InstantAction Beta Blog

Introductions and such

Hello InstantAction fans, I'm James Wiley, and you'll be getting used (maybe not if you ignore me) to reading stuff posted by me.  I'm the friendly person that gets to interact with the InstantAction community via the blog, forums, and the many other forms of communication we'll have with InstantAction. 

I enjoy playing video games, long walks on the beach, hanging with friends and co-workers, and playing music (bass guitar suckas!), oh, and I love the snow.  Other than that you'll find me making InstantAction a much more friendly and hospitable place to hang out. 

Here's a small list of what I'm currently playing:

• Mass Effect
• Marble Blast Ultra (obviously)
• Assassin's Creed
• Rock Band! (We are FireFist)

So if you've got any questions, suggestions, or just want to say hello, feel free to leave them in the comments section and I'll be getting back to you shortly. 

Goodbye for now and I'll see you soon.

-Dr Wiley

P.S.  Here's me:   

Marble Blast in Europe

Marble Blast Ultra, made by our parent company GarageGames, is one of the most popular games on Xbox Live Arcade. Microsoft's love affair with the marble has not ended. It's going to Europe. If you're in Europe and want to buy an Xbox 360, Microsoft will thank you by giving you your pick of 10 free games. Marble Blast Ultra is one of them.

Not incidentally, MBU is also one of the featured games you'll be able to play on InstantAction.

Happy Thanksgiving & Internal Alpha Day

Happy Thanksgiving to all our fellow American users!

Today also marks the beginning of our closed internal alpha testing of InstantAction. It's looking very good so far. The whole team is happy to get to play from home with all the functionalty up and running!

So while you, our friends, still can't get to the site, the closed beta is just around the corner. If you haven't signed up for the closed beta, better do so now!

Follow InstantAction on Twitter

If you have a Twitter account, follow our updates on the InstantAction Twitter account and we'll follow yours.

Gamespot Q&A with Josh

One of the most in-depth pieces of coverage of InstantAction so far is Gamespot's Q&A with our CEO Josh Williams.

In this article, Josh describes InstantAction in detail. If you want a more extensive picture of what the platform's about prior to the public launch, check it out.

Wired on InstantAction

It's gamers that are ultimately going to make InstantAction a winner: they are some of the most adept people at using the web to spread the good word on good games.

That said, it's still pretty awesome when technology bigwigs flip their big wigs. Wired recently interviewed GarageGames CEO Josh Williams about InstantAction, and were left optimistic about the possibilities the platform presents for gamers:

"It's not as if I couldn't believe my eyes or anything, but to watch a fast-paced 3D action game taking place in a giant browser window was really something."

The Ripten Review

It's always great to turn a doubter into a believer. It's even better when all it takes is a look at the thing itself. That's what happened when our CEO Josh gave Rob Way at Ripten a first-person look into the sparkling innards of InstantAction.

" My expectations were low when first hearing about InstantAction.com, an online browser based gaming site," Rob said at the top of the review. But not long into the demo Rob changed his tune. "(E)very negative thought I had was proven wrong.  I was wrong. Yes — I know, weird!"

Weird, indeed, Rob. Weird, indeed.

InstantAction Beta Blog launched!

Greetings, one and all!

Welcome to the official InstantAction beta blog, brought to you by your friends at GarageGames. We are hard at work on the InstantAction beta, and will update this page frequently with news and sneak peaks into the site, due to launch in early 2008.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about InstantAction, watch Andy's intro to InstantAction on WSJ Online.