Just a quick heads up, the b-ball demo you have all been waiting for is now available on Xbox Live. The NBA 2K9 demo comes in at 549mb, so it is small enough to grab quickly. Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise also has a demo posted, but this one is big -- 1.5gb, so grab that only if you are into VP.

Head of MS Game Studios Phil Spencer said that he understands the loyalty that Euro customers have for Sony products. He does not go into too much detail, but he does promise that MS will continue to try to win over Euro gamers with more region-specific content. Then again, Sony has also traditionally screwed Europeans in the past because PAL was traditionally the last region to get game releases, and if a certain game did not sell well in NTSC, it got canned before it was even released in Europe. It happened more often than you might think.

"We look at our success to date, and we understand... that having content creators and content that is very tailored towards the European market is incredibly important, especially in the console space in the competitive environment that we're in," added Spencer.

There is a post over at the official Lionhead forum that details changes made in the Fable II collector's edition pack. The price will now be $69.99 USD, $10 less than the original $79.99. The CE pack will now include the following:

Fable II game disc
Bonus DVD with new ‘Making-of’ Feature
Bonus in-game content (requires Xbox LIVE®)
‘The Hall of the Dead’ Dungeon
‘The Wreckager’ Legendary Cutlass Weapon
Spartan armor and energy sword
To further show our commitment to the faithful fans, we have created a special Fable album for free download for a limited time! This includes a wonderful selection of Fable 1 music and 3 brand new tracks from the upcoming Fable II soundtrack.

It has been almost two years since we saw new media from Alan Wake, especially video footage. Many considered the game totally dead, but all that time was spent rebuilding the game from the bottom up. On October 15, we will all be able to see just how far Remedy has come, when they release a brand new trailer. More info when we have it.

MS is claiming that the sales of the Xbox360 have doubled over the past two weeks, outselling the PS3 two-to-one in Europe. According to the charts, it seems Euro sales have increased 214% in the past 14 days. This is directly because of the price cuts. Click read more for the full info.

PRESS RELEASE

LONDON - 30 September 2008 - New figures announced today by ChartTrack saw sales of the Microsoft® Xbox 360 increase by 214% in the last two weeks[1], outselling Sony’s PlayStation 3 by more than two-to-one and reaffirming its strong momentum in Europe in the wake of its recent reduction in estimated retail price (ERP).

According to Peter Molyneux, the man at the head of the Lion-head, so to speak, has stated that the parts of Fable II that are co-op were only really possible using Xbox Live. He claims to "love Live," and that the service has not even been fully exploited yet. We will see in just a few short weeks if he was right.

"What I would say, and this is not just me being the good company man, I'd say the thing I love about the 360 more than anything is nothing to do with the hardware, it's all to do with LIVE. LIVE is still underexploited for a game mechanic. Some of the stuff in Fable II we're doing with co-op is only possible because of the way that LIVE is structured. I love playing around with that stuff as a designer. Whereas PS3 doesn't seem to be quite so mature on that side. They haven't got quite the same infrastructure and service but, you know, yeah, I'd love to get games on every platform."

Just FYI, folks, on Monday, September 29, from 12am PST for up to 24 hours, Xbox Live will be down for "maintenance." Also, the My Xbox section of Xbox.com will be unavailable, and the Xbox.com forums will be read-only. This update is in preparation for the new Xbox OS, which will be available later this Fall. There will not be any visible updates or new features added, according to Nelson, so don't go looking once Live is back.

The Xbox360 price cut in Europe has apparently boosted sales almost 30%. The console has sold almost 6 million units since the cost was reduced. With games like Fable II and Gears of War 2 coming out for this Holiday season, MS is in a decent position in Europe, it seems.

Believe it or not, the project that was canceled at Ensemble Studios before they shut down was apparently a Halo MMO. The MMO word is super-overcrowded, so we think it is a good idea the project name came to fruition. This does not mean MS does not have designs on a Halo-themed MMO still, though.

According to Gamasutra, a new internal MS Game Studios job posting for a division called "Spawnpoint Studios," staffed partially by MS's Gears of War 2 team. GamaSutra surmises that this is the new name of the company's Halo team. Rumor mill for now, but it sounds plausible.

"Would you like to work on a next-generation project, built from the ground up in MGS / Spawnpoint Studios? We have a very strong team, currently responsible for Gears of War 2, starting a new project in a start-up like environment. This is a rare opportunity to work on a team of game industry experts tackling a new challenge."