This is recent news? They actually demoed this at Microsoft TechEd in Atlanta last May...

This is really sad and infuriating all at the same time... There is no logical reason I could ever accept or fathom that 'Dead Space' needs a multiplayer component. Other than these assholes at EA that are trying to inject multiplayer into everything. I see and understand the fun and everything with multiplayer games, I really do. Is it for me? No. Give me a decent-length single player campaign with a good story, characters and ending, and I'll eat it up. The multiplayer is a nice addition, but will I ever use it? Probably not. Like I said, I understand the importance and necessity of some games to support a multiplayer component; but don't inject it into every fucking game under the sun just because some asshole who doesn't even play the damn games say "social media is where the money is, make it so!" What's happening is these assholes at EA are putting such an emphasis on multiplayer, that the development of the single player campaign will turn to shit; which no one cares about because they'd rather please the 10,000 people that want to run around as a fucking Necromorph versus the 1 guy that wants a lengthy and decent single player campaign (Dead Space is just the example here). Did Bioshock 2 need multiplayer? Really, did it? Call me bitter or whatever, I'm just sadly predicting that single player campaigns and story modes are going to suffer when the powers that be start telling their devs that the focus needs to be on an outstanding multiplayer component and the single player portion comes second. If you come to me and say that Uncharted 3, Mass Effect 3, or Dead Space 2 or 3 *NEED* multiplayer, I'll say "You sir, are wrong". Give me my Dead Spaces, Super Metroids, and Links to The Past any day over that crap.

Well said sir... well said. Just like Martin Lawrence said: "What the fuck is a critic anyway? That's somebody that can't do what you can do..."

I watched a 45 minute live presentation from GDC last night on this, and it looks very promising... they demoed the hardware and software and even did some online deathmatch in World in Conflict I believe it was... 1 guy was using the AV dongle and wireless controller while the other guy was using the web browser plug-in from a laptop. Gamespot also said they got to try out Burnout Paradise and Crysis at max resolutions and it ran with very few hiccups... granted, nothing is proof-positive until the general public gets their hands on it; but they are offering signups for the beta which begins in May. Judging by the presentation and articles I've read so far, these guys might actually be able to pull this off - I'm not entirely on the bandwagon as of yet, but I think it's definitely something to keep your eyes on.

That is really weird... my console died and I shipped it back to MS without the hard drive. In 3-4 weeks I got a new 360 with a different serial number. I popped in my hard drive to the new console, powered it up, and voila. No problems whatsoever... I have probably a dozen Live Arcade games I've purchased and not once did I have an issue... did MS do something behind the curtains for my account that they skipped or forgot about with others??