‘Magic the Gathering’ Coming To Xbox Live June 17th ’09

It’s that time of year again: The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) is in full swing in Los Angeles, and with it comes gobs of news of all sorts of games. We’re most interested in the extension of board games and cards games, of course, and once again there’s some great news to be had.

Now we all heard before that MagicThe Gathering was heading to an XBox near you, but it was a general “sometime” announcement without much detail. Well now the details are out (in this press release) and sometime soon is actually now really soon: June 17th.

It appears the game centers around 7 pre built decks that seed your collection, and then you unlock more cards as you play. Multiplayer is included, included the Two Headed Giant fiormat for 2v2. There are even tournaments planned soon after release: one on June 20th and antoher June 27th where you can players will be able to compete against Magic the Gathering League members and Developers of the game.

The game sports a slick trailer showing the game in action ( a must-see if you found the Magic Online interface a complete travesty ) More details can be round at the Magic the Gathering Duels of Planeswalkers website, and in the product’s recent press release from E3. Here’s a snippet from that:

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Developed by Stainless Games, Ltd., Duels of the Planeswalkers, rated T-Teen, lets players simulate the Magic: The Gathering trading card game through lush interactive 3-D environments. The arcade-style game takes players on a journey through a vast Multiverse of unique worlds where they are deemed Planeswalkers, powerful mages who battle others for glory, knowledge and conquest.

Players can choose to battle against the computer or compete online against real-life opponents using Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Arcade. With numerous game play scenarios, including multiplayer game mode, Duels of the Planeswalkers offers an unrivaled depth in which each game is different from the last. Wizards of the Coast is supporting this release with an exclusive promotional card, which includes brand new artwork, making Duels of the Planeswalkers a game that both new and existing Magic players will enjoy.

- New and Existing Magic Players Will Rule on Xbox LIVE(R) Arcade

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Xbox Live To Connect With Twitter and Facebook Directly

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has never been solely about games — it’s been a way for Microsoft to move beyond the PC and into the living room to become a digital entertainment hub. During its E3 press conference today, Microsoft got a whole lot closer to that goal with the addition of a host of new features for Xbox Live including Twitter and Facebook integration, social viewing and instantly watchable 1080p HD movies. We watched the conference’s live-stream and grabbed these choice nuggets:

Xbox Live users will soon be able to connect to their Twitter accounts to post updates and check in on their Tweet stream through their televisions. The Facebook integration goes a bit further: You can find Facebook friends who are also Xbox Live members, share photos and status updates, and post screenshots of games to your Facebook accounts.

The social activity won’t end there — the Xbox Live Party lets you watch content with your friends online. From the brief demo, it looks like you and your friends’ avatars will meet up in a virtual theater to watch videos on a simulated screen.

And watching videos will get a whole lot better through the service. Microsoft is beefing up its Netflix integration, allowing users to browse the Watch Instantly queue directly from the TV, as well as play movies instantly without adding them to the queue at all. As we reported the other day, BSkyB is also integrating its programming to allow U.K. and Ireland members to watch live television from the network through the Xbox. And we knew the Zune Marketplace was coming to Xbox, but today Microsoft announced that HD video will be offered at full 1080p through it and users can watch instantly, with no downloads and no delays.

Don’t want to watch a video? Then you can listen to music, as Xbox Live will add millions of songs from Last.fm direct to your TV.

All of these features are due to hit Xbox Live this fall.

Xbox also showed off its “Project Natal,” which is a future hardware add-on that abandons the controller entirely and instead uses body gestures to control games and navigate through menus. There was no release date for that tech, though.

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Netflix Upgrade Coming This Fall To The Xbox 360

Here is an announcement from the Netflix blog.  The upgrade sounds very cool and I’m looking forward to testing it out.

Hi, Catherine Fisher here from Netflix Corporate Communications. Microsoft swept E3 today with some exciting new ways to experience the Xbox 360. The news we are most excited about, of course, involves Netflix. Available this Fall, if you are an Xbox Gold LIVE member, you will be able to browse and add movies and TV episodes to your instant Queue directly from your Xbox 360 – you don’t have to go to your computer.

And with the announcement of Xbox LIVE Party, you will be able to simultaneously watch movies on your Xbox 360 with up to seven friends – bantering back and forth about what you are watching. More than one million Xbox LIVE Gold members have already enjoyed more than 1.5 billion minutes of movies and TV episodes via Netflix since November 2008, and we hope you are as excited about the new ways to enjoy movies and TV episodes from Netflix on your Xbox 360 as we are.

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Xbox 360 Game Creator Kodu Coming This Spring

Microsoft has confirmed that its extremely accessible “visual programming language,” once known as Boku, is coming to Xbox 360 later this spring under the name “Kodu.”

The game has drawn numerous comparisons to Media Molecule’s LittleBigPlanet (PS3) due to its reliance on users taking the initiative to create and share their own content. Along with creation tools, Kodu packs several pre-created levels and games.

A demonstration of Kodu during Microsoft’s CES keynote presentation saw …

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