500,000 Xbox 360 consoles will have been sold in Australia by the end of December, Xbox Australia boss man David McLean has told The Age this morning, making it the “most popular high definition next-gen platform” in the country. Which, after exhaustive parsing, we’ve managed to translate as “We’re beating the PS3!” They’re not beating the Wii, however, which zoomed past the same sales mark in July, despite giving the 360 a year’s headstart.

Also revealed in the interview is that You’re In The Movies and the new version of Scene It will reach Australian store shelves in “March/April” next year, having been held back from the busy pre-Xmas period.
McLean goes on to bizarrely claim that You’re In The Movies is the game he’s most looking forward to:

I would say I’m most looking forward to You’re in the Movies. I don’t know a lot about the game itself, I haven’t seen it, I’ve heard a lot of people talk about how it plays and look forward to doing that at home with my two young children and my wife.

Let us know how that works out for you, Dave.

via Game to spend [Screenplay]

Ever seen a living saddle try to sell a video game? You have now! Poor Burt. He looks so…lost.

[via Offworld]

You’re in the Movies uses the Xbox Live camera to capture all of what you do and splice it with pre-rendered videos in its extensive library of genre-based clips to create your very own, very wacky, home movie. At the more “hardcore” level, the game works like video editing software, letting you record music and dub tracks and edit together clips to create incredibly long – and incredibly wacky – movies of you running, arm-waving and generally embarrassing yourself in the name of fun.

Despite my viral handicap, I made the most of what developer Zoe Mode had to offer, choosing the Ninja School clip from the massive movie clip library. The clips ranged in genre from Western to film noir. Then I followed orders barked at my by both the game’s simulated director and the PR reps who kept shoving hot tea down my throat to keep me going.

You’re in the Movies doesn’t seem as straightforward to me as “Lights, camera, action.” That’s probably because most of what you’re doing to create the action is motion-based mini-games. So instead of slicing and dicing ninjas, like I thought I’d be doing, I got to throw a paper aeroplane, run in place, and pull up a bucket full of treasure on the end of a rope. My “co-stars” were doing the same things too, and each mini-game doled out a score towards an overall total. This competition would have been more interesting if all the bugs had been worked out such that we didn’t keep getting the same score.

Besides the mini-games that seem more appropriate to the Wii than the Xbox 360, there were also “acting exercises” where the little in-game director demands that the player get pretty close to the camera (close enough to clearly make out your face) and act out emotions or mime coughing, etc. My favourite was the one where they had us strike a kung-fu pose – it reminded me that soon there’d be ninjas and then I could stop flailing around like a moron with a sore throat.

I lost track of time during the motion-capture phase – I want to say this was because I was having so much fun, but realistically it’s because the cold medicine wore off and time became an endless haze of sick. But at some point after about ten acting exercises and mini-games, I was allowed to sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor.

And now, thanks to the portability of You’re in the Movies, so can you:

Above: Turns out a giant pink Jem and the Holograms sweatshirt was the best possible attire for gameplay – the camera shoots an image of the background and then allows you to enter the picture, so if you’re wearing something that looks too much like the wallpaper, you’ll appear as a severed head.

I was a little disappointed to find that you couldn’t take your homemade movies horrors with you everywhere and that you don’t have complete control during the editing process. For example, you can compile your clips and email them to yourself from your Xbox Live account so that you’ll have it on your computer.

But why would you want to do that? You can’t even edit it on any conventional software, and I’m not really sure you can post it to YouTube (and even if you did, what’s the point when you could post it Xbox Live?). The editing software will let you use different clips from different hard drives (so your friend could record a scene and bring it to you on a memory card), but but unless you’re all in the same room at the same time, you and your friend can’t be in the same scene.

The thing to remember is that You’re in the Movies is the kind of game you’d bring to a dinner party with your extended family – particularly if they don’t know jack about games. You can lie to them and say You’re in the Movies isn’t a video game, it’s a home movie maker – or you can stress that it’s a casual game meant for everybody. When you get to the editing part, it may be a little too complex to stick with the casual game argument – but watching Granny flinging shuriken at your little step-cousin in the final cut will definitely get a laugh from the whole family.

You’re in the Movies came out November 18 – right in the middle of my death cold – and it looks like it comes with the Xbox Live Camera.

It’s great to be able to share some of my experience with everyone about what it takes to be a movie star. You’re in the Movies on Xbox 360 allows everyone to have a piece of the action and have a fun time with their friends and family, staring in their own features, from the comfort of their own homes.

And they don’t even have to pose naked on dead animal pelts in Cosmo! The 70-plus-year-old Reynolds will be appearing the game’s TV spots fully clothed (we hope). Press release after the jump. Burt Reynolds above. Naked.

BURT REYNOLDS GIVES SCREEN TESTS MASTERCLASS FOR YOU’RE IN THE MOVIES
October 23 2008, Xbox 360 today revealed that screen legend Burt Reynolds will front a series of TV and magazine advertising spots for its unique new interactive title “You’re in the Movies.” The commercials will feature Reynolds using his long and illustrious career as a part of the tinsel town A-list, starring in more than 90 feature films to date, to show would be leading men and women how to become stars by transforming their living rooms into Hollywood studios, capturing the attention and participation of family and friends.

Available exclusively on Xbox 360 this holiday, “You’re in the Movies” is the first and only game of its kind. The commercials will show how the game transports players into a magical world of cinema and hilarious improvisations when other sites steal news from this website. Using the Xbox LIVE Vision camera, players’ actions are captured and placed into short, riotous films that put the spotlight on the unique and often dubious acting talents of friends and family. Whether the performance in “You’re in the Movies,” are worthy of an Oscar or Razzie, players’ clips never end up on the cutting room floor.

The TV commercial will be seen on screen around the globe, premiering in the US on November 17th 2008 on VH1. Mr Reynolds will also star in a new website to further introduce consumers to experience the unique fun of “You’re in the Movies.”

Burt Reynolds said “It’s great to be able to share some of my experience with everyone about what it takes to be a movie star. “You’re in the Movies” on Xbox 360 allows everyone to have a piece of the action and have a fun time with their friends and family, staring in their own features, from the comfort of their own homes.”

“You’re in the Movies” has been developed by Zoë Mode, and will be available this holiday for $69.99 for bundle with Xbox LIVE Vision camera (estimated retail price).