Gamerscore Blog

Incredible.

Called it.

Yep It's this weeks XBLA title

http://www.gamingtalkhq.com/gamingtalkhq-home/the-major-announcement-pac-man-championship-edition.html

man, i've been waiting for this!

...yea

i just peed myself.

you got to be kidding another poxy pac-man game and at 800 points if anyone buys this they need to have their head tested

...is this the big surprise?

Oh man... I was really hoping it was something bigger than an update to a retro game. I understand the significance, but still... that's kind of lame for people who aren't huge pacman fans.

Oh well, maybe some other time for the rest of the gamers.

... sigh.

This is sad.  1600 MS points and 3 Pac-Man games later, NAMCO and MS still refuse to include the STANDARD two player mode.  Laughable at best, sad none the less.  I'll keep my 800 points for Carcassonne... oh where art thou Carcassonne?

What a disappointment.  Did the first 2 pac man's sell that well that you think we want a 3rd?  Man, please no more pac man.  The game was fun 20 years ago, but it's not we need 3 versions fun.

As stated by others in oline forums

Did anyone ever play Pacman Vs. on the Gamecube? It was a 4 player pacman game where 3 players were ghosts and one was pac man.



The 3 ghosts would play on the TV, and would only see a little bit around their ghost character, making communication key for the ghosts to catch Pacman.

Pics of PacMan vs.

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/reviews/ngc/PacmanVs/01.jpg

http://www.ntsc-uk.com/reviews/ngc/PacmanVs/04.jpg

No multiplayer
No Vision Cam support
No 1080p I think

they should be embarrased by this announcement not boasting

I'm dissapointed. The only thing that can erase my dissapointment is if you guys announce tommorow that you forgot something, and confirm that the Xbox 360 will be getting Tekken 6. Don't let me down.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=BMD8B2OOhog

Youtube Link to PacMan vs on the Gamecube

which actually had co-op and 4 player multiplayer

Pac-Man Championship Edition, First New Updates to Pac-Man in 26 Years (this is a complete lie)

Microsoft constantly twist the truth like this and PR spin thats why theres no way I belive them when they claim a 3% failure rate that numbers been sugar coated


Either way Bad PR bad Marketing do your homework next time.

I don't think I'd download this if it were free.

I can appreciate some of the comments from others unenthusiastic about this announcement. I'd like to see a corresponding price drop on the other Pac titles (from 400 to 200, perhaps), or a repackaging as a combo pack for 600 or something. I think three of that series is too much.

I wonder if this would have more cachet if there were arcade cabinets with it that came out in limited release. Or perhaps if it was demo'd using that neat 'Surface' table, tracing Pac-Man's route to control him.

Still, it'll be interesting to see Major's charts to find out if the public agrees with the internet chorus. :-)

PacMan Elite  for that fancy new Surface Toutch Table I'm in

I'd love to toutch PacMan

technically I already have PacMan on my PDA same toutch interface.

So is it the price that's an issue - or is it the announcement itself, and any "build up" or "hype" at what you guys were expecting?  Just curious.

I think folks are more upset about the way Greenberg advertised the news. More than one person I spoke honestly believed that you guys were going to announce <insert PS3 Exclusive> would be available on the 360. Or that Xbox Live Gold would be free.

My problem is that the price is a little steep, even with the upgrades. To me, this should have almost been another freebie as a general "Thank you for 26 years of support. Love, Namco". Or at least a discount if you've purchased other Pac-man/Namco titles. I'd almost take some free gamerpics (which I'm sure there will be one if Namco is keeping its tradition) and another theme as "thank you" gifts.

Maybe not practical or reasonable, but certainly a fantastic good will gesture.

You have two problems here guys. No wait, let's make it three.

Problem #1: your PR mouthpieces don't exist in a vacuum. If you go around saying to expect earth-shattering news that will change video-game history, your userbase will, against their better judgement, believe you. Just a quick update: a new bloody pac-man game *isn't* any of those things.

Problem #2: To have that news be the fact you're releasing ANOTHER f*cking pac-man game, is like a backhand slap to the face. Charging them 800msp for it is the bit where you bend them over the table.

