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Rumor: Gamestop Wii & PS3 Pre-orders Coming Next Week
Posted by Michael Cardiff Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PlayStation 3, Rumors, Wii,
According to the website “bits bytes pixels sprites” (what, you couldn’t find a shorter domain name??) some folks have talked with Gamestop employees and found out that there will be a nation-wide managers/owners meeting this Friday, during which execs will learn about the allocations of PS3s and Wiis that each Gamestop will be receiving.
Given that this info is coming from a single Gamestop in Texas, it may not be the best lead we have. Still, it gives us a good reason to keep refreshing WiishList and PS3Me all next week. With under 2 months left, we’re getting really close to the launch window for both these consoles, and we’re beginning to wonder how much longer Sony, Nintendo, and our local retailers will keep us in the dark!
Read More 
| bitsbytespixelssprites.com < ugh>
Gallery: Rumor: Gamestop Wii & PS3 Pre-orders Coming Next Week
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X06 Webcast Video Download
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Action, Corporate News, First Person Shooters, Hardware, MMORPG, PC, Role Playing Games, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade,
Microsoft is making a download of their opening announcements for the start of X06 in Barcelona available at Xbox.com. Microsoft announced a new game in the Banjo & Kazooie franchise coming from Microsoft Game Studios. For Xbox Live Arcade, Microsoft announced that Doom would be available starting tonight on Xbox Live Arcade. Other Live Arcade games announced include:
- Sensible Soccer
- Contra
- Ultimate Mortal Kombat
- Small Arms
- Gyrus
- TotemBall
- Defender
- Assault Heroes
- Heavy Weapon
- Settlers of Catan
In terms of upcoming games, the Japanese RPG Blue Dragon will be available in the US and Europe in 2007. Bungie will have an announcement about Halo 3 by the end of the year. Project Gotham Racing 4 was officially unveiled. Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto IV will have two exclusive episodes available for download on Xbox Live. Ubisoft demonstrated Assassin’s Creed interactive gameplay for the first time ever. Bioshock was announced as an Xbox 360 and Windows exclusive. Lost Odyssey was confirmed for the US and Europe, with a trailer showing some of the battle gameplay. More than 500,000 gamers downloaded the Lost Planet demo, and both multiplayer and single player gameplay will be available on the show floor. Splinter Cell: Double Agent footage was shown, and the sequel will be exclusive to the Xbox 360 and on Windows.
The Xbox 360 HD DVD was confirmed to be available in Mid-November 2006 in Europe and the United States for $199.00 US, 199.99 Euros, and 129.99 British Pounds. The package will also include remote, and for a limited time King Kong on HD DVD. Moore also discusses Microsoft’s Games for Windows initiative, and indicates that Windows Vista is still on track for a January 2007 release. Moore also revealed the first preview of Marvel Universe: Online for the Xbox 360 and Windows.
Peter Jackson spoke at the presentation and announced that he has formed a partnership with Microsoft Game Studios. His first project will be an interactive entertainment title set in the Halo universe, apart from Halo 3 and the upcoming film, and Jackson will also be creating a new interactive game series based on original IP. Finally, the presentation wraps with a trailer from a Halo real-time strategy game from Ensemble Studios, called Halo Wars.
The video should be available online soon on Xbox.com at the link below, and should be available as a download via Xbox Live.
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| Keynote Summary at Xbox.com
Read More | Xbox.com
Gallery: X06 Webcast Video Download
Wii Nunchuck Up Close And Personal
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Nintendo, Wii,
GoNintendo managed to score a bunch of Wii nunchuck pictures, including an apparent autopsy shot showing the controller disassembled. The image watermarks indicate that they come from a site called ChinaGBA, which appears to be completely broken under load at this time. Still, GoNintendo is hosting a good portion of the images locally, so gamers can get a look at some close-ups of the nunchuck controller while they wait for the original site to recover.
Read More | GoNintendo
Gallery: Wii Nunchuck Up Close And Personal
Sony Adds HDMI, Drops Price Of Core Playstation 3 In Japan
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
During Sony’s keynote at the Tokyo Game Show, it was announced that both the core and premium configurations of the Playstation 3 would now include HDMI 1.3 support. In addition, the pricing of the 20 GB core unit was set at 49,800 Yen, roughly $425 US. Sony’s reasoning for including the HDMI port in the lower cost console is that the adoption of HDMI accelerated faster than Sony expected, so they felt that component now made sense for all models. Sony’s specifications on their official Japanese Playstation 3 site have been updated to reflect the change. No announcement for any pricing adjustment was made for the US, nor was any mention as to whether the United States version of the core console would get an HDMI port.
Update: The core console will feature the HDMI port in all territories, but the US price will remain fixed at $499
Read More | Playstation.com (Japan)
Gallery: Sony Adds HDMI, Drops Price Of Core Playstation 3 In Japan
Microsoft Extends Warranty For Early Xbox 360 Buyers
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Xbox 360,
A thread in the official Xbox forums indicates that Microsoft is officially extending the warranty of all Xbox 360 systems purchases before 01/01/06 to one year. They are also apparently reimbursing all Xbox 360 console owners that purchased their console within that time frame for any repair charges incurred as well. While no official word has been issued from Microsoft, numerous users from the Xbox.com and NeoGAF forums have apparently called and verified this information. According to the posts, gamers that wish to apply for a credit, or that wish to confirm the extension of their warranty can call 1-800-4MY-XBOX with their Xbox 360 serial number and date of manufacture. Some callers are reporting that a copy of the receipt is required; others are saying that this is not a requirement. Of course, one year from the date of manufacture doesn’t give a lot of time for those who purchased their consoles at launch. For those gamers who have had to send their consoles in for repairs; this seems like a good move on Microsoft’s part. This program would also seem to confirm that there were problems with the first couple of batches of Xbox 360’s built for the console launch.
