Microsoft has told CNET that at least 2 million Xbox Live users logged into Facebook through Xbox 360 in the week since the two services were integrated, and that half a million Last.fm accounts were created in the first 24 hours of availability.

No figures have been released on Twitter use through 360, but according to a rep, there have been “tweets from nearly every market where we have Xbox Live.”

A tenth of all Live users have accessed Facebook through 360 in a week? Amazing scenes.

Capcom today announced a spurt of new stuff for Resident Evil 5, to be dribbled out this February and March as downloadable content and a boxed “gold edition”. A new episode will be set in the castle seen only in flashbacks, where Sheva will be replaced by the considerably less interesting Jill Valentine, minus her weird bird costume. There will, however, be new costumes for Chris and Sheva. And new characters and weapon loadouts for Mercenaries mode. However, there is no word of any of this being available for the PC.

What’s more, it seems that Capcom has reneged on their promise to even complete the PC release of Resident Evil 5. When the game was released for console systems, Capcom charged players five dollar to unlock a competitive mode called “Versus”. This was available as soon as the game was released. But despite telling players Versus mode would either be included with the PC release or available for download shortly thereafter, it seems Capcom has changed its mind. I’ve just been told there are currently no plans to release Versus mode for the PC.

I wouldn’t normally mind missing out on being charged five bucks to unlock a feature, but the real bummer in this situation is that Versus mode is a fantastic way to play Resident Evil 5. If you’ve tried Mercenaries mode, you’re only getting about a quarter of the game’s multiplayer awesomeness. I couldn’t care less if Capcom doesn’t give the PC version whatever upcoming B-side material they’re releasing next year. But I do wish they’d at least complete the PC release by doing whatever it takes to unlock or restore one of Resident Evil 5’s best features.

 

Functionality aside, one of the biggest differences between Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE gamer network, and Sony’s PlayStation Network (PSN) has been the cost: If you want to play against other gamers on Xbox LIVE, you need to pay around $50 annually for Gold service (though various retailers offer discount cards); multi-player on the PSN is free.

But in a statement to VG247, SCEA president and group CEO Kaz Hirai revealed that the company plans to launch a premium, pay-to-play service on the PSN: “We are studying the possibility of introducing a subscription model, offering premium content and services.” No details on pricing, what the premium content would include, or a launch ETA-but Hirai made sure to note that it wouldn’t be in lieu of the free service.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) is already making money through PSN Store game downloads and add-ons; the company said October was its “highest month” in terms of revenue, with downloads up 60 percent year-over-year (via Gamasutra). But adding a subscription option would definitely move the company closer to its goal of getting the games business “profitable” by 2011 (via the AP).

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has kept mum on how much money it makes from Xbox LIVE Gold subscriptions, but leaked documents (revealed by our own Joe Tartakoff, when he wrote for the Seattle P-I) showed that subscription revenues from Feb 2008 to June 2008 were at least $280 million.

 

No Doubt sues Activision over use in Band Hero

Matthew Hopson
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Rock group “No Doubt” have filed a law-suit over the band’s appearance in Band Hero, Activision’s latest spin-off of the Guitar Hero video game franchise. The group contend that the game has transformed them into “a virtual karaoke circus act,” singing the songs of other bands.

In the suit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles Country Superior Court, No Doubt allege that Activision broke the contractually agreed use of the in-game likenesses of band members Gwen Stefani, Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont and Adrian Young.

Band manager, Jim Guerinot said, “The band are bitterly disappointed that their name and likeness was taken and used without their permission. They agreed to play three No Doubt songs as a band. . . . Activision then went and put them in 62 other songs and broke the band up [and] never even asked.”

According to the LA Times, No Doubt’s contract with Activision allowed the Santa Monica-based company to use the band’s avatars in no more than three of their own songs. The game allows players to place them, as a group or individuals, into more than 60 songs, “many of which include lyrics, contained in iconic songs, which are not appropriate for No Doubt and have not been and would not have been chosen by No Doubt for recordings or public performances.”

It specifically notes that the game allows Stefani’s image to sing the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women.” The complaint says, “While No Doubt are avid fans of the Rolling Stones and even have performed in concerts with the Rolling Stones, the Character Manipulation Feature results in an unauthorized performance by the Gwen Stefani avatar in a male voice boasting about having sex with prostitutes.”

The complaint also alleges that executives at Activision failed to disclose the character-manipulation feature, refusing to remove or disable it for the No Doubt avatars once the band learned of it. According to the suit, Activision told the band that it would be “too expensive.”

The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of actual and punitive damages, a temporary restraining order against the game, as well preliminary and permanent injunctions against distribution of the game, including a recall of existing copies.

A spokesman for Activision told the LA Times that they had not seen the complaint and had no comment.

In September, the widow and former bandmates of Nirvana leader Kurt Cobain complained about the use of his likeness in Guitar Hero 5. In that case, Activision said they had received written permission from his widow to use him as a fully playable character, however she Twittered that she

“never signed [off] on the avatar.”

 

video game adaptation starring Mark Wahlberg, shot up an easy win at the box office, even as two of the weekend’s other new releases — The Secret Life of Bees and W. — performed nicely, finishing in line with their respective estimates.

The No. 1 action flick grossed $18 million from Friday through Sunday. Although not quite on par with the debut totals of some other game-based movies, like the most recent Resident Evil films, which blew away more than $23 mil in their premieres, Max Payne’s premiere number is a marked improvement on the first-weekend sums of Wahlberg’s previous two gun-totin’ flicks, last fall’s cop drama We Own the Night ($10.8 mil) and early 2007’s Shooter ($14.5 mil). And here’s another sort of backhanded compliment: It’s a good thing the movie earned as much as it did this weekend, for its lamentable CinemaScore grade of C portends a limited audience in the coming weeks.