Problem #3: June 7th was supposed to be Carcassone, many gaming news sites carried this date way back in April.  

So not only have you released a game nobody gives a flying turd about, you're charging them an insane premium for it, and withholding a game people actually gave a damn about.

Yet another disaster week for you guys and the XBLA.

Love the eye candy!  It actually looks like Geo Wars + Pac-Man.  

This announcement just goes to show that MS, Major Nelson, Trixie and all the men and women from Gamerscore blog are completely out of touch with the fan base.

Its sad really…

@CPaladino

The hype machine kills any 'normal' announcement; you guys have already talked on the 'cast about how leaks are bad, and on the internet even moderate hyperbole gets amplified as Joe quotes the story that Jane did quoting the story that James posted quoting the original quote. Purple monkey dishwasher. And the flip side is without the leaks, imagination runs wild - with leaks the surprise is spoiled (and the ESRB kinda 1/2 spoiled this one a while ago). So you couldn't win.

People look at 'historic' or similar terms through their own looking glass - sure it's historic the inventor of pac-man was involved in reworking new challenges into the boundaries he sets himself (as opposed to some other company re-imagining it for another platform or for tv cartoons). For people 15-20 years older than me (i.e. in their 50's), maybe it is something that will go down in history for them. I don't have that frame of reference.

Personally, I wasn't interested in Pac-Man enough to spend 400 points on it (disclaimer - I have bought my share of Arcade titles). I was less interested in 400 points for Ms.Pac-Man (no hard feelings, Pepper). So I'm definitely not the right audience for an 800 point revamp of a retro game, which is what many people will see it as. It may be a 'new' title, which is why it got the 800 point price bar, but it doesn't feel like one.

I might dive in to the original (as expressed above) at a lower point threshold. All that said, the true test will be that first week or so, when we see where it falls on Major's chart (though hard numbers are a historically secretive thing).

With all the other great or historic franchises out there, it just surprises me at least to see this particular one get such focus. I think others have expressed that some of the games ported are almost being picked by nostalgia - I'm doubtful that's the case. There's a biz case here that says someone is going to buy it. They might not buy a 360 for it, but there's gotta be people who will buy it.

The XBLA suits aren't sitting around in a basement going "dude... what about that pac-man game.... yeah man, let's port that - and his missus, she was hot, people will buy that... yeah....and that game, with the paperboy... yeah, dude, that's a good one, we should port that... or something with root beer... yeah, the tapper, man, the tapper...  y'know they should make pac-man with more colors... yeah dude.... colors.... sweeet."

6-5-07 NYC Never Forget.

The pricing is way over the top. When you consider what came in the Jetpack revamped package (Completly redone game, gorgeous HD graphics, online multiplayer, original game), the price of this is crazy in all honesty.

Oh and I think you'll find Pacman + Ms Pacman is way more Pacman than most people will ever need in 10 life times.

The hype really didn't help the announcement one bit either.

Still, it's hard to complain too much as XBLA really has been on a roll recently, even if this week is a bit of a chink in the armour. I hear Prince of Persia might be next week though, which will definetly be a return to form.

So... Tekken 6 is coming, isn't it?

@ C Paldino

1.  The "Earth Shattering News Angle" went terribly wrong.  Their is nothing Earth Shattering about Pac Man anymore.  

2.  We have 3 version of Pac Man now and most people didn't care for 1.  This should of been obvious when Pac Man and MS Pac Man didn't do that well in the first place.

3.  If there was anytime to release 2 games at the same time it should of been this week.   It honestly feels like someone at MS gave Namco a ton of money to get Pac Man on XBLA thinking it was some killer app, and are now trying to recover from the failure by trying to shove Pac Man down are throats with 3 separate versions and putting all this advertising around it.

First new update to pacman?

I remember ms pacman, pacman jr, super pacman and pac land in the arcades, plus pac man plus.

Hold on a sec, folks.  I agree that this announcement wasn't earth-shattering, but I mean, it IS pretty big news for the Pac-Man fans - and guess what?  This announcement was made at the Pac-Man Global Tourney.  

