XBOX LIVE's most