Posts with tag Xbox360

A tipster named James sent us a pointer to store.wowhead.com a little while ago, and as a few people have noticed since, the Wowhead store is now open for business! Here's what they're selling:

• Official Wowhead merchandise (a t-shirt, a hoodie, and a mousepad, so far - does anyone still use mousepads?)
• WoW paraphernalia, like those steins, and some LapWorks and Steelseries hardware products.
• Some random gaming hardware that seems to have nothing to do with WoW, like Guitar Hero for PS2, and Xbox 360 accessories. It is at a discount, though, so that's cool.
• The Burning Crusade collector's edition. I guess they had some extra copies [now seems to be sold out].

One interesting feature of the store is "reward points." Every item you can buy gets you a certain number of reward points; the amount loosely correlates with price, but I couldn't determine a direct correspondence from one to the other. Basically they idea is: buy stuff, earn points, spend points on rewards. So far the rewards consist of the original WoW and the various Wowhead merchandise, and the points add up fast - as the site points out, a $30 Xbox controller nets you enough points for a copy of WoW, and almost enough for a t-shirt.

For the technically inclined, I inquired about the underlying technology of the shop. The front-end work is all in-house, and so should hold true to the beautiful Wowhead aesthetic, but the e-commerce engine is the popular open-source platform Magento.

Sins on the forums asks why he can't use his Xbox 360 controller to play WoW (on Windows, I assume). And the answer is that you can... kind of. But you probably don't want to.

If you've got a wired Xbox 360 controller, it's actually pretty easy. The controller just hooks up to your PC via USB, so plug it in, and you can then use a program called Pinnacle Game Profiler to recognize the controller, and even attach keyboard and mouse functions to the controller's keys. The problem here is actually making sure you have access to everything you normally would (a nearly impossible task, and probably the reason why WoW hasn't come to a console). But if you can do it, feel free.

The problem is if you have a wireless Xbox controller. Unlike the Wii, apparently Microsoft doesn't use the normal Bluetooth standard for its controllers, so you either have to buy a controller specifically for Windows, or an adapter to hook it up. And after you do that, you still might have to download the Pinnacle program to set it up right-- I've got a wireless controller right here, but I'm not about to spend more money for an adapter when I like using the keyboard anyway.

Have you had any success getting the Xbox controller to play WoW? I like the controller and all (although that D-pad is horrible), but why would anyone want to abandon the mouse and keyboard in the first place?

Our friends over at Xbox 360 Fanboy (who routinely rock me at Gears of War) pointed to this Official Xbox Magazine list of their top 5 biggest secret games in development for the Xbox 360. And right there on the list, number one, is a World of Warcraft port.

This isn't the first time we've heard this, but if you ask me, it'll never happen. Ever. Blizzard has their hands full with WoW on PC, and while the Fanboys say Microsoft is offering Blizz cold hard cash, I don't see how they could offer anything even close to what Blizzard is making already from their eight million subscriber fees. Of course, Microsoft is going to be pushing Live for Windows later this year, and trying to get PC gamers and Xboxers to play together, so if they make an offer Blizzard can't refuse, I could be eating these words. But I'll stick to my guns on this one: WoW isn't showing up on a console anytime soon.

Completely beside the point is the question of whether it would work or not. Of course, I'm sure Xbox allows a mouse and keyboard (anyone played FFXI on there? I haven't), so maybe it's a moot point. But with all the clicks WoW requires (on quest items, ability use, and such), I can't think of an easy-to-use controller scheme that would work as well as what we've got now.

Update: As if the word "rumor" wasn't warning enough, commenter rinks reminds us that this news came from the April issue of Xbox Mag, and we all know how videogame magazines get around April 1st. Plus, they also mention Duke Nukem Forever on the list, and we all know that game is basically a "joke incoming" flag.

While the there's still nothing solid on visiting Azeroth via your Xbox 360, intrepid fan David Nikdel has created a mod that allows you to use a PC compatible Xbox 360 controller to navigate the game world from your old-fashioned desktop.  I still have trouble seeing how I could fit all of the keybindings on my keyboard on to a controller, Nikdel has certainly proven that it's possible to make it work. 

[Via Joystiq]

The rumor that we might soon see World of Warcraft ported to the Xbox 360 has been a persistent one.  After all, doesn't it seem a natural to match the online capabilities of the Xbox with the most popular MMORPG?  Not so, says Blizzard, who has recently denied any plans for an Xbox port.  Says Blizzard COO Paul Sams, "Porting PC games to console often compromises games, and we’d never allow the WoW gameplay experience to suffer.”  You can insert your own joke about server performance, lag, and your gameplay experience - there are too many choices for me to pick just one.

[Via TeamXbox]

Given the imminent launch of Final Fantasy XI for the Xbox 360, surely Blizzard have their thinking caps on at the moment. Many people have postulated that WoW for the 360 is a question of "when", not "if", but with a 5.5 million player-base, do Blizzard really need to move to a new platform? It would doubtless help sales of the 360 along, especially for those who can't afford a high-spec gaming PC, but going cross-platform (especially given the different networking and input methods) is a lot of hassle.

Blizzard's Mac compatibility has been highly praised, and the Windows client works fairly well under Linux (using Cedega) -- I've put many happy hours in on all three platforms. If it were to move to a console, the 360 is an obvious choice, especially as you can plug in USB peripherals. However, a network-enabled Nintendo DS or Sony PSP -- or even a mobile phone -- version of WoW would be interesting, perhaps allowing you to check auctions and craft items on the move.

Would you play WoW on a console? Do you think you would get more friends addicted if it were available? Or would balancing and porting be a bad thing, forcing Blizzard to divide their attention?