I hardly think the Xbox PR guys are out of touch - more like we're a little too jaded for our own good, perhaps.

@ aceattorney

I think they are out of touch with the gamers.  When you make announcement that the PR guys thinks is big or cool, and 95% of the community doesn't think it's big or cool then your out of touch.  This isn't the first time either.  This has happened a lot especially on XBLA.

There is a problem with video game PR and it's not just at MS, it's in all aspects of the video game industry.  The problem is that the Video game fans are complex in a ever changing environment and you can't just get the pulse of the gamers because you went to college and majored in marketing.  

There are way to many people in the video game PR industry that have no business being there.  They are not gamers and have no idea what the customers want/like.  Just browsing over some of the GS people's gamertags you can tell some of them are not gamers at all.  Pac Man might be cool to them because extremely casual gamers like simple games.   The problem is not many people buy a 400 dollar system for casual games.   So you have casual gamers trying to spin PR to hardcore gamers and it's not working.   Maybe they will do a better job when the system is 199.99 and casual gamers start buying the system in higher numbers.

You'll find a screenshot of the game at "underwhelming" in any dictionary.

Frankly it looks really good,
  but it's been overshadowed by a silly mistake that was taken way too seriously by the media. I think 1up was talking about this, how a small indie media group gets a rumour, forgets to seriously consider it, then the larger groups pick up on it and bang! = People being disappionted.

I'll condsider buying it...

I just finished reading about the gamer event they had in NYC (on MN's site) and just about lost my breakfast because of it.

I think it sucks with a captial S that our event had two no-shows (John and Sara) and no freebies, yet when Major goes somewhere, John and Sara actually show up, buy food and drinks, and GIVE stuff away. FOR FREE. Codes? You handed out codes?! Add to fact that Major and Trixie did the same thing, and I must ask you...

...Where was this in Dallas for us normal folk? I give props to Chris and Tony for the Dallas event (because THEY SHOWED UP), but I can't help but feel slighted when a NYC event gets more fanfare and effort than something sponsored by this very blog - ESPECIALLY when GSB people themselves don't show.

And Gemini Ace wrote me yesterday to ask if I ever get my jacket. The answer is still NO, I HAVE NOT. And I reserved early enough too.

XBox 360 - Some people remember their roots better than others...

@SidearmS I think that's a very unfair criticism.  The purpose of the GSB Tour was not to hand out swag, but to come meet, hang out, and talk to folks we normally don't get an opportunity to see.

To each his own, I'm disappointed because it seems the biggest takeaway you got from the Dallas stop was "we didn't get free stuff".

Your "free stuff" is coming, although I didn't have a jacket w/ the gamertag "SideArmS" on it, so hopefully I got your contact information.

http://gamerscoreblog.com/team/archive/2007/06/05/PacManNewEd.aspx#550993

Gotta say I agree with Ice Cold above. However,  I posted up my ideas for Pac-Man Vs being added as a multiplayer expansion to this game's Darkness mode and I think the same concept would work on other levels. No need now for a FOURTH Pac-Man game. :-P

Whenever the Xbox Live or Arcade team ask for new content we would like to see on the Marketplace, I will always suggest Pac-Man versus for the original Xbox and Xbox 360 as a it was a failed marketing ploy for the Gamecube but it could be a boon for the Xbox platforms with its multiplayer focus on teamwork .

http://www.majornelson.com/archive/2007/06/05/pac-man-championship-edition.aspx#63

Having watched some of the Dallas GSB Tour roadshow feed from three or four timezones away when it was going down, I gotta say it seemed pretty cool, and it would've been swanky just to get there and check out those games before they came out.

@ Sidearms

The tour was for the community. There are some employees that might have other work duties to attend or emergencies. Sometimes you people seem to forget Microsoft hires humans, they don't make them.

I am sure your Jackets are worth the same or around the same price as the 800 MS points we got at the event ( including the shipping, packaging, ect).

If it makes you happy I can send you my code.

"Disappointed"?

Tell you what, keep the swag. Seriously, I don't need that like you THINK I do.