Update: Dean Takahashi at Mercury News has confirmation here.
The full Microsoft statement:
As part of our standard and ongoing process of analyzing repair data, we recently noticed a higher than usual number of units coming in for repair. Upon further investigation, it was further discovered that the bulk of the units were isolated to a group that was part of the initial manufacturing run of the console. Returns for repair are coming in for a variety reasons and it’s a higher rate than we are satisfied with. We’ve made the decision to comp repairs for consoles manufactured before January 1, 2006, and provide refunds to the small group of customers who have already paid for repairs.
Read More | Xbox.com
Gallery: Microsoft Extends Warranty For Early Xbox 360 Buyers
Earlier at the Tokyo Game Show, Microsoft promised that the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive would support the full 1080P resolution that the format offers. Now, a report on Seattle Post-Intelligencer indicates that the ability to display this resolution will be given to Xbox 360 owners via a free software update. Microsoft did not announce and HDMI cable for the system, but one would hope that the component and VGA outputs would support 1080P.
Update: Full 1080P scaling for DVD and HD-DVD will only happen over the VGA connection. On component video connections, DVD contect is restricted to 480P, and HD-DVD will be restricted to 1080i. Game content will support 1080P over component or VGA connections.
Read More | Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Gallery: Xbox 360 Owners Get 1080p For Free
Microsoft’s Tokyo Game Show Presentation
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Xbox 360, Xbox Live, Xbox Live Arcade,
Microsoft just conducted their Tokyo Game Show presentation, and Kotaku was able to live-blog the event. Some of the key announcements include:
- Core System, Hard Drive, Live Vision Camera, and Wireless Headset availability on November 2nd
- HD DVD drive to be available on November 22nd, for 20,790 Yen (~$176)
- HD DVD drive will support full 1080P.
- Xbox Live Arcade Titles: Yie Ar Kung Fu to be Japan exclusive. Gyruss, Rush’n Attack, New Rally-X also announced for Live Arcade.
- Dead or Alive Xtreme 2 will ship November 15 in the US and November 22 in Japan
- Peter Moore promises 50 exclusive titles for Japanese market
- Tri-Ace’s upcoming Infinite Undiscovery gameplay was not shown
Kotaku has a bunch more detail from the conference. It certainly looks like Microsoft is still actively trying to penetrate the Japanese market, but even with all the hardware and software announcements, they still do not have a really compelling offering for the Japanese gamer.
Read More | Kotaku
Gallery: Microsoft’s Tokyo Game Show Presentation
The Microsoft Games Global Marketing again issued a denial for the latest round of rumors that the company was planning on including an internal HD DVD drive. Instead, Microsoft insists that marketing the HD DVD as an add-on is all about offering choice, and expounds on that with all the various choices available to the consumer on the Xbox 360 platform, and a slightly overt stab at their competition. At any rate, expect the HD DVD drive to be available this Holiday, price still unknown.
Read More | Gamerscoreblog
Gallery: Microsoft Again Denies Internal HD DVD
The Game|Life blog over at Wired News has some quick updates to what was seen at the news conference today. Speaking with Perrin Kaplan of Nintendo, at the very least, first party titles from Nintendo should not be region locked. She suggested that there may be an optional region lock available for publishers though. Also, when discussing the Virtual Console, it appears that downloads will be tied to an account, similarly to the way they are with Xbox Live. In the case where a Wii has been broken, gamers will be able to re-download their Virtual Console titles. Hopefully, Nintendo can get the DRM right for these cases. Kaplan also confirmed that the Wii will not support storage expansion via USB hard drives at launch, and will be initially restricted to SD media.
Read More | Game|Life
Gallery: Wii To Be Region Free?
Nintendo Of America Confirms Wii Launch Date, Price
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, Nintendo, Wii,
Nintendo of America today confirmed the information leaked last night via the Seattle Post-Intelligencer via press release: Nintendo’s Wii will be available November 19 at an MSRP of $249.99.
In addition to shipping with Wii Sports as previously noted, the console will also ship with one Wii Remote and Nunchuck attachment. Nintendo also confirmed that Excite Truck and Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess would be launch titles. All Wii first-party titles will be $49.99, but third-parties are allowed to set their own prices. While Gamecube backward compatibility has been an announced feature for quite some time, Nintendo also verified that the full library of 530 Gamecube titles would be playable on the console from launch day, in contrast to Microsoft’s approach on the Xbox 360.
High profile software publishers are also confirming their continued support today. Larry Probst, Chairman and CEO of Electronic Arts was quoted as saying that at EA, “we are putting more support behind the Wii than any Nintendo hardware launch since the Super NES.”
Nintendo’s press release did not announce specific pricing for Virtual Console games, or the availability of Wii points, but expect that information to be confirmed soon.
Update: Go Nintendo has coverage of the Nintendo announcement in New York. Other launch titles include Trauma Center, Madden 07, Need For Speed: Carbon, Red Steel, Metal Slug: Anthology. Metroid Prime will ship in 2007.
Virtual Console prices for Nintendo games are basically a direct dollar conversion from Yen: $5.00 for NES, $8 for SNES, and $10 for Nintendo 64 games. Virtual Console launch titles include Super Mario World, Legend of Zelda and Super Mario 64 and 2000 Wii points will sell for $20.00 in retail stores.
Nintendo also confirmed that additional Wii remotes will sell for $39.99, additional Nunchucks sell for $19.99.
Nintendo’s Press Release continues below.
Click to continue reading Nintendo Of America Confirms Wii Launch Date, Price
Read More | Go Nintendo
Gallery: Nintendo Of America Confirms Wii Launch Date, Price
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