Microsoft Store was South Coast Plaza’s largest Grand Opening EVER!

If you came down to South Coast Plaza today for the Microsoft Store Grand Opening, you were amongst the 2000+ that showed up. We were told this was South Coast Plaza’s largest grand opening ever! People started lining up inside the mall at 5:30 AM to be first to check out the awesome new store that was revealed at 10:00 AM. Everyone in line received a gift bag and complimentary tickets to a special performance on Saturday, March 26, by Selena Gomez.

Before the ribbon cutting, the Microsoft staff pulled numbers out of a bag and gave three lucky winners a brand new computer each, a Sony Vaio laptop gaming bundle and two Dell Inspiron Duo’s.

Then Kevin Turner came up and gave out HUGE checks to 2 charities and 1 school district. girls, inc. received $350,000, next was Project Tomorrow for $350,000 and then Capistrano Unified School district received $300,000. I spoke to Lucy Santana-Ornelas from girls, inc. that accepted the donation on behalf of their organization and they were overjoyed at Microsoft’s generosity.

Then came the ribbon cutting and the reveal.

What a great event, if you haven’t had an opportunity to see a Microsoft Store yet you gotta check it out!

Check out the full set of pics at Photosyth below.

More pics on Microsoft Facebook page
South Coast Plaza Grand Opening

Stay tuned for more to come!

And now for more… We headed back to the Microsoft Store Grand Opening to watch Basketball star Lamar Odom and reality TV star Khloé Kardashian play Kinect for Xbox 360 and meet with fans.

Head to the Microsoft Store Facebook page to see some great shots they took of the event.

Khloé & Lamar Play Kinect! - Gallery 1

Khloé & Lamar Play Kinect! - Gallery 2

Crysis 2 drops to $53.99 on release day; Amazon Bonus Offer still in effect

If you haven't picked up Crysis 2 yet, you still have time to hop on a great deal. Actually better than it has been for the last few months. Amazon just dropped the price to $53.99 for both the Xbox 360 and PS3 with the $10 Amazon Credit Offer still in effect. If you were on the fence or just hadn’t got around to ordering Crysis 2, you best pounce on this deal NOW before the price goes back up and the Bonus Offer is no more.

Crysis 2 – $53.99 includes $10 bonus offer

Xbox LIVE Labs will earn you FREE Avatar Goods, Zero Point Achievements

If you’re in the US, you can participate in Xbox LIVE Labs to score free stuff! Xbox LIVE Labs performs a number of network tests from your console to Xbox LIVE. These results are recorded solely for the purpose of testing and improving the service. Participating in Xbox LIVE Labs is entirely optional and voluntary. These results are recorded solely for the purpose of testing and improving the service and will not be used to identify you.

If you choose to participate, each completed test rewards you with a cool Avatar item and a zero point achievement as a thank you for your contribution.

There are a total of three Avatar items and three zero point achievements that you can earn for each completed test, including a lab coat, brain helmet, and crazy mad scientist hair!

Xbox LIVE Labs runs from March 10-27 and is open to all Xbox LIVE members living in the United States.

You will not be able to participate in other Xbox LIVE activities, such as gaming, watching movies or downloading music, while your Xbox is being used as a Lab rat, and your Internet connectivity may be slower than usual.

If all this sound good to you, sign into Xbox LIVE and head over to the community channel (see image above) where you’ll see the Xbox LIVE Labs panel. Click on it to download the testing app and the rest is pretty much self-explanatory.

The Xbox LIVE Labs testing application is currently available in the US only. After this round of testing, the Xbox LIVE team will evaluate when and how they’ll roll this out to other Xbox LIVE regions.

The complete testing will take a FULL 6 HOURS, so be prepare to not game or anything else while running the test! Is it worth it? If it helps make the best online experience? You betcha…

I will be updating this post with all you get free, so check back soon.

UPDATE: Received the first two achievement so far but the page is broken at the moment and no so-called box artwork at the moment.

[source Major Nelson]