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Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg touts holiday exclusives, 360 sales growth in down economy

by Ben Gilbert { Oct 16th 2009 at 1:30PM }

Namedropping exclusives from Halo 3: ODST to Grand Theft Auto: Episodes From Liberty City to Shadow Complex, as well as reaffirming Microsoft's "year-to-date growth in console sales compared to last year," Microsoft's director of product management Aaron Greenberg sounds extremely confident in the Xbox 360 (that's his job, right?). Thankfully, he's not always above admitting when his competitors are going to win. "When NPD releases September sales later today, we fully expect PlayStation 3 will come in as the console with the most units sold for the month," he tells Game Informer in a recent interview.

Unsurprisingly, though, he's sanguine on the prospect of Microsoft's console beating out Sony's. "We remain confident that Xbox 360 will not only outsell PS3 for the full calendar year, but for this entire generation." His confidence wanes though when asked about beating Apple with the Zune HD, offering only, "Our strategy has always been to completely focus on delivering the best games and entertainment experience in the living room and not get distracted by anything else." Gotta know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em, right?

[Image credit: gamerscore]

Ogle Chair's hand-drawn Shadow Complex map

by Justin McElroy { Oct 14th 2009 at 1:15PM }

It's a sad testament to how much we loved Shadow Complex that we were able to spend several happy minutes simply poring over Chair's hand-drawn proto-map for the game, as obtained by MTV Multiplayer. As an added bonus, we got to hear the story of Chair staffers playing the game with their imaginations, tracing a stick figure's journey through a giant-sized version of the map as they tried to perfectly balance the experience.

Golly! Imagination? Non-electronic games? What will video game developers think of next?

Xbox Live Top 10: Halo 3, Trials HD, Forza 3 demo

by David Hinkle { Oct 6th 2009 at 2:45PM }

As our more astute readers likely gathered from this very post's headline, another week has gone, so it's about time we checked in with Major Nelson to see what made his list of the most-played games on Xbox Live. Unsurprisingly, Bungie's dynamic duo of Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST managed to do well, taking the first and third spots, respectively -- Call of Duty 4 was in the second slot, while Forza 3's demo managed to get some play time on folks' boxes, taking a tight turn into the seventh place spot.

On the XBLA side, Trials HD did backflips to the top of the list, beating out recent releases Zombie Apocalypse and Bust-A-Move Live!. The remainder of the XBLA list saw favorites Battlefield 1943 and Shadow Complex rounding out the bottom end of the top five.

XBLA Summer of Arcade sales grow 200%

by Xav de Matos { Sep 22nd 2009 at 9:58AM }

Microsoft had a good summer, according to the company's summary of Xbox Live events. 1 vs. 100 reached nearly 3 million gamers during its beta season by Microsoft's estimates, and the Summer of Arcade Xbox Live Arcade promotion enjoyed a reported 200 percent growth in revenue over last year's sales.

While Microsoft has already relished in Metroidvania success, a press release claims that Trials HD and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 also performed well in first-week sales; and both titles join Shadow Complex in the top five bestselling week-one XBLA games of all time. Sales were no doubt boosted by a cloudy economy that kept folks indoors and looking for inexpensive entertainment. Microsoft capitalized, too, by raising the average price of its Summer of Arcade titles.

During last year's promotion, three of the five Summer of Arcade games were priced at $10, but this year, only two of the five were $10 -- the other three costing $15 apiece. (It's unclear if Microsoft counts Battlefield 1943's sales toward revenue growth; the $15 title was not technically part of Summer of Arcade this year.)

Microsoft also saw success in its bold, new free entertainment department. 1 vs. 100 averaged more than half a million users during each of the game show's live sessions. According to Microsoft, the game's near "three-million" downloads within its 13-week availability places 1 vs. 100 within the top ten downloads in Xbox Live history. If we've learned anything on this gloomy fall morning, it's that people like summer gaming and Microsoft has way too many "top" lists cluttering up its offices.

