Let’s start with a kudos to Microsoft for some brutal honesty about the process of technology engineering in the modern landscape. Going so far as to openly state that many projects “will fail, and fail fast” isn’t the kind of happy propaganda you normally see from a publicly traded company.
A new team is forming in Microsoft’s entertainment division with a specific purpose: to push the envelope of today’s and tomorrow’s technology as we explore new ideas from the ground floor. It begins with veterans from Xbox 360, Xbox LIVE, and Kinect. But we’re growing as quickly as our imaginations can be translated into code.
Joining this team comes with risks. Most of what we work on is top-secret; you may not know what your new project is until you’ve accepted an offer. Not all of our ideas will fly. We will fail, and fail fast, on some projects. We will celebrate those failures because they are vital to making sure the right ideas take off in a big way.
If you want a comfortable, standard-role job at Microsoft with no ambiguity or risk, please don’t apply. But if you’re passionate about the potential for Kinect to continue to revolutionize entertainment and are a seasoned software engineer with the skills to prototype and build the future of premium Kinect-powered experiences, we have a growing team of talented people who want to take entertainment into the future.
In this role your technical skills and creativity will be pushed to their limits as you weave together disparate technologies to tell the story of what the future of entertainment will look like. You’ll learn more than you even knew existed about machine vision, data mining, AI, voice recognition, and embedded systems.
You’ll become an expert in one or more of those areas. You will work on a truly agile team to build and iterate on prototypes to evolve and demonstrate our creative vision.
It’s a bit of scary ad for a job, but it will definitely appeal to the right crowd. Are you that crowd? Apply here.
Speaking of want ads, Sony has all but outed a sequel to PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale through a couple of ads for an art director and game designer. Other than some very justifiable complaints regarding the roster, the game has been well-reviewed and received. A sequel seems obvious doesn’t it?
The idea of a Hitman HD Trilogy surfaced just before the release of Hitman: Absolution, and it has now been confirmed as a very real plan. Unfortunately, it is only a trilogy, featuring Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Hitman: Contracts, and Hitman: Blood Money. The first game will not be included. The collection will be coming in January 2013. A premium edition will also be available for the collector types who want an art book of reinterpreted images from the three games. Not sure how good the book will be, but the cover art is definitely one of the best I’ve seen recently; it definitely captures the feel of Agent 47’s series.
Speaking of cover art, Irrational Games has heard a few complaints about the planned cover for BioShock Infinite and they’re taking a page from Bioware’s book. You may recall voting for the stock male/female Shepard appearances years ago, and the reversible cover Mass Effect 3. Irrational has released several alternate covers and would like you to vote on which will be the reversible option for your game case. Head on over to their official site to vote, but do it soon. They’ve got printing deadlines to meet. And what if your favorite doesn’t win? They’ll be making all of these images, and possibly more, available for you to print your own covers. As a reminder, the game is coming March 26, 2013.
Another round of server shutdowns are coming for EA Sports titles. If you’ve still got online trophies/achievements to hunt/whore, better get them in quick. These titles from 2010 will be shutting down January 11, 2013: FIFA 11, NBA Jam, Madden NFL 11, NCAA Football 11 and NHL 11. According to EA, these titles get shut down as their player numbers dwindle. Currently these titles make up about 1% of customer playtime. Sucks for those who still love the games, but it makes sense to devote your resources to the 99%, not the 1%. And no, that’s not necessarily a political statement.
Looking for some big discounts on XBLA items? Look no further than the Countdown to 2013 sale! There are a bunch of items that will be on continuous sale from December 18-31, while each day during the sale will have its own theme. Here are the themes for each day, followed by the “permanent” list:
- December 18th – Modern Warfare 3 & DLC
- 19th – LEGO Games
- 20th – Platformers
- 21st – Rockstar Games
- 22nd – To Be Announced
- 23rd – Summer of Arcade 2012 revisited
- 24th – Trials HD and Trials Evolution w/ DLC
- 25th – Kinect Family (of course)
- 26th – To Be Announced
- 27th – Borderlands
- 28th – The Walking Dead
- 29th – Family Games
- 30th – Fighting Games
- 31st – The Elder Scrolls
- Full sale period
- Frogger: Hyper Arcade Edition
- Joe Danger 2: The Movie
- Zuma’s Revenge!
- The Simpsons Arcade Game
- Wreckateer
- Plants vs. Zombies
- Peggle and PeggleNights Content Pack
- Fire Pro Wrestling
- SONIC 4 Episode II
- Sonic The Hedgehog 2
- RAW
- A World of Keflings – with Sugar, Spice and Not So Nice and It Came From Outer Space
- Kinect Party
- Jet Set Radio
- A number of Games on Demand titles still to be announced.
Gearbox has revealed the next planned DLC for Borderlands 2. The three trophies/achievements revealed for “Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt” task you with visiting all the locations, finishing the side missions, and completing the final DLC mission. Price and date are not confirmed, but it is part of the Season Pass so expect to swing the same amount of cash as you did for the last two ($9.99). A big patch has also just released, leading me to believe this is dropping on Tuesday, much as happened with “Campaign of Carnage.”