The new Xbox 360 dashboard
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)
The E3 conference opened Monday in Los Angeles with a press conference from Microsoft. Here are some highlights.
Microsoft showed off first-ever game play footage from the post-apocalyptic title Fallout 3 and announced that there will be downloadable content exclusive to Xbox Live. We saw real-time action from Resident Evil 5, shipping on March 13. We got a peek at the new co-op feature in the game, where players will be able to team up and make their way through together. Developer Square Enix also made announcements that included the release of four titles for Xbox 360 including Final Fantasy XIII.
Complete E3 coverage
but that doesn't mean Microsoft
and others aren't making noise.
As for console exclusives, we saw in-game action from Fable 2, shipping in October. Players will be able to seamlessly invite other friends who are also playing the game. Finally, we were blown away by the impressive game demo of Gears of War 2 shipping November 7. The game actually looks better than the original and will feature a five-player online co-op mode.
Microsoft will be releasing a new dashboard interface this fall that incorporates an avatar system--the Xbox answer to Nintendo Mii characters. The new feature allows you to join up with other friends to form a "party," a group of up to eight people where you can share multimedia items or start a game. A new mode called Primetime will actually incorporate real-life TV shows like 1 vs. 100 and allow Xbox Live members to play and watch these game shows and possibly even win real prizes.
Microsoft also announced ... Read more
Microsoft on Sunday cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model game console with a 20GB hard drive from $349 to $299.
Microsoft on Sunday unveiled an Xbox 360 with a 60GB hard drive. It's expected to go on sale in August.
(Credit: Microsoft)The company also introduced a new Xbox 360 model with a 60GB hard drive. It will go on sale in stores in the U.S. and Canada for $349 in early August.
Microsoft's announcements, which were widely expected, come on the eve of the start of this week's E3 video game industry trade show in Los Angeles.
Rumors of the Xbox price cut swirled on popular gaming blogs Joystiq and Kotaku last week. The two sites received snapshots of Kmart and RadioShack fliers advertising the $299 price.
Microsoft announced in May that Xbox 360 had become the first next-generation video game console to hit 10 million units sold in the United States. All told, Microsoft said it has sold 19 million Xboxes worldwide.
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?
Update: Sony has suspended the 2.40 upgrade, following reports that it has fouled up some PS3 systems (see Joystiq for more). While the two PS3s we have here at CNET were able to install the update with no adverse effects, it appears that some users were considerable less fortunate.
The 2.40 firmware update for the PlayStation 3 is now available. The free update, which Sony has been talking up for the past several days, adds a smattering of new features, including in-game access to the XMB (Cross Media Bar) home screen, custom soundtracks, a new trophy system, and a shortcut to Google searches.
The new features carry a host of caveats: the in-game XMB, customized soundtracks, and trophies aren't supported on all games; in-game XMB features are fairly limited; and the trophy system (with the a few exceptions) won't be retroactive to already-accomplished goals.
Trophies, for instance, are better viewed as a feature that will begin becoming more useful as future games begin supporting the feature. That said, both the trophy system and in-game XMB help the PS3 better compete with the achievements and Xbox Live or Xbox Dashboard features offered by the Xbox 360.
PS3 users will also notice a handful of other simple but useful touches with this update, including an on-screen clock, a quick shutdown icon, and a shortcut to Google searches. And speaking of the PS3's browser: while it's not new for 2.40, it's worth noting that the Web browser splash screen now includes shortcuts to YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook.
So what do you think? Does the 2.40 update add some worthwhile features to the PS3, or does the Xbox 360 or Nintendo Wii still have an edge? And what other features would you like to see come in future PS3 software upgrades?
PlayStation.com: Firmware 2.40 walk-through, part 1 (embedded above)
PlayStation.com: Firmware 2.40 walk-through, part 2
PlayStation.com: Firmware 2.40 FAQ
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.
The current premium XBox 360 is black. Is blue next?
(Credit: Microsoft)Following HD DVD's demise, there's been a lot speculation that Microsoft would add a Blu-ray option to the XBox 360. The latest rumor has a subsidiary of Asus, Pegatron Technology, making a premium Blu-ray-equipped version of the XBox 360 that will arrive in time for the holidays. This one follows on the heels of a report that Lite-On was going to be the one making the Blu-ray drives for Microsoft's game console.
If you speak Chinese, you can translate the Asus rumor from Economic Daily News, a publication that Gizmodo calls a "Taiwanese rag." While we may not have tremendous faith in the specifics of the rumor, Taiwanese companies aren't known to keep secrets all that well (that's a gross generalization based on a few comments I've heard from industry insiders, but I believe it). And it does seem logical that Microsoft will add a Blu-ray option to help eliminate any perceived advantage that Sony might have with the PS3.
All that said, don't expect Microsoft to put out any games on Blu-ray any time soon. With the current XBox 360 installed base having only a DVD drive to play with, Microsoft would be looking at movie playback, not gaming.
