To prove that they love Europe, Microsoft has announced the Xtival ‘07 exclusively for the European countries.  This event includes free Gold membership to all LIVE members, competitions, downloads and more!

• The Xbox Live Xtival ’07 takes place from 23-26 November 2007.
• During this time Xbox Live Gold membership will be free to everyone.
• To take part all you need to do is plug in your Xbox 360 to a broadband connection and sign in.
• There will be a full line-up of Xbox Live events, competitions and exclusive downloads to enjoy.
• Headline acts will be announced soon on Xbox.com
• Xtival ’07 is only taking place in European countries with Xbox Live.

I look forward to see how this turns out, even if I don’t live in Europe, tell us what you think in our forums!

-Mike Skiles

Will Wright has never hesitated to show his love for Nintendo’s Wii, even going so far to say that the Wii is the only “true” next gen platform.  Well to show that love, Mr. Wright has revealed that the Wii version of Spore is currently in development during a recent interview with Guardian Unlimited.

We’re doing Spore on the Wii, and we did MySims. It takes signifcant re-thinking to work out how you’re going to do it. PS3 and Xbox 360 are similar enough that you can basically use the same system for both. So it comes down to what the interesting major platforms are and which markets we want to hit.

No more info was provided involving expected release dates, port specifics, or gameplay changes but be sure to check back for the latest updates on this anticipated title. 

Thank you dpl for the news, head over to our forums to share your excitement!

-Mike Skiles

Capcom has announced that they have shipped 1 million copies of Resident Evil 4 for the Wii.  Originally released back in 2005 for the Gamecube, Resident Evil 4 continues to sell well on every platform it has been ported to including the PS2, PC, and now the Wii. 

With games like Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles and the recently announced Monster Hunter 3 in development, great sales like this should only strengthen Capcom’s commitment to the Wii.

Discuss!

-Mike Skiles

Miss Wii60 has officially begun. Many nominess are still needed before we can kick off the polls. So what are you waiting for?!?! Go nominate your favorite members. Link after the pic.

Nominate here!

Prepare yourselves for quite possibly the longest WiiRanty ever, guys.  I’ve been pondering lately if the Wii might meet a similar situation to the Atari, though not in the way many of you might expect.  I originally posted this on the forums of The Escapist, and it was met with a very positive reaction and excellent discussion.  So, I have also chosen to share it with you guys.

If you would like to submit a WiiRanty yourself, e-mail it over to ccesarano [at] wii60 [dot] com.

Is Wii the Next Atari?
by Chris Cesarano (a.k.a. Grohdinger)

I know a lot of you are already prepped to disagree with me. Some of you may even link the Atari with the video game crash around 1982 (or was it ‘83?). However, I don’t think it’s too far off a concept, though it may not be understood immediately.

Everyone knows that the Wii is selling big right now. Even Nintendo didn’t expect this level of success. The hardcore gaming audience is eating it up, the casual gaming audience is absorbing it, and even the mainstream non-gamers are grabbing onto it. A lot of people believe Nintendo figured out how to reach out to the audience no other company could get to latch onto gaming. So, it can only go up from here, right?

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While Activision, Neversoft and Red Octane are going the Bungie.net route for Guitar Hero 3, Harmonix, EA and MTV are going the MySpace.com by making RockBand’s website more community based than competition based.  There will be customizeable personal and band pages, classified pages for finding other members to form a band, blogs, forums and a photo creator.  Leaderboards will be available, but it seems that the primary idea behind the site is to get people interacting with each other on the web space.

The site will go live when the game is released stateside on November 20th, with the PS2 version coming on December 18th.  Europe, you guys are getting it sometime early 2008.  What else is new?

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

If you’re enough of a fighting game nut, you know about Arcade-in-a-Box. I see the fighting game crowd use these things constantly at my school’s gaming club. It’s part of that “authentic arcade experience” or whatnot. So, if you’re a big fan of fighting games on the 360, then you’re in luck as there are some joystick controllers heading your way.

The bonus to the Xbox 360 controller is that it will also work on your Windows PC, which is just sweet. The downside is that the single player option will cost you $149, and the dual play will cost you $299. That basically means whether the thing is set up for one person or two. Honestly, you’d have to either be in the money to consider a purchase like that or a die hard fighting game fan.

Of course, the 360 controller is also set up for the Xbox Live Arcade games, to bring back some of the old school fun and feel of games like Galaga and Pac-Man, so you don’t necessarily have to be a fan of fighting games. Nonetheless, you have to have a lot of money and a lot of love for the stick to consider a purchase like this worthwhile.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

EA has announced that Army of Two has been delayed until early 2008, though no specific day of release was given. EA Games president Frank Gibeau has stated that the game was delayed to give it more polish, as they want to make sure they get the first game right to establish a franchise.

If you’re sitting there wondering if this is the same EA that’s been responsible for ruining existing franchises and driving them into the ground, well, it is. Nonetheless, they have their diamonds in the rough, and this could be one of them. Those that had this on their winter wish lists can now use that money for other things.

- Chris Cesarano (Grohdinger)

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Capcom has announced that they plan to release Devil May Cry 4 this February.  The game follows Nero, a new character in the series, as he tries to protect the city of Fortuna from demons.  Players will also be able to take control of Dante once again, unraveling his role in this adventure. 

More info after the jump….

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