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Some good news in store for those looking forward to picking up a Xbox 360 this holiday season. Mr. Rahul Datta, Retail Services Manager, Microsoft India, confirmed to The ANGRY Pixel today that Microsoft India will be coming out with a new offer on the console soon. For INR 14,990, you will get to have the following:
[Image: Bernardo Bertolucci's The Dreamers]
Looks like somebody up there (or down here) finally decided to have some pity on Indian gamers without an Internet connection, a credit card, a Play-Asia account and oh, about 3 weeks of patience. Or in some cases, way longer. After having ignored the country for a long time, except for Lost Planet: Extreme Condition on the Xbox 360, Jap videogame giant Capcom have tied up with local distribution giant Milestone Interactive to bring all their upcoming and back catalog titles to the country.
While the distribution would initially stick to the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and the PSP platforms, Milestone says they would also be offering PC and PlayStation 2 titles somewhere down the line. The back catalog, which currently includes hot property such as Dead Rising, Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and Devil May Cry 4 will be available starting this week at stores all over the country, with newer games such as MotoGP ‘08, Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 being available in accordance with the international street dates for these titles.
The easy going folks down in Bangalore like to believe that their Mumbai cousins have a daily dose of adrenaline in form of hanging on to the footboard of the local trains during their morning commute. However, it seems like the craving for more of it is what drove them to the Battlefield: Bad Company India launch party held at Khar Gymkhana, Mumbai on 25th June, that featured a paintball competition for the attendees. The winning teams got to walk away with some colorful splotches, a couple of angry looking welts as well copies of Gold edition of the game for the PS3.
All we can do in the meantime is shake our fists in protest and gaze at the pictures, after the jump.
Now here’s something that flew over our heads, utterly and completely. Mohit Anand has stepped down from his status as Microsoft India’s Country Manager for Entertainment and Devices Division, due to some, at least according to VARIndia’s report, “internal issues”.
Speaking exclusively to VARIndia, Mohit Anand said, “The news is true that I have quit Microsoft. However, I would not be able to comment where I would be joining next.”
Egads, man! The last time I met Mohit in person was at the Mass Effect launch party, and was even a bit surprised he didn’t show up at Nikhill’s Pizza Whore session (though I was later told that he had a family wedding to attend to). Still, sucks to know he’s gone. For what it was worth, Mohit was a pretty vocal guy. Barring the BioShock incident, the dude was fairly open to whatever questions we had to throw out. Hopefully, Microsoft India themselves will issue an official statement on this matter, maybe even throw some insight on the whole “internal issues” remark. I mean, sure, Mohit isn’t much of a Halo-player (especially if all he does is run over people in the Mongoose), and yeah, there was that time he shot the Arbiter during the Halo 3 Pre-Launch Party’s live demonstration of the single-player campaign. But he does fancy himself an Age of Empires nut! No doubt, in my eyes, does this count for something.
Thanks to Helios for the scoop, and Singh for the Photoshop job on the Mohit Anand Faceplate. There’s a story behind that pic actually, but I think we’ll save that for some other time.
Remember how we always keep on bitching about gamers up north in Delhi keep getting lucky with game events being held on a regular basis? Seems like our Mumbai brethren are soon going to join the must-envy list for us poor souls down here at Bangalore.
Quick on the heels of the Xbox India’s “Biggest Gamers’ Night Ever!” and Sony’s Playstation Experience, Mumbai is going to host yet another party in form of the launch of a brand new Xbox Lounge! The official invitation in our hands tells us that on 7th December 2007, the Xbox Lounge is being launched by Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division in collaboration with MobileStore, India’s largest chain of mobile phone retailers. Mr. Rajiv Agarwal, CEO and Director, ‘The MobileStore Ltd’ and Mr. Mohit Anand, Country Manager, Microsoft E&D India will be there to do the honors and address the media.
We also have news that the launch will not be limited to a Mumbai launch but will be rolled out across India. We are pretty sure that the Xbox Lounge will meet with great success over in Mumbai and it is only a matter of time before we get to see such lounges all across India. So while you lucky guys attend the event, I will have to be content with keeping an eye on the MobileStore across the road.
Authors Note: Apparently, Mumbai has been host to an Xbox 360 Lounge since May 25th, 2006. More details can be found at Animationexpress.
The world is such a better place when you’ve got what everyone has. But what makes it even better is when you’ve waited for something for the better part of a decade! Since November 2002, we’ve waited. But now it’s here and Live will now see a new breed of gamers - Maharaja styleee!
Announced to launch officially on 05/11/07, we all waited for that day when Monday would be everyone’s most favourite-est day. But yesterday (04/11/07, well?!), I walked into my regular game/music store to pick up my copy of Orangebox so I could check what all the buzz around Portal was, and what actually greeted me was the nice, ‘hard-to-rip-off’ orangey soft pack screaming for my attention! Xbox Live was here and a day before the official launch date! Now I don’t know how much trouble this will get me into, but what the hell, I’ve said it now!
So yeah - Gold subscriptions here now in 1, 3 and 12 month subscription options and Live points are here too. I picked up a pack of 1600 points for ± 1000 INR (± $26). Picked up good old Castlevania - SOTN and Geometry Wars, although strangely, Doom was not available for purchase! Strange, indeed.
Up next, I’ll check out all the “Edutainment” products we were promised. Hell, maybe they WILL have an ‘Arbiter teaches typing’ game after all!!