Xbox 360 Fanboy

It's happened to all of us. There's a game on Xbox Live Arcade that you want for the ever attractive price of 400 MS Points. You don't have any points, so you decide to buy some. But what's this? You can only purchase them in multiples of 500, leaving you with useless leftover points. This begs the question, why can't you buy the exact amount you need? 1UP's Patrick Klepek asked just this question of Xbox 360 group product manager Aaron Greenberg. While we've always assumed that spare change is produced in order to entice users to spend more money so they can spend more Microsoft Points, Greenberg has a different answer. "The reason why we do that, the core reason, is around credit card transaction fees," says Greenberg, adding, "If we do this in bulk, we don't have to burden the consumer with the transaction fees, or ourselves or publishers." He conceded that it's annoying to end up with odd leftover points, but added that Microsoft isn't planning on changing the system anytime soon.

So there you have it folks, you're spending extra money so you can save money. Simple, right?

[Via Joystiq]

During the Gamerscore Blog's Lunchtime Conversation, Xbox group product manager Aaron Greenberg defended the pricing for Pac-Man Championship Edition. Greenberg went on to say that Pac-Man CE is not a simple port of the old game, but is almost a sequel in it's own right with new gameplay, artwork, music and HD implementation added. So, he feels that the 800 Microsoft points that the game costs is more than reasonable for what you're getting.

And if you're a regular Fancast listener, you'll know that we were all impressed by the new Championship Edition and most of us were happy to plop down our Microsoft points. We also agree that it's more of a sequel than anything else, but it's ultimately up to you if you think 800 points is worth a new (and extremely fun) Pac-Man experience. So, is the pricing overkill or is it in line with other Arcade offerings?

Update 2: The announcement has been made. Click here for full details. We hope your weren't expecting too much.

Word on the street (that is, Gamertag Radio) is that a major Xbox announcement is dropping tomorrow, set to coincide with the final round of the Pac-Man World Championship. Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg dropped the hint via an instant message session with GTR's Godfree. What the hell is this announcement about? We have no idea, only Greenberg's cryptic words, "we have a secret unveil for gamers around the world that I think will go down in video game history."

What in the world could it possibly be? Does it have anything to do with Ignition, Microsoft's new music initiative? We've contacted Microsoft to see if we can dig anything up, and we'll let you know as soon as we hear anything.

In the meantime, start speculating! What could it be?

Update 1: We've learned from Aaron Greenberg that the announcement will take place tomorrow between 12:30 and 1:30 pm Eastern Time. And, before this gets out of hand, we've heard rumblings that this announcement won't be huge, but that it should be relatively cool nonetheless.

After the Microsoft blogger's breakfast (which will be written up shortly) we caught up with Xbox Live's Aaron Greenberg (also known as BIGVIP) for a quick chat. Unfortunately, we lacked the presence of mind to shoot a candid photo, so we present you with this handsome stock photo instead. We can tell you, however, that he was wearing this shirt. Along with Spencer from Siliconera, we had a chance to ask Greenberg a few questions. When asked about specific Arcade releases, in this case Ikaruga, Raiden IV, and Every Extend Extra Extreme. Greenberg said that it's rare for the team to concentrate on distant games. According to Greenberg, in the world of "internet time" he mainly focuses on games coming out within the next 6 to 8 weeks. In other words, don't expect Ikaruga anytime soon. He did mention that the XBLA games on display here at GDC -- Minigolf Adventures, Boom Boom Rocket, Jetpack Refuelled, etc -- will be released within a few months. We should get some hands on time with these games later this week.

We asked about the possibility of seeing some RPGs on Xbox Live Arcade, and Greenberg said there was no reason we couldn't see them, citing Castlevania as an example of a deeper Arcade experience, though perhaps not a traditional RPG.

When asked about the possibility of Final DOOM hitting the Arcade -- its ESRB entry was recently discovered -- he noted that Id is definitely interested. Talking about DOOM's surprise launch last year during X06, Greenberg said that their were more surprise launches involving famous franchises in the future. So, RPGs heading to Live Arcade ... surprise launches ... famous franchises. Anyone care to make some wild speculation?

File this one under bizarre: Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg, Xbox Live Marketing Manager, appeared on Eminem's SIRIUS radio station, Shade 45. As you would imagine, Shade 45 is nothing but straight up hip-hop. While the juxtaposition of a Microsoft exec and a hip-hop station is too delicious to comprehend, we have it on good authority that Aaron Greenberg is all about hip-hop, son. Who'd a thunk it? Of course, somewhat more shocking is the gesture Greenberg is flashing in the above image (posing with Shade 45 hosts, Lord Sear and Rude Jude). Do with that what you will.

Anybody catch Greenberg when he was on?