Xbox 360 Fanboy

Before the NYC Guitar Hero II event with Gene Simmons got into full swing, Joystiq got the chance to sit down with Larry Hryb (AKA Major Nelson) and talk about all things Xbox. Speaking about the highly priced Guitar Hero II downloadable songs, Major Nelson states that it's not analogous to iTunes. In other words, the interactivity, the licensing, and the testing all go into creating a price for the new tracks. Furthermore, since the tracks are on a new platform, all the contracts have to be renegotiated. Of course, Red Octane wants to make some money as well. When asked about the bundling issue -- i.e. "I have to buy two crappy songs to get the one I like" -- Major Nelson says that bundling was probably done to bring the cost down. By working on three songs at once, rather than individual songs, Red Octane could conceivably cut down on development costs, thus reducing the price to consumers. In other words, individual songs would likely be even more expensive.

Major Nelson also discusses the upcoming Halo 3 beta, the competition from Sony, the Spring Update, and the Wii. Hit the "read" link for the full interview.

See Also:
Xbox 360 Fancast 010 (featuring Major Nelson)

We hinted at having a special guest on this upcoming Xbox 360 Fancast, and as it turns out, it will be Larry Hryb a.k.a. Major Nelson. We're thrilled at the chance to have him on our show, especially considering some of the current events this week. So, since we're going to be there, he's going to be there, and you're going to be listening, we figured you should be involved. So, do you have any questions for the Xbox Live Director of Programming? Obviously, inquiries about upcoming demos or patches may be a little tedious, so we're looking for unique and/or well thought out questions. You can either leave them in a comment, or shoot us an email at fancast [at] xbox360fanboy [dot] com.

Make no mistake, covering a conference is mind bending work. Getting a chance to stop and chat is a welcome respite. While waiting for the Microsoft RPG Panel to begin, we ran into Larry Hryb, better known as Xbox Live's Major Nelson. We had time to shoot the breeze about what's happening at GDC, including the super secret feature in Fable 2 (patience, it's coming). Before we ran off to do our blogging duty, we made sure to snag a picture of him holding his newly acquired and highly fashionable Sony swag bag. What was in it we can't say (a golden PSP perhaps) but we sure like those snazzy logos. Much to our shock and delight, Larry asked us why he hadn't been given the honor of appearing on the Xbox 360 Fancast.

Soon, Major, very soon.

Last week, Crackdown came on strong with bronze position on the Live top ten. Now it's swapped spots with Rainbow Six: Vegas as Call of Duty 3 continues to be just shy of the podium. GRAW 2's mulitplayer demo makes a return to take the Crackdown demo's position, which moved to 7th. Madden refuses to budge at sixth while Lost Planet and Oblivion get nudged to eighth and ninth, respectively. GRAW rounds out the bottom of the list while last, and obviously not least, Gears of War retains its top spot over all of Xbox Live-dom. Do you feel slightly confused? If so, our simple, yet eloquent list awaits your review after the break, complete with last weeks standings in parentheses.

We wouldn't normally suggest you watch anything on G4 (Cinematech is alright), but tonight could be something special. Tonight, Larry Hryb, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, will be featured on Attack of the Show's "The Loop" segment. The subject: microtransactions. Ooh, we smell a Lumines fight a comin'! If you'd like to watch, you can check it out at 7:00PM EDT (11:00PM GMT). Hey, it could be worse, right?

Major Nelson has sent us word that there will be a day scheduled downtime for Xbox Live and Xbox.com on October 17th. October 17th ... hmmm. Why does that sound familiar. Wait a minute! That's when we get Double Agent. What the hell, man! And not only that, October 17th is the second to last day of the PSU beta -- which is already delayed to begin with. So what the hell do we do now Microsoft? What the hell do we do now?!

Ah well, guess we all gotta deal right? The boys at Xbox.com even suggest 10 things you can do without Live. And Major Nelson reminds us all that this is not the Fall dashboard update, though apparently "cool stuff" is being added. What that means is anyone's guess. Now we just figure out what to do. Anybody want to go bowling or something?

[Thanks, Larry, AKA Major Nelson]

Update: It's Xbox.com, not Box.com. Give me a break. I'm jet-lagged here.