News Blog

The Xbox 360 Pro (aka Premium) will now cost $50 less.

(Credit: Microsoft)

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about rumors that Microsoft was planning to chop the Xbox 360's price in July. Well, that price cut was all but confirmed today by Kotaku.

After posting leaked photos of upcoming Best Buy, Kmart, and other circulars, the gaming blog now has a GameStop employee's cell-phone snapshots of shelf art and an internal memo announcing that the Xbox 360 Pro (aka the Premium) would drop to $299.99 on Sunday, July 13. Not coincidentally, E3 kicks off the next day with--you guessed it--Microsoft's press conference.

As Sony's PlayStation 3 has come on strong in recent months, sales of the Xbox 360 have been flat, so a price drop seemed likely. The success of Metal Gear Solid 4 continues to give the PS3 a boost, but chances are Sony, too, will have to trim the price of its console before the holiday buying season.

All that said, the big question remains whether Microsoft will announce any new configurations of the Xbox 360. Rumor has it, the company is just using the price drop to clear out inventory of the 20GB Premium before it brings out a new 60GB version. (Of course, if you're willing to take a chance on a refurbished Premium, you can do significantly better than $300). There's no word on whether the Xbox 360 Elite or the Arcade (no hard drive) will also get $50 snips or whether a flagship model with a built-in Blu-ray drive is really in the works.

Personally, I'd like to see Microsoft get rid of the useless Arcade and reduce the number of Xbox 360 choices down to two to avoid confusing consumers. Anybody else want to guess what Microsoft has up its sleeve next week and what Sony's next move will be?

With only a couple weeks to go before the 2008 E3 Media and Business Summit, video game publisher Electronic Arts is giving the press a sneak peek at its new video game lineup, including products resulting from its partnership with Hasbro.

Mr. Potato Head hosts EA's game Hasbro Family Night.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

In the forefront is the Hasbro Family Game Night video game for the Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 2, a result of the 2007 teaming of the board game company and the video game company. With Hasbro's Mr. Potato Head as host, EA said families can partake in classic versions of Connect Four, Boggle, Yahtzee, Sorry!, and Battleship, as well as versions of these games with new twists.

The game publisher will also debut a digital version of Sorry! Sliders, a board game that Hasbro will be selling this fall.

NCAA Football '09 is just one of the new "All-Play" games for Wii.

(Credit: Electronic Arts)

Other games displayed by EA at recent coast-to-coast press events include Wii- and PlayStation-adapted games Boogie:Superstar, Littlest Pet Shop, a new Monopoly game, and Nerf N-Strike, which comes with a Wii remote and Nerf gun duo.

All the above titles will hit shelves during the fall of 2008.

Casual gaming aside, last week EA also announced a new lineup for its "EA Sports All-Play" series, which is introducing games specifically designed for the Wii. EA said the new games will level the playing field between advanced players and new users, because players won't have to remember complicated series of button combinations.

The five All-Play titles will debut starting this month, including '09 versions of Tiger Woods PGA Tour, Madden NFL , NCAA Football, NBA Live, and FIFA Soccer.

The two-day E308 conference kicks off in Los Angeles on July 15.

The chatter for a July price chop gets louder.

(Credit: Microsoft)

With Metal Gear Solid 4 finally available for the PlayStation 3, it doesn't take a genius to predict that the PS3 is going to get a boost from having a hit console-exclusive title under its belt. Nevertheless, analysts are boldly proclaiming change is asunder. Sony's got the Big Mo--as in momentum--while Microsoft's got the big Slo--as in demand for its Xbox 360 is slowing down. Which inevitably means the price-cut rumors are getting the Big Sto--as in stoke those flames, baby.

Joystiq is reporting that EEDAR analyst Jesse Divnich, "Believes the PS3 is going to keep increasing its sales and Microsoft will announce a price cut for the Xbox 360 at E3" next month. And in another shocker, Divnich, "Foresees the PS3 gaining momentum and claims Metal Gear Solid 4 will actually have a greater impact on the console's hardware sales than Grand Theft Auto IV did." God, these guys are good.

The post goes on to note that the "Xbox 360 could also get a new hardware SKU with added features" (Blu-ray anyone?) and that Divnich claims that "if Microsoft does cut the price, Sony will respond with a drop of its own within two months." Unfortunately, Divnich doesn't predict exactly what the price cut will be, but I'm saying $50 across the board, with the XBox 360 Elite dropping to $399.99, the Premium (20GB) to $299.99 and the Arcade (no hard drive) hitting $249.99 or even less. It's about time someone matches the Wii's pricing, right?

