1337pwn.com announces iNXES - Next Generation XBOX Live Friends List for iPhone/iPod Touch

Following the release of v1.41 of our XBOX Live Friends List in the AppStore, the 1337pwn.com team kicked off a total rewrite of our extremely popular application. The result of those efforts is a completely new program, iNXES (pronounced "nexus").


With iNXES, you are now able to browse your friends through an NXE-like user interface. Beauty is more than skin deep as iNXES utilizes new server code and data performance improvements. It is truly a rewrite and rethink of our original concept. iNXES is XBOX Live Anywhere in a manner previously unimagined.

1337pwn.com iNXES should be available for FREE in the AppStore by mid-December. It will be made available alongside our existing application.

Thank you for all of your feedback and support.
don't pwn alone(tm)

Service Advisory for 30 Nov 2008

We're working on a database issue this evening that affects all 1337pwn.com XBOX Live applications. You may encounter some intermittent problems until the issue is addressed.

Thank you for your patience.

UPDATE:
Service has been restored. Again, thank you for your patience.

Last Day for XBOX 360 120GB Hard Drive Give Away

Today is the last day to register for our PlayInsights.com 120GB HD giveaway. Winners will be notified by December 15th. Good luck and thank you for participating!

1337pwn.com Top XBOX Live Games for Week Ending 11/28

Gears of War 2 continues to hold on to the #1 spot. As COD4 gamers begin to embrace World at War, Halo 3 has managed to reclaim the #3 spot by a small margin. The big news of the week is the ascent of Left 4 Dead, now at #5. Valve has a hit on their hands.

1. Gears of War 2 (1000)
2. CoD: World at War (682.03956209503)
3. Halo 3 (572.46060481559)
4. Call of Duty 4 (559.85243389912)
5. Left 4 Dead (218.37899836513)
6. Fallout 3 (201.49106814233)
7. Fable II (197.04867798235)
8. Rock Band 2 (147.80576740364)
9. GTA IV (143.14082975973)
10. UNO (137.58570218011)
11. Madden NFL 09 (137.14060721225)
12. Guitar Hero III (117.44515488449)
13. Guitar Hero World Tour (111.46205137423)

37. Bomberman LIVE (29.427624990371)

Will World at War overtake the Gears of War 2 juggernaut? We'll see what happens as the holidays come into full swing.

Thank you and.. don't pwn alone(tm)

Happy Birthday 1337pwn.com!

It was one year ago that 1337pwn.com released its XBOX Live Friends List widget as a MacOS dashboard application. Three months later, we released an enormously popular web application for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Along the way, we added support for Windows Mobile, Blackberry, and Android platforms. When the iPhone SDK hit, we put a great deal of effort into making sure that our native application worked right out the box.

Today, our servers provide users with data for about 1 million active unique gamertags.

It's been a lot of work and a labor of love for the XBOX Live platform. That work most certainly continues. Within a few weeks, our new application will hit the AppStore with dramatic improvements to presentation and usability. We're putting everything we know about the iPhone and iPod Touch platform into the development effort. It's awesome and I can't wait to get it into your hands.

Chomping at the bit to see what it looks like? I've been posting picture and development updates to my twitter. We'll be showing it off in a more formal manner in the coming week or so.

Thank you for your dedicated support and enthusiasm during the past year and...
don't pwn alone(tm)

Happy Thanksgiving

We just wanted to wish everyone in the states a Happy Thanksgiving. While you're chowing down on dinner, rest assured that we're cranking on code all weekend for the completely new 1337pwn.com XBOX Live Friends application.

Thank you and... don't pwn alone(tm)

Halo 3 is now in fourth place

As predicted in our prior post, Halo 3 now occupies the #4 spot for the most popular games on XBOX Live.

1. Gears of War 2 (1000)
2. Call of Duty 4 (581.82373813687)
3. CoD: World at War (545.79718510721)
4. Halo 3 (518.01327651483)

don't pwn alone(tm)

BREAKING NEWS: Halo 3 slipping to 4th Place on XBOX Live

Halo 3 is on its way to unfamiliar territory on the XBOX Live charts. As of this morning, the game that has occupied #1 or #2 on XBOX Live since it's release will soon find itself in fourth place.

