Modern Warfare 2 has surpassed sales expectations, selling an estimated 4.7 million units within the first 24 hours; that’s an estimated $310 million in profit within 24 hours. As it turns out, people have been rushing onto Xbox Live to play Modern Warfare 2, respectively, with their friends; pushing the amount of online users to “record breaking heights”.

In a post on his Twitter account, Xbox Live’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb said that, “Over TWO MILLION people [were] connected to the [online] service at once”, something that has never been done before on any online platform; setting a new record for most concurrent users for the service.

If you live in the United States and you have to an Xbox Live account, boy! do I have some news for you. In an information update posted by Major Nelson, he revealed that Xbox Live members can now access PayPal as a method of payment for Xbox Live Marketplace – that’s if they live in the United States.

Anyway, with this system, you can use PayPal to buy Microsoft Points without having to associate your credit card information to your account.

A couple of things to point out:

PayPal is currently supported for Xbox LIVE users in the U.S. only.
PayPal can only be used to purchase Microsoft Points on Xbox.com.
PayPal accounts are not available for purchasing Microsoft Points on the Xbox 360 console.
You can associate multiple Pay Pal accounts with your Xbox LIVE account.

Updated: The episodic content will also arrive on a disc along with previous DLC episode, The Lost and Damned, as Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City, only on 360, and set to release on Oct. 29 for $39.99 and does not require a
copy of the original Grand Theft Auto IV to play.

Original: GTA IV’s second and latest piece of exclusive downloadable content for the Xbox 360, Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony will release on Oct. 29, Rockstar Games announced today.

The Ballad of Gay Tony focuses on the glitzy “high-end night life” of Liberty City. And puts players in the role of Luis Lopez, as his part-time hoodlum duties are supplemented by full-time work for nightclub impresario Tony “Gay Tony” Prince.

The DLC will release for Microsoft’s console this fall for $19.99, or 1600 MS points, and will require players to have a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV and an Xbox Live membership in order to download it.

[Next Grand Theft Auto DLC Hits Oct. 29 [Update] via Kotaku]

After months of wondering when we’re going to get a chance to play the game, DICE has announced today that Battlefield 1943 will be available on July 8th on Xbox Live and on July 9th for the PlayStation Network.

“Battlefield 1943 is going to change consumer expectations of what a downloadable game can be. By offering Frostbite’s next generation destruction technology with a full Vehicle Warfare FPS multiplayer experience at a mere 560MB, Battlefield 1943 sets a new standard,” said Gordon Van Dyke, Producer on Battlefield 1943. “Our goal is to blow people away with a fully accessible, retail-calibre game for veteran Battlefield fans and shooter fans alike to enjoy for only $9.99.”

Battlefield 1943 is an all-new download-only action game that brings DICE’s first-class vehicular warfare to gamers.

Advertisement innovation. That’s what Microsoft plans to do by bringing Silverlight to Xbox Live.

Apparently, Microsoft “plans to bring IAB specifications for rich media technologies, including Silverlight, to Xbox Live within the year.” Enabling companies to build advertising campaigns that span four screens: computers, mobile phones, Surface and now televisions.

Silverlight as a technology is similar in intent to Adobe Flash. It is used for advertising as well as other purposes, such as browser-based games and video streaming. The arrival of Silverlight to the Xbox 360 aims to boost campaigns on Xbox Live by turning ads into interactive and interconnected experiences.

Media Post reports:

Silverlight-powered media on Xbox will have the same appearance as ads seen on a Web browser. Think technology that competes with Flash, only supported by 6 million Silverlight developers worldwide who now have the option to tap a variety of Microsoft tools and technologies and develop marketing campaigns for Xbox.

“Today, movie trailers are available in a high-definition (HD) format, but Silverlight will deliver 1080p HD and 5.1 surround sound without discs directly into the Xbox.” Sean Alexander, director at Microsoft’s Advertising Business Group, told MediaPost.

[Microsoft Silverlight For Xbox Live Eases Creative Across Platforms via Media Post]

During the Microsoft keynote, Epic Games revealed their upcoming title Shadow Complex, which is the developers first arcade title, coming exclusive to Xbox Live arcade.

The game combines the best of old-school side-scroller design with modern, cutting-edge gameplay and incredible high-definition graphics. Collect power-ups, discover new abilities and evolve your character into a force of destruction as you explore an original story set in the world of Orson Scott Card’s best-selling novel, Empire.

