The May 9 release had already managed over 400,000 downloads during its first 24 hours, according to data gleaned from online leaderboards, beating the record set by Trials Evolution in April.

Selling at 1600 Microsoft Points (~$20, €19, £14, ¥2,400), Minecraft had to contend with a selection of similar games already populating the Xbox 360′s Indie Games channel: CastleMiner Z, Total Miner: Forge and FortressCraft Chapter 1 among them, each available for a fraction of the price (80-240 MSP, ~$1-$3).

At launch, Minecraft Xbox 360 Edition was based on an older version first introduced to PC and Mac players in May 2011.

A tweet from 4J Studios, which brought the block-building experience to Xbox 360, revealed that bringing the 360 title in step with its July 2011 equivalent is high on their list of priorities.

Minecraft for Xbox 360 official trailer: youtu.be/1LqZ4_g18xk
Main Minecraft website: minecraft.net

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/minecraft-hauls-1-million-xbox-360-downloads-163405661.html

The cover of Ricketts’ proposal. (NYT)

A conservative super PAC is considering an advertising plan to attack President Obama’s ties to Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright  Jr., his controversial former spiritual advisor, and “do what what John McCain would not let us do” during the 2008 presidential campaign.

Chicago Cubs billionaire owner Joe Ricketts commissioned the $10 million plan, know as “The Defeat of Barack Hussein Obama: The Ricketts Plan to End His Spending for Good.” The strategy is one of several being considered by the Ending Spending Action Fund super PAC.

According to a copy of the plan obtained by the New York Times, the group wants to expose the ties between President Obama–who is referred to as a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln”–and Wright’s “black liberation theology.”

“The world is about to see Jeremiah Wright and understand his influence on Barack Obama for the first time in a big, attention-arresting way,” the 54-page proposal says, according to the Times.

The proposed assault, including television commercials and full-page newspaper ads featuring Wright, along with “aerial banners” in the sky, would be timed to the Democratic National Convention in September.

Ricketts’ plan includes “preparations for how to respond to the charges of race-baiting,” according to the paper and goes as far as suggesting the hiring of an “extremely literate conservative African-American” spokesman.

It also refers to an apparent ad featuring Wright that was produced for McCain’s 2008 campaign but never aired. “If the nation had seen that ad,” Ricketts writes, “they’d never have elected Barack Obama.”

“Joe Ricketts is prepared to spend significant resources in the 2012 election in both the presidential race and congressional races,” Brian Baker, the super PAC’s president, told the Times. “He is very concerned about the future direction of the country and plans to take a stand.”

On Thursday, Mitt Romney’s campaign urged the super PAC to avoid pursuing a racially charged campaign, while criticizing the Obama camp’s reported rhetoric.

“Unlike the Obama campaign, Gov. Romney is running a campaign based on jobs and the economy, and we encourage everyone else to do the same,” Matt Rhoades, Mitt Romney’s campaign manager, said in a statement to Yahoo News. “President Obama’s team said they would ‘kill Romney,’ and, just last week, David Axelrod referred to individuals opposing the president as ‘contract killers.’ It’s clear President Obama’s team is running a campaign of character assassination. We repudiate any efforts on our side to do so.”

Holly Bailey contributed to this report.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/super-pac-plans-attack-obama-ties-rev-jeremiah-132518668.html

Gamers in the market for an
Xbox 360 will find a deal waiting for them at the online Microsoft Store.

The Xbox 360 250GB console is now on sale for $249.99, a full $50 off the usual price. This console offers 250GB of space on a removable hard drive, the usual wireless controller, a black headset, and a one-month subscription to Xbox Live Gold. Buyers can also add a 12-month Xbox Live Gold membership for $44.99, $15 off the regular price.

Those of you willing to cough up more cash can get the Xbox 360 250 GB Kinect Holiday Bundle for $349.99, down from $399.99. This kit throws in the Kinect sensor as well as two free games and a three-month Xbox Live Gold membership.

And for people in search of adventure in a galaxy far, far away, the Xbox 360 Limited Edition Kinect Star Wars Bundle is selling for $399.99, also $50 off the usual price. This bundle offers a 320GB hard drive, custom-designed R2-D2 console and C-3PO controller, a white Kinect sensor, a wired headset, a copy of Star Wars Kinect, and a token that can be used to download exclusive Xbox Live content.

Microsoft has also kicked off a sale on several Xbox 360 games, including Mass Effect 3, Street Fighter X Tekken, The Biggest Loser Ultimate Workout, Zumba Fitness Rush, and uDraw Marvel Super Hero Squad: Comic Combat.

