GameSpot is reporting that Microsoft's Xbox division in Japan is now being run by Yoshihiro Maruyama, former senior vice president and COO of Squaresoft.

Just to let everyone know, I-- like I suspect many have in the Halo community-- been receiving email that loudly proclaims that it "is not spam" from a site called GiftStakes.com, and announcing that you've won an Xbox, and all you need to do is claim it from their website.

If you follow the link, you'll be asked for a code from the email, and taken to a page to enter your name and address.. and then they'll ask you to pay for the shipping and handling of your prize. Debit card is the only payment method accepted.

There are a number of things about this that are extremely suspicious, and unless you're willing to part with that shipping and handling fee on the off-chance that this is legitimate-- perhaps risking much more if your debit card number is abused in any way-- I'd advise against taking advantage of this "offer".

Although the site itself looks quite professional, with picture of supposed prize winners from June, July, and August of this year-- the domain giftstakes.com where the site is was registered through GoDaddy only three days ago.

That debit cards are the only accepted payment method is also suspicious; as you may already know, most of the mechanisms in place to dispute a fraudulent charge to your credit card don't apply to debit cards.

The registrant for the domain is one "Domains By Proxy, Inc" which lists as its only address post office box in Scottsdale, Arizona. Complete information is here:

Private, Registration

GIFTSTAKES.COM@domainsbyproxy.com

Domains by Proxy, Inc.

15111 N Hayden Rd., Suite 160

PMB353

Scottsdale, Arizona 85260

United States

(480) 624-2599

If anyone has actually received a prize from these people, we'll gladly post that this whole thing is above-board, but at the moment I'd urge people to protect themselves and not participate in this unless they are prepared to be duped.

The second generation console wars are over, you say? Somebody forgot to tell Microsoft.

Perhaps largely on the strength of the Xbox Live online service, sales trends for the Xbox are on the upswing, up 6% quarter on quarter, compared to 22% and 35% drops for the Nintendo GameCube and the Sony Playstation 2, respectively. Sony still has a commanding lead in market share, however, but the Xbox is making gains.

Sales of the XBL kit were up 17% in August, and eight more countries in Europe and Asia are due to come online soon.

Source: Xbox365

Matt at Break Point Halo has put up a page of images from the LVGA event in Las Vegas; he says a writeup will come later.

BGH forumgoer Noctaurus has produced a more complete and accurate transcription of the X03 video that came out earlier this week; thanks TankRamp at BGH.

For the first time, X03 had awards at their show; Rainbox Six 3 won Best of Show, Ninja Gaiden won the Technical Achievement Award, and Fable won the Innovation award. Thanks GamesDomain.

Computer and Video Games managed to nab studio head Pete Parsons at Bungie to interrogate him about Halo 2. However, Parsons was on top of his game, and didn't slip once; about the release date there's nothing more than "when it's done", and about the game itself it sticks pretty close to the line that Halo was great and Halo 2 is just making the whole experience even better. (Not that this isn't true... but he liked The Library? Hmm.) Anyway, there are a few items:

• Halo 2 on PC. Parsons was noncommital, not saying yes or no to a port.
• Halo 3. Parsosn was noncommital, saying Bungie has lots of stories and loves Halo. Again, neither confirmed nor ruled out.
• Downloadable content. "Cool", but neither confirmed nor denied. (Seeing a pattern?)
• A prophet has been seen during in-game footage. This may be the video shown at X03 and mentioned by SketchFactor over at Bungie.net.

There's not a lot of new information here-- something that Parsons himself admits. But if you're interested in reading between the lines, take a look. Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO.

GameSpy, your #1 site for Top Lists Of Anything, came up with a list of 25 Most Overrated Games, and put Halo at #10. Ouch. Thanks to Harry Al-Shakarchi of Oni Central, via Louis Wu of HBO.

[image:4345 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Some intrepid forumgoers here (thekman) and at HBO (op_ivy) noticed a new Halo 2 screenshot at an image hosting site called ImageMagician, apparently originating from the French gaming show X03. Later, it appeared on Bungie's own Truth and Reconciliation site. We've added it to our Halo 2 gallery. Louis Wu at HBO had a couple of other forumgoers point him to larger versions: Ross Mills found one at WorthPlaying, and BOLL found a really large one at Xfaktor.

[image:4044 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Louis Wu at HBO passed on the latest easter egg find from c0ld vengeance: a public safety message from Bungie, hidden under the pilot's seat in the lifepod. Check out c0ld's post in the HBO forum.

[image:4307 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Word has it that Xbox Live subscribers are starting to see the updated dashboard as of today, with all new features including access to the Friends list and to voice chat in the dash itself, without loading a game.
UPDATE: I've managed to get and try out the update myself; it seems to me that the voice quality is better. The in-dash voice chat does indeed, work. There's a new feature to play the voice output through the speakers instead of just through the headset, which, given the subscription fee and internet costs, makes Xbox Live a passable and inexpensive speakerphone.

A few new events to add to the calendar:

• There will be a 2x2 double elimination tournament on October 18 in Oslo, Norway. Entrance is free. Register here before October 1.
• Major League Gaming will host a tournament on October 25-26 in New York City. Entrance is $50. MLG also has a list of other events. Register here.
• ThinkGeekness.com is planning a massive, $25,000 prize, 2000-player Halo 2 tournament for next summer, and they have a site for it already.

Thanks to Louis Wu at HBO.

[image:4038 left hspace=5 vspace=5 border=0]Halo hacker extraordinaire BOLL has put up a Halo site that catalogues his various forays into the guts of the Halo engine. We've added it to our links collection. Thanks Louis Wu.

Okay, this morning we've got a couple sites, in this case Xbox365, quoting EuroGamer, saying that Halo 2's release date has "slipped" to April of 2004. EuroGamer cites Microsoft as the source of the information, but there's no official press release text or link to one; in the Microsoft Game Studios Press Site, there's no mention of this "information". Eurogamer claims this is a delay of two months.

Everyone who watches this space knows that the only thing that was officially ever said about Halo 2 was "in 2004". If you want to interpret that to mean January 2004, then sure, I guess releasing in March means a two month delay. But you can't have a delay of an unofficial release date; and frankly, anybody who thinks about it for two seconds would probably assume that if Bungie knew that far in advance that it was impossible to release for the Christmas 2003 season, that the delay was probably going to be more than just a few weeks, so assuming January was probably wrong in the first place.

It's also unclear whether or not the dates in question are intended for a European audience; that seems to be the opinion of the Xbox365 forumgoers, anyway.

And of course, at the end of it all, there's horses' mouths and horses' asses; Microsoft is a big company, and it's probably better to trust those who are closer to what's going on.

UPDATE: Microsoft's official Xbox.com game list still lists the release date for Halo 2 as "TBA", although the page for Halo 2 itself does, in fact, say March 2004.