One of the features that was used to sell the press, and by association gamers at large, on the Xbox 360’s new and improved focus on Xbox Live prior to the console’s launch was the promise of online auction houses. J Allard and Peter Moore spoke of a future where a person, who might necessarily be a hardcore gamer, could still reap the benefits of the service by creating and selling content over Xbox Live. To date, more than a year after that speech at E3, this still has not happened.

According to [url=http://www.forzamotorsport.net]news from Microsoft today[/url], the closest we may expect to get, at least in the foreseeable future, is an online auction house to be implemented in the upcoming racer Forza Motorsport 2. The game’s developers at Turn 10 has created an in-game marketplace for players to show off their custom creations, as well as trade or even sell them on a global scale using in-game credits. This will let players complete their collection of the game’s 300+ cars, or grab a player’s unique creation.

In addition, Microsoft also took the opportunity today to confirm a new batch of manufacturers that will be represented in the game. In addition to the recently revealed Lamborghini, Porsche, Ferrari and Maserati, the game will also include cars from Aston Martin, Jaguar, Bentley, Lotus, TVR, Saab, Volvo, and McLaren. Forza Motorsport 2 is expected to ship to retail this May.

Eidos today announced a new game for the Nintendo DS, somewhat awkwardly titled Touch the Dead (the game is called Dead’n’Furious elsewhere in the zombie loving world). Described as a “fast-paced, first-person shooter that takes gamers on a daring journey through a world taken over by zombies,” this game, developed by Dream On Studios, is expected to ship this spring.

In Touch the Dead, gamers play as Rob Steiner (a.k.a. Prisoner #1809), a man who wakes up to find himself alone in a jail “teeming with zombies.” Apparently, the game will make heavy use of the touch screen, as players will be able to “touch screen to destroy anything – from inmates to prison staff.”

And for those too weak to fight the good fight alone, the game will also support Wi-Fi, allowing players to bring in reinforcements.

“Touch the Dead is a game you just can’t put down,” commented Kevin Gill, senior marketing manager for Eidos North America, who also adds, “some games want to train your brain, we just want to eat it.”

As some of you might know, when not toiling in Snackbar’s gas mines, I scribe daily news for industry tech site Gamasutra. The reason I bring this up is because I just got out of a conference call announcing Midway’s fourth quarter and annual 2006 earnings, which saw the company’s rather bullish support of the Wii panning out well with the publisher/developer netting higher revenues and lower losses for the period.

I won’t bore you with [url=http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=12865]the details[/url], but I will add that the company’s president and CEO David F. Zucker did drop a tasty nugget during the call, noting that while Mortal Kombat Armageddon is heading to the Wii in the second quarter, the developers are “hard at work on a next-gen version of the franchise, with an all new fighting system redesigned from the ground up leveraging our common technology base.”

Maybe it will be a wonderful a reinvention akin to what was Mortal Kombat 4.

This afternoon Sega confirmed a quartet (no not that Quartet) of titles heading to the Wii’s Virtual Console. While it’s unknown when these titles will make their debut, or for how much (Genesis releases typically cost 800 Points ($8), these games continue to add to the services growing feast of nostalgia.

Among the four titles soon to be releases at the RPG Sword of Vermilion (big bosses and that cool town music), Vectorman (thank god we never got that re-imagined game), Sonic Spinball (for those of you who still believe in the blue rodent), and Beyond Oasis (16-bit Middle East role-playing at its most forgettable).

Me? I’m still playing Military Madness.