1. Gears of War 2 (1000)
2. Call of Duty 4 (585.54015723887)
3. Halo 3 (514.06717148917)
4. CoD: World at War (509.73160364903)

It's also interesting to note that no title has held on to the first place spot with the margin now enjoyed by Gears of War 2. Is it the greatness of GoW2? Well, partly, but the split between COD4 and COD:WaW has certainly helped.

If you look at all versions of a series, more people are playing Gears of War than Call of Duty. With the first Gears of War clocking in at #10 with a 122 share, it holds on to the series top spot by a slim margin.

10. Gears of War (122.65653614535)

For those that have been following our XBOX Live statistics, you'll note that Tom Clancy titles are no longer regulars in the top 10. In fact, Tom Clancy's End War has already dropped to #42 edging out "A Kingdom for Keflings" at #43. Ouch.

don't pwn alone(tm)

1337pwn.com XBOX Live Friends Application 2.0 and Zombies

Yes, Left 4 Dead is awesome. I've played through the campaigns several times with friends. Through those sessions, it has provided me with some of the best multiplayer experiences of recent memory . Talk your friends into picking it up and have a great time. It's a co-op keeper (ie. don't rent, run out and buy it).

When I haven't been taking on the Zombie horde, I have been working on the complete rewrite of the 1337pwn.com XBOX Live Friends application. The new design gives the application a complete facelift coupled with totally new server-side code. We're currently on track for a December release. Yes, that's just a week or so away.

What's new? For now, let's just say that the update that has generated expletive-laced proclamations by anyone who's seen it. As we get closer to AppStore submission, we will post some screenshots and video. It's frickin' cool.

Thank you and...
don't pwn alone(tm)

Gears of War 2 Statistics

For those who may not be aware, the Gears of War 2 stats page is now live providing statistics and detail only exceeded by Bungie.net. Check it out here. 1337pwn.com hopes to offer links to these stats in game history in an upcoming update.

Thank you and... don't pwn alone(tm)

1337pwn.com Top XBOX Live Games for Week Ending 11/21

Gears of War 2 by far and away remains the most popular game on XBOX Live. In fact, no title in the past two years has held the margin with which GOW2 now holds on to that #1 spot. If you look at the popularity index in parentheses, you get a true relative popularity between titles, it's share of the user community -- more meaningful than rank alone. GOW2 is pwning the XBOX Live universe.

As expected, the release of World at War has split the Call of Duty 4 community in two. While COD:WaW is popular, it's not COD4-popular. For fanboys, I would not expect COD4 to take the top spot any time soon.

1. Gears of War 2 (1000)
2. Call of Duty 4 (604.41826990591)
3. Halo 3 (535.15131301783)
4. CoD: World at War (444.1001966016)
5. Fable II (236.47486308103)
6. Fallout 3 (199.36631091139)
7. Gears of War (145.05511866311)
8. Rock Band 2 (129.99403173712)
9. GTA IV (129.36209801994)
10. Madden NFL 09 (127.28198286757)
11. Guitar Hero III (112.04535879792)
12. Guitar Hero World Tour (98.66942845106)
13. FIFA 09 (93.63151242803)

37. Assassin's Creed (22.811051818565)

This week, with a top heavy list, the share for #37 dropped considerably. With the big name titles already landed for the holiday season, it's tougher for anything else to get the gamer attention.

don't pwn alone(tm)

DAY AFTER: If your application is crashing

If your 1337pwn.com XBOX Live Friends List application is crashing or crashes on start-up, its database managed to get corrupted during the issues with Microsoft's feeds and images over the past 48 hours. You will have to un-install and re-install the application. While the problem was beyond our control, we're sorry for any inconvenience. Don't forget to use the import tool if you need to load in a bunch of gamertags.

