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Gears of War Community Site Live
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Corporate News, First Person Shooters, Screenshots, Trailers, Xbox 360,
Epic Games have launched their community site for their upcoming Xbox 360 game, Gears of War. Scheduled to ship in November, 2006, the game was one of the most anticipated releases for the Xbox 360 when it was shown off last year. The site contains sections for community and news, as well as screenshots and trailers. Currently the only trailer is the same movie that was shown at X05 2005 in October, but the trailer has some good shots in it. Gamers will get to see how far the game has progressed at E3 next week, but in the mean time, there is some good stuff to peruse on the site.
Read More 
| Gears Of War Official Site
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Analysts Predict Next Generation Marketshare
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360,
In a 188-page report from securities firm Wedbush Morgan Securities, analysts lay out what they believe to be the state of the market over the next few years. Their projections indicate that Microsoft will hold onto their market lead for around two years, and then, as HD viewing and media formats take over the market, eventually the lead will be ceded to Sony. Not surprisingly, the analysts pick Nintendo to take third in marketshare. US and European market share for the first two years is projected to be roughly 42 percent Xbox 360, 39 percent PS3, with Nintendo following at 19 percent, giving Microsoft a scant lead over Sony. Sony’s decision to integrate HD media into their console will drive sales further after this, pushing them to a 45 percent to 35 percent lead over Microsoft. It is interesting to see the analysts’ positions on the future console war, and its hard to argue with the numbers as is, but projecting leadership out to such a large degree rests on assumptions whose accuracy could be challenged. At any rate, it looks like Microsoft will cut into Sony’s massive lead in the marketplace, surely good news for Microsoft. Knowing that Microsoft is making a large investment now to gain market share, should Microsoft fail to add to its user base after the launch of the PS3, Microsoft’s losses could be disastrous. Of course, the same could be said about Sony’s upcoming PS3 launch. The next year will be critical for all platforms’ future success.
Read More | Next Generation
Oblivion CPU Benchmarks
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PC, Role Playing Games,
Those gamers wondering if they should upgrade their CPU, or their GPU to more effectively play Oblivion, can look to Anandtech for their answer. The short answer, is both, if you can afford it. Anandtech benchmarks a series of CPUs against the current GPU leader in Oblivion performance, the ATI Radeon X1900 XT CrossFire, and then cross-examines their results by running the same CPU at different speeds against four ATI configurations to give an idea of how well the CPU scales in mid-range to high-end performance scenarios. Clearly, there are a couple of takeaways from this test. First, if gamers have a Radeon X1900XT CrossFire rig, their gameplay is likely to be CPU bound. Second, if gamers want to make the most of a top-end GPU, then they will want an AMD CPU. Very few of the Intel chips made a showing, and the AMD dual-core chips were the clear winner. As always, the middle ground is a lot less clear. There are clearly sections of Oblivion that are going to be highly CPU bound, like the towns in game, and to some extent, the dungeons. Gamers with mid-range CPUs probably aren’t going to see the benefit of a high-end graphics card in Oblivion because of this. Since Oblivion will take advantage of dual-core chips, it might make sense to upgrade to a dual-core first, and approach the GPU later.
Read More | Anandtech
On Thursday, Microsoft released their earnings statement for their third fiscal quarter. Microsoft missed their targeted earnings, and the stock would proceed to tumble nearly 11% on the following trading day. In addition, Microsoft issued a guidance that the final quarter earnings would be much lower than analysts anticipated. The reasoning behind the larger than expected losses: the success of the Xbox 360. Microsoft’s CFO, Chris Liddell, said that because each Xbox 360 sells at a loss, each additional sale increased Microsoft’s cost of revenue. In addition, Microsoft poured significant resources into building additional Xbox 360s in an attempt to meet demand, and this increased their cost of production by a large margin. Year over year, revenues in the Home division, where the Xbox lives, increased by 80 percent, but their losses in the same division nearly tripled. Microsoft anticipates that the effort to unseat Sony in the console wars will cost them more in the future, and that affected their projections for the remainder of the fiscal year.
Read More | Microsoft
New Ridger Racer 7 PS3 Screenshots
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Driving, E3, PlayStation 3, Screenshots,
Impress Watch Japan has a quick preview of the upcoming Ridge Racer 7 for the Playstation 3. The new Ridge Racer is scheduled to be a launch title for the PS3, and promises to allow up to 14 simultaneous racers. Previously, Namco let slip that features from previous game releases for the PSP and Xbox 360 would be included. From appearances, it looks like some of the new screens could be from a scheduled E3 promo video or some kind of looping demonstration, so it remains to be seen if the game in motion will be able to sustain such detailed imagery.