Anyway, feel free to predict your own pricing scenarios and new models in the comments section.

Olympus highlights the E-3's splash-proof design.

(Credit: Olympus America)

Olympus shipped its first interchangeable-lens dSLR, the pro-level E-1, in the fall of 2003. Four years is a long time to wait for a new model, especially given the rapid pace of technological change in the dSLR category and a cast of photographic characters hungry for the latest and greatest to help boost their earnings potential. Consumers buying their first (and perhaps even second) dSLRs will follow where great technology leads, but pros must commit to a camera system that includes lenses and flashes. Once they've moved on, it takes more than just a snappy shutter and flashy LCD to lure them back.

That's a big burden to place on the shoulders of the new E-3.

It helps that the camera isn't a hardcore pro model; at $1,700 (body only) it's priced and suited for entry-level professionals and wannabes. But it will compete directly with the Nikon D300, which has an obvious growth path and huge accessory system behind it.

How do the E-3's specs stack up? First, here's an overview:

Olympus E-3 back

(Credit: Olympus America)

So, it uses the same 10-megapixel Live MOS sensor as the Panasonic DMC-L10. Personally, I crop a lot and tend to print at 13x19, so that resolution disappoints me a bit. The full 11 cross-type AF sensors, with slightly offset focusing points, sounds like it should provide a fast focusing system when shooting both horizontally and vertically, but only testing will tell. That goes triple for Olympus' claim that the image stabilization system can deliver up to 5 stops latitude, which the company says is more applicable to long, heavy lenses.

The rest looks pretty encouraging, however. It offers a few things the D300 doesn't: a splash-proof (and dust-proof) design; built-in, independent x/y sensor-shift stabilization; huge viewfinder; and a flip-out display, which (to me) improves the usefulness of Live View mode from "so what?" to "Whoa, yeah!" In addition to a standard 2 percent spot meter, the E-3 also offers high-key and low-key spot meter options, which will meter at something other than 18 percent gray to boost highlights or shadows. And you'll be able to set the matrix metering system to evaluate its 44 points worth of data in a spiral or loop scheme. It all sounds nice and whizzy, but just how useful these really are remains to be seen.

For all you strobers, the E-3 also includes an impressive-sounding flash system. It includes a built-in wireless flash controller that can support three flash groups of four channels each. Maximum X-sync speed is 1/250 second and there's a super FP (focal plane) mode which enables sync speed up to 1/8,000 sec.

New Olympus Four Thirds lenses

(Credit: Olympus America)

Without lens announcements trailing it like a caboose, a new dSLR camera announcement just wouldn't be the same. Four with the Zuiko Digital ED brand follow the E-3:

• f2.8-4.0 12mm-60mm SWD (Supersonic Wave Drive)
  24mm-120mm-equivalent; $999.99; available November 2007
• f2.8-3.5 50mm-200mm SWD
  100mm-400mm-equivalent; $1,199.99; available December 2007
• f2.0 14-35mm SWD
  28mm-70mm-equivalent; $2,299.99; available Q1 2008
• 2x Teleconverter EC-20
  $479.99; available December 2007

Olympus hasn't indicated whether or not it's planning to sell a kit version of the E-3. If so, it certainly won't include any of these rather pricey optics.

I don't know for certain, but I doubt there are hordes of E-1 owners who've tenaciously spurned all dSLR suitors while waiting for Olympus to release a new pro model. Then again, for those who invested in the Four Thirds lenses, the E-3 is likely a momentous release. Once we've got one in for evaluation, we'll let you know if it was worth the wait--or too little, too late.

Microsoft's Jeff Bell and Reggie Bush at E3

(Credit: Dan Ackerman/CNET Networks)

By now, the news has hit the wires (and the blogs) that Peter Moore, corporate vice president of interactive entertainment at Microsoft, is leaving Redmond to be president of the sports division at game publisher Electronic Arts (EA). An EA representative confirmed to CNET News.com that there is no press conference planned, but a release (now posted on Kotaku, which first reported the news) has been sent out.

It's by no means the only recent major executive shuffle in the game console world, as PlayStation creator Ken Kutaragi famously stepped down in April. But Moore's timing is interesting--he's departing just as the releases for some big Xbox and Games for Windows titles have been finalized in the pipeline, such as Halo 3. In essence, he's in the clear.

