Reggie and myself just got back a few hours ago from Microsoft’s Gamers Night, which is arguably the biggest gaming-related event ever held in Delhi, and I must say that we’re both poop-zhausted. Between trying to talk with companies, to actually squeezing some game time with big-boys like Mass Effect and Army of Two – having an open bar with infinite Coke refills is a caffeine blessing in disguise. But the sad truth, there’s not much to talk about. At least, not until this coming Monday, when the media embargo is lifted for all of Microsoft’s and EA’s juicy offerings. Until then, you’ll just have to keep pounding on the F5! In other news, I think I may have contracted some skin disease. These PR folks can be quite the wild bunch, you know! Certainly not as terribly inconvenient as getting an error message from Gears of Wa- OOPS, will you look at the time! I can’t ride that pumpkin back home!

Expect more news at the stroke of midnight on Sunday, count on it.

We have official confirmation! In a press release that was sent to us just now, Microsoft India says that the Xbox Originals service will indeed be available in the country on December 4, along with expectations that Xbox LIVE will cross the 10-million user mark by June 2008.

Each Xbox Original will retail for 1200 Microsoft Points (or approximately INR 590 a pop) and will range from 2GB to 7GB in size, which should take us about, oh, 2 days to download on our crappy 256k lines. (Sorry, Microsoft, that 4 - 8 hour download timeframe is for the lucky people in the rest of the world who have access to great 2Mbps lines!) And yes, we too will get the chance to download Carcassonne (or Hexic 2, we’re not sure) within a 48 hour period as we had previously reported. Also.. wait, what?! That’s not what we reported! We thought it was a 24 hour period, unless my Math is that phenomenally bad. But the press release claims we should be able to download “a free Xbox LIVE Arcade game*, within a 48 hour period starting 15 November 1:30 PM.” Oh well, this one’s better anyway.

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We have been pretty much content living in Bangalore, that is, until now. With our correspondents living up north getting lucky two times in a row, it has become more and more difficult. First, it was the Halo 3 pre-launch party followed up with the XBL India launch announcement party, both in New Delhi. Come 16th November 2007 and these buggers will strike gold again when they get to attend yet another event being organized by Microsoft India.

Touted as the, “Biggest Gamers Night Ever Seen”, the event will be showcasing Mass Effect, PGR 4, Army of Two and The Orange Box besides Age of Empires 3: The Asian Dynasties and Gears of War for the PC. The event is an invite only with limited invitations being sent out to the early birds. But if you hurry, there still might be a few seats open!

Needless to say, we’re invited and are eagerly looking forward to all that will be on show besides the excellent food that our reporters, Vijay and Reggie, have become so accustomed to gorging on. Though NDAs are expected to be in place, rest assured that we will be bringing to you all the details that we are allowed to talk about. Expect to see in-detail coverage of the event with pictures and videos of our stuffed reporters putting their best foot forward as videogame “journalists”.

In the meantime, we will resort to poking needles into voodoo dolls of their likeliness, as we try to get a little love sent to us poor folks in other cities as well.

There are good sides and bad sides to living in India, especially if you happen to be a die-hard gamer. The good deal is that almost all PC and Xbox 360 games are a lot cheaper than their US/UK counterparts. That is, if the games actually release down here before the rest of the world has finished playing them three times over. Or worse, like UbiSoft Xbox 360 titles, turn up their noses and ignore us completely.

With first party titles like Halo 3 and Mass Effect enjoying a simultaneous release with their American counterparts, it was more than a little upsetting to PC owners here that Gears of War still wasn’t available on shelves. Naturally, Xbox 360 owners weren’t too happy with the regional restrictions and extremely low content on the Marketplace. After all, Reggie’s not in the best of moods if you keep him from buying DOOM!

However, talking to our stalkers in a short email interview, the good folks at Microsoft India let us know that they are indeed working to fix said problems. According to Sanjoy John, PC owners desperate for their Gears fix will be able to pick up their copies this week, while Xbox 360 owners will see a lot of new content, including more Arcade games and Bollywood related content (blech!), headed their way.

And to feed us rabid Mass Effect hungry zombies, copies will be available with the distributors on the 15th, and in stores around the 20th. And yes, there’s probably even going to be a nice, big launch party, where some of us will be gulping down food while the sane desperate ones try to get as quickly as they can to the alien boobies! Wonder if we’ll get to see any Liara cosplayers at the event.

Did you know Alan Bowman first started playing on an Atari? Neither did we, until we spoke to him, that is. Sitting down with us for a casual chat at the New Delhi presser for the Xbox LIVE India launch, Xbox Asia Pacific’s Director, Alan Bowman, a self proclaimed “casual gamer” (aren’t we all? Oh wait, we forgot about those 2 billion CS 1.6 jerks here) talks about his gaming habits and more importantly, working with local developers to generate “educational content” for Math, Science and the other subjects which will use the Xbox 360’s videogame prowess to help kids learn better. We think this is a great idea (even though Vijay for some reason seems to be very interested in “The Arbiter teaches typing”) and one that’s in line with the Games for Change initiative’s aim of deconstructing the myth that games can only be used as “practice” for deranged schoolkids with guns. Are you watching, huh, Jack Thompson?

Damn kids these days. Getting to learn with an Xbox 360 whereas we had to do it the old fashioned way. At least I had fun sneaking comics inside my textbooks.

So you thought all we did at the Microsoft Xbox LIVE India presser was just gorge on great food and kick each other’s asses in Halo 3? Nah, we actually took the time out to do, you know, real videogame journalism and all that jazz. First up in a series of video interviews, we’ve got the awesome Robbie Bach, positively beaming after the Xbox 360 Arcade announcements and the latest NPD numbers that put his baby on top. Talking to our two stalkers at yesterday’s launch event, Robbie talks about Games for Windows LIVE, Microsoft’s commitment to the Indian gaming market, and regional restrictions and how they’re slowly disappearing from the system. And oh, if you like Bollywood related content, Vijay just called them “crap”. Everybody, sic him! (I too, think they’re crap, but nobody sic me.) We’ll have more interviews with Alan Bowman and Mohit Anand later in the day.

Prefer to download the video? Here you go.

Download Video Interview with Robbie Bach (WMV/4.3 MB)

Remember the little big Microsoft announcement that we talked about some time back? With over 2 hours to go before the clock hits zero, we’ve got some news that will totally make you want to hug us. That’s how awesome we are. So revel, Indian gaming fans, in the knowledge that Xbox LIVE will be launching on November 5th, just in time for us to get our chainsaws revving in Gears of War.

Talking to the press at the Shangri-La hotel in New Delhi a couple of hours back, the Microsoft Awesome Foursome - Robbie Bach (President, Microsoft Entertainment and Devices Division), Alan Bowman (Director, Home and Entertainment Division, Asia Pacific), Ravi Venkatesan (Chairman, Microsoft India) and Mohit Anand (Country Manager, Entertainment and Devices, Microsoft India) - knocked everyone over with a barrage of announcements.

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