Of course, the rumors could be wrong and Microsoft could simply put out an external Blu-ray drive similar to its discontinued HD DVD drive offering. Or perhaps there will be a premium XBox 360 with Blu-ray, as well as a separate Blu-ray external drive for current owners. Sounds inevitable, right? Comments?
Source: Gizmodo via Kotaku via Economic Daily News.
(Credit:
Crave Asia)
Microsoft is ratcheting up the battle against rivals Sony and Nintendo in the hotly contested Asian market, cutting the price of its Xbox 360 between 5 percent and nearly 20 percent in four areas throughout the region.
The price of the 20GB model was cut 17 percent in Taiwan, 10.7 percent in Hong Kong, and 5 percent in South Korea. The steepest reduction was made in Singapore, where that version of the gaming console dropped 19.5 percent and the company cut the price of two other models: The 120GB Elite was reduced 12.5 percent and the Arcade, which has no hard drive, was cut by 13 percent.
At the same time, Sony went in the opposite direction in Singapore and raised prices for its 40GB PlayStation 3 to $394. Nintendo, for its part, said late last week that it had no plans to cut prices on either the Wii console or its DS handheld in any regions.
"This price drop is part of Microsoft's ongoing strategy to bring Xbox's high-definition gaming and entertainment experience to an even wider user base," Microsoft said in a statement. The move follows price reductions up to 28 percent in some European markets last month.
Microsoft is reportedly working on its own version of Nintendo's Wiimote and plans to introduce it by the end of the year. The report comes from MTV News, which attributes the information to a developer "who has been brief on the project" but sought anonymity to preserve business relationships.
The source told MTV News that the project, supposedly in development since last August, is being designed by Rare, the U.K.-based game studio acquired by the software giant in 2002. Microsoft would not comment on the report.
Although its functions are similar to those of the Wiimote, according to the report, the device does not need a companion controller to be used with it. The device has "face buttons, an analog stick, and microphone," MTV News said. A purported sketch of a working prototype of the device can be seen here.
CNET's Gamespot posted a news blurb today on a report that, "Microsoft has entered into talks with Sony to bring Blu-ray to the Xbox 360." The report comes from a Financial Times story that quotes an unnamed "senior executive," who says that Sony and Microsoft "are not simply discussing a successor to the Xbox 360's now discontinued, dirt-cheap external HD DVD drive," but that "there is also the possibility of an internal Blu-ray drive being incorporated into a new, more expensive 'premium' 360 model."
Cocept art for MGS4, which won't fit on a DVD.
(Credit: www.azeemalim.co.uk)At the Consumer Electronics Show in January Xbox group marketing manager Albert Penello alluded to the possibility of a Blu-ray option for the 360. However, Penello wasn't talking today and Microsoft denied that it had made any official move to Blu-ray.
While you could argue that having a built-in Blu-ray drive is now a competitive advantage for the PS3, Sony stands to make millions in licensing fees for the technology if Microsoft adopts it. That possibility presumably trumps the potential edge Blu-ray might give the PS3. As for Microsoft, at a certain point it has to consider going Blu--partially because premium game titles are beginning to push the limits of a DVD's 8.5GB storage capacity. The PS3-exclusive Metal Gear Solid 4, due out in June, apparently fills an entire Blu-ray disc, though it's unclear whether it's a single-layer 25GB disc or 50GB dual-layer disc.
What do you think? Will disc capacity force Microsoft to make the move to Blu-ray--or is it just so that it can say it's game console also plays Blu-ray movies? Let us know by posting in the comments.
Microsoft will end production of the external HD DVD drive for its Xbox 360 video game console, according to a report by the Associated Press.
The company said it would, however, continue to offer warranty support for the peripheral.
(Credit:
Microsoft)
"HD DVD is one of the several ways we offer a high definition experience to consumers and we will continue to give consumers the choice to enjoy digital distribution of high definition movies and TV shows directly to their living room, along with playback of the DVD movies they already own," Blair Westlake, a corporate vice president of Microsoft's media and entertainment group, said in a statement.
The drive, which currently costs about $130, was intended as Microsoft's answer to Sony's PlayStation 3 console, which contained an integrated Blu-ray Disc drive.
Microsoft is just the latest top-tier tech company to abandon the failed high-definition disc format. Along with Toshiba, Intel, and NEC, Microsoft was one of the most prominent supporters of the standard. Toshiba said last week it would no longer make HD DVD players. Wal-Mart Stores, Best Buy, and all the major movie studios have all now said they will exclusively support Blu-ray.
The biggest proponent of Blu-ray, Sony, now stands poised to become the standard bearer of HD video mostly because of its strategy in including Blu-ray playback capability into the PS3. It's unclear if Microsoft now plans to make an attachable Blu-ray player for the Xbox 360.
