BLAKE'S 7 TV reboot moves to Microsoft

SyFy has apparently declined to produce the rebooted Blake's 7 project they were presented with last year. As a result, the project has moved to Microsoft, where they are considering it as an original drama series to air through the X-Box's TV channel (alongside the Halo TV series they are currently developing).

Martin Campbell (director of James Bond movies GoldenEye and Casino Royale) is still attached to the project as a producer and will direct the pilot episode.

New X-Box announcement hijacked by dog

Yesterday Microsoft unveiled their new home video game console, the confusingly-named X-Box One. There was lots of interesting details about how the machine would interface with the TV and serve as a media hub and other things, although major game news was limited to the revelation that the always-splendid Remedy Studios were working on a new game called Quantum Break (and would be returning to the Alan Wake universe at some point as well). The point when the presentation took off, however, was when the video for Call of Duty: Ghosts (henceforth referred to as COD Goats) was shown, confirming that there was a dog in the game.

The biggest thing on the planet right now.

Within moments the Internet had exploded. The dog got a meme going, instantly. Within the hour the dog had its own Twitter account (named @CollarDuty, naturally), which is just about to hit 15,000 followers. Many humourous dogs-in-military-situation photos followed, such as:

"There he is, the guy with the mail bag. Three rounds rapid!"

The games console you just spent five years and hundreds of millions of dollars working on? Nobody gives a toss, because a game has a dog in it. And it's not even the first game to do so (and in ARMA 2 you can even play as the dog, if you fiddle around with settings).

Ladies and gentlemen, the internet in action.

Microsoft and NBC may resurrect HEROES

There are many TV shows that have ended before their time and fans want to see them back. Squarely not amongst that number is NBC's Heroes. Airing for four seasons in 2006-10, Heroes was infamous for having an excellent first season and then suffering a catastrophic collapse in quality. When the show finally slinked off the air, few people cared.

However, Microsoft and NBC are in discussions to resurrect the show. The thinking is to bring it back as a Netflix-style on-demand series, a bit like House of Cards, but which will air exclusively on Microsoft's download service. This service will launch with the next X-Box (but will probably also be available via the existing X-Box 360) and form part of Microsoft's multimedia-device strategy for their new machine.

Whilst a nice idea, I don't think a new Heroes - even one with a mostly new cast and possibly new producers - is the show to do it with. The show's reputation is in shambles and its return would not really excite that many people. Microsoft would be better off partnering with, say, SyFy and maybe trying to bring a different type of superhero show to the screen...

Now that might work.

Microsoft creative director tells people to go buy PlayStations

Well, as good as. 

Adam Orth is a creative director at Microsoft Studios and a fairly influential voice within the company. Strong rumours have been circulated for a while that Durango - the codename for the next X-Box - will require an always-on Internet connection, in contrast to its rival, the PlayStation 4, which will not. Gamers have been grumbling about this, with many diehard X-Box fans saying they will switch to PlayStation for the next generation if the next X-Box is online only.

Orth took to Twitter to criticise people for not having an always-on connection, stating that they "should definitely get with the times and get the Internet. It's awesome." When Manveer Heir, a senior designer at BioWare, pointed out that some people live in rural areas with spotty or no Internet connections, Orth expressed bewilderment than anyone would want to live in such areas. Other issues, such as many Internet companies imposing crippling bandwidth restrictions on users which would prevent them downloading entire games or even playing multiplayer on their consoles, were not discussed.

Orth has been thoroughly condemned for his remarks, though Microsoft's reaction was bizarre. Aaron Greenberg, a chief of staff at Microsoft well-known for his accessibility via Twitter, even said he didn't know who Orth was (which in a company as large as Microsoft is actually possible, but he should have perhaps resorted to a five-second Google search before replying). Heir later took to Twitter explaining that Orth is "a good guy," and that his remarks have been overreacted to, though by this time the damage was done.

Always-online requirements remain controversial almost a decade after the first games appeared that required them. Internet infrastructure - especially in rural areas where millions of gamers still live - is simply not up to the job of managing always-online requirements and even where it is, companies still impose cripplingly low bandwidth restrictions. Dismissing a large swathe of customers in this manner is simply going to push them onto the PlayStation 4. With the dwindling number of Microsoft exclusives (they are pretty much left just with the Halo series and not much more), the reasons for buying the next X-Box over the PS4 are likewise becoming non-existent. Unless the next X-Box is comprehensively more powerful - or substantially cheaper - than the PS4, it looks like Sony might have the next gen in the bag already.

Indeed, there were a lot of happy faces at Sony this morning, as this tweet from Sony CEO Kaz Hirai indicates:

Awesome.

UPDATE: Bah, the Sony CEO Twitter reply was from a parody account. Still funny though.