Xbox 360 still suffering from Sky Player problems.

Thursday 29th October 2009 - 17:00


Network overload means temporary launch suspension plus Disney Epic Mickey screens



It hasn't been the most successful couple of days for Microsoft. After the heavily hyped launch of the Sky TV services via the Xbox Live online feature, the predicted big bang has transformed into a technical nightmare.

Anyone attempting to access the new Sky TV service is currently presented with a static screen displaying: "The Sky Player on Xbox 360 service did successfully launch early yesterday morning, it has subsequently been suspended due to an unforeseen technical issue," a statement explained.

"With so much excitement and interest in the service, we'd much prefer to ensure that our customers enjoy the highest possible quality of service. We would like to take this opportunity to apologize to our customers who have attempted to access the service today. Sky Player engineers are hard at work to resolve the problem - we expect to have the full service available today."

The latest rumours suggest that users will be able to sign up in a staggered roll-out to the Sky Player service on Xbox, payable on a month by month basis. Depending on what package users go for it costs anywhere from 15 to 50 (GBP) with a minimum 2MB connection required. As soon as we actually get a chance to test drive the service we'll report back with our findings.

Meanwhile, we've got the first screens to roll off the Disney production line from the forthcoming Disney Epic Mickey title, forthcoming on Wii next month. The game stars Mickey Mouse who has been re-imagined for videogames by luminary game designer Warren Spector and his Junction Point game development studio. In Disney Epic Mickey, Spector, a life-long Disney fan, taps into Mickey Mouse's rich history along with the characters and worlds brought to life by Walt Disney to create an edgy and unexpected cartoon adventure.

Players use the Wii Remote to wield magical paint and thinner to re-shape the world around them. Paint's creativity and thinner's damaging effect give the player robust tools and empowers them to make choices about how they move through the world. Each player's decisions to use paint, thinner or both dynamically changes the world with consequences that affect the environment, interactions with other characters, and even Mickey's appearance and abilities. It sounds like no kind of Disney game we've ever played - but with the development genius of Warren Spector at the helm we'll be sure to check it out when the game is released in November.