I just pointed out that between two events, there is a huge gap of presentation. And attendance. Facts are facts.

Did I say the event sucked? No.
Did I say the event was not fun? No.
Did I say that I not happy to have gone? No.
Did I bag on Tony and yourself? No. You guys were great hosts. I have no problem with you.

You going to bag on Gemini Ace as well? He was the one who wrote me to ask what was up. A lot of us didn't get jackets man. And since you guys loved to snap off pictures of the jackets at all your stops on this tour, what kind of expectation did you think you were building? Oh, and you did also ask, "HOW MUCH WOULD YOU PAY FOR THIS?" during all the online interviews.

But you want to put the word free in quotes and make it seem like I am uncaring. You are wrong. I was not the guy pimping jacket pricing in a live blogcast.

I could really nitpick here, especially after the fact you couldn't even get my name right man. My GT is different, I TOLD YOU this not only to your face, but on the live interview too. Did you or did you not tell me, "yes, I remember your Email"? I could have mentioned my road trip, and what I did to get there, but no, that isn't the point.

If you think that is all I care about, you sincerely, honestly, don't know me at all.

So keep the jacket, codes, etc, whatever. I don't need subsidized gaming from you. I can cover my own way, so allow me to spare you the hassle of doing what you guys said you WOULD do when you annouced this tour. After all, MAKER FORBID you are held accountable to whatever your say or do.

And criticism? Allow me to remind you who made the infamous "weather forecast" video.

Don't throw stones in glass houses.

I can understand your defense, but facts are facts. This was a GSB event and half your staff bailed. But when Major and Trixie show up, all of a sudden it is something they can make. And once there, they bankrolled. Major said it himself.

And I am not the only who observed this, just the only one who will bring it straight to your blog. Because that is what I do. I make people discuss things.

Thanks for letting me comment. I thought this blog was not so guarded as Major's. I was wrong, so I will be on my merry way.

Goodbye.

XBox 360 - Keep the swag, I don't need your angst.

Wow, some of you guys are completely rude and ungrateful. Especially you sidearms, I'd be embarresed if I made the comment that you made.

That being said, even though people have been very rude about stating their opinions, I think that the lesson for the folks at microsoft to take away from this is that they should be carefull about hyping up something before it happens. Unless you have something that can live up to that hype, be careful about what you say. I don't think something like "[blank] will go down in gaming history" is ever a smart statement to make.

I think it is important to realize that there are people out there who are upset by the fact that this statement was made and that it wasn't lived up to by any means. I think it is cool that you guys are trying to bring back pacman and celebrate what it has meant to gaming, I really do, but it isn't for everyone, so you need to be very weary when you are making statements to the whole gaming community.

Hope that helps, if your interested in a more indepth opinion or you didn't really understand some of the things that I was posting, you can always email me at damonjfriend [at] yahoo.com, I swear I have a good head on my shoulders. ;)

WOW what a great up date to Pac-man this is. To all the moaners just download the demo and see for yourself. It is Pac-man reborn and well worth 800 points.

This and Jetpac really show how to bring classics back up to date. Well done Namco and MS

Pac-Man is already on XBLA and it wasn't worth buying then due to Namco whoring it out to every system known to man. What I want to know is, where's the Shadowrun demo?

"Wow, some of you guys are completely rude and ungrateful. Especially you sidearms, I'd be embarrassed if I made the comment that you made. "

Couldn't agree more.  Rude and ungrateful is an understatement, I think.  Wow.

I say cheers to the team over there - They do some great with and for the community and this is far too often taken for granted as seen here.  How about a little gratitude?

Wow...I, personally, didn't "BALL" on going to Dallas. It wasn't an option for me. I have VERY good friends in Dallas and was disappointed in not being able to attend. If YOU KNEW ME at all, you would know how much I do care about the community and will do just about anything to make sure they're heard so everything you just said about me is absurd.

I'm sorry you had such a horrible time, Sidearm, and felt like you were not taken care of. It is never our intention to make people feel that way. This whole tour was to let you know that we are accessible to you and feel your feedback is important.