What's even more interesting is that even though Halo 3 was undoubtedly the centerpiece of Microsoft's rather theatrical press event at the E3 Business and Media Summit last week, Moore made a pretty big deal out of the EA Sports title Madden NFL 2008, with New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush coming onstage to demo the game (though his appearance was with Jeff Bell, corporate vice president of Microsoft global marketing, not Moore). Yes, Microsoft and EA are partners in this sense, so it was also positive hype for the Xbox, but talk about making EA Sports stand out.

One CNET writer quipped that Moore must have "told reporters they would only get the first half of his acceptance speech...and the rest would be up on Xbox Live Marketplace for 400 Microsoft Points." Moore, it should also be noted, is seminotorious for having tattoos of the Grand Theft Auto 4 and Halo 2 logos. No word on whether he's made plans for some EA Sports-worthy additions.

Game fans know that E3 is America's big, annual video game trade show, traditionally known for oversize displays and loud music and filled with anyone even vaguely affiliated with the interactive entertainment industry. Until this year, that is. Rebelling against the high costs of the LA-based show, the big game companies instead elected to put on a radically different show in 2007, losing the massive convention center booths and moving to a handful of hotels in Santa Monica, along with cutting attendance to less than 10 percent of last year's.

Attacked by a diaper-wearing chimp at EA's The Sims cocktail party

The great experiment dubbed the E3 Media & Business Summit is over, but the verdict is still out on the show's new format. Some would call it smaller and more intimate, while others said it was inconvenient and a scheduling nightmare. One clear theme was obvious--an emphasis on big games coming out for the 2007 holiday season, rather than games that may be years away from store shelves.

Personally, the "Best of Show" has largely been locked-in since last year's E3, where we saw the first glimpses of 2K's BioShock, a dystopian action/adventure set in an art deco underwater city. Nearing release at the end of August, the game continues to impress. Another favorite was Rock Band, EA's answer to the Guitar Hero franchise, compete with faux drums, guitars, and a karaoke-style mic. It may take up a lot of living room space, but house parties will never the same again.

Other high-profile games on display included Halo 3, sure to be a best seller when released in September. It looks better the longer you play it, with graphics packed with subtle details. But the game itself seems too similar to the two previous installments, as if the basic idea had run out of steam. Grand Theft Auto IV looks like more of a leap forward for that series, but there was too little of the game on display to make an accurate judgment.

Games for 2008 that made an impact on attendees include Fallout 3, a new entry in a cult favorite RPG series, and Resident Evil 5, seen only in a brief, but impressive, trailer. Those two will clearly be big at next year's E3 (if there is an E3 next year).

We asked a few fellow journalists what their favorite game of the show was. "Fallout 3 may be more than a year out, but it sure as hell doesn't look like it," said Russ Frushtick, senior games editor at UGO.com. Scott Steinberg, publisher of DigitalTrends.com, voted for Resident Evil 5, saying, "It looks fantastic and appears to deliver the cinematic intensity we've come to expect from the series." Evan Narcisse, senior associate editor at Time Out New York Kids, went more mainstream: "Rock Band actually lived up the hype. Being a front man for a crew of deadly rawk assassins scratched an itch I didn't even know I had."

Finally, if you're reliving all the E3 fun, you can retrace my week in Santa Monica through the links below.

E3 2007: 'BioShock'
E3 2007: 'Warhawk'
E3 2007: 'All-Pro Football 2K8'
E3 2007: 'Guitar Hero III'
E3 2007: 'Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles'
E3 2007: 'Rock Band' (we rocked so hard, we blew the lights)
E3 2007: 'John Woo Presents Stranglehold'
E3 2007: 'BlackSite: Area 51'
E3 2007: 'Uncharted: Drake's Fortune'
E3 2007: 'Medal of Honor: Airborne'
E3 2007: Sony's big ol' press conference
E3 2007: Microsoft kicks off the E3 press conference season
E3 2007: Welcome to the new high-security E3

On Monday, Sony announced a $100 price cut for the 60GB PlayStation 3, taking the console's retail price down to $499. Since many gamers saw the PlayStation 3 as too expensive at its previous retail price of $599, Sony's decision was widely praised. Unfortunately, the $499 60GB PS3 isn't going to last, because Sony has just confirmed that the company is no longer producing 60GB PS3s.

On the same day the price cut was announced, Sony announced a new 80GB PS3, a console that will be bundled with Motorstorm and will retail for $599, the same as the first. The price cut for the 60GB PS3 was never intended to be a permanent cut for the product; it was only intended to clear out stock for the new version to be sold at the old price. GameSpot has reported that Kaz Hirai, Sony Computer Entertainment's CEO and President, has confirmed in a video interview that the 60GB PS3s are no longer in production, and that all new PS3s will be 80GB models to be sold at $599.

