An Xbox Live gamertag is an important part of one’s online identity. Perhaps the gamertag you truly coveted belonged to someone else when you signed up for Xbox Live. Xbox Live has revealed that Microsoft is reactivating “dead” gamertags that have been idle for a while…

No modern setting, no Infinity Ward, no problem for Call of Duty: Black Ops.

Activision’s military shooter juggernaut was the most played Xbox Live title of 2010, according to Microsoft. Director of Xbox Live Programming Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb confirmed the news in his blog. In a year packed with big name games such as Halo: Reach, the latest COD installment proved its supremacy.

Last week Microsoft announced Destination Arcade. Destination Arcade is a more convenient way to find the content you want on XBLA. It uses an easy to understand visual interface and let’s you search for content by price and rating. You also could recommend games to friends if you wanted. It’s too bad Destination Arcade won’t be around through August.

According to Microsoft’s director of programming for Xbox Live Larry “Major Nelson” Hyrb, Crackdown 2 demo players have collected “29.5 million Agility Orbs,” and “4.3 billion meters have been jumped by Agents.”

In response to to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s comments concerning the possible future use of Blu-ray drives as accessories on the Xbox 360, Xbox Live’s Director of Programming, Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb posted this on his web site:

During an interview yesterday, Steve Ballmer was asked about Blu-Ray and the Xbox 360. I wanted to clear something up. Steve was referring to Blu-Ray accessories for the PC. As we have said in the past, we have no plans to introduce a Blu-Ray drive for the Xbox 360. In fact…

Members of Xbox Live’s preview program will receive the much discussed update that will add Facebook, Twitter and Zune Marketplace this week. That way you won’t even have to leave your console to follow Gamertell on Twitter.

But those aren’t the only things included in that update. Microsoft’s “Major Nelson” that unauthorized memory units will no longer work with the 360 after the latest update.

With the New Xbox Experience (NXE) just over two weeks away from a worldwide launch on November 19, 2008, Microsoft has prepared a selection of Developer Diaries to bring you to up to speed on what you can expect to find tucked away in the mandatory system update.

New developer diaries focused on certain features of the NXE will be released each week, with a selection of six already accessible on Xbox.com. Current topics include the new Avatar system developed by Rare, Netflix support, Themes 2.0 integration and the…

On Monday September 29, 2008, for up to 24 hours Xbox live will be offline for maintenance.

According to Microsoft’s Larry Hryb, aka Major Nelson, not only will Xbox live be unavailable but so will the “My Xbox” section of Xbox.com and the forums will be in read only mode.

This timely service maintenance is all in preparation for the upcoming new Xbox experience. However…

Demos for All Pro Football 2k8 and NASCAR 08 have been released on the Xbox Live Marketplace. In All-Pro Football 2k8, Take Two returns to the football scene sans NFL license but with a lot of classic football players in tow. The demo weighs in at 681 MB. The demo for EA’s 2008 NASCAR title more »