Remember Gay Tony? Well, now you can’t forget. Rockstar Games today announced that the second round of downloadable content for GTA IV is entitled The Ballad of Gay Tony.

In contrast to the seedy biker gang expansion that is The Lost and Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony is said to focus on the glitzy “high-end night life” of Liberty City. The exclusive 360 episode will put players in the role of Luis Lopez, as his part-time hoodlum duties are supplemented by full-time work for nightclub impresario Tony “Gay Tony” Prince.

“Liberty City is the most vibrant game world we’ve created yet. The episodic structure has allowed us to interweave stories, gameplay and atmosphere in a whole new way,” said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games.

“The team at Rockstar North have yet again surpassed themselves, and made something that is both epic and very innovative. This episode’s focus on high-end night life contrasts with the biker gangs portrayed in The Lost and Damned, whilst giving us a lot of new gameplay possibilities.”

The DLC will release for Microsoft’s console this fall for $19.99, or 1600 MS points, and will require players to have a copy of Grand Theft Auto IV and an Xbox Live membership in order to download it.

Advertisement: Mountain Dew is teaming up with the people over at World of Warcraft to produce two new favors for the second version of Game Fuel. Anyway, by clicking here you can win gaming gear for your PC via their promotion site.

The 360 already had its turn and now it looks like its the PS3s turn. Bethesda announced today that the previously exclusive downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version of Fallout 3 will be coming to the PlayStation 3. Bethesda has been working on implementing it for a while and are looking forward to bringing it to PS3 gamers via the PlayStation Network.

Operation: Anchorage will be released for PS3 in late June, followed by the release of The Pitt and Broken Steel 4-6 weeks apart. Release dates will be forthcoming. In addition, a new update will be released for PS3 that will allow users to download and play the new DLC. The release date for that update will be announced at a later date. There are also two new DLCs planned for all three platforms:

Point Lookout – Explore a massive new swampland area filled with new quests and it will be available in late June for Xbox 360 and PC. Cost will be 800 Microsoft Points. It will be available through Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live. Point Lookout will be available on PS3 after the first three DLCs have been released.

Mothership Zeta – The aliens have returned, and they’re pissed. Experience an alien abduction first hand and find out if you’re tough enough to survive. And is scheduled for release in late July for Xbox 36 and PC. Cost will be 800 Microsoft Points. It will be available through Xbox Live and Games for Windows Live. Mothership Zeta will be available on PS3 after Point Lookout.

Remember when Capcom was nice enough to announce Lost Planet 2 via Xbox Live but only for the 360, and how there was a ton of speculation on whether, or not, it would be coming to PS3?

Well, it looks like Capcom is still thinking about it, but let’s hope they come up with something, soon.

“We’re still thinking about it and haven’t announced a PS3 version, so we can’t say more about it just yet,” producer Jun Takeuchi told Gamesradar.

Takeuchi explained the reason as of why they revealed the game via Xbox Live.

“We wanted to show the game first and foremost to fans of the original Lost Planet,” he added. “We talked to Microsoft about doing it this way and they were interested in it as well. Also, I think it was a unique and memorable way to announce the game.”

Capcom has finally confirmed that the Resident Evil 5 Versus Mode DLC will be released on Xbox LIVE and PlayStation Network this week.

Available from tomorrow, the DLC will set you back $5 on PSN (or 400 Microsoft Points) and it will included the following new multiplayer modes:

Slayer – A point-based game that challenges players to kill Majinis.
Survivor – Players hunt the most dangerous game, each other!

Players can pick from Chris, Sheva and any of the hidden characters in a one-on-one or two-versus-two setting for either gameplay modes.

You’ll never have to purchase another video card again, because it now seems that PC gaming has changed for the better with OnLive. I know, it sounds kind of corny, but don’t let that fool you it really is something unique.

This device this the brainchild of Rearden Studios’ founder Steve Perlman, and Mike McGarve, who worked at Eidos. It is a device that gives players the ability to play there favorite PC games on their televisions, and it is also is self proclaimed “micro console” with a price lower then the Nintendo Wii.

Here’s how it works; you control the game where every you are, as long as you have a strong internet connection near by that you can access, but instead of the game being read from a disc, it reads it via “cloud gaming” technology – which is basically the device reading something sent by signals in the atmosphere, right to your OnLive console.

Here’s the good part, it delivers video at up to 720p resolution at frame rates up to 60 frames per second, and of course the quality depends on you connection – because the servers. These servers will be located in Santa Clara, Texas, Virginia and elsewhere, in which they are hoping to deliver a seemingly lag-free experience to OnLive subscribers within 1,000 miles.

