Xbox Live Presidential Debate Stats Revealed

Microsoft has revealed that Mitt Romney won last night’s 2012 Presidential Debate according to Xbox Live users. According to statistics provided to IGN by an Xbox spokesperson, “Romney was indeed the winner of last night’s debate with the Xbox Live audience, despite what some of the raw, real-time numbers might have shown. We asked 10 questions during the debate to gauge who won exchanges or segments, and we found that ‘undecideds’ broke for Romney while Obama consistently lost support from his base.”

According to Microsoft, 88% of people who voted in polls during the debate were “likely voters” and 69% said that they will “definitely talk” to their social network about their position on the election. 11% of users who voted in the polls identified themselves as undecided voters, while 17% said they were leaning toward either Romney or Obama specifically. 9 out of 10 times, Romney exceeded his baseline support, and 8 out of 10 times, Obama fell below his baseline support.

Microsoft didn’t provide the specific number of users who watched the debate on Xbox Live, but said that “participation was strong and amazingly consistent throughout the entirety of the debate.” Approximately 10,000 users have responded to daily polls on the Xbox Live Election hub, and participation in polls during the debate “far exceeded this number.”

Microsoft announced its plans for a Presidential Election hub back in August and will stream the vice presidential debate on October 11th in addition to the next presidential debate -- focusing on foreign and domestic policy -- on October 16th. The final presidential debate will be streamed on October 22nd, in addition to a concert event featuring Neon Trees and DJ Skee before and after the debate.

Users who watch at least three of the four Xbox Live debates will receive Halo 4 Warrior Armor for their Xbox Live Avatar. More information on Microsoft’s Election Hub plans are available on Microsoft’s Election 2012 official site.

Enjoying watching streams on Xbox Live? Don’t forget that you can get access to the latest news, previews, reviews, live streams and more on IGN’s app on Xbox Live, and if you love presidential elections, be sure to follow IGN’s Video Game Presidential Election 2012.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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NBA Live 13 Would Have Been Downloadable

Microsoft has revealed that EA’s canceled NBA Live 13 would have been a downloadable title. In a post on Twitter, Xbox Live’s Larry Hryb (Major Nelson) wrote “NBA Live 13 was supposed to be today's XBLA title, but EA made the decision not to launch it today.”

Hryb is referring to EA’s announcement last week that NBA Live 13 will not be released, as EA will instead hold off to focus on next year’s entry. While no platforms were ever discussed, it was previously assumed that NBA Live 13 was scheduled for a retail release since the last entry in the franchise -- NBA Live 10 -- was released on disc. Whether or not the game would have been exclusive to Xbox or multiplatform is unknown.

EA has discussed plans to continue the NBA Live franchise in the future, but whether that will be at retail or as a download remains to be seen. For more on EA’s decision not to release NBA Live 13, you can read the full statement from EA Sports executive vice president Andrew Wilson.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Xbox Music Will Debut October 26th

Microsoft has been looking to overhaul its Zune music service for a while now, and The Verge is reporting that Xbox Music will launch on October 26th, along with Windows 8. The service will begin accepting new registrations right away, and Zune customers will automatically be rolled over to Xbox Music.

While the move is sort of a strategic re-branding - substituting the successful Xbox brand for the weaker Zune brand - Xbox Music will introduce new features, most notably a free (ad-supported) streaming option like Spotify's. Monthly subscriptions will cost $10; a year up front is $100.

The service will integrate with Microsoft's SkyDrive for syncing music and playlists across multiple devices through the cloud. While there are reportedly plans for cross-platform support of iOS and Android devices, Xbox Music will be available on the Xbox 360, Windows 8 and Windows Phone at launch.

What would Microsoft have to offer to get you to switch from Spotify or Rdio? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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Flood Confirmed for Halo 4

343 Industries has confirmed that The Flood will return in Halo 4. In a massive set of screenshots released today (which may contain campaign spoilers), Microsoft showed off The Flood in action, as well as a new map. The Flood will return in a new multiplayer mode called Flood. According to CVG, the mode supports up to 10 players. Two will start out as infected, with the goal of infecting the other players.

343 also showed off new shots of two UNSC vehicles, a troop carrier called Mammoth and a huge mech called the Mantis, as well as a new multiplayer mode called Complex.

Separately, during an event at the London Film Museum in Covent Garden last night, 343’s Frank O’Connor confirmed that Halo 4 is complete and ready for certification. According to Videogamer, O’Connor reported that "We had a big piece of news yesterday back in the office, which is that the game is literally finished at this point. They are handing it off through the various certification processes and that, and we're done. It's been three years of incredibly hard work by about 300 people."

Halo 4 will be released on November 6th. For more, check out our hands-on impressions from the campaign and our experience with multiplayer.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Halo 7, 8, 9 Websites Purchased by Microsoft

Microsoft has purchased domains related to Halo 7, Halo 8 and Halo 9. Registered by internet brand protection company MarkMonitor, Microsoft acquired Halo7.net, Halo7.org, Halo8.org, Halo 9.net and Halo9.org within the past 48 hours.

The domains were registered by DNStination, Inc., a service administered by MarkMonitor. MarkMonitor lists Microsoft as a “strategic alliance” on its official site and has worked to register Microsoft domains in the past.

Microsoft has previously announced that the upcoming Halo 4 will begin a series of three games known as the Reclaimer Trilogy. While that trilogy will presumably include Halo 4, 5 and 6, this is the first hint that Microsoft could already be actively planning for games beyond that. Just recently, a 343 Industries job listing suggested a Halo game is already in the works for next-gen consoles.

This is the second high-profile domain registration by Microsoft in recent months, following a series of Xbox 8 domains the company secured back in July. It’s likely that Microsoft is simply protecting its brand by registering these new Halo domains, though it's worth noting that Microsoft doesn't own Halo.com and only acquired Halo4.com after the game's E3 2011 announcement. We’ve reached out for comment just in case.

For now, the only future Halo game announced is Halo 4, which will hit stores on November 6th. For much more, check out our Halo 4 wiki guide and information on Halo 4’s changes to Capture the Flag announced at PAX.

Source: Fusible

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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