Microsoft News Tracker

BusinessWeek online has an interview with Greg Canessa, manager for the Xbox Live Arcade download service, on why Microsoft is forging links with small developers:

In its effort to grab the console-gaming crown away from rival Sony, Redmond has redoubled its efforts to lure casual gamers — schoolchildren, grandmothers, and the like playing poker and puzzle games through MSN Games and MSN Messenger a few hours a day.

Wrangling those players is key to the company’s goal of taking the Xbox 360 to breakeven within two years of its launch on Nov. 22. And indie developers can help the company attract them.
…
The new Xbox 360 Live service, which allows console owners to play against each other and download additional game levels, will feature a special Xbox Live Arcade section filled with casual games. One of the dozen-or-so titles to debut will be from indie studio GarageGames. That’s a first for Microsoft, which previously has launched exclusively with bigger, mainstream titles.

But Microsoft hopes to work more closely with independent game developers in the coming years, both because the indies are known for producing innovative titles and because many of these smaller developers are already well-established in the casual gaming market.

Hit the link for the interview.

Sandy Brown at TheStreet.com:

Yahoo! has joined the whirlwind Internet industry courtship of AOL, sources say.

Who’s next?

Update: More from Anick Jesdanun at the AP:

Yahoo Inc. is considering buying a stake in America Online Inc., joining other Internet powerhouses interested in the company’s Web portal, a person close to the talks said Friday.

The discussions were described as preliminary and not as advanced as separate talks AOL parent Time Warner Inc. has had with Microsoft Corp. and Google Inc., which is considering a joint bid with Comcast Corp.

News Corp. has also expressed interest, but those discussions have largely ended, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the release of information was not authorized.

More by following the link, but what everyone is interested in is AOL’s new free portal, AOL.com, which one analyst values at $11.3 billion based on the advertising potential.

It’ll be showing up shortly in Windows/Microsoft Update for Media Center users. Alan Stafford and Paul Thurrott run down the feature enhancements. Some new marketing deals are also expected to be announced today. If you like, you can download the rollup directly, but as Ed Bott warns, “Be sure to read the info page first!”

To net it out, there are a few new features, including the capability for sending video to the upcoming Xbox 360 game console, and a number of fixes. The real story is that this is the end for Media Center enhancements and all the action has switched to Vista.

Update: Here’s the Microsoft press release and the accompanying MTV press release.