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Undocumented Xbox 360 Dashboard Feature Allows Cache Clearing
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Mods/Hacks, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
According to some crafty users on the NeoGAF forums, there’s an undocumented feature in the latest Xbox 360 dashboard update - a cache clear. The instructions are listed from the post below
Go to the system blade and then memory. Press Y on either the HDD or a MU and then press X, X, Left Bumper, Right Bumper, X, X. Once you do this a blade will pop up saying: This will perform maintenance on your Xbox 360 storage devices. Do you want to continue? Pick yes or no.
Of course, Microsoft officially wants you to use this option only when instructed by technical support, so proceed at your own risk. Users on the NeoGAF forum suggest that this may help to fix load time issues that have been encountered by folks after playing many games or playing games that load lots of info to the cache (Oblivion, for one). After clearing your cache and re-running a game, you might notice quicker load times. Best of luck, if you decide to try it.
Read More 
| NeoGAF Forums via 1up.com
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Video Game Software Sales Down 10% in May
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Xbox, Xbox 360, Xbox Live Marketplace,
After promising sales in April the video game industry was brought back to reality in May. Console software sales are 10% lower than May 2005. The drop has alarmed many analysts even though overall sales, hardware and software combined, show a rise from last May. One major reason for the decreased sales is that the video game industry is in a transition to next generation consoles. This transition has gamers waiting to purchase next-gen titles, couple this with only 2 new Xbox 360 games in May and lackluster sales are more easily explained.
Michael Pachter, an analyst from Wedbush Morgan Securities, summed up the situation, saying “We think that this trend foreshadows continuing weak sales until the holidays, as we expect continued monthly year-over-year declines of 30 - 40% for current generation software sales, with next generation software sales growth failing to offset these declines. We do not expect next generation software sales to offset the decline in current generation software sales until the fall, when a strong lineup of Xbox 360 games is anticipated and launches of the PS3 and Wii are scheduled.”
My own predictions call for decreased Xbox 360 software sales over the next months with increased Nintendo DS hardware and software sales due to the release of the Nintendo DS Lite. I am curious if Xbox Live Marketplace content is counted into the overall software sales for the Xbox 360 since there are currently more releases on the Marketplace than in retail stores.
Read More | Game Daily
Xbox 360 Spring Update Problems
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Rumors, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
The Xbox 360 Spring update was recently released, and Microsoft trumpeted the 125 improvements in the patch, but reports from users on the official Xbox.com forums show a bunch of users having problems with games, the dashboard, and video playback after the update. Now, despite the number of posts in the forums, this could be a small number of people affected with this. On the other hand, Microsoft has a known platform on which they fully control the hardware, so one would expect fewer issues in deploying a major patch like this than on PCs. One of the suggested fixes was to clear the Xbox 360 hard drive and re-download the affected content using the new cache clearing code built into the dashboard. However, this hasn’t seemed to fix the issue in all circumstances, and for some gamers, they can’t re-download the content because it is no longer available from the Xbox Live marketplace. At any rate, it looks like discontent is growing in the forums right now, but there’s no real smoking gun that suggests a root cause.
Read More | Xbox.com “Freezing after update” forum thread
Meijer Buy One Get One Half Off Videogames
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Hot Deals, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2, Portable/Mobile, PSP, Xbox, Xbox 360,
Meijer is having a sale on video games this weekend. Their entire selection of video games is buy one get one 50% off on Saturday from 6 AM to Midnight. Meijer is located in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kentucky (store locator). They have a good selection of video games for Xbox, Xbox 360, PSP, PS2, Gamecube, GBA, and DS. In the past I have had luck getting Best Buy to price match Meijer, in case you do not have a Meijer nearby. This would be an excellent sale to stop by for anyone picking up a Nintendo DS on Sunday.
