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Game Crazy POS Shows Black Xbox 360 Date, Price
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, Rumors, Xbox 360,
A post on the Cheap Ass Gamer forums indicates that a new Xbox 360 SKU has been loaded into the system, appearing as
GM-XBOX 360 (black/ 120GB) $479.99 NEW $439.99 USED
. The release date is currently listed as 5/1/2007. Some of the posters in the forum were able to confirm this, and Kotaku was able to get independent confirmation from various Game Crazy stores as well. Now, this could be just a phantom in the system, an update created based on speculation at Game Crazy, so one can’t really describe this as a confirmation that there is a black Xbox 360 coming out, but this, along with the previously released alleged box art would seem to be tipping the scales further and further in favor of its existence.
Read More 
| Cheap Ass Gamer via Kotaku
Gallery: Game Crazy POS Shows Black Xbox 360 Date, Price
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Playfeed’s parent blog, Gear Live, has gotten a hold of some internal images of a limited edition black Xbox 360 console with HDMI support, which would seem to confirm the recent rumors on the Internet about a black Xbox 360 release. These rumors originally had the release timed to counter the Playstation 3 launch in Europe and Australia, but an actual release date at this time is unknown. The box art reportedly mentions that the new console includes three USB 2.0 ports and an HDMI port, but has no mention of the hard drive size. Still, the mythical HDMI-enabled Xbox 360 looks to be getting closer and closer to becoming a reality.
Read More | Gear Live
Gallery: Black Xbox 360 Box Art Leaked?
Sony Looks To Outsourcing, 45 nm To Reduce Cell Costs
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
A Reuters report suggests that Sony may be shifting production of its Cell processor to outsourcing vendors in the future to reduce costs. The news agency spoke with Yutaka Nakagawa at Sony about the chip division at the company, and Sony is looking to significantly reduce its expenditures in that area. Sony predicts that they will be able to reach 45 nm circuitry for the Cell by 2009, but whether the production will be handled internally by Sony or by an outsourcing vendor is yet to be decided. Currently Sony handles the production of the Cell chip, a byproduct of the Playstation 2 days when the company found no other manufacturers with the technology to produce the hardware for that console. Now, Sony says that chip manufacturers have advanced to the point where it may not make financial sense for Sony to be the sole chip provider; ongoing price reductions in the manufacturing process of the Playstation 3 will be instrumental in helping Sony keep pace with Microsoft and Nintendo as they streamline production of their competing consoles.
Gallery: Sony Looks To Outsourcing, 45 nm To Reduce Cell Costs
SCEE Talks F1 Championship Edition On PS3
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Driving, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
The upcoming F1 Championship Edition is looking really sharp; with the US release coming at the end of February and as a launch title for the European launch, Game Director Graeme Ankers talked technical details with N’Gai Croal’s Level Up blog about developing for the Playstation 3. Of course, nobody would expect someone from an internal development studio at Sony to badmouth the hardware or the tools, but the interview does give some insight into how developers will be utilizing the RSX GPU, the PPU and the seven SPUs in the console.
Read More | Level Up
Gallery: SCEE Talks F1 Championship Edition On PS3
Casino Royale To First 500K European PS3 Registrants
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3,
The ‘semi-official’ Three Speech blog today confirmed that the first 500,000 gamers that register their Playstation 3 console in Europe will receive the Blu-ray release of Casino Royale. Unfortunately the movie will not be a pack-in for release, and users in non-English territories will have to wait until the localized version of the movie is available. Still, this would seem to beat the Talladega Nights pack-in that the US received; on the other hand, one would expect the incentives for the console release in Europe to be slightly better, if only for the high price that those consumers are paying relative to the United States.
Read More | Three Speech
Gallery: Casino Royale To First 500K European PS3 Registrants
Pachter Predicts Wii Over PS3 In January
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Hardware, PlayStation 3, Wii,
Michael Pachter at Wedbush Morgan is predicting that Nintendo’s Wii console sold significantly more units than the PS3 in January. He expects NPD numbers of around 500,000 Wii consoles sold to 300,000 Playstation 3 consoles sold by Sony. According to Gamasutra, the analyst is also predicting that game sales will increase year over year by 32%. Pachter believes that while the PS3 may be entering a lull, there is potential for sales of the console to rebound as hardware availability becomes more widely known, advertising increases, and better software titles emerge. Pachter also lays down his leading software title sales predictions as well. Of course, like many analysts, Michael Pachter’s predictions haven’t always been 100% accurate; he has admitted to overestimating Xbox 360 performance and also recanted predictions that there would not be a Bully sequel.
