According to reports, Microsoft E&D GM Daniel Schiappa has hinted that a PlayStation Home-like virtual world will be coming to Xbox 360 within the next year. "It's a cool world but it's like a little game by itself. Our approach is the other way around; it's that games are the center and that's the star of the show, that's what people buy the console for."
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“This is a real mass market entertainment proposition,” VP of Microsoft Microsoft Interactive Entertainment Europe told MCV. “Through this price point, we can reach and introduce a much broader array of consumers to hi-def gaming. With 17.7 million units worldwide installed base we’ve got a real level of momentum – and Europe is a critical geography in that.
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Price cut is now official as well as the 60GB model. New price: Arcade $279, 20GB $299, 60GB $349, $120GB $449.
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Asian Xbox 360 manufacturers are blaming poor console design cheap components and a lack of testing coupled with a manic obsession by Microsoft to beat Sony as the reason for the Xbox 360 "Red Ring Of Death" probems. One Asian manufacturer that SmartHouse spoke to on Friday said "Microsoft have known of this problem for a long time. They are trying to blame component manufacturers but it was a combination of bad design and them (Microsoft) wanting everything cheap. This is what caused the problem along with them wanting to beat Sony to market. A lot of manufacturers were pushed to deliver components without much testing of the components working together inside the console".
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EB Games held conference calls for its Canadian stores informing them of the new policy changes and revealing alarming failure rates of the Xbox 360. "The real numbers were between 30 to 33 percent," said former EB Games employee Matthieu G., adding that failure rate was even greater for launch consoles. "We had 35 Xbox 360s at launch I know more than half of them broke within the first six months (red lights or making circles under the game discs). Two of them were dead on arrival."
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360 has taken almost half of ‘life-to-date’ next-gen revenues, says firm; 17.7 million worldwide installed base confirmed Microsoft has staked its claim as the market leader in the console space with two bold claims this morning – not least that it has taken over 40 per cent of ‘life-to-date’ revenue across hardware, games and peripherals sales. In addition, the firm has confirmed a whopping 17.7 million global installed base of the console.
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"Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has admitted that the company is working on ways to support Blu-ray, the next-generation DVD format. " This may come as something of a blow to the PS3, as it levels the playing field for HD disk based movie playback. Also begs the question of whether Blu-Ray would be technically achievable on the Wii via new hardware, or an external drive.
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"DivX has pretty much pilled the beans on upcoming support on the Xbox 360."
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I have a very good source within a major Canadian retailer that guarantees that despite the lack of a cut at E3 this week, the Xbox 360 will drop $100 across all SKU's. When? Sooner than you think. AUGUST 1ST. I can't confirm all the details, but basically in less than 3 weeks the console prices will be the following: -*Xbox 360 core*, $199 American (with pack-in memory unit!). -*Nintendo Wii*, $249 American. -*Xbox 360 Premium*, $299 American. -*Xbox 360 Elite*, $449 Canadian, possibly $399 American. So August 1st, Xbox 360 will be the lowest price console on the market with the core system, and the difference between the 360 Core and the only PS3 will be a staggering $400 US!
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The Japanese electronics maker has until now touted Blu-ray as an advantage its PlayStation 3 holds over Microsoft’s console. Microsoft has backed Toshiba’s HD-DVD format and offered an HD-DVD drive that can be plugged into the 360. But after Sony’s victory last month in the high-definition DVD format war, Stan Glasgow, Sony Electronics US president, said the two sides were now talking about Microsoft adopting Blu-ray.
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