Read More | Meijer (PDF link)
Adult-oriented video games are an emerging market and this week the true up-and-comers in the arena were to be found at the first “Sex in Video Games Conference.” Of course, sex as an element in video games in nothing new, but this market segment is focusing on the sex being a major point of the game. Hot topics included “what it will take to get the growing number of adult-oriented games off the ground.” In a post “Hot Coffee” era, pundits were keen to establish norms for the adult-oriented video game segment of the industry. Several attendants at the event seemed to think the networking potential was a benefit, and used the conference to nail down deals with like-minded game publishers and developers.
Read More | ZDNet
Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software tumbled today. The video game publisher has recently been plagued by a series of problems including weak retail sales and a Federal trade commission investigation. On Thursday, the company settled the FTC complaint, but it was not enough to incite a rally in its stock price. Take-Two shares were off 15% on the NASDAQ after it posted a widening loss of $50.4 million, compared with only $8.2 million for the same period the previous year. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, the company stated that its disclosure controls were still not in effect as of 30-April.
Read More | MarketWatch.com
Man Steals 60 PSP Games From Blockbuster
Posted by Josh Smith Categories: Culture, Hardware, Portable/Mobile, PSP,
Last night a Myrtle Beach man stole 60 games from a local Blockbuster in one trip. Store employees spotted the individual stuffing PSP games into his pants around 8:30 PM. The games are valued at $1,800 or roughly $30 bucks each. The theft came as a shock to members of the gaming community, many of whom currently believe the PSP has very few titles worth stealing. Blockbuster has also issued a warning to stores in the area to be on the lookout for any customer who wears baggy pants and waddles as they exit the store. Someone please send us the security cam footage of this one!
Read More | The Sun News
Midnight Madness At Nintendo World Store
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Culture, Nintendo DS,
Gamers in New York City will be able to get the Nintendo DS Lite on Saturday, June 10, at Midnight at the Nintendo World Store. The line up starts at 9 PM, and as midnight strikes, Nintendo fans will be able to purchase the DS Lite. Of course, with numerous stores breaking the street date, this loses a little bit of its exclusivity. However, those in line will get free pizza, and the first 100 people in line will get a free DS Lite case. And, gamers will get to meet Mario and fans dressed up as their favorite Nintendo characters. Of course, that guy that looks like Tingle might not actually be wearing a costume.
Full press release follows.
Click to continue reading Midnight Madness At Nintendo World Store
Sony’s Ken Kutaragi - PS3 Upgrades Possible
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Mods/Hacks, PlayStation 3, Rumors,
Spong.com is reporting on an interesting interview in the Japanese site PC Watch with PS3 boss Ken Kutaragi. The long and short of the article is that Sony really seems to still be running with their “The Playstation 3 is a computer” line. In the interview, Kutaragi suggested that - much like PCs - the Playstation may see regular upgrades in terms of hard-drive size, or even writeable Blu-Ray disc drives. One has to wonder on that second point - when are you going to want to transfer 40-50 GB off of your PS3 (other than, of course, to “legally” make “backups” of your games and Blu-Ray discs)?
Kutaragi also goes on to say that “Speaking about the PS3, we never said we will release a game console…it is clearly a computer”. Granted, the whole distinction is a bit artificial at this point, but one has to wonder - if Sony’s intention was simply to release a high-powered Blu-Ray-capable computer, why didn’t it just release it under the VIAO line?
Read More | Spong.com
Most Mac Gamers Still Play on Their Macs (For Now)
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, PC,
Soon after Boot Camp was released (the software that allowed Intel-based Macs to run Windows) there was quite a bit of speculation about what this would mean for companies that specialize in porting games to the OS X platform. If serious gamers could simply boot their Macs to Windows XP to play games, wouldn’t this make porting games to the Mac obsolete? Well, for now at least the answer appears to be a solid “No.”
Macworld reports the results of a recent survey showing that more Mac users game on their Apple computers than use a PC or Boot Camp. Roughly 800 (out of 2,400 respondents) stated that they use their Mac as their primary gaming platform, with around 300 users reporting that the primarily play on a PC or a Mac running Boot Camp. Of course, these figures could be highly skewed by the fact that the majority of Mac users may still not have Intel-based Macs, which are a requirement for running Boot Camp and were only released early this year.
Read More | Macworld
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