In a move that will, no doubt, have many dusting off their best ‘Dogs and cats living together…’ Bill Murray impression, Microsoft, today, released My Xbox Live for Apple‘s iOS platform.

The app brings many features of Xbox Live to your iOS device. You can message with friends, tweak your Avatar’s appearance, check out Achievements, and get news and videos. Be aware when you install the App, you may get an error trying to sign in. If so, you probably just need to open the Xbox Live website and agree to the new TOS and try again.

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Microsoft has announced that it has acquired (former) indie developer Twisted Pixel. The dev is known for a string of successful titles like Ms. ‘Splosion Man, Comic Jumper: The Adventures of Captain Smiley, and more recently The Gunstringer.

Both parties were enthusiastic about the acquisition with Microsoft Studios GM Matt Booty affirming that Microsoft plans to “leave the golden goose alone” and Twisted Pixel CEO Mike Wilford stating that having the deep pockets backing them up will lead to more breathing room to make even better games.

What do you think of the merger? Will Twisted Pixel maintain the indie spirit that’s made their titles so popular? Worried Microsoft’s influence might dilute their output? Let us know in the comments?

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THE RUMOR: There will be more frequent Halo releases in the future

THE SOURCE: IGN

MY TAKE: It seems like Microsoft is looking at Activision’s ever growing money pile courtesy of yearly releases such as Guitar Hero and Call of Duty and thinking they want a piece of that action too.  I don’t blame them though, if I could extort millions from gamers by releasing the same game over and over again I probably would too. Anyway, in an interview with IGN, Microsoft Game Studios corporate vice president Phil Spencer said he didn’t think a Halo game every three years was frequent enough. Not to rain on Spencer’s parade but I guess they don’t count Halo 3: ODST and Halo Wars as Halo games because that would make the gap between Halo games since Halo 3 about one year.  Bad math and logic aside, it looks like the Halo torch being past from Bungie to 343 Industries will result in more Halo games in a shorter amount of time.  So is Halo going to join the ranks of COD and Guitar Hero to become an annual series? More importantly is this what fans really want?

THE VERDICT: BELIEVE IT!!!

Since 343 Industries is actually an in house developer, Microsoft will have direct control over the development and publishing of the Halo franchise.  Do you think of all the corporations on the planet MICROSOFT would actually miss an opportunity to get $60/year from fans.  Of course they won’t, they know that they make over $100 million with every Halo release (maybe not Halo Wars) so a smart business decision would be to make a yearly Halo to try and bring in an extra $100 million in annual revenue.  Simple. Now the ultimate question becomes, do Halo fans really want this?  I bet there are tons of Halo fans that would foam at the mouth at the idea of an annual Halo game and would go to every midnight launch every year.  That’s fine I guess, but consider this.  How many changes and revolutionary ideas have there been between the three Halo games?  Not much and that’s okay because Bungie had a formula and as they say ‘if it ain’t broke don’t fix it’.  They took those three years between development to polish what they had and create a well balanced and incredibly fun game.  But, do you think 343 Industries could replicate that success in just one year…every year?  That’s a thought I leave you to discuss below.

THE RUMOR: Just Cause 2 developer is working on a Mad Max game

THE SOURCE: Giantbomb

MY TAKE: Yes, I am a Mad Max fan so this news probably means more to people like me than everyone else.  For those who don’t know, the Mad Max franchise is based in a futuristic post-apocalyptic world of anarchy and muscle cars where if you own the gas, you own the world. These films are the baseline for many post-apocalyptic games, Borderlands being the best example (seriously if you played Borderlands you know the tone of Mad Max).  Oh and remember that trap in the first Saw where the two guys are chained up and the only way to escape before the toxic gas kills them is to saw through their own leg?  That’s not an original idea, Mad Max did it first. For more details take a look at the Wikipedia page, but the bottom line is this is a game begging for a current generation console release.  So why hasn’t it happened? That can be blamed on Mad Max 4: Fury Road, the next installment in the series that has been in development for, well, hell – the past 25 years – and may be the main source material for the game. There’s been murmurs about this game for a long time and it looks like Avalanche Studios, the minds behind Just Cause 2 it the one taking the helm based on tweets and tidbits explained in the source.  Could we see the grand daddy of the post-apocalyptic genre finally get a justified game release or is this just Twitter causing its usual chaos?

THE VERDICT: KILL IT!!!

This one sadly is probably not going to happen, at least for a while.  How is it possible the game is based on an upcoming movie that is in development hell?  It could be the game isn’t based on that particular movie but is set in the same universe as the franchise I suppose but it seems unlikely.  Also, Avalanche Studio’s next game is already known and is based on a major Hollywood license in 2012. That could mean a Mad Max movie game except again, development hell has swallowed the Mad Max 4 film whole and it doesn’t look like its letting go. Even if it did get picked up again there’s no way the movie could make a 2012 deadline.  So it looks like Mad Max is going to stay on the back burner for a while longer and until then you’ll have to look at other sources of entertainment to run over bandits with automobiles.

THE RUMOR: A new Wii Remote with built-in MotionPlus is coming in November

THE SOURCE: Shacknews

MY TAKE: I think it’s fair to say that the MotionPlus accessory was Nintendo’s first bust on the Wii.  The casual game market that the console caters to doesn’t care about a more sensitive Wii Remote and would rather not spend the extra $25 to play Just Dance.  Even hardcore gamers don’t want it because they know not all game support the MotionPlus add-on and it would be a waste of money.  So when an updated Wii Remote with built in MotionPlus (creatively called the ‘Wii Remote Plus’) appeared on GameStop.com packaged with the Nintendo published FlingSmash (don’t worry, I haven’t heard about it either) the evidence seemed to point to Nintendo finally giving up on the add-on and just making an improved Wii-mote for new adopters of the console and people looking for an upgrade.  However, the ad for the game has already been taken down leaving us all to wonder if the game even exist, if they got the release date wrong, or what?