Read More | Impress Watch Japan
It is looking like the US is going to be seeing the DS Lite arrive in June. While gamers had hoped that the DS Lite would be launched in tandem with Mario Bros. DS, GoNintendo.com has gotten a scan of a GameCrazy internal newsletter that shows the DS Lite arriving on the US shores in the June time frame. Unfortunately, the exact date and pricing of the console are not listed, but this is pretty strong confirmation that a May date will not be happening.
Read More | GoNintendo
MLB 2K6 Patch Available
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Sports, Xbox 360, Xbox Live,
For those gamers with MLB 2K6 on the Xbox 360, a patch has been made available via Xbox Live. Anyone with an Xbox Live Silver or Gold account will be able to download the patch, and users should see a “Title Update” available upon inserting their MLB 2K6 game disc. According to 2K Sports, this was an issue with the HD cache corrupting when users turned off the machine while playing a game, and the issue impacted less than 10% of the user base. There have been mixed reports of success in the 2KSports forums, but some people who still had freezing issues post-patch were able to fix their problem by deleting their downloaded content and starting clean, so it looks like the “uninstall-reinstall” fix so common in the PC world has come to the console world. 2K Sports has not provided information on an alternate method of obtaining the patch for those gamers with an Xbox 360 and no network connection.
Read More | 2K Sports Patch Announcement
Nintendo Revolution Name Revealed: Nintendo Wii
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Wii,
Nintendo has officially named their next generation console, formerly known as the Revolution. Gamers going to revolution.nintendo.com can see a brief video announcing the new name, “Wii,” and the following text:
As in “we.”
While the code-name “Revolution” expressed our direction, Wii represents the answer.
Wii will break down that wall that separates video game players from everybody else.
Wii will put people more in touch with their games … and each other. But you’re probably asking: What does the name mean?
Wii sounds like “we,” which emphasizes this console is for everyone.
Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
Wii has a distinctive “ii” spelling that symbolizes both the unique controllers and the image of people gathering to play.
And Wii, as a name and a console, brings something revolutionary to the world of video games that sets it apart from the crowd.
So that’s Wii. But now Nintendo needs you.
Because, it’s really not about you or me.
It’s about Wii.
And together, Wii will change everything.
To say reaction has been mixed across the Internet would be an understatement. “Revolution,” while not particularly unique, made a strong statement about Nintendo’s plan of attack. “Wii” is more ambiguous; most people wouldn’t understand how to pronounce it without Nintendo’s cues. However, “Wii” is more inclusive. While a Revolution is associated with violent change, “Wii” says something more about community. “Revolution” was a strong code name, and it spoke to gamers of the fight Nintendo would face with their new console. “Wii” seems to be more about attracting non-gamers as customers. Whatever impact the name eventually has, the naming has certainly caused a stir and gotten the press’ attention, which may be more important.
Revolution Nunchaku Controller Motion Sensing
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Rumors, Wii,
A developer “incredibly close to Nintendo” has apparently confirmed to Advanced Media Network that the additional “nunchaku” controller add-on for the Nintendo Revolution will also have a built-in accelerometer, allowing it the same motion sensing capabilities of the main controller. If true, this could add an additional element of interaction to games, making the user experience more multi-dimensional. According to AMN’s source, this feature has been included since the shipments of the development kits six months ago. Why this hasn’t been mentioned before was speculated on by AMN, but it could just be that this functionality was assumed to be present and just “confirmed” now.
Read More | Advanced Media Network
Gamasutra reports on an unconfirmed article in the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft is in talks with Massiave about a possible acquisition, and that a deal may be immanent. The deal would reportedly be worth between $200 and $400 million, and the potential impact to existing Massive relationships is unknown. There have been reports in the past few weeks suggesting that in-game advertising has the potential to become a market worth billions, and just recently Massive Incorporated penned a deal to include advertising placements in MLB 2K6, and has existing agreements with Sony Entertainment Online. Certainly the in-game ad market will be churning if this deal comes to pass. Microsoft may also be looking to bolster its current ad-placement technology as it attempts to ratchet up the competition against Google.
Read More | Gamasutra
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