Of course, using the application in the NXE era, you'll now understand some of the tweaks that we made a few weeks ago. Our gamer detail page includes a full image of the avatar. You'll also see avatar images on the main screen. Be sure to check it out.


Again, we'd to like to thank every for their patience as Microsoft sorted out their feed and image issues. If you have any questions/comments, be sure to send a message to 'borocouncilman' via XBOX Live.

Thank you and...
don't pwn alone(tm)

"Fast Add Friend" XBOX Live Application

After two months, the AppStore has finally approved our iPhone/iPod Touch utility to add friends to your friends list. Specifically, this application addresses a request first posed by Patrick Klepek of MTV multiplayer. It is a quick and dirty application for adding a friend to your XBOX Live friends list via XBOX.com.


It's by no means any kind of substitute for our 1337pwn XBOX Live Friends List. Instead, this application simply gives you a nice shortcut on your iPhone/iPod Touch home screen versus clumsily navigating XBOX.com. This FREE application lets you get down to business.

Depending upon the response, we may integrate this functionality into our friends list application and/or import utility. Let us know what you think. Given the limitations imposed by Microsoft, this application will launch XBOX.com in Safari, but it is otherwise automated.

Thank you for your feedback and support
don't pwn alone(tm)

Riding Out the Aftershocks

The Microsoft feeds are still not reliable. Invalid images are being returned by Microsoft. More/less, it's not been a happy couple of days for 1337pwn.com XBOX Live Friends application users. Hopefully, things will settle down after a couple of days.

Thank you for your patience.

Back in action (NOT)

Microsoft NXE and XBOX.com appeared to be back in action this morning. Unfortunately, the feeds seem to be down again. At points, the 1337pwn.com applications may appear to be functioning normally, but I would expect hiccups until Microsoft addresses the feed issues.

Reminder, that during these feed issues, you will not be able to add new gamertags to the applications or see updates. When we're working, we're working, but at the moment, Microsoft feeds are up/down again. You can expect it to be in/out through the day.

Thank you for your patience!

XBOX.com Maintenance

It looks like the scheduled XBOX.com maintenance today is also affecting 1337pwn.com applications and other members of the XCDP. Service will be restored when Microsoft completes their updates.

NOTE: With this Microsoft maintenance, you'll be unable to do even simple things like adding new gamers. Once it is complete, functionality will return to normal.

Thank you for your patience.

1337pwn.com XBOX Live Friends Application 2.0

The 1337pwn.com team has been busy working on a 2.0 release of the application to reflect your feedback and bring forward some functionality that we've worked on for a while. While the current application supports NXE avatars, the new application is something of a rethink regarding the whole friends list. Our efforts are now focused on getting this new version out the door. If you have ideas and/or comments, be sure to post them here.

In addition to the work on 1337pwn.com applications, our team has also been developing iPhone/iPod Touch applications for clients as work for hire. One of those applications is iKids Play. It's a children's reading activity application that can be found in the AppStore here. If you've got young children, be sure to check it out.

Thank you and... don't pwn alone(tm)

1337pwn.com Top XBOX Live Games for Week Ending 11/14

As expected, Gears of War 2 now stands as the most popular game on XBOX Live. Interestingly, the original Gears of War title still holding on to the #5 spot.

1. Gears of War 2 (1000)
2. Call of Duty 4 (980.60252672498)
3. Halo 3 (844.8850016197)
4. Fable II (468.79170715905)
5. Gears of War (432.95108519598)
6. Fallout 3 (355.4130223518)
7. CoD: World at War (211.92095885973)
8. GTA IV (209.88662131519)
9. Madden NFL 09 (195.94428247489)
10. Rock Band 2 (192.08292840946)
11. Guitar Hero III (175.4713313897)
12. Guitar Hero World Tour (148.44185293165)
13. Saints Row 2 (146.5889212828)

37. Geometry Wars Evolved² (33.391642371234)

While the addictive and sublime Call of Duty 4 has held on to the top spot for some time, many folks may not remember that take-up of CoD 4 was originally quite slow. In fact, big box retailers such as Circuit City had ordered far more copies than the actual demand. Gamers were all Clancy'd out and CoD4 didn't appear from the outside to deliver anything different. Within a few weeks of release, you could buy CoD4 for as little as $35 with these discounts.