I don't usually comment on stories but felt I had to. Sidearm you're being a little to aggressive. It's obvious you're upset about not getting free stuff. The purpose of the whole thing was to meet people. When I went to the one in Miami, I was simply glad to see Tony, John, and Chris doing well. I chatted with  them, played some games, had a beer, and left. I got a jacket but that didn't make or break my day. You need to be a little more understanding about how much traveling and planning for an event this big can take on a person, physically and mentally.

People often forget these guys don't HAVE to do any of this. They can go to work 9-5 and post stuff in that crappy (sorry but it is) community page on Xbox.com and just let your email fill up in some inbox that rarely gets checked.

K Rock

I understand some people are upset here but ANYONE abusing this game clearly either hasnt played it or are determined to hate it on principle.

I bought the original Pac Man, I didnt LOVE it but it was fun for a bash.  This new version however is EXCELLENT.  It takes Pac Man and makes it more fun even for those of us who arent huge Pac Man fans.

Everyone complaining, please give this game a chance.  I agree that Pac Man and Ms Pac Man should have both been bundled together at 400 points and I was pissed when Ms Pac Man came out after buying the original.  However that fault has nothing to do with this game.  

This game is excellent and nobody should say otherwise.

I think whats being overlooked here a little bit is the fact MS double-dipped people here and people feel slighted.  If you were going to release a HD Pac-Man with new levels that was developed in Widescreen then you should not have released the first pac man.

People are tired of these letterbox ports in which the screens are all small and we have these huge borders around the TV.  It just looks like crap and it smacks of lazy dev's out for a quick buck.  Pac Man C.E. is how it should of been done the first time.   It should be a rule that no developer can release a retro title unless its revamped for Arcade in HD/Widescreen.  In fact as a general rule I don't buy any letterboxed games because I can't think of any that actually are good.  

Hmmm.

Pac-Man is irrelevant?
Read up on your gaming history.

Community events are about the swag and who from the Xbox community isn't there?
Dude, you're in it for all the wrong reasons. You've just succeeded in reaching out and poking the entire community crew in the eye.

@ SidearmS

I think your comments are a bit too harsh. I understand that people have things that come up from time to time. Some people didn't make it to the Chicago event but I had a great time none the less. It was an honor to hang out with the Gamerscore crew and enjoy a few laughs and games with others. I hope this doesn't deter them from doing more of these "Roadshows" as they really do make people feel as if the Xbox community cares about what gamers think. Good or bad. I'm sorry that things didn't go as well for you in Dallas but I don't think it was due to the Gamerscore crew not trying.

When I first read about the Pac-Man contest I was a bit puzzled.  It didn’t make sense that MS was having a big contest in New York to promote this game. Pac-Man hasn’t been a top ten Xbox Live arcade game since the week of 1/8/07. MS Pac-Man also fell off the list back in mid February. Clearly, the fan base interest was at an all-time low for the franchise. In contrast, there have been a couple of titles that have appeared in the top ten list (arcade and retail games) for the last 5 or 6 months with some regularity.

If MS was going to have a contest or event to help promote the Xbox Live gaming community and simultaneously provide the appearance that MS was giving something back to the fans, it would stand to reason that MS would select a game that appears on a recent top ten list. This would allow the largest possible number of Xbox Live members to participate in the event. They would not have selected a title that has been dead for six months.

Still, it seemed MS was doing this out of the kindness of their hearts. They didn’t have to put on a special event in New York and they didn’t have to conduct a contest complete with prizes. While the selection of the game Pac-Man was questionable, perhaps MS was just selecting a title that could be played by the entire family. You couldn’t really knock MS for that.

And as for doing something out of the kindness of their hearts or reaching out to the Xbox Live community fan base? Sure, why not? As previously posted in this thread the men and women from GSB do hold meet and greet events in different cities in an effort to reach out to the fan base, Trixie has her own events and contests including the recent mom/dad gamer contests and Major Nelson has regular giveaways and the occasional event. This event in New York was presented to the fans in exactly the same way, as a fan appreciation event. That’s probably one of the reasons why this Xbox 360 owner SidearmsS is upset. All he sees is two different fan appreciation events getting drastically different resources from MS and he wants to know why.

