Xbox Live Marketplace is now featuring a playable demo of EA's real-time strategy, The Battle for Middle-earth II. The demo features an introductory level; the first mission from the single-player evil campaign, which allows you to play as a Goblin or Elf; and a multiplayer map. Simply sign in to Xbox LIVE from the Xbox Dashboard to download the free demo.

Microsoft unveils Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays, a new program that will provide a regular launch schedule of new Xbox Live Arcade titles on the Xbox 360. Starting today, Xbox Live Arcade games will now go live worldwide on Wednesdays at 0800 GMT (Midnight Pacific) hitting gamers around the world all on the same day.

Ahead of what we said earlier today, Xbox Live Marketplace is now featuring a playable demo of Take 2's FPS PREY, literally turns the FPS genre upside-down by introducing innovative gameplay elements such as wall-walking, gravity flipping, and portals that allow enemies to appear out of thin air.

Activision announced today that you can now download the Call of Duty 2: Invasion premium map pack from the Xbox Live Marketplace. This map pack features five new maps for multiplayer skirmishes (costs 800 points ) that include: Antoville, France (Crossroads), St. Louet, France (Newvillers), Amaye sur Seulles, France (Normandy), Alam Halfa, Egypt (Decoytown), and Rostov, Russia (Harbor). Just log on to Xbox Live and redeem your points ...

THQ has released a new, free, update for Relic Entertainment's 3rd person WWII action game. In addition to improved multiplayer performance, the Title Update also adds various game play improvements and several item cost changes and units balance tweaks. Read more for details ...

As promised a few days ago by Peter Moore, Microsoft has released a new backwards compatibility update, now available over Xbox Live. This free update adds 21 more titles to the original Xbox games that can be played on your Xbox 360, such as Star Wars Battlefront, Lego Star Wars, Doom 3, Silent Hill 4 and several others ...

After a fasle start last week, you can now download 'Map Pack One' for Pefect Dark Zero from the Xbox Live Marketplace. This premium content is 500 points and contains four new multiplayer maps: Plaza, Rooftops, Trench, and GasPlant. This content is available in all Xbox Live regions.

When assassins from Agent 47's contract agency, The ICA, are systematically eliminated in a series of hits, Agent 47 senses that he may be the next target, he travels to America, where he prepares to make a killing. A day after the release of the PC version, Eidos now also released the Xbox 360 demo on Xbox Live Marketplace. Same content, the first level, Death of a Showman, giving you a quick tutorial and then you must track down your target in a theme park turned drug lab.

Xbox Live surpassed 24 million downloads since the Xbox 360 launch in the US on November 22, 2005. For the full week of E3 over 1.5 million gamers Xbox 360 gamers around the world jumped in to Xbox Live through "E3: Bringing It Home," and received a full week's Gold membership for free.

THQ today announced that the Xbox Live-enabled demo of MotoGP '06 for the X360 is available for download from Xbox Live. The demo features one track, where players race as Nicky Hayden for the Repsol Honda team, and one extreme track, the high-rise metropolis of Tokyo. Multiplayer supports up to 16 players across Xbox Live.

Konami today announced that it will be bringing several major franchises to Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360, starting this summer with classic games such as Frogger, Contra, Time Pilot, Scramble and others, enhanced with updated graphics and online multiplayer support.

People who are still playing Perfect Dark Zero may notice that next time they log on to Xbox Live it will auto update the game. While it does not yet offer the promised multiplayer maps, it does however address various bugs and also introduces the ability to play against bots, with various additional AI personalities. Read more for details ...

Try Test Drive Unlimited’s online and offline challenges along 40 miles of Hawaiian Island Oahu’s beautiful open roads, made available to users of Xbox 360 via the Xbox Live Marketplace with a week of free Xbox Live Gold membership, at 9:00 am PDT Monday, May 8th. Visit the Lamborghini showroom, race with AI competition or challenge others through Massively Open Online Racing, as the demo allows gamers to get together within the game’s persistent world. Then log on to the Test Drive Unlimited website to view rankings, give feedback and win prizes.

Heavy Weapon is a classic arcade-style side-scrolling action game in which the player strives to defeat hordes of enemy armies in the form of tanks, jeeps, fighter jets, helicopters and other land- and air-based vehicles. PopCap Games announced that Heavy Weapon will be showcased in the Microsoft booth at E3 in Los Angeles next week, unveiling the new multiplayer mode.

Earlier today Xbox.com and Microsoft's online multiplayer service Xbox Live were down for maintenance and a possible upgrade. Now that the downtime is over, Microsoft introduces us to its newest features, My Xbox Message Center, which allows you to send msg's to other Xbox Live members via your PC.

The Outfit is a 3rd person action World War II game combining intense squad-based combat and easy to use strategic gameplay elements, The Outfit takes players behind enemy lines, battling the Nazi War Machine through a variety of combat missions. THQ has released a new multiplayer map 'Arnhem Mayhem' (8mb), freely downloadable on Xbox Live marketplace

Project Gotham Racing 3 fans who connect to Xbox Live today will get a nice little surprise as Microsoft and Bizarre have released an auto update adding various new features and fixes to the racing game. Read more for details ...

While Microsoft ran an Xbox Live free for all last month, it was restricted to North America, so Microsoft Europe announced today it will host a similar weekend for EA's 2006 FIFA World Cup, starting Monday, May 8th, at 08:01 and ends Monday, May 15th, at 07:59.

Microsoft and Bizarre Creations team with world-renowned car manufacturer Lamborghini to bring online racers the first-ever Xbox Live PGR 3 Global Tournament. Read more for details ...

NinjaBee, known for its other Xbox Live Arcade title Outpost Kaloki X, is proud to announce they will be bringing a second title to X360. Cloning Clyde is a completely unique 3D adventure and puzzle game that may bring new meaning to the word "schizophrenic".

Microsoft Game Studios and Rare revealed that the previously announced co-op pack for their action-adventure RPG game Kameo: Elements of Power is now available (26mb), at no extra charge. In order to activate the co-op pack you need to have completed the game in single-player mode. Read more for details ..

From March 31 through April 2 Xbox 360 owners invited to jump into 72 hours of free action-packed Xbox Live multiplayer online gaming courtesy of Verizon. Microsoft has plenty of events scheduled, from Game with Fame with Kamal from The Roots in NBA 2K6, to competing against the Fragdolls in Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter. Read more for details ...

Activision announced that it has released a new Xbox 360 title update for Infinity Ward's WW2 based FPS Call of Duty 2 offering significant enhancements, including improved multiplayer performance, the ability to reserve friend slots in private game lobbies, post-game lobbies so friends can play longer, configurable host options and more. Log into Xbox Live and the update will be automatically applied.

Microsoft today delivered a pre-release version of the first XNA Studio tools and unveiled the XNA Framework to attendees of the GDC 2006. Microsoft also announced that the company is opening its Xbox Live Server Platform to game developers and publishers, allowing them to innovate and extend the Xbox Live experience in their titles.

Microsoft and Epic Records signed a one year exclusivity agreement to make artist content and high-definition music video downloads free for all X360 gamers. Over the next year, Xbox 360 and Epic Records will showcase 12 up-and-coming artists through the Artist of the Month program via the Xbox Live service.