What’s X10? It’s Microsoft’s Xbox 360 media event for 2010 and boy were there announcements made there. I’ve taken the liberty of gathering all the fun and placed it all in one post.

Announcements

• Xbox 360 Final Fantasy XIII Special Edition bundle will be available on March 9 for $399.99 USD
  • Includes a 250GB Hard Drive, two wireless controllers, exclusive Xbox avatar items and a standard copy of the game
• Perfect Dark XBLA & Game Room will launch in March
• Splinter Cell: Conviction debuting April 13
• Alan Wake debuting May 18 exclusively for Xbox 360 (trailer below)
• Lost Planet 2 debuting May 18 as well
• Dead Rising 2 debuting August 31
  • Xbox Live! exclusive Dead Rising: CASE ZERO is a prologue to Dead Rising 2 and will be available prior to Dead Rising 2 launch
• Left 4 Dead 2: The Passing DLC coming to Xbox 360 and PC
• Fable III will debut holiday 2010
• Crackdown 2 debuting later this year
• Halo: Reach multiplayer beta starts May 3 and will be accessible via Halo 3: ODST disc

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Welcome to the QSF5.com ‘Exclusives Watch 2009′ Revision 1.0!

Here it is: the final update of 2009 and probably the final Exclusives Watch for me.

As always this feature will answer these two questions:

Who has the most exclusives?
Who has the most quality exclusives?

With the new year, I’ve made a few predictions:

1. The number of third party disc based retail exclusives will dwindle between the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
2. The number of third party Wii exclusives will drop a bit, but the quality will improve overall.
3. Sony’s PlayStation 3 will continue maintain the quality over quantity mantra for its exclusives.
4. Number of downloadable exclusive titles will rise for all platforms.

Let’s see how I did.

1. Fewer and fewer exclusives from third parties. The most notable exclusive comes from an exclusive deal forged back in the early days of this console generation with the GTAIV expansions episodes.
2. I was wrong about this one. So many more third party exclusives were delivered this year.
3. I was right with the PlayStation 3 quality of exclusives.
4. I was right about this, but only for Nintendo’s WiiWare.

With that, I hope you find this article to be both useful and enlightening. If you notice any missing/incorrect info, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment.

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Hardware

1. Nintendo DS – 1, 700, 000
2. Wii – 1, 260, 000
3. Xbox 360 – 819, 500
4. PlayStation 3 – 710, 400
5. PSP – 293, 900
6. PlayStation 2 – 203, 100

Software

1. 360 – CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 – 4, 200, 000
2. PS3 – CALL OF DUTY: MODERN WARFARE 2 – 1, 870, 000
3. Wii -NEW SUPER MARIO BROS. WII – 1, 390, 000
4. 360 – ASSASSIN’S CREED II – 794, 700
5. 360 – LEFT 4 DEAD 2 – 744, 000
6. WII SPORTS RESORT – 720, 200
7. WII FIT PLUS – 679, 000
8. PS3 – ASSASSIN’S CREED II – 448, 400
9. 360 – DRAGON AGE: ORIGINS – 362, 100
10. Wii – MARIO KART W/ WHEEL – 315, 000

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If you purchased an Xbox 360 60GB and were looking to transfer data from your 20 GB hard drive to the new one, don’t order a hard drive transfer kit from eBay.

I should have read the instructions more closely. I should have noticed that I needed both the cable AND the disc. The cable cost me $7.73 from eBay, but it didn’t include the disc. I can’t download the disc either since it requires authentication for some odd reason.

So what does that leave me? I’m not eligible for the free transfer kit because I didn’t upgrade to an Elite console. I could order one from Microsoft for about $14 though. Or, I could wait for a kit to get sent to me via NeoGAF’s “pay it forward” thread. I could also perform the data transfer via an overpriced memory unit, but that’s just absurd to me.

Either way, it doesn’t look like I will be selling my Xbox 360 anytime soon. Well, not selling with a hard drive anyway.

Thank goodness Sony didn’t make their data transfer process so convoluted and costly.

I was reminded of the Xbox 360’s four year anniversary the other day and that got me thinking.

“What are the Xbox 360’s graphical showcases?”

I can list the PlayStation 3 and Wii efforts as they’re clearly a step above the competition on the platform or otherwise, but not with the Xbox 360; it’s tougher. There is Gears of War and its sequel, but that’s Unreal Engine 3.0 and I’ve seen good looking Unreal Engine 3.0 games on the PS3 before. Where are the true Microsoft exclusives which are putting that Xenos GPU to work?

I don’t think there is one. (Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) It’s a bit of a surprise considering how powerful the Xenos GPU is. Instead, I see Microsoft is pushing their console’s limits in other ways.  Specifically, with community and networking.

Halo 3 is still unrivaled in the field for community features. Recorded videos, online stats, flexible co-op and party options — the list goes on and on. Then there is 1 vs 100 on Xbox Live! which is an online game show with a live host.

So am I right or am I wrong?

The Home Premium upgrade package comes with two discs (32-bit & 64-bit) and one license key. Makes sense. But what how about clean installs? That’s what we’re all wondering about. It seems everyone and their mother loves Windows 7, but how do we perform a clean install with the upgrade media? That’s why I decided not to put off the install and find out.

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Along with a myriad of details, which you can read up on over at GamesRadar and GiantBomb, Microsoft went up on stage and unveiled a Limited Edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 with a 250 GB hard drive.

I approve of this bundle. For $399.99 USD (and possibly CAD), you get:

• Xbox 360 w/ 250 GB hard drive
• Two wireless controllers
• A copy of Modern Warfare 2

That’s quite the bundle considering the second controller and game will set you back $130 at the very least. I’m not fond of the paint job though. A little tacky.

So that’s all good news, but what of the game itself? I’m a bit worried about balance. Infinity Ward threw in a lot of interesting features and abilities, but how will it all balance out? And with the admission of no multiplayer beta, I’m worried that exploits and exploitable combinations will ruin the fun.

Who can really say though? This is Infinity Ward. They’re a talented bunch and I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now. After all, they did spawn a legion of copy cats after Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare dropped.

P.S – If you want check out footage (and sift through multiple 2 minute videos), head over to the Gameplay section of GameTrailer’s Modern Warfare 2 page.