THE VERDICT: BELIEVE IT!!!

I thoroughly believe that the package and the date are real.  GameStop wouldn’t bother to make a page for a game in the first place if they didn’t know the game existed.  Also, in terms of the date it may seem weird to people that a game would be released in North America on a Sunday until you remember Nintendo does indeed release their games on Sundays. So yes, this package is real and the date is probably real and I think it’s a good idea.  The Wii finally has competition in the casual motion controller market with the Playstation Move, backed by the ever so incredible Kevin Butler, finally hitting store shelves and Kinect, backed by Microsoft’s endless supply of capital, coming in November.  They need to make sure that despite the HD power and technology behind the new motion controllers that the Wii still gives the best experience.  The best way to do that is to make the controller as responsive as possible, thus having MotionPlus built in (four years too late mind you) is one way to step up against the competition.

THE RUMOR: Project Milo has been scrapped

THE SOURCE: Destructoid

MY TAKE: Did this just really happen? Did Peter Molyneux really just kill off his virtual hell spawn?  According to a source at Lionhead Studios the project was scrapped about a week ago with 19 workers on the project being laid off.  This may not come as a surprise to some as most believed Project Milo was merely a tech demo and nothing more.  I belonged to that school of thought until Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg seemingly said it was a real game with a holiday 2010 release.  Microsoft of course doesn’t comment on rumors on speculation so getting an answer from them is useless.  So to summarize, we have a game that might not be a game that might be canceled – or might not be.   Yep, it’s a bit of a mess but that’s why The Rumor KILL is here, to clear the crap and the lies from the truth.

THE VERDICT: KILL IT!!!

There is no way the stubborn delusional Peter Molyneux would ever…EVER scrap Project Milo.  Did you hear him talk about it at E3? He wouldn’t stop raving about how Milo was going to change everything about virtual interaction.  If this technology was really as revolutionary as they say and took 19 workers to build then why would they just throw it away?  It seems like a waste of resources to me.  Yes, I think this technology is going to be implemented into future Lionhead Studios and yes, I agree that Project Milo probably won’t see store shelves this holiday. Despite all of that though, I don’t think they are scrapping the project. Instead I predict they are just leaving it on the back burner as it were.  They’ll work on Fable III and its DLC along with other projects and once they are ready to roll with Milo, he’ll be watching you while you shop on his store shelf.  On an off note, if Project Milo is scrapped I know for a fact it wasn’t Lionhead’s decision. It was actually John Connors sent from the future to destroy Milo who eventually becomes dictator and ruler of the Earth.

The Final Say

My final say this week is about the possibility of a game based on my favorite movie this year.  Variety reported on Tuesday that Christopher Nolan revealed the plans for an Inception game during a press conference in Italy. He told the crowd the game would be filled with ideas that couldn’t fit in the film and would be released in a couple years.  Now for those who saw Inception you know that if an idea couldn’t fit in that film then it must be so mind-blowing the projector would melt at the idea of projecting that much awesome.  Imagine having the zero gravity fighting, the dream layers concept and all the psychology mind games the movie featured in a single video game experience.  Even better, imagine the co-op possibilities.  You could easily have you and four friends take on the rolls of the Inception team with an Extractor, a Point Man, A Shade, An Architect and a Chemist. Would all those roles fit well into a video game? Maybe not but the possibilities are there.  If this was made right it could EASILY be the movie video game ever!

That will end another week of EpicBattleAxe.com’s The Rumor KILL and I hope that this hot dish of rumors to mentally chow down on is both delicious and thought provoking.  Now that my job is over I will let you enjoy your course and I’ll be serving again next week. In the meantime, please feel free to chime in with your thoughts on the above-mentioned rumors as we attempt to cleave the fat from the gaming news of the day! See ya next time on The Rumor KILL!

WHAT HAS DEFINED HALO AND WHERE DO YOU THINK THE FRANCHISE STANDS IN GAMING HISTORY?

Of course, you might want to play Reach a bit before answering if you intend to do so or, if you already think you have an opinion on the topic, go ahead and fire away in the comments below. This is about defining Halo‘s place in gaming history, so keep the conversation constructive and avoid comparisons if they’re only meant to serve as flame bait. We’re not here to argue whether or not Halo is better or worse than anything else, this topic is simply meant to gauge your thoughts on the popular franchise’s place in gaming lore and the reasons why it got there.

Lastly, please take a moment to cast your vote in the EBA Poll of the Week pertaining to all things Halo as we collectively Cry Havoc and Let Our Voices Be Heard!!! As always, thank in advance for your input and enjoy this week’s Member BattleCries here on EpicBattleAxe.com!

Cheers,
DK

Beyond the trailer though, I’m happy to inform you that EBA will, for the first time, attempt to join in on the madness that is a mega game launch by tasking YOU, the EBA Community, with chronicling your Halo: Reach launch night festivities in film, pictures, and/or words. That’s right, we’ll be using an upcoming edition of EpicBattleAxe.com’s RespawnAction by contributor Keith Swiader as the platform to celebrate all things Halo and feature YOUR words, YOUR pics, YOUR YouTube vids and possibly more.

So, if you’re planning on doing the launch night thing, then plan on equipping yourself properly in order to share your experience with the EBA Community. We’ll post the best of the bunch just before we get busy playing Reach.

Sound fun? Good…it’s supposed to be!

UPDATE: FYI, feel free to send your images, written impressions, and/or YouTube links pertaining to your Halo: Reach launch experience to the ‘Axe staff via: staff[at]epicbattleaxe.com