Yesterday evening I got word that Raptr launched a public beta.

Raptr aims to be the final social gaming application on your desktop. It connects you with like-minded gamers, friends, and competitors which allows you to share information about your gaming habits, achievements, scores, and more.

The Raptr games list window

This is similar to Steam, but Steam can’t, for example, allow you to see when your Steam friends start playing Call of Duty 4 on the PS3 and then later switch to Castle Crashers on the Xbox 360.

Raptr ties in as many gaming services that they can get their grubby little hands on. Amidst yesterday’s launch, I was able to punch in my Wii, Steam, Xbox Live, and PS3 network information. It also has fields for World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, and Xfire.

I’ve added a few friends, such as Icrontic’s Bryan Miller (Cyclonite); as soon as he fires up any game on any of those networks, I can see that. I can also send him a public “shout” since the Raptr client ties in with the Raptr website, or private message him.

The first thing I liked about Raptr was the fact that it scanned my system for, and found, every game I own. It even let me know that Age of Empires III was outdated, and started downloading the patch for it. This could prove to be huge. Trust me, keeping up with patches for my kids’ systems with all their games means I can spend hours on gamershell.com and other patch sites.

This is definitely a beta. I had some weird Adobe Air XML error when I tried to manage the patches that were downloaded for Age of Empires. Also, I didn’t realize that the download speed defaulted to 30K for patches - they took forever (you can change it in the options panel). It downloaded 11 patches to bring my game up to the latest version 1.12, even though I had 1.11 installed already and only needed the tiny 1.11 to 1.12 patch. Updates seem really slow, and I had trouble finding a few of my friends and ended up browsing through every single user to find them.

All in all, I see a lot of potential with a service like Raptr. I can usually tell right away whether or not a new app/service is going to click with me, and my initial reaction is “yes, this will click.” It clearly needs some polish, but since this is a beta, there remains a lot of potential for fixes.

In an interesting and unprecedented move, Rock the Vote has partnered with Microsoft to allow XBox 360 owners to register to vote over Xbox Live beginning August 25th. The partnership comes as Rock the Vote tries to register 2 million new young Americans for the election this fall, and with a user base as vast as Xbox Live (12 million members) consisting largely of that demographic, it puts them in a good position to reach that goal.

The initiative extends so far as to allow 360 owners not only the ability to register, but a place to “participate in presidential polls and voice their opinions to the presidential candidates.” A dedicated political forum will be available, and Rock the Vote PSAs will become available through Xbox Live.

To provide some scope, Microsoft conveniently pointed out that if all of XBL’s user base were of age and voting, they would number sufficiently to be considered the 7th-largest state, controlling around 20 electoral votes.

This one made it past the rumor mills, and basically caused some slack-jawed, openmouthed stares at the Microsoft E3 press event today.

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 13, for all intents and purposes, is a system seller. People (even some I know personally) would have gone out and bought a Playstation 3 exclusively for Final Fantasy 13 when it comes out. It was one of Sony’s “aces in the hole” - a game that would be guaranteed to move product off shelves. Nobody, nobody would have expected it to be anything other than a Sony exclusive.

Until today.

See that whole “For Playstation 3 only” thing at the end? Yeah, not so much. Kotaku revealed today that Square Enix’s Yoichi Wada came on stage in a Jobs-esque “and one last thing…” style, and revealed that Square Enix was proud to announce a simultaneous launch for both Xbox 360 AND Playstation 3.

The Sony fanboys are gonna be crying into their cornflakes tomorrow morning, boy howdy.

More predictions turn true today as Microsoft announced they are teaming up with Netflix to bring streaming movies to your TV through the Xbox 360.

TechCrunch reports:

Netflix is coming to the Xbox 360 this fall. Netflix subscribers will have instant access to over 10,000 movies and TV shows, streamed directly to the Xbox 360 console.

This is great news for Netflix subscribers. Currently, the only “easy” way to get Netflix to your TV is to buy their streaming box that was released a couple months ago. The box alone costs $100. Other than that you were forced to stream their movies on your PC. Mac or Linux support has yet to be released.

Well, we can’t say we didn’t see this one coming. First we had whispers in the wind. Shortly after we had photoshopped shady cell phone pictures of Best Buy’s internal inventory. Last week things were all but confirmed when scanned ads started to surface on the interwebs.

Today Microsoft finally cut the price of the 20gb Xbox 360 down to $299, which is $50 off from its previous price of $349. They also introduced a new 60gb model that will hit stores in early August for a respectable $349.

The last Xbox 360 price cut was last August just before Halo 3 was released. Also, it is expected that both Sony and Nintendo will keep their current price points this summer.

Duke Nukem on XBL will get additional content.

According to some leaked advertising, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Pro package will drop in price Sunday to $299.99. Deals will be had this weekend for interested and fast-acting buyers.

No word yet if the low-end Core model will drop in price too. It’s currently at $259.99.

The Xbox 360’s controller is now available for the PC. Kinda defeats the purpose of playing on a PC instead of the console.

Lost in Liberty City? Check Google Maps.

GTA 4 is out today and expected to out-sell Halo 3. Shortly after, expect news stories reporting shocked, outraged parents. sigh

Lian Li has a new case for the Xbox 360. Check the video.

Grand Theft Auto IV will be released April 29 both on Xbox 360 and PS3. Jack Thompson is expected to spontaneously combust shortly after.

bang… bang…. My favorite part is the girl throwing the air grenade.

Activision and Blizzard have said they will form “the world’s most profitable games business”. (via Digg)

The Xbox Live service is 5 years old, and to celebrate, Microsoft is giving away a copy of Carcassonne for 48 hours starting yesterday.

If you have a 360, hop online and grab your free game!