Read More | Gamasutra
Gallery: Pachter Predicts Wii Over PS3 In January
UK Gamers Get Horrible Playstation 3 Bundle
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
GamesIndustry.biz is reporting that UK gamers looking to pre-order the Playstation 3 through retailer HMV are being forced to partake in a particularly onerous bundle. An e-mail sent to customers indicates that those who would like to place a pre-order for the Playstation 3 can do so only when also purchasing a 4 GB PSP package. The bundle includes the new PSP, two PSP games and the Playstation 3, but retails for almost 675 GBP, around $1330 US. According to Gamesindustry.biz, Sony was less than sympathetic towards its fanbase, stating that “his is just one of a number of value added incentives that retailers will be offering to mark the launch of PS3.” This bundle seems to be the oddest choice; hardcore fans of Sony’s hardware will likely have already purchased a PSP, and the pricing puts this above the casual fan’s price range. Add this together with no actual guarantee that the Playstation 3 will be available, this action would seem to be the definition of HMV “biting the hand that feeds it.”
Read More | GamesIndustry.biz
Gallery: UK Gamers Get Horrible Playstation 3 Bundle
Sony Considers Potential PS3 Price Cut
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Corporate News, Hardware, PlayStation 3,
An Associated Press report suggests that Sony may be weighing the pros and cons of a Playstation 3 price cut during the next fiscal year. The report has Sony Senior Vice President Takao Yuhara discussing the company’s strategy to bring the games division to the break even point. While stressing that no price reduction has been set, Yuhara did say that “We may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right.” One can’t really make a leap from that statement to an actual price cut, but it is interesting that price cuts are on the table for the upcoming fiscal year as a means of driving sales; Sony may be pinning its hopes on high-profile software releases in Japan to spike demand and save them from a costly price-reduction.
Read More | Associated Press
Gallery: Sony Considers Potential PS3 Price Cut
While the Xbox 360 is a great game machine, apparently DVD movie playback leaves a lot to be desired. By many accounts, the HD-DVD add-on plays back high definition content well, but according to a report on ExtremeTech, the DVD playback engine has horrible playback flaws. Many argue that the DVD playback on the Xbox 360 is good enough, and since the technology is essentially included for free, there is little room to complain. However, ExtremeTech details the flaws with specific examples, starting with the failure of the Silicon Optix HQV benchmark disc. A “perfect” device would score 130 points for the tests on the disc, but ExtremeTech indicates that the Xbox 360 scores a meager 20 points total. In contrast, the Home Theater Blog review of the Playstation 3 gave the console 120 points for DVD playback.
ExtremeTech follows up with specific DVD examples of the flaws in the DVD playback, and some of the examples are stark. The comments for the article are also somewhat illustrative, highlighting some possible issues with the review itself. There are some just complaints; despite ExtremeTech’s claims that the Xbox 360 fails to outperform cheap DVD players, all of the comparisons come against an $800 Denon DVD player. In fairness to ExtremeTech, the Denon serves as an example of the gold standard DVD player that gets things right, but some examples against a lower cost DVD player would have been nice. Other complaints stem from the fact that some of the source material might be unfair due to flaws in the mastering process; perhaps the article’s author will clarify some of these issues. Overall, though, the flawed DVD playback sticks out only because of Microsoft’s excellent execution in gaming and HD content, and given Microsoft’s responsiveness in the past, highlighting the issue may mean that a future system update will fix the problems.
Read More | ExtremeTech
Gallery: DVD Playback Broken On Xbox 360
Compete: Wii Interest Led Xbox 360, PS3 This Holiday
Posted by Christopher Sasaki Categories: Culture, Hardware, Internet, Nintendo, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360,
Microsoft’s Andre Vrignaud linked to an interesting study of online next-generation console interest published by online metric provider Complete. The analysis shows relative online interest in the three next-generation consoles as tracked via the Compete toolbar technology. According to the tracking numbers, both the Wii and the PS3 peaked around their launch date, with the Wii running up slightly more user interest. The Xbox 360 hit its popularity peak for the three months from November to January right around Thanksgiving, which would tie in somewhat to a number of promotions run around the Xbox 360 at this time. After the holiday season, all three consoles tail off in online click-through. The Wii still leads, but the Playstation 3 and the Xbox 360 match nearly exactly. Further, it appears that Playstation 3 searchers are transferring to either the Xbox 360 or the Wii.
Overall, though, it is hard to gauge how accurately this tracks real-world purchasing. First, given that Compete gets its tracking numbers though the number of users that have installed the Compete Toolbar, it is hard to say how accurately this reflects the general Internet public. Secondly, given the difficulty in acquiring either a Playstation 3 or a Wii and both consoles’ lack of availability online, one would have a hard time tying an online visit into a retail conversion. A longer period of observation tied with real-world sales numbers as all consoles become readily available at retail will give a better indication of the correlation between online visits and actual sales numbers.
Read More | Compete via Ozymandias.com
Gallery: Compete: Wii Interest Led Xbox 360, PS3 This Holiday
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