Age of Empires III has gone platinum, and has become the fastest selling title in the Age of Empires franchise history. That's a million units sold since it was released in October. Wow. To celebrate, Ensemble Studios (the developer) will host a worldwide...

Right after the earnings announcement last week, (acting) CFO Bryan Lee met up with Gamespot's Tor Thorson, to answer some specific questions about the launch, console and games sales, and our plans for the next year. Gamespot just published Q&A:...

Great post called Why Shipping Marble Blast Ultra On XBox 360 Is Important For Indie Game Developers, Part 1 , by Jeff Tunnell, GarageGames developer of Marble Blast Ultra . If you haven't played the game yet, get online and download the demo! Jeff talks...

Who says playing Xbox can't prepare you for college? Michigan State University has a course called Digital Games & Society . As homework, students post entries to a " Student Blog ." There are some very interesting posts, actually got me thinking...

I don't have to tell you that Larry Hryb ( Major Nelson ) is your best friend in the Xbox product group. You can always count on him to keep you up to speed on what's happening with Xbox and Xbox Live. I ran into him in the cafeteria today, and we talked...

Rise of Legends producer Tim Train delivered his "developer diary" to Gamespot last week. In an article called " Magic Meets Technology in 20 Minutes ," Tim gives some insight into what to expect with the upcoming game, and explains how this new game...

In a post to the Age of Empires III Developer Blog , Bruce Shelley offers some background on the update that was posted recently. Patch 1.04: This update was made necessary by the crush of people going online around Christmas, possibly because...

One of the perks of working for a multi-national corporation is the free snacks. At multiple times throughout the day, people put out snacks, gift baskets with food in them, their baked goods, etc. In the kitchen yesterday, someone put out what I consider...

Just after the earnings announcements today, we announced some new launch dates in Asia Pacific for the Xbox 360. From the media alert : “The new launch dates have been set due to unprecedented global consumer demand stemming from challenges in...

With our Q2 earnings announcement complete, a bit more of the story emerges from the number crunchers. As a public company, there’s a lot we can’t say, especially in a blog post. Because the company is owned by shareholders, we have to tell them what...

I know when I play Xbox, I tend to firmly plant my buttocks into the corner of our couch, pop my feet up on the cushions, and grab the controller in a very ergonomically-unfriendly position--for hours at a time. Gotta get this game! (I know my kid's would...

Yesterday, I got an email from the father of a nine year old girl (not an employee), who reads this blog. He wrote: My 9 year old daughter came home last week with an in class assignment of creating a poster board about her highlights of 2005. To...

From the TeamXbox forums, I ran across this beauty by XTeCnoX . Not sure the marketing team will be paying the rights to have this played at our next press event, but for those of you who have an Xbox 360, you know what you'd do if someone got between...

There are smart and savvy gamers out there. Folks who know exactly what to do with a statement that starts with something like “I have a friend who works with a guy who knows a girl on the Xbox team responsible for backwards compatibility and I heard...

Let this be a warning for those of you thinking of taking your Xbox 360 to any upcoming beach parties… Beatrice Murch was walking along the beach in Northern California, when she found the remains of what looks like an Xbox. She posts more photos on her...

We have an internal alias here at Microsoft, for employees to have discussions, debates, ask (and even occasionally answer) questions, and sometimes complain. It's one of the most active discussion aliases (except maybe the Vista Beta...), getting an...

One of our official Xbox MVPs from down under, New Zealander Xtramalt posts about the Xbox 360 Roadtrip , leading up to the launch of the Xbox 360. Sounds a bit like Zero Hour on wheels! Wonder how I can convince my boss that I need to do some, uh, research...

Now that the beta version of Final Fantasy XI is available , you might be wondering what the best way is to get started. DeathscytheHC (an Xbox MVP and resident FFXI expert who posts frequently in the Xbox .com forums) just posted some great tips on easing...

That's a line of "computer code." Fascinating, that computer code. It's part of some instructions on how to play Flight Sim 2004 with an Xbox controller. So hey again, everypeoples. Around these parts, we're all about the integration of Xbox 360 with...

This morning we sent out a press release announcing a partnership with 4Kids , the company responsible for the licensing of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pokémon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We'll be working on development of a unique children’s entertainment property...

Not too shabby. Kotaku posts the finalists for the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) awards and includes several Microsoft Xbox, Xbox 360, and Games for Windows titles. Still waiting for the AIAS website to post their official list, so I...

Happens to the best of ‘em. Last week, a story from Japanese website IT Media quoted a comment from Peter Moore about the expandability of the Xbox 360. In a classic case of taking something out of context, the story ended up making headlines on some...

Busy week, sorry for the delay in posting for a few days. My team has been at an offsite in sunny Las Vegas. A few that were here for CES last week stayed the weekend, and they tell me they’re totally ready to get home! So what does a typical Xbox...

Engadget , one of my favorite sites (and one of my favorite podcasts) had the chance to sit down with Bill Gates last week at CES. Peter Rojas did the interview, and posted the transcript on the site... Some highlights from The Engadget Interview: Bill...

For those keeping track, Microsoft announced our pricing for Hong Kong and Taiwan. The console is planned to go on sale on March 2. The Xbox 360 will be made available in Hong Kong and Taiwan in both versions, costing from US$380 for the Xbox 360 and...