We're well aware that the HD DVD camp wants to use the upcoming Xbox 360 HD DVD add-on to battle the Playstation 3 as a high definition movie player, but rumors have persisted since the console's launch that it would eventually need the space for HD gaming. Those rumors got a new lease on life today when a trade magazine quoted a Microsoft exec as saying they "haven't determined" if the drive would be used for gaming. Just like earlier rumors of a price drop or that an integrated HD DVD drive was on its way, the Gamerscore blog has posted a denial of the claims. They're sticking to the company line that this drive is designed for playing movies, only, and will not play games on HD DVD. We're not sure if that will help the 360 by avoiding a split userbase or hurt HD DVD by not giving gamers another reason to upgrade, but with a yet-undetermined price and a potentially slower transfer speed than the existing DVD drive this decision is probably for the best.

[Via Joystiq]

Ok so thats basically direct marketing speak from Microsoft. But it's true. This week Xbox 360 owners have been able to download trailers and demos of some of the same games that they will be showing in LA. Yesterday I was able to download the demo for Test Drive Unlimited (which is not so unlimited, the demo has a 15 minute timer boooo!) and Lost Planet, as well as the trailers for a lot of other games, movies and apparently there will also be video straight from the E3 floor. If you don't have a 360, you can also get a hold of the high definition trailers from Xboxyde. To find out exactly what and when things are available, check out the Marketplace section of MajorNelson's website.

We'll get back to you after Microsoft's pre-E3 showcase, in the meantime, check out live coverage at Joystiq.

Today's XBLM releases:

Game Trailers:
Call Of Duty
Culdcept SAGA
Hitman: Blood Money
Lost Planet Extreme Condition
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
NBA 2K7
Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis
Tony Hawk's Project 8

Demo:
Lost Planet


As just announced during Microsoft's presentation THE HALO 3 TRAILER IS AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD ON XBOX LIVE. That is all. Also available on bungie.net.

Microsoft has been so nice as to post some information about their upcoming add-on for the Xbox 360, and HD DVD in general. While my take isn't quite as harsh as our good friend Henning's, I think it can be pretty well summed up as heavily skewed marketing-speak that glosses over any shortcomings of their product while highlighting and detracting possible weaknesses of the competition, not at all giving a fair comparison or unbiased information.

That was a mouthful, well, once you get through the BS (get your waders, the hip-deep ones), you'll notice that they don't specifically mention how the add-on will deal with HDCP, only that it will "connect to the Xbox 360 console with a USB cable, enabling it to harness the power of the Xbox 360 console for the HD video outputs and digital surround sound.". Does that mean analog only, and facing the prospect of downconversion on ICT-flagged discs? We can't say for sure and we also can't tell you what it looks like because it hasn't been shown, hopefully we'll know more after their event tomorrow afternoon.

Check out Joystiq's live coverage for more E3 information.

[Thanks to all who sent this in]

The reborn Voom HD has launched a channel specifically for gamers, "GamePlay HD". The channel actually started broadcasting on February 1st, with some content from their new partner CNET (& GameSpot). They also plan to provide coverage of tournaments like the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational Tournament in Seoul and the Guild Wars Championship, both in April. Two GameSpot produced news segments, GameSpotting and The Art of Play, are also part of the scheduled programming.

GamePlay HD can be found on DISH channel 9485, any HD Beat readers check it out yet?

Check out Joystiq's continuing updates of Sony's Playstation Conference for more information, but lets get down the key facts:

• Worldwide (Asia, Europe, North America) launch in early November
• 1 million units shipped every month, total of 6 million shipped by the end of 2006
• 100% backwards compatible with existing PS1 & PS2 titles, will upconvert to HD resolutions
• Latest HDMI connectors (1.3?)
• 60GB HDD "required", supports Linux, acts as a media server
• All PS3 games will ship on Blu-ray discs to prevent piracy
  
• PS3 online service will feature matchmaking, downloads; free "basic" service
• Developers will get final kits in June
• PS3 is "4D"
• The conference is over, no games, no price announced

Well there we have it, more hardware details, and still so many questions. But at least it is launching in 2006, I don't know if we could survive another Christmas without "true" high definition. One thing is for sure, just when it looked like Sony might be slipping, they have come back with a big plan for continued worldwide dominance. Anyone want to place odds on if they can pull it off?

This is a game I've been waiting for since the impressive demo Sony used to advertise their PS3 at E3 last year, and EA's Fight Night Round 3 has not failed to impress. Every bone cracking punch, every drop of sweat and blood, almost every boxer you could ever want to fight is ready in glistening 720p. If you were waiting for the "next generation" feeling to hit you, put your gloves on and find your mouthguard because it is here.

On this edition of Major Nelson's weekly podcast he has a special guest, Tyler the HDTV expert. Among the things they discussed were what HD means, a few of the reasons Microsoft chose HD-DVD to support, why the Olympic broadcast isn't the best it could be, and the many different formats of HD. It's a pretty long conversation that I'll try to summarize here, but I suggest you give it a listen to get all the details on why 720p may be better for gaming than 1080i or even 1080p (which the PS3 will apparently have and the Xbox 360 doesn't).

We will leave the breakdown of spatial and temporal resolution to Tyler, but there are several elements here to consider. 

Gaming site Kikizo claim to have gotten some seat time with a PS3 development kit running on near final hardware and have found out some very nice tidbits of information from three separate (unnamed) developers.

Among other things, they note that the hardware designs we've seen will likely change before launch, native 1080p games with full effects are unlikely, and that launch games are being designed with a 10x DVD drive in mind. There is also much praise for Sony's machine, with developers noting that it will probably be capable of handling more effects and geometry than the Xbox 360. These statements aren't surprising, 720p will likely be the sweet spot for gaming this generation, anything more than that increases memory needs to an almost impossible level, but the PS3 should be able to scale to match whatever your TV accepts just like the 360.

Also worth noting is that the developers they spoke to are targeting a fall launch as most likely. Other recent PS3 news from Joystiq has suggested the 2x Blu-ray drive it is most likely to feature will be the same speed as a 12x DVD player. If developers actually do make a 20GB game we could be looking at loading screens for quite a while. The development  kit Kikizo looked at had no Blu-ray drive so they couldn't test those capabilities at all.

[Via Evil Avatar forums]