There are even talks of there being a monthly subscription at about the same price as Xbox Live. The device it said to hit this winter.

“OnLive is games on demand. What we do is make available the top, high-end titles at the same window they’re released at retail – so the same time they’re on the store shelves you have access to them – and you can play all these high-end titles on any entry level PC or Mac just through a plug-in that’s just one megabyte in size in your browser, or using this OnLive micro-console,” said Steve Perelman told GTTV.

I’m not surprised. Today, Microsoft was candid enough to announced that sales of Halo Wars have surpassed more than one million units worldwide, which means that it’s now the fastest selling RTS on any nex-gen console.

Set in the year 2525, Halo Wars takes players on a perilous journey through the famed Halo universe. As players take the command seat in the early, epic battles between the UNSC and Covenant, they will begin to unravel events 20 years before Halo: Combat Evolved that shaped the franchise into what it is today.

The game has a total of; 2.6 million multiplayer matches played, 118 years of time has been spent in multiplayer matches on Xbox Live.

It looks like being famous pays itself off because being the DLC for one of the most repected games on the market your definitely going to set some kind of record.

Today, Micrsoft revealed that the DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV has set an Xbox Live sales record, but, sadly, they weren’t candid about revealing how much it sold. According to the company, the downloadable content has “eclipsed first-day revenue for all previous down-loadable content on Xbox LIVE”.

“The success of ‘Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned’ redefines what consumers expect from Game Add-ons,” said Marc Whitten, general manager of Xbox LIVE. “Content like this is extending the lives of our favorite games and fundamentally changing the way we play.”

Well, with that said, it’s kind of point less revealing this when they didn’t even release the sales of the game.

Sometime this month, or last, Capcom revealed that they were hard at work on both the Dead Rising sequel and Lost Planet sequel, but for some reason they only announced the Dead Rising sequel. But, now its seems that it’s Lost Planets time to shine.

After reports that Capcom is to reveal a ‘Top Secret’ project on Xbox Live, it seems that today they have revealed their ‘Top Secret’ project via video – not video on Xbox Live – and you know what, it’s Lost Planet 2.

According to the video, the game will be powered by Capcom’s proprietary engine, the MT-FrameWork 2.0., and being a game about the climate, the game will feature alot of climate change, meaning Hot and then Cool types of climate. The game will be produced by the guy behind Resident Evil 5, Jun Takeuchi.

The video also says that the game would not be fixed on one character – unlike the first game – but instead it will be fixed on the different Snow Pirate factions. The game will also have Mechs with passenger seats and turrets along with portable shields much like what has been seen in Gears.

Update: Apparently, they are going to reveal the title not announce it.

Original: In what wouldn’t be their first time in creating such a product for the 360, Capcom has revealed that it has another exclusive product for the Xbox 360 underway. And according to many sources they plan to reveal the product in a very special way, special indeed.

According to Capcom, on Monday, Feburary 23rd, Capcom’s brand new title trailer will be available on Xbox Live Marketplace. But, there’s one question that’s on top of all of our minds and that is what could it be? But, we inspect that it could be the new Lost Planet title because they are yet too announced the title and they rushed to announce the Dead Rising sequel.

Anyway, in order to download the trailer you are going to need to have an Xbox Live account.

In celebration of the release of the first Downloadable Content for Grand Theft Auto 4, Microsoft has announced a week free of multi-player for Grand Theft Auto 4. The experience will give players the chance to play for a total six days, all together – no more or less.

The deal will start from 9 AM on February 17 and continuing until midnight of February 22 for only players with the ability to access Xbox Live.

The company has planned a full slate of Xbox Live events during the time period including a chance to play the game online with members of the development team at Rockstar Games.

As of lately one thing that has been pushing down the number of new friends I make on Xbox Live is the current 100-friends limit that has been pushed by Microsoft since the release of Xbox Live. But, it looks like Microsoft may have plans to increase the limit of friends you can have on Xbox Live.

When speaking to Joystiq at CES, Xbox director Aaron Greenberg told them that, “I can’t commit to when that will happen, but that is something we want to do. It’s definitely something we’re looking at expanding and, as this social network grows, we’ve absolutely heard the pleas for that. It’s on the list.”

Then he went onto say that how they had thousands of potential friends turn away daily on Xbox Live. And, as he said, it’s on the list so lets see what future plans they have for Xbox Live.

