If there's anything that's going to seriously drive downloadable, episodic games and content releases then it is developing and releasing exclusive IV episodes, to be sold via the Live service. Two episodes will be crafted exclusively for the 360, revealed today at X06, each promising to add hours of fresh gameplay to 2007's full GTA4 release.

Related

Grand Theft Auto IV will be released on the 16th of October 2007 in North America, and on October 19th 2007 in Europe. No release dates were offered for the two downloadable episodes but extra content on the Marketplace has in the past gone for a few-hundred Microsoft points.

In yet another major slice of gaming news, Microsoft also revealed that the next installment in the series will be created exclusively for the Xbox 360 - promising to use the power of the console, and the Live service in new and innovative ways. You may recall that Splinter Cell originally made quite an impact back at the launch of the original Xbox, with and MS now hoping to further push the boundaries of the genre. But then they would say that.

The Splinter Cell title in question will follow the current latest - Double Agent - so obviously we don't know what it will be called or when it will be released yet.

Meanwhile, Games' spiritual-successor to System Shock, BioShock, was also confirmed as an exclusive on the Xbox 360 and Windows platform. Haven't they been working hard? More shortly.

By Luke Guttridge