If you don’t have a Xbox Live Gold account, don’t fret. You’ll be able to frag people online in Halo 3 the weekend it’s released.Best Buy is sponsoring a free Gold weekend, from September 25th through the 27th. Since there will be millions of non-Gold members picking up the killer app, this will give them an opportunity to see if the Live Gold service is right for them. I’m sure Microsoft is going to be raking in the cash on Gold memberships in the end of September and early October is people grab Halo 3 and the 360.Not content with just giving free Gold membership for those days, Best Buy is giving out 8000 Microsoft Points to 144 randomly selected winners. Those winners will then be entered into a drawing for even bigger prizes, including a killer home theater setup and a tricked out Halo 3 themed Pontiac G6 GXP Street Edition. To enter, check the link here on September 25th to enter.Can anyone honestly say they would drive this car around town and not feel like a tool?

Guitar Hero II is a real fun game and when I heard you could download games it got even better, until I heard the price tag of the songs. Many people have expressed the same level of dislike in the pricy songs yet here we are with more than two million single songs accessed through the Xbox LIVE Marketplace since April. That is a lot of downloads of items people complained about and with Guitar Hero III scheduled to feature Master Tracks, Original Songs and more Downloadable Content, Activision will be swimming in cash in no time.

From the press release:

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Sep 11, 2007 - Downloadable Xbox 360 video game song packs for Activision, Inc.’s (Nasdaq:ATVI) Guitar HeroTM II hit multi-platinum status with more than 650,000 downloads through Xbox LIVE Marketplace® in less than five months, as defined by the music industry’s RIAA. Each downloadable pack contains three individual songs. Individual songs combined have topped the two million mark, making the Guitar Hero II packs some of the most downloaded content on Xbox LIVE Marketplace.
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Here is the second part of our interview with Brent Fox of Wahoo Studios/NinjaBee where he discusses with us some of his plans for the future as well as his preferences in development medium. He also talks about his thoughts on the PSN and VIrtual console, what is coming next and even a possible exclusive title only discussed with us.

Again we thank Brent and the folks at NinjaBee for the interview and the information. We will keep on the lookout for more great titles from this camp.

- Any plans to develop titles for PSN or Wiiware?

We love Xbox Live Arcade but we are also certainly open to other possibilities. We plan on maintaining our position as a driving force in downloadable console games and we will see where that takes us.

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We recently had a chance to ask a few questions of Brent Fox, Art Director and partial company owner over at Wahoo Studios/NinjaBee about what his thoughts were on the future of their game developments and how they first got started in the business.

NinjaBee is a pretty big contributor to the Xbox Live Arcade and has many downloadable games like Cloning Clyde, Band of Bugs, Outpost Kaolki X, etc. also available for PC.

We broke this up into two parts to make it an easier read, expect the second part tomorrow.

- How was NinjaBee started?

At Wahoo Studios we had done a lot of development work for publishers. In fact, that was really all we had ever done. We had an idea for a game so we did what we always did and made a demo to pitch to publishers. It wasn’t the type of game that was typically found on a console. We talked to a lot of developers and it seemed to be too risky for all of these publishers. We had a friend suggest that we make it a downloadable PC game and sell it on our own. We spent the time to convert it to a PC game and, without knowing anything about the downloadable market, released our first PC game.
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There was a glitch on the Xbox 360 which allowed users to pass their COD4 Beta unlock code onto friends. The glitch has now been fixed, and the 23,000 people who took advantage have now been temporarily banned from Xbox Live.

The current POR is to issue a 24-hour console lockout that will prevent these 23k users from using their consoles to sign in to LIVE. These users will also receive a message in the dash with an explanation as to why their console has been locked out for 24 hours for violating the LIVE TOU [Terms of Use] and a warning that more severe actions may be taken if they attempt a similar action in the future (console could be banned permanently, etc.). Again, this is not a permanent console ban - it’s more of a “slap on the wrist” and a warning to these 23k users who used this exploit

So there you go. Don’t try to get into a beta test if you aren’t supposed to… your online access may get revoked.

Around 5:00 PM EST, I got home from work and fired up BioShock. There was an auto-update screen that I obviously had to accept. As of now, 5:22 Pm EST, there is no sight or sound of any reason for this post. There are no multiplayer aspects of this game at all. What could the update be for? New content?

If you sign on to Xbox Live, you should have a new message from the service letting you know of some scheduled downtime on September 10th.

Xbox Live will be going down for a service upgrade on September 10, 2007 starting at 2:01 PDT and lasting for approximately 4 hours.

So if you planned on playing into the wee hours of the morning (on the left coast) next Monday, you might want to revise your plans. Hopefully it will only take 4 hours this time, but who knows. The past 2 scheduled downtimes for Xbox Live ended up being a whole lot longer than scheduled. Expect human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together - mass hysteria.

This almost unbelievable story came across the Loot Ninja desk today and we were absolutely stunned. According to this report, if you dare to type in the word Linux in your motto, you will be greeted by this message:

Someone please try this and let us know. Also, what other words did MS band besides the obvious?

The long anticipated Puzzle Fighter HD has dropped in on Xbox Live Arcade today and chimes in at $10. This classic puzzle game mixes together two great things, Street Fighter and Tetris, together they make an awesome team. I spent many hours in high school playing this against friends and my wife, (who is better than me) nothing beats watching super cute versions of Street Fighter & Capcom characters pummel each other as you destroy gems. I am looking forward to seeing how this plays in both HD and with new drop patterns made specially for the new version.

From Major Nelson:

Content: Puzzle Fighter HD
Price: 800 Microsoft Points
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With all the hype surrounding the launch of Puzzle Fighter HD on Xbox Live Arcade everyone ignored the release of Streets of Rage 2. Coming in at $5 and providing both online and offline co-op play, this is a must pick up. So once you finish gettign Puzzle Fighter go grab this title as well.

From Major Nelson:

Content: Streets of Rage 2
Price: 400 Microsoft Points
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