Shadow Complex cheaters will have scores deleted, Gamerscore reset

by Alexander Sliwinski { Sep 16th 2009 at 11:30AM }

Chair Entertainment is ready to lay the smack down on Shadow Complex cheaters. Major Nelson sends word that Microsoft will take action this week against those "verified as cheaters," deleting their records from the Shadow Complex leaderboards, as well as resetting their associated accounts' Gamerscore. Worse still, said accounts will be branded on Xbox.com (and dashboard) as belonging to cheaters.

For those looking to brush up on what constitutes cheating on Xbox Live, feel free to review Microsoft's policy on "Gamerscore corrections." Of course, if you're a cheater, then you probably already know.

Shadow Complex sets week-one sales record

by James Ransom-Wiley { Aug 31st 2009 at 5:40PM }

That's, um, sales of single-player games (multiplayer ones don't count!). And, uh, you know, we're just talking about Xbox Live Arcade titles -- not that clarifying this awfully specific sales record is an attempt to take away from the much-deserved success of Chair's excellent Shadow Complex or the 200,000-plus downloaders (much of the Joystiq staff included) who didn't wait long to cash in 1200

.

Still, we're not going to label Shadow Complex's sales Achievement® (as Microsoft does) the "New Era of Downloadable Games." It takes far too much effort to produce a decent Metroidvania experience than it does a mediocre dual-stick shooter, after all.

We will, however, join in on the not-so-subtle peer pressuring. Seriously, you still haven't purchased Shadow Complex? Shame on you. (So ... just direct deposit that check, cool? Thanks Microsoft!)

Gallery: Shadow Complex

Xbox Live Top 10 dominated by Shadow Complex, CoD: World at War

by David Hinkle { Aug 25th 2009 at 12:30PM }

Major Nelson has revealed the latest figures for Xbox Live activity, which once again sees Call of Duty: World at War being the most played Xbox 360 Live title. That's not to say it's all business as usual, as the Lost Planet 2 co-op demo managed to claw its way onto the list, along with a new Xbox Live Arcade pair, Shadow Complex and Trials HD.

Both titles made it onto the top two spots on XBLA's most played list, with Chair's Metroid-inspired adventure making its debut in first place. The remainder is comprised of usual suspects Battlefield 1943, Marvel vs Capcom 2 and 'Splosion Man.

Community teamwork solves Shadow Complex speed run mystery

by Xav de Matos { Aug 22nd 2009 at 6:00PM }

For fans of speed runs, Shadow Complex housed a clever secret that allows gamers to skip most of the game and complete it in record time. Surrounding the mystery was knowledge that players are able to obtain the Foam ability within the first 15 minutes of gameplay. Over the last few days (since its August 19 release), gamers across multiple message boards compiled data and quotes, and tried brilliant ideas to crack the code.

And they blew it wide open. If a certain number of tasks are completed within a short time frame, gamers are able to bypass an entire section of the game, landing them within a few rooms of the Foam ability.

Spoiler Warning! YouTube user Nogarda1 showcases the steps needed to cleverly infiltrate the enemy base after the break.

Continued →

These Metroidvania games are neither Metroid nor Vania

by JC Fletcher { Aug 20th 2009 at 9:00PM }

"Metroidvania" is a term used to describe side-scrolling games with large, open worlds, new areas of which are accessible only with certain items or powerups. Take away the side-scrolling element, and you've got Zelda; take away the powerups, and you've got Pitfall. It's named after the two most famous series to make use of the format, Metroid and (later) Castlevania.

Shadow Complex has suddenly thrown the Metroidvania genre back into mainstream gamers' attention, thanks to its fancy graphics and being an Xbox 360 game. It isn't the first game that isn't a Metroid or Castlevania to apply this formula -- in fact, many developers stumbled upon the Metroidvania formula or a close variant even before Symphony of the Night.

Join us on a brisk tour of some notable free-roaming games. If you are overcome by Metroidvania fever, you can read more detailed writeups of many of the games in GameSpite's ToastyWiki.

Click here to start your adventure!

Why Shadow Complex credits a multiplayer tester

by Justin McElroy { Aug 19th 2009 at 7:00PM }

Those of you who've blown through Shadow Complex already (shame on you, it should be savored) may have noticed a strange anomaly during the credits. The game (which is single-player only) credits T.J. Duez as the sole member of the game's multiplayer test team. We emailed developer Chair and parent company Epic to get the skinny.