Okay. It’s not really ready yet, but it will be making its way onto a console near you very soon, Nov. 19. As of right now, the update is sitting in a sever farm at Microsoft Headquarters just waiting to make its way down your Ethernet cable straight into your 360, but from this video, after the update is complete, you’ll be truly into a the New Xbox Experience. That’s geared to any genre that makes you a gamer. The update is set to bring a profound change that will bring a new ever lasting appeal to a bigger audience.

What are you planing to do this Monday? Well, I hope you didn’t plan anything extreme tomorrow on Xbox Live because Microsoft revealed sometime last week that Xbox Live will be shutting down for some major re-construction. And I’m writing this article to remind you all that Xbox Live would not be working tomorrow. But, for some of us this wouldn’t matter mainly because you don’t have Xbox Live or you were planning to finally beat that single player game that’s is super hard. Here’s Microsoft’s Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb had to say:

“As I mentioned earlier in the week, tomorrow (Monday, 9/29/2008) from 12:01 AM PST for up to 24 hours, Xbox Live will be offline for maintenance. As a result, Xbox LIVE and the ‘My Xbox’ section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox forums will be in read only mode (you won’t be able to post.) The remainder of Xbox.com will be available with limited interruptions. When the service returns, you will not have any new features and you will not have the new Xbox experience update. That will happen later this Fall. I will update my Twitter when the service returns.”

But, anyway this service maintenance update is for the “New Xbox Experience”, which will adds Mii-like Avatars to a new dashboard. The new Xbox experience is set to hit this November on the Xbox 360.

Last week I had the chance to pick up Battlefield: Bad Company and I continue loving every second of it. Earlier this month voting closed as we where all allocated a chance to pick, which map pack should DICE begin to work on. A blog post on the Official DICE site went up today that briefly accepted that their will be new content dropping when the patch releases soon, we desire.

The future update will be free.The patch will fix many major bugs,server lags and VOIP issues.With the bonus of a few gameplay tuneups and three new weapons added that where only available if you pre-order the game or played the demo will be added to the game which will be available for everyone at no cost. A list of what you can expect has been posted on the DICE Blog.

Trophy support will be added to the game.While these updates are great we hope to find a release date very soon on when you can expect this update.

A PC modder from Japan, by the name of Qrysalis, has posted on the Call of Duty forums some lost training missions from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. The missions are from re-constructed files from the original training mission for Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. The video was posted on Youtube, the video shows frag grenades and grenade launchers at the demolition site for demolition practice. Finally, the player will go onto an assault course for some assault practice then go onto meet Captain Price.

In an interview with Joystiq, Xbox representative Jason Ing revealed that Duke Nukem 3D has passed certification and is expected to release “sometime in September.” The Xbox Live Arcade revival, which sports the same minimal graphical enhancements as Doom did on the service, is being published by Microsoft and is an exclusive release for the platform.

According to IGN, they spotted a poster at Rockstar Games Games Convention booth on the show floor and according to the poster Bully: Scholarship Edition will be indeed coming to the PC. They even had a member of the team translate the poster because it was in German just to confirm that it was true. A Rockstar representative went on to say the game should be expected to ship sometime in late October. Their wasn’t any other information given on the game coming to the PC, but the event isn’t over until the fat lady sings on sunday.

A rumor has been going around the net that Xbox Live is going free for select games until fall. Apparently that rumor was true. According to a updated post by Shacknews, Microsoft has informed them that Xbox 360/Games for Windows silver members will limited free multiplayer access.

Here’s what a MS rep had to say “For a limited time, we are offering free online multiplayer on Xbox 360/Games for Windows titles that offer LIVE cross platform play,” a representative explained. “This promotion won’t last, so we encourage everyone to take advantage of it while they can.”

The representative concluded that, “When the new Xbox experience launches this fall all multiplayer gaming on Xbox 360 will be for Gold members only.” As the original rumor stated the only games that will feature this limited free online play are Universe at War, Shadowrun and Lost Planet: Colonies Edition.

According to a recent update on the South Park Studios website, the brand new South Park game is coming to Xbox Live in 2009. Yeah we know it’s short and sweet, just the way we all like it. But, that wasn’t all the article stated, here you can read it for yourself “The rumors are true. A brand new South Park game is coming to Xbox Live in 2009. That’s all we’ve got for now, but stay tuned for more details over the next few months. Let the speculations begin!”

It’s time to unleashed your inner chimp with today’s newly released box art revealed by Warner Bros. The game is based off the upcoming movie, which will release this July, Space Chimps. In the game you play as HAM and LUNA, who are both passengers on a harrowing mission through a dangerous inter-universal wormhole.