Of course none of that was the truth. The New York event was not a fan appreciation event. It had nothing to do with selecting a title that the whole family could play, promoting the Xbox Live Community or giving something back to the fans. This whole contest/media event was orchestrated to sell us Pac-Man Championship Edition.  

Unfortunately for MS it didn’t seem to be working out very well. The New York event was generating little to no hype at all, except from the scant few who were actually participating in the contest or Xbox 360 owners like SidearmsS who may have lived in the same geographical area and wanted to participate in an Xbox Live event. Major Nelson’s posts and comments on his show about the big event in New York were being largely ignored by the uninvolved fan base and right up until a couple of days before the event it looked like the event was going to be an abject failure.

It’s no wonder that this PR guy decided to make a comment in an effort to stir up the pot a bit. Heck, he may have even been authorized to make the statement. The sheer frustration of planning an entire marketing campaign around a new XBLA game only to have it seemingly fail before the event has even taken place must have been too much to handle.

The sad thing is, the only failure here is a PR issue. Complaints about an XBLA game at 800 points are commonplace, also it is not unusual for a segment of the fan base to complain about a retro title being released or even have a group of people upset that their previous PAC-MAN franchise purchases were not factored into their individual price for the new game in some way. That kind of reaction is certainly manageable. That kind of reaction was to be expected.

No, what the problem is now is the unforeseen negative backlash from the fan base that probably had no intention of purchasing the game in the first place.

Why MS selected this particular method to announce a new XBLA title to the fan base is certainly a mystery. In the past it was not uncommon for MS to have events specifically because a new XBLA title or some premium DLC was being released. It was the open purpose for the events themselves, not some surprise marketing sales pitch in the guise of fan appreciation events.

Of course MS had another choice as well. They could have held the event in New York, made a big deal about it, give away some nice prizes and then quietly went home, leaving all the fan base to think what great people the XBL team is.

Then a month or two later they would let us all know that NAMCO/BANDAI was so impressed by the renewed interest in PAC-Man, due to the level of contest participation, that they decided to release Pac-Man Championship Edition for XBLA.

Both of these other methods; Having events to openly sell specific games and/or content or releasing the new XBLA title well after the contest ended would have avoided this PR mess. Oh, and of course, he could have just refrained from making a statement at all and allowed the actual surprise to take place.

Thankfully MS usually selects the traditional method for product promotions and has events for the specific purpose of selling new titles or new premium DLC. I sincerely hope that we have seen the last of the surprise marketing sales pitches in the guise of fan appreciation events.  I don’t think that method works very well.

This incident has clearly shown the difference between a legitimate fan appreciation event and a marketing event designed to sell a specific product. Xbox 360 owners, please take note.

Oh and the next time Major Nelson, Trixie, or the men and women of Gamerscoreblog announce a contest or come to visit your town ask yourself what’s going on? Is this a fan appreciation event or a marketing event? Your answer will allow you to set up proper expectations and get the most satisfaction (if any) out of the event in question.

One final bit of unsolicited advice for the XBL team - Fan appreciation events you say? Getting out your map of US cities trying to figure out where to go next?  Please don’t bother. Start having real fan appreciation events that impact a larger segment of the fan base. Here let me get you started...

Pick any top 10 (top 5 would be better) Xbox 360 retail game or XBLA title and create a contest of skill or a tournament of some kind for it. Don’t focus on a title that has an imminent release of premium DLC or focus on a title that has a great deal of existing premium DLC. If you have to select a title that has a lot of existing premium DLC (because of the popularity of the game itself) then don’t include the premium DLC (new maps, for example) in the contest. By doing this you would open up this fan appreciation contest/event/tournament to as many people as possible. Oh and the prizes? MS should have a multiple tier prize structure that would allow them to reward the winner of the event as well as other participants depending on the level of success achieved. Prizes should run the gambit from the Xbox 360 line of products and include items like Xbox 360 elite, HD-DVD drives, free games, free gold live memberships, free MS points and so on all the way down to free contest themes and gamer pictures for lower level winning participants.