"The only explanation I can offer is that we used a lot Epic's internal testers for the game and since they have a number of multiplayer games, that might just be his title at Epic," said Chair's Laura Mustard. "Otherwise, he's got a pretty good gig as there's not much multiplayer testing that can be done on a game that is single-player only, right?" Epic's Mark Rein concurred, adding "We have testers at Epic who specialize in multi-player testing and probably one of them helped out on Shadow Complex in their spare time."

Sorry, gang. Sounds like if you were hoping for co-op complex crawling, you're going to be waiting a while.

Spoiler Warning: Shadow Complex secrets and strategies

by Xav de Matos { Aug 19th 2009 at 5:00PM }

With Shadow Complex closing out the second Summer of Arcade today, the Joystiq crew has been hard at work compiling a series of videos and images to help would-be explorers unlock the secrets of Chair Entertainment's latest adventure.

Of course (as the headline would indicate) this feature is filled to the brim with spoilers and strategies necessary to unlock some of Shadow Complex's many secrets. If you're looking for a Shadow Complex news fix, this isn't the feature for you ... but if you want to know where (and how) to find most of the game's hidden gems, jump in.

Gallery: Shadow Complex

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X3F TV -- XBLA in Brief: Shadow Complex

by Richard Mitchell { Aug 19th 2009 at 3:15PM }

This week's XBLA in Brief is a little different. Normally we only take the trial version for a spin, but we were lucky enough to get our hands on the full version of Shadow Complex last week, so we've spent quite a bit of time with it. We've already handed the game a great review, now you can see what all the fuss is about.

The full version is 1200

($15).

Download the trial version of Shadow Complex

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Shadow Complex launch trailer

by Richard Mitchell { Aug 17th 2009 at 6:45PM }

You know that Shadow Complex is good, right? Yeah, well, it is, and this trailer aims to make sure you know it. Apart from a liberal sprinkling of impressive-sounding critical quotes, there's also some gameplay in there, too. If you hold an Xbox 360 controller as you watch it, you can pretend that you're playing it right now. If you take a controller to work, you can pretend to play at work, too!

Until you can actually play the real thing, It's really the only sensible thing to do.

Review: Shadow Complex (XBLA)

by Christopher Grant { Aug 17th 2009 at 9:15AM }

Let's get this out of the way: You'll need to forgive Shadow Complex its generic trappings. For one of the most hyped elements of the production, author Orson Scott Card's contributions are underwhelming. The hero (everyman Jason Fleming but let's call him ... Nathan Bourne) and the story are both entirely forgettable; however, the real star of the game comes from the other half of this collaboration: the gameplay. Put simply, Shadow Complex is the easiest Xbox Live Arcade recommendation I can make and one of the best games of the year.

Gallery: Shadow Complex

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Orson Scott Card talks 'Shadow Complex' and the future of 'Empire'

by Xav de Matos { Aug 11th 2009 at 10:00PM }

Beyond being an award-winning author, Orson Scott Card has some gaming cred on his resume. An avid old school gamer himself, Card has worked on a few notable game projects, including The Secret of Monkey Island, for which he penned the swordfighting insults. On August 19, Card returns to gaming by creating the world that surrounds Shadow Complex, which runs parallel to the events in Card's best-selling novel, Empire.

However, unlike his experience working on the poorly-received game Advent Rising -- which Card was brought into late to develop the game's story -- the author and Chair Entertainment collaborated from the beginning to bring the Empire book trilogy and Shadow Complex to life. "They do their thing and I do mine. Two very different arts end up working together to tell the same story," Card told Variety. Card says, he enjoys Shadow Complex's main character so much, he suspects readers will see Jason Flemming (voiced by Nolan North) appear in a future novel within the universe. Shadow Complex's story was written by Star Trek novelist Peter David.

Card also notes that he is confident he has "come up with something" to allow future games in the series to be different. "Nothing would be worse than if they play the second game is the same as the first," Card said. Apparently in Card's world, gamers love change.