Features

• Alternate between playing Ham and Luna exchanging humorous banter between the two acrobatic chimps.
• Unleash your animal abilities as you tumble, jump, climb and swing your way through environments straight out of the movie.
• Switch from fighting mode to sneaking more to puzzle solving mode as you travel from level to level.
• Fly on the back of alien fluvians, or get yourself your own pair of flutter eye wings.
• 11 levels including 3 bosses.
• Battle 2-player coop style.
• 13 entirely new enemies, not found in the film, to challenge your combat skills!
• Entirely exclusive NDS experience, with 3D side-scrolling action and 2 player multiplayer.

In a new trailer released by EA it showcased B-Company making fun of our old friend snake, as Sweetwater so called spotted a man with eye patch in a barrel. Battlefield: Bad Company is a first-person shooter which features destructible environments. The game scheduled for release on June 23, 2008 in North American.

To many gamers Code Monkeys is known as the first show to represent the gaming as a whole. Unless your a self-closed person who has not watched G4, devoted to the world of video games and the video game lifestyle, you haven’t been exposed to Code Monkeys which is bad. This South Park and 8-bit Mario style show is pure gaming genius.

For those who never seen the show, June 1’s second-season premiere can’t come with perfect timing Code Monkeys takes place at GameaVision, an ’80s company that makes Atari 2600-type games with 8-bit point-and-click design.

The humor in Code Monkeys is mostly grounded in toilet humor and black comedy, but some of the show’s jokes stem from its numerous references to 1980s video games, including Castlevania , Mega Man , Contra , Ikari Warriors , Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!! , Super Mario Bros. and others. With blood, puke, drug use and more sexual innuendo than you can shake at.

The main plot of this of this episode takes place when the company loses they insurance by there provider  and each character must submit a psychiatric evaluation. Which allowed every employee to show there inner-self to a very cool evaluator with all this going on Todd a Flavor flav horned helmet wearing 33-year old nerd is giving the chance to create is own game with the others see this they turn is game into something but hilarious. Which i am not going to mention.

The second season of Code Monkeys premieres at 7 p.m. ET/PT June 1 on G4.

According to a thread posted by one of the Atari staff members, a demo for Dragonball Z: Burst Limit will be available over the PLAYSTATION Network at midnight. So “KAMEHAMEHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”.

Dragonball Z: Burst Limit is complete with online battles, 3D graphic, enhanced playable characters, realistic battle stages, and much more. The story takes place from beginning of the Saiyan Saga to the end of the Cell Saga. The video game based off the popular anime show Dragon Ball Z, the game is releasing for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Update:

The demo is up on XBL and PSN.

The demo is on XBL right now but, PlayStation 3 owners won’t be missing out on the action. A demo is coming to the PlayStation Network too. It may not have had a midnight launch like what was mentioned by a administration on the Atari Forums but, it’s in the pipeline.

[PS3 BURST LIMIT DEMO GOING LIVE TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT via Atari]

Microsoft Corp. today announced that the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system has sold over 10 million units in the U.S., making it the first current-generation gaming console to break the 10 million mark in the U.S. The U.S. install base contributes to global sales of over 19 million, more than any other current-generation console.

"This year will be the largest in the history of the video game industry, with Xbox 360 leading the charge in the U.S. and abroad," said Don Mattrick, senior vice president of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. "History has shown us that the first company to reach 10 million in console sales wins the generation battle. We are uniquely positioned to set a new benchmark for the industry."

This announcement comes on the heels of one of the biggest entertainment launches in history, "Grand Theft Auto IV," on April 29, 2008. Gamers eager to experience "Grand Theft Auto IV" online helped boost Xbox LIVE global membership to over 12 million this month. Fueled by an unparalleled combination of access to friends and family, the best online gaming features, and the best entertainment content, the Xbox LIVE service has doubled in membership in only one year’s time.

Today, Eidos announced that starting on April 17, 2008 gamers will be able to download four new multiplayer maps Kane & Lynch. You can download the DLC for the price of zero dollars, or free.

"Eidos will be announcing on Tuesday April 8, the upcoming release of four new downloadable maps for the Fragile Alliance multiplayer mode in Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. The maps will be downloadable for FREE on April 17, from Xbox LIVE and from the PLAYSTATION Network for the PS3. The new maps will be released in one downloadable pack entitled ‘The Dope Bag’, with each of the four maps featuring its own unique scenario."

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