Sure, #7 is a fine place for Call of Duty: World at War to land after 3 days of availability, but Gears hit that within hours of release. Out of my own maxed out play list, no one is playing WaW. At this point, it will be interesting to see how word of mouth affects the popularity of the title and if we see the same kind of discount activity. We'll see how things look next week.

Thank you and... don't pwn alone(tm)

Gears of War 2 at #2

Gears of War 2 is now on the brink of becoming the top game on XBOX Live. In fact, with this week's release of the Call of Duty World at War, Gears of War 2 will in all likelihood secure the top spot any day now. For those who haven't played it yet, you'll find the new revised and refined multi-player a massive improvement over the original title.


1. Call of Duty 4 (1000)
2. Gears of War 2 (943.51575105139)
3. Halo 3 (859.13984182823)
4. Fable II (491.41693337213)
5. Gears of War (440.07723437459)

For those curious, Call of Duty: World at War currently occupies the number 11 spot. Personally, I can't get excited about the new CoD. I am all WWII shooter-ed out, but will complete the campaign for the greater good.

Thank you and... don't pwn alone(tm)

1337pwn.com/Play Insights 120GB Hard Drive Give Away

The New XBOX Experience is coming. As gamers, we know that now, more than ever, XBOX 360 hard drive space is going to be a premium commodity with the launch of NXE. If you’ve seen the NXE demo videos and write-ups, chances are that you’re stoked at the opportunity to experience new gaming content, HD installable games, NetFlix, and the XNA community. Of course, you’re going to need a place to put all of that content. At 1337pwn.com, we’re here to help. In celebration of the upcoming release of NXE, 1337pwn.com in cooperation with Playinsights.com is giving away five (5) free Xbox 360 120 gig hard drives.

To participate, sign up here and register for your chance to win!


We are excited to be working with Playinsights.com to bring you this opportunity.

Thank you and... don't pwn alone(tm)

UPDATE:
Registration is now closed. Winners will be announced by December 15th.

1337pwn.com Top XBOX Live Games for Week Ending 11/7

A little title called Gears of War 2 has landed at #6 on its first day of release. That is simply incredible. Of course, the game itself with it's improved graphics and refined gameplay mechanics is completely sublime. Horde mode, by itself, has established a whole new multiplayer game type that will be with us for years to come.

1. Call of Duty 4 (1000)
2. Halo 3 (859.49297327087)
3. Fable II (566.24414439239)
4. Gears of War (417.22237531)
5. Fallout 3 (292.49104436484)
6. Gears of War 2 (281.79939377239)
7. GTA IV (228.36869661064)
8. Madden NFL 09 (196.37641223478)
9. Rock Band 2 (190.94791953706)
10. Guitar Hero III (182.51584458529)
11. Saints Row 2 (174.86910994764)
12. Far Cry® 2 (157.15073022871)
13. FIFA 09 (143.35905208046)

37. Geometry Wars Evolved² (33.259851198677)

Like many of you, I too have been enjoying Fallout 3. It is by all accounts a multi-platform hit. With the Gears onslaught and new Call of Duty landing, we can expect this top game list to look a little different in the coming weeks.

We welcome your feedback and comments.

Thank you and...
don't pwn alone(tm)

1337pwn.com Avatar Support is Enabled

When viewing gamer details, you'll again see Avatar images in the 1337pwn.com XBOX Live Friends application on the iPhone and iPod Touch. We had this functionality available a while ago, but took it down while Microsoft straightened out the kinks. It's now ready for action.


In the coming weeks, you'll see more avatars as users begin enjoying the NXE (New XBOX Experience) update on their XBOX 360s.

Thank you and...
don't pwn alone(tm)

Temporary Technical Problem (FIXED)

Our servers are down this morning as we address a problem that cropped up last night. They should be back shortly.

UPDATE: The issue has been resolved.

Thank you for your patience.