No, you read that right. Yesterday Microsoft Game Studios posted a job to Gamasutra in search fo a professional able to program the server backend for a 300,000 player game on the XBOX 360.

Do I smell MMO cooking in the house of M?

Full Job Description After The Break

The above is a screenshot of somethign we, the DS owning populous, will never get. It is a remarkable looking tidbit of gameplay from The Legend of Zelda: The Shards of Light. What is it might you ask? It's a homebrew DS Zelda adventure which mixes old and new gameplay with full touch screen functionality. The creator BassAceGold has made progress on bringing old school gameplay and story with new school functionality to what can only be described as a classic Zelda fan's wet dream.

Unforunately, we will probably never get to play this and the reason for that is because that homebrew games aren't exactly the most friendly for the corporate money making machine. Just like Square  before them Nintendo will probably have a rag tag team of Phoenix Wrights all over this thing within a week throwing out more Cease and Desist letters before you can say OBJECTION!

But for those dreamers out there...click here for the video of the art and here for a larger version of the above screenshot

It's been here for four long years and now it's been announced by SOE that they're pulling the plug on The Matrix Online.

This game caused great excitement amongst those “who know Kung-Fu” and unusually it did actually deliver on those promises of being an MMO that was different from the rest of the crowd.

It seems that the game was a little “too different” for most people's tastes, but was at least a great premise and also an awesome, and some might say perfect film series to make an MMO out of.

The game was originally launched on March 22^nd 2005 and the plug will finally be pulled on July 31^st allowing just 2 short months for players to jack in for the last time.

Through a post on the official forums producer Daniel 'Walrus' Myers confirmed the MMO's last day and he also promised that true to MMO traditions, players will experience a unique end of the world that will incorporate everything that made The Matrix Online memorable.

The Matrix Online development team will live on though, and will be joined by Daniel Myers, and it's been announced that they will be working on SOE's new upcoming MMO The Agency.

The US has been making gamers in the UK and Ireland seethe with jealousy over the whole Netflix on Xbox thing. But not for much longer as the land of the funny accents and copious amounts of tea is about to get a similar service from satellite TV provider, Sky. But it'll be going that extra mile and straming live TV, yes LIVE TV!

Sky are famous over this side of the pond for their sports channels among other things and are planning to stream live football matches with their Xbox service as well as TV shows and films which means that the UK and Ireland will be getting the world's first Xbox Live streaming TV service.

Scheduled to start in autumn, British and Irish Xbox Live subscribers will gain access to Sky's Sky Player service which is just like the Hulu service in the US which is also rumoured to be coming to US Xboxes and is also rumoured to be announced at E3 this week.

The Sky service is to include subscription-based live shows, on-demand movies and shows from the past, as well as pay-per-view sports events like boxing, Premiership football and WWE werstling events, and all without using a set top box or satellite dish.

Specifics like prices and channel line-ups have not been announced yet but it's reasonable to assume that the content will be similar to what I listed as that's pretty much the Sky Player content available on PC and Mac.

One interesting application with this is that Xbox Live users will be able to watch sporting content together which in the case of football will allow viewers to abuse...sorry I mean discuss in an adult manner the differences between their favourite teams via avatars. Just like a real match but without the risk of arrest and more importantly without leaving the house and your beloved Xbox home alone.

Guitar Hero 5 officially has a release date and is dated for September 1st of this year.

This GH game will have 85 artists, 30 of which have never been in a GH game before. (Some tracks after the break) GH5 will also support multiple players on a single instrument, so like 5 drummers in one room. It can happen..

 Also, the official GH website is hosting a contest to guess what other artists are included in the game. If you are correct you could win a set of 5 tickets to 5 different concerts near their home. http://gh5.guitarhero.com/

It will release 1 week before Rockband:Beatles. Good idea/bad idea? Who knows...