Michael McWhertor over on Kotaku spoke with Albert Penello, group marketing manager for the Xbox 360, at CES this week. In their discussions, Penello puts the proverbial “nail in the coffin” for future backwards compatibility updates. In the intervew, he states:

“I know with the Xbox Originals, there are still things happening there, but in terms of a lot of engineering work around bringing out new titles, I think they’re winding that down.”

According to him, if you’re waiting for something else to be added, don’t hold your breath. Any more additions would essentially be “one-offs.”

That’s too bad, because they never added the one title I’ve been waiting for since getting my 360: X-Men Legends II. And no, Marvel Ultimate Alliance is not the same thing.

Link: Xbox 360 Backward Compatibility Updates “Winding Down”

At CES today, Microsoft has confirmed Lode Runner will be coming to Xbox Live Arcade. The graphics appear to have been improved quite a bit from the original that I remember playing. Unfortunately, they haven’t given any details on price or release date.

This is one of the few retro titles coming to XBLA that I’m really stoked about. I loved playing Lode Runner back in the day. Hopefully it holds the same appeal when it comes out sometime in 2008.

Hit the link for more details and some sweet screenshots.

Link: CES 2008: Lode Runner coming to XBLA

So, Bill Gates gave his final keynote at CES yesterday. There were no earth-shattering revelations made regarding the Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 Ultimate turned out to just be a rumor, so no built in HD DVD anytime soon. Here are the main bullet points of the event.

• The biggest announcement seems to be a deal with ABC/Disney and MGM to bring content to Xbox Live Video Marketplace. This is probably a pretty big deal for them, given that ABC/Disney is Blu-Ray exclusive.
• The other “big” announcement was the partnership with British Telecom to 360 IPTV service sometime in 2008. I say “big” in quotes because they made the IPTV announcement last year, and we’ve seen nothing actually happen since then.
• Xbox Live has reached 10 million subscribers

As you can see, there really wasn’t anything special announced. On a related note, however, Dean Takahashi has posted on his blog a letter that was sent by Microsoft games chief Don Mattrick to the MS Games employees. One of the employees forwarded it to Dean and he was kind enough to post it on his blog. I actually found this letter more interesting than the announcements made at CES. Was this a missed opportunity by Microsoft?

Hit the link for Major Nelson’s post where he provides the audio from the keynote.

Link: Microsoft Keynote at CES 2008

Adding fuel to the rumor fire, the website for Stuff magazine claims to have the scoop on Microsoft’s big announcement, coming on Sunday at CES. According to the site, the Xbox 360 Ultimate will be released in the fall and will feature the following:

1080p HDMI
Built-in Wi-Fi
65nm chip
320GB hard drive
HD DVD drive
IPTV support
DVR functionality

They seem pretty confident about the info, but I’m still not 100% convinced. I think the only feature that is guaranteed to be announced is the 320GB hard drive. I only say that because I just bought the 120GB hard drive, so it only makes sense that the bigger-better hard drive would be coming out shortly.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Link: BIG IN 2008 - Xbox Ultimate [Via Kotaku]

Rumors have been floating around the past few days that Bill Gates will be making some surprise Xbox 360 related announcements in his final CES keynote on Sunday. According to the rumors, he will announce that Microsoft will incorporate an HD DVD drive and DVR functionality into the Xbox 360 by partnering up with companies like Toshiba. Essentially, it would be a consumer electronics device that would have the ability to play Xbox 360 games.

These rumors are pretty interesting, so I thought I’d share my two cents. DVR functionality wouldn’t surpise me at all, since MS has already told us about their plans for IPTV on the Xbox 360. The HD DVD drive, on the other hand, is a little harder for me to swallow. On one hand, I agree with the thoughts of Michael Bay, that MS would rather both formats lose so that digital distribution can become the next “format” of choice. On the other hand, a consumer electronics device would be a great way to introduce “non-core-gamers” to the Xbox 360, since that is the market that seems to elude Microsoft at the present time.

Anyway, MS hasn’t done the best job of keeping their secrets in the past, so I think it’s anyone’s guess at this point. What are your thoughts?

Link: Visions of Gates’ keynote swan song [Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]