last Friday morning, at the pre-E3 Xbox event it was confirmed that the console will be backward compatible, and will launch at the same time in Europe, North American, and Japan, although it's still sometime before the end of the year.