xbox

[Update: Microsoft has now officially confirmed the pack-in games. The bundled systems ship at the end of the month, and will run at least through the holiday season.]

The Xbox 360 price cut wasn't enough for Microsoft, so now it's adding free games to the mix. According to Kotaku, Microsoft will start bundling Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance with all new Xbox 360 and Xbox 360 Elite systems.

While they're not Halo 3 or Bioshock and are a few months to a year old, the two pack-in games present extremely solid plays. GameSpot gave Marvel … Read more

Now that the long-rumored "bargain" PS3 now a reality (in Europe, anyway), how will Microsoft respond? Over the past few months, the company has refreshed the bulk of the 360 line: the $450 Elite debuted in April with a large 120GB hard drive, HDMI port, and (finally!) black color scheme; the Pro (a.k.a. "Premium") 20GB model got a $50 price cut and HDMI upgrade; and there's even a limited-run $400 Halo Edition (basically, the Pro with a military camo paint job) for $400. But what of the lowly Xbox 360 Core System? The … Read more

CHIBA, Japan--Microsoft for years has been trying to bring more consumers into computer gaming, but Nintendo was the company that figured out how to do it, said Yasutoshi Magara, managing director of Microsoft Japan, in a briefing at Ceatec Japan 2007, the country's big technology trade show.

The Xbox 360, Magara said, was designed mostly with a relatively well-defined demographic in mind, namely 18- to 30-year-old males into networking games.

"They (the console developers at Microsoft) start there," he said.

By contrast, Nintendo, with the launch of its Wii motion-sensing console, aimed for the family and developed … Read more

Gelaskins may offer vinyl to dress up your iPods, but what about your gaming devices?

It seems like Colorforms, while in a different form, are back for our generation. Only this time, instead of applying them to a stick-it board or fridge, you use them to adorn your high-tech toys.

iStyles offers art and patterned vinyl skins for stylizing your Wii, Apple TV, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, iPod and portable gaming devices.

Prices range from $5 for a Wii nunchuk/remote skin set to $6 for an iPod nano skin to $25 to cover your entire Xbox.

The iStyles come … Read more

It's been online for a few days now, but I just spotted (via PaidContent) Forbes' article titled The iFlop (subhead: "Steve Jobs tried to design--and dictate--the future of television. Here's how he failed.") Author Scott Woolley calls the Apple TV "a flat-out" failure, claiming that it's sold less than 250,000 units in six months. Among the supposed sins of the product: the lack of a built-in DVR and a "parochial and proprietary approach" to online video content. He also highlights a variety of on-demand video competitors, including Vudu, TiVo (via Amazon Unbox), and Xbox 360 (which offers rentals and sales of TV shows via the Xbox Live Marketplace)--while glossing over many of their shortcomings. Still, is he right? Is the Apple TV dead in the water? … Read more

Halo 3, the much-anticipated Xbox 360 game that launched Tuesday, set the all-time record for most revenue earned in a single day by any entertainment property, Microsoft said Wednesday.

The company said that Halo 3, the third and final episode in the hugely popular franchise, netted $170 million in sales in the U.S. in its first day. If true, that would top previous records set by the motion pictures Spider Man 3 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

There's little doubt Microsoft has been pinning a great deal of hope on Halo 3 and was expecting it … Read more

It goes without saying that in addition to a stellar reputation for academic innovation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology is renowned for its geeky pranks. The best-known of these was perhaps the time when students decorated the campus' Great Dome to look like Star Wars robot R2D2 in celebration of the legendary film series' first prequel in 1999.

But Star Wars prequels are so last decade. These days, it's all about the much-hyped Xbox 360 title Halo 3. And why prank your own campus when you can pull a fast one on those snotty Crimsons next door?

Consequently, MIT pranksters … Read more

It's officially play time.

After three years of making do with Halo 2, eager gamers lined up at Best Buy in midtown Manhattan to be among the first in the nation to buy the third and final title in the series.

The companies--Best Buy and Microsoft--knew how to throw a party. There was lots of swag--T-shirts, caps, Mountain Dew, even hand massages--at a ritual quickly becoming the norm for any major launch these days. Sure, it's fun to be a part of the excitement and feel the energy of an eager crowd waiting for the clock to strike … Read more

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--For the marketing folks at Microsoft and at its Bungie video game studio, the next 19 minutes will be some of the most meaningful of their careers.

That's because, at 9 p.m. Pacific, midnight eastern, it officially becomes Halo 3's world.

Since the launch of the Xbox 360 in November 2005, everyone has been waiting for this: the one great game that will define the next-generation console era.

And even though I'm here, at Microsoft's Silicon Valley campus, where the software giant is hosting a pre-launch event for developers, investors and other &… Read more