When E3 kicked off, everyone was pretty excited about Sony and the new $499 PS3. Sony had a $499 PS3 before, but it was a slightly scaled-down, 20GB version that was discontinued back in April. Now it seems like Sony's doing the exact same thing with the 60GB PS3 (originally the high-end model) that they did with the 20GB: kick it out the door and make sure the only available PS3 will sell for $599 a pop. Considering the biggest complaint leveled against the PlayStation 3 has been its price, this was simply a terrible decision.

Sony Computer Entertainment of America's director of corporate communications David Karraker told GameSpot, "This is absolutely not a bait and switch," he said. "We are offering a full-featured PS3 for $100 lower than the original price and will do so for months to come, allowing consumers the opportunity to acquire this model at this adjusted price."

For many gamers, even $499 is too much for a console. The Elite version of the Xbox 360 retails for $479, and it includes a 120GB hard drive (though it lacks the PS3's Wi-Fi support, Blu-ray drive, or media reader). The Premium version of the Xbox 360 only costs $399, and the Nintendo Wii only $250. The supposed $499 price was seen as a concession by Sony that, yes, the PS3 cost too much. Suddenly saying that they're just clearing out stock and that the only PlayStation 3 they're currently producing will still retail for $599 is utter madness.

The decision alone is made even worse by the timing. Today is the last day of E3 2007, and the entire expo is being capped off by confirmation that the PS3 price cut won't last. Nearly every media outlet is going to mention the price uncut in their expo wrap-up. Everyone is walking away from Santa Monica with the $599 PS3 back in their heads.

It's also Friday the 13th, but that might just be coincidence.

id didn't show us anything new about Quake Wars, but it still looks great.

(Credit: Activision)

We didn't learn anything that isn't already public about id Software's forthcoming Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, and it wasn't really showing off its next-gen id Tech 5 graphics engine to journalists. We made good use of our meeting, though, by getting the shooter pioneers to open up about Microsoft's Games for Windows Live platform.

Quake Wars won't incorporate a Games for Windows Live element, so all of the voice chat and player matching will go through id's own in-game software. It cited the fact that Vista came out three years or so into the game's development as one reason, it wouldn't make sense to shoehorn Live support in at such a late point. We were told, though, that it can see for future titles that Windows Live support could be a good thing, because by adding the various Live features as supplied by Microsoft, it means the developer doesn't have to spend the time developing those things itself. In other words, like DirectX 10, it will probably be a while before we see broader adoption of Games for Windows Live.

Our meeting with Sierra yesterday highlighted perfectly why you'll need to be very careful in cutting through the hype surrounding the next-gen PC gaming graphics. First we sat down for a showing of World in Conflict, a real-time strategy game that asks, "What if the Cold War ran hot?"

Soft particles make the smoke in World Conflict look more natural.

(Credit: Gamespot.com)

As part of the demo for World in Conflict, a producer from Sierra showed us a video hosted by the game's lead designer, highlighting the game's graphical features, specifically regarding the benefits Sierra is getting from DirectX 10. "Soft particles" was one feature the designer cited, which essentially means modeling all the little particles in a cloud of smoke, for example, so that they look and move more naturally in a game. The alternative creates a banding effect at the edges of a smoke cloud, which hurts the overall feeling of immersion.

Cool. Soft particles. Finally, we thought, DX 10 comes to life.

Our next meeting with Sierra was for TimeShift, a very detailed-looking shooter that involves time travel and does not incorporate any features of DirectX 10 in its graphics engine. And what did company reps show us when highlighting its current-generation visuals? That's right, soft particles!

We're not suggesting that anyone at Sierra is trying to pull a fast one. The features he pointed to probably are capable because of DirectX 10, at least in World in Conflict. As one of the developers of Crysis told us when we interviewed him later in the day in front of his own game: right now, it's not so much that DirectX 10 gives you the ability to incorporate any one feature that you can't do in DirectX 9. Rather, you can expect that games claiming DirectX 10 will have more of the current-gen stuff, but in varying degrees. In other words, if visuals are important to you for gaming, we'd suggest you approach any bullet lists of supposed next-gen features warily. We expect DirectX 10 will have a more significant feature-based visual impact eventually, but for now, you're probably better off looking at screenshots to determine not what but how many graphics bells and whistles a game has to offer.