The online store provided no details as to when the Xbox sale ends or whether the price is valid at physical Microsoft Store outlets.

CNET contacted Microsoft for comment and will update the story when we get more information.

Article source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57435300-75/microsoft-store-trims-xbox-360-price-by-$50/?part=rss&subj=crave&tag=title

Robbie Bach helped put the Xbox 360 on the map but according to him he couldn’t have done it without Sony and the PlayStation 3.

The Xbox, the Xbox 360, and Xbox Live have been successful because of many people. One person alone doesn’t get 66 million consoles sold or more than 25 million people signed up for a premium online gaming network. If anyone was singled out though, former head of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices division, Robbie Bach, would be the man. Up until his retirement in 2010, Bach had spearheaded some real duds for Microsoft. The Zune and Games for Windows Live could certainly be called blemishes. Bach helped make the Xbox a defining piece of technology though, and the Xbox 360 has been the best-selling console in the US for 14 of the 24 months since his retirement.

He was a Microsoft man. Peculiar that he credits the Xbox’s success to Sony.

Speaking at the Northwest Entrepreneur Network (via Geek Wire) event in Seattle on Friday, Bach spoke candidly about the Xbox brand’s birth and how Sony’s bungling of the PlayStation 3 release helped make the Xbox 360 and industry leader. “Some of the success of Xbox was due to the fact that Sony did some really not so smart things. They mismanaged their 70 percent market share,” said Bach. “The transition to the PlayStation 3 was really, really bad. And really hard. They mismanaged their partners, they mismanaged their cost structure. They made their next platform so complicated that developers couldn’t develop for it.”

These bungles made it easy for Microsoft to curry favor with the biggest and most successful western publishers, namely Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard, as well as retailers like GameStop. “[We] were able to convince retailers and publishers like Activision, Electronic Arts and others that it was a good thing for Microsoft to be successful, because if we were not successful, the only game in town was Sony. Being dependent on somebody else was bad for them, and so they supported us disproportionately to what they should have, mathematically.”

Hence why Xbox 360 received so much exclusive support between 2005 and 2009.

Bach did not discuss Nintendo’s successes and failures during his talk, though the Wii certainly had an influence on how the Xbox business changed at the end of Bach’s career. The development of Kinect and Microsoft’s shift in focus from games to entertainment services like streaming television on the Xbox 360 have kept the console thriving even though it has aged dramatically in recent years.

Article source: http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/former-xbox-chief-robbie-bach-credits-xbox-360s-success-to-sony/

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., became the most powerful woman in American history when she was sworn in as Speaker of the House in 2007. She lost that power four years later and is now hell-bent on winning it back. Spinners and Winners caught up with Pelosi on her early morning power walk by the Potomac River.

The 72-year-old grandmother shows no signs of slowing down as she briskly walks along the paved paths of Georgetown’s waterfront park and sums up her goal for the year with these words: “Just win, baby.”

“They have endless money, secret, undisclosed, special interest money that they pour into elections,” a slightly out-of-breath Pelosi said of Republican opponents. “But I think we can offset it. We have out-raised them, out-redistricted them, out-recruited them.”

Pelosi has been a veritable fundraising machine, raising more than $43 million for Democrats in this election cycle and attending nearly 500 fundraisers. The Democratic leader has put her heart and soul into winning back the house for Democrats, but she insists she is motivated by more than winning back the Speaker’s gavel.

“It isn’t about me, it is about what is at stake in this election and quite frankly I wish that so much were not at stake in this election.”

Pelosi also had some harsh words for fellow progressive Russ Feingold, who recently accused her of not doing enough to protect Social Security and Medicare. Check it out on this week’s Spinners and Winners.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/power-players-abc-news/nancy-pelosi-democrats-43-million-weapon-101127628.html

The Xbox 360 with the Kinect sensor.

(Credit:
Microsoft)

The
Xbox 360 scored its 16th month in a row as the best-selling console in the United States.

With a 47 percent share of all current console sales, Microsoft sold 236,000 gaming units last month, according to the latest stats from NPD Group.

Total consumer spending on the Xbox 360 (hardware, software, and accessories) hit $261 million, more than what was spent on Nintendo’s
Wii and Sony’s
PlayStation 3 combined.

The Xbox also grabbed seven of the top 10 game titles in April. Kinect Star Wars took the No. 1 spot, with The Witcher Two: Assassin of Kings Enhanced ED, Prototype 2, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 13, Mass Effect 3, NBA 2K12, and Major League Baseball 2K12 also on the list.

