There has been a metric gigabyte worth of inconsequential video game news this week. Of course, that metric system can get rather confusing, so allow me to do the converting for you: not eight, not ten, but nine trivial news stories lie beyond the break for you, the gamer who doesn’t know the meaning of “too informed.”

Rumor: Nintendo dropping Wii price to $150 on May 15th
The date doesn’t make so much sense to me, what with E3 providing the perfect announcement opportunity less than a month after the alleged date, but a price cut does seem reasonable for a console that’s routinely being outsold by the competition these days.

Frank West Regains The Lead Role In Dead Rising 2: Off The Record, A Surprising Remake
In a somewhat perplexing move, Capcom has decided to re-imagine Dead Rising 2, less than seven months old, with Dead Rising 1‘s beloved Frank West replacing the sequel’s protagonist, Chuck Greene. The changes extend to both gameplay and story, so it’s certainly more substantial than some new skins, but the whole idea is very strange, to say the least. Is this some sort of cost-cutting maneuver that will enable the developer to make a third sequel without having to create the assets for a new setting?

Rumor: Free-to-Play Games Coming to Xbox Live
A “trusted source” tells IGN that F2P games will be making their way to XBL “sometime next year.” This has the potential to be cool, and rather game-changing for the industry’s current business model, but in reality, it will probably amount to underutilized shovelware.

Are You Ready for Ads in Your Achievements?
This is nothing more than a business pitch at this point, but you have to think that somebody is going to try this out. Essentially, it offers real-world rewards through achievements while advertising the companies that give these rewards. Pass for four touchdowns in a game of Madden and get a free Big Mac at your local McDonalds. In theory, it doesn’t sound so bad, but the potential for this to go horribly, horribly wrong in practice is what’s more likely to happen. Not to mention, I can’t see the industry’s more respectable developers letting advertising into their games.

LA Noire to feature PS3-exclusive content, ‘Consul’s Car Traffic Case’
Another throw-away exclusive case that in all likelihood will end up in a DLC pack with the disparate pre-order exclusives a couple months from now. Does anybody care? Wait…I think I know one guy.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Escalation DLC due May 3
You already know everything you need to know without clicking the link.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D Gets A Release Date
And that date would be–drum roll–June 19th. Give us Skyward Sword now, please.

Twisted Metal exploding Oct. 4
I don’t get the appeal of this game at all. I guess you have to be kind of twisted for it to appeal to you. Get it? Twisted! Har, har, har har, har.

New Tony Hawk game likely for 2012
Unless it’s set on the moon, I don’t care. Tony Hawk games were never realistic, so I don’t know why Activision likes to pretend they are.

And that’s all folks. Maybe there will be something worth it’s own headline next week!

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The site is live now. So go ahead and join up. You’ll get Microsoft Points for stuff you already do. Yay!!!

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Awful music not included.

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Upset with The $50 disparity between Xbox Live and PlayStation Network (as in, PSN is free)? Upset with all those ads on your Xbox dashboard despite the fees you pay? Well then, you probably won’t be happy to hear this. Starting November 1st, the annual fee for XBL Gold Membership is going up to $60. The month-by-month plan is also rising from $8 to $10, while the three-month plan is going up from $20 to $25. But it’s not all bad! Microsoft will be offering discounts on the service up until the new price is implemented. Specifically, you can get a full year of service for $40 right now, $10 cheaper than usual.

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As you might know, in the days after E3 various retailers began to list Microsoft’s Kinect motion device at a price of $150–a hefty cost for a piece of hardware that doesn’t have a very appealing lineup of games and supposedly doesn’t work if the player is sitting down. Microsoft repeatedly stated that the retailers were just speculating with placeholder prices and that Kinect’s pricing hadn’t been officially announced. Well, it still hasn’t been, but Microsoft’s own store is now offering pre-orders at the $150 price point. Granted, the site clearly says that the official price hasn’t been announced and that it’s subject to change, plus all pre-orders are protected by price guarantee in the event of a price change, but it’s still telling on Microsoft’s part. For the sake of my waning interest in Kinect, let us hope that the price does change.

And in other Microsoft related news, the company recently started offering family plans for Xbox Live Gold Membership. The plans run $100 a year and allow up to four profiles on one account, so you no longer have to share your precious kills to death ratio with your spouse or siblings. And according to Kotaku, if you have multiple individual accounts right now, Microsoft will allow your remaining months of paid service to roll over into the family plan, potentially giving you the service free of extra charge.

If the accounts you are rolling into the plan have more credit than the $99 it costs to start the plan, Microsoft will extend your membership for the appropriate number of months.

I can see how gaming families might appreciate this new plan, but for loners like me, not really a big deal.

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Today, Wednesday, April 14th, 2010, is the original Xbox Live’s last hoorah before it is blown into the sky like so many Warthogs. So if you want to give Halo 2 one last spin before the old girl is put to pasture, now’s the time. Unfortunately, I have to work for most of the day. But with any luck, I’ll find at least a little bit of time for the game that made Xbox Live. Can’t they kill Halo 3 instead?

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1UP is reporting the sad news that the original Xbox will cease to support Xbox Live on April 15th, 2010. Not a big deal in of itself, but it is disheartening that original Xbox titles will no longer be playable on Live, even if played on a 360. So, yes, that means no more Halo 2. Bungie is apparently planning a big send off. I just might have to put the old girl in the disc tray one last time. Microsoft gives a bunch of “greatest benefit to the Xbox LIVE community” BS, but there better be something more than friend-cap alterations to back this move up. It’s just sad to see the game that build Xbox Live put out to pasture.

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Like sports? Like utilizing your 360 to the fullest? Well, if what 1UP‘s reporting turns out to be true, then you’re in luck! Apparently, Microsoft and Disney (parent company of ESPN) are in talks to provide live streaming of sporting events over Xbox Live. The content would be available for a “per-subscriber fee.” Whether that means an additional fee on top of Xbox Live Gold membership is unclear.

For now, this is still strictly rumor and even if it is true, it’s still just talks between the two companies. All I know is that as someone without cable, and therefore without ESPN, I would love to be able to watch Monday Night Football over Live.

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Amid the chaos of the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend, Stephen Toulouse, the man in charge of bringing down the Xbox Live ban hammer, delivered a sermon to be remembered. And because I can’t put it better myself, take this this Kotaku poster’s comment as a review: “A fantastic sketch that touches on the very essence of online douchebaggery.” Indeed.

Here’s the full transcript if you’re looking for some more laughs and insight into XBL’s “Vulcan” enforcement tool.

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Notice the distinct lack of any new games?

Just as I expected when the service was first announced, Microsoft’s Shane Kim has confirmed that there will be no games being released on the new service day and date with their retail counterparts. “We’re not anywhere close to that world today,” said Kim.

Here’s all of what Mr. Kim had to say:

There are a lot of complex issues to deal with here, especially if you start talking about day-and-date release with retail availability—which is not something that we’re talking about at all, today. And publishers have to do some technical work in order to enable this. There will be decisions that publishers have to make from a business standpoint. But when it comes to us saying we want Games on Demand to enable day-and-date release of new titles, then there’s certainly a lot of work we would need to go through. We’re not anywhere close to that world today. We have great relationships with the retail channel—they’re important partners. We sell a lot of hardware and software through retail channels. We have to be smart about how we approach this business.

via Kotaku

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