You should run these contests at least once a month. Think of it as the monthly Xbox Live Fan Appreciation contest/event/tournament. These events should become a staple of the Xbox Live community. They would be another wonderful feature/benefit that increases the value proposition of Xbox Live Gold membership  versus the value provided by Xbox Live silver membership.

@SidearmS

You know, you are very lucky you were even able to attend such an event as the one that was held in Dallas for several reasons.

First, many of us who love Xbox and the gaming community were unable to attend due to geographical reasons. I, for one, live in California. I know there were many posters on here who would have LOVED to attend just for the simple fact of hanging out with the GSB guys and having fun.

Second, the GSB team is not absolutely obligated to provide community functions such as the one you attended. Think about how other game hardware companies approach their community compared with Microsoft. The fact that you can attend an event somewhat close to you, FREE of charge, where you can play awesome games with other gamers is truly amazing. Please tell me if Sony or Nintendo would be willing to bend over backwards for their community like that.

The fact that you were most concerned with the free swag tells me one of two things:

1)You only attended for the free stuff; you didn't care to play games or hang with the community.
-or-
2)You're homeless.

My man, just take a breather. There were many people who were watching the live video streams because they wanted to be a part of the action and the community, not the free stuff. Consider yourself lucky.

@ NIN 013

I agree. Just the idea of the (international!) tour alone was rockin'. Good for the GSB guys. Boo to those who attended in person and still felt the need to whine.

"Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain - and most fools do." Dale Carnegie

What's up with all the angst in this thread?  

I downloaded the new Pac Man last night and it rocks.  IMO it's the best game on XBLA next to Geometry Wars.  I'm pretty much blown away.

Back to playing...

The real Victim here is Pacman. Go play his game! I think i hear him crying.

I love the new Pac-Man. The new game modes are fun to play and very challenging! The only downside is the missing free mode without a time limit!

I'm actually enjoying the new Pac-Man game.  I'm more of a Ms. Pac-Man fan myself, but this new version is fun... my roommate seems to enjoy it as well.

However, I do which there wasn't a time limit on all the game types.

@SidearmS, wow, sorry to have missed you in Dallas.  After 10 days on the road, I made the call to spend Memorial Day with my wife and four young kids.  Sara had personal commitments as well.  

Tony and Chris did a good job hosting the event, and are entirely capable of representing the team, answering questions, developing relationships, etc.  And in fact, I "bankrolled" the entire thing, including food, drinks, even the jackets for those that RSVP'd in time with their gamertags/sizes.

As for dropping everything and heading to NYC, it had nothing to do with Trixie and Major (though I love em to death)--they were there to cover the event for Xbox.com.  Sara and I were there to host the community members that were there.  I'm sure a few of them were also disappointed that Chris and Tony weren't there.  

I feel terrible that you had such a miserable time, and you left with such bad feelings about our support of the community.  Next time I'm in Dallas, we can discuss it over a beer.  

You know I've read through all these comments. And I'm shocked. I wish I could have attended one the GSB meet and greets. I'd love to chat with people in the industry. As for those who are complaining about the events. Shut up, at least you were able to attend. Some people like, such as myself, can't cut out of work to check out cool events like that during the work week.

Be thankfull that there are people in the industry who pay the SLIGHTEST amount of attention to the fans. Back in day, 80s & 90s, the majority of industry didn't give a damn about what Joe Gamer's opinion was.

As for Pac-Man CE, at first I was skeptical about 800 points and no co-op or versus play. But I took the plunge and damn is game addicting.

I will say this much, after meeting John and interacting with him on two different occasions (while working the Gears: Match Made in Hell LA event and the going to the Gears Launch Community Party)... John is a true stand up guy.  However, he is a human being with a family as well and it's hard when you also have a job to do to balance it all out... just like the rest of the GSB crew.

I think a large amount of slack needs to be given to them.

Well it appears that I was wrong.

Pac-Man CE was the number 1 XBLA game for the week.

It seems congratulations are in order. Nice Job

@ Xbox Gamer

Yeah, so it was - color me surprised. :-) Just don't use neon.