But the rest of the video game industry remains down in the dumps.

Sales for video game hardware dropped by 32 percent from a year ago, while software sales nosedived by 42 percent. Only sales of hardware accessories showed any growth, inching up 1 percent from last April.

The industry has been on a downward spiral for a while. But some of the sluggish sales seen last month could actually be blamed on Easter.

“This year, Easter fell very early in April, which means most Easter-related purchases may have fallen into March this year, whereas last year, Easter fell late in April causing most sales to fall in that month,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement. “We usually find that Easter-related purchases generate an extra 10 percent in revenue in the month they occur, so some of the softness compared to last April could be attributed to the shift in Easter timing.”

The industry could also be in store for an uptick in sales this year as new products hit the stage, according to an analyst with Wedbush Securities.

“We expect a return to sales growth in 2012 due to new hardware introductions (PS Vita and Wii U) and many high-profile releases (likely including Take-Two’s Grand Theft Auto V),” analyst Michael Pachter said in report released earlier this week.

Pachter also believes a weak string of software titles will crimp sales until the launch of such new games as Activision Blizzard’s Diablo III, Take-Two’s Max Payne 3, and Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon:
Future Soldier.

Article source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57432661-75/xbox-360-rules-again-in-slumping-video-game-market/?part=rss&subj=gaming&tag=title

The Democratic governor said the shortfall grew from $9.2 billion in January in part because tax collections have not come in as high as expected and the economy isn’t growing as fast as hoped for. The deficit has also risen because lawsuits and federal requirements have blocked billions of dollars in state cuts.

“This means we will have to go much farther and make cuts far greater than I asked for at the beginning of the year,” Brown said in an online video. “But we can’t fill this hole with cuts alone without doing severe damage to our schools. That’s why I’m bypassing the gridlock and asking you, the people of California, to approve a plan that avoids cuts to schools and public safety.”

Brown did not release details of the newly calculated deficit Saturday, but he is expected to lay out a revised spending plan Monday. The new plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1 hinges in large part on voters approving higher taxes.

The governor has said those tax increases are needed to help pull the state out of a crippling decade shaped by the collapse of the housing market and recession. Without them, he warned, public schools and colleges, and public safety, will suffer deeper cuts.

“What I’m proposing is not a panacea, but it goes a long way toward cleaning up the state’s budget mess,” Brown said.

Democrats, who control the Legislature, have resisted Brown’s proposed cuts so far this year. Republican lawmakers criticized the majority party for building in overly optimistic tax revenues.

“Today’s news underscores how we must rein in spending and let our economy grow by leaving overburdened taxpayers alone,” said Assembly Republican leader Connie Conway in a statement.

The governor pursued a ballot initiative because Republican lawmakers would not provide the votes needed to reach the two-thirds legislative majority required to raise taxes.

Assembly Speaker John Perez, D-Los Angeles, acknowledged that lawmakers have “limited and difficult choices left to solve the deficit.” Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said he wasn’t surprised by the deficit spike given that state tax revenue have fallen $3.5 billion below projections in the current year.

“We will deal with it,” Steinberg said Saturday. “And we know that more cuts are inevitable but we will do our very, very best to save more than we lose, especially for those in need.”

Under Brown’s tax plan, California would temporarily raise the state’s sales tax by a quarter-cent and increase the income tax on people who make $250,000 or more. Brown is projecting his tax initiative would raise as much as $9 billion, but a review by the nonpartisan analyst’s office estimates revenue of $6.8 billion in fiscal year 2012-13.

Supporters of the “Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act of 2012″ say the additional revenue would help maintain current funding levels for public schools and colleges and pay for programs that benefit seniors and low-income families. It also would provide local governments with a constitutional guarantee of funding to comply with a new state law that shifts lower-level offenders from state prisons to county jails.

A second tax hike headed for the November ballot is being promoted by Los Angeles civil rights attorney Molly Munger, whose initiative would raise income taxes on a sliding scale for nearly all wage-earners to help fund schools.

Anti-tax groups and Republican lawmakers say both tax increases will hurt California’s economic recovery. State GOP Chairman Tom Del Beccaro has embarked on a statewide campaign to discuss alternatives to Brown’s tax hikes.

The governor is expected to propose a contingency plan with a list of unpopular cuts that would kick in automatically if voters reject tax hikes this fall. In January, he said they would result in a K-12 school year shortened by up to three weeks, higher college tuition fees and reduced funding for courts.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/california-facing-higher-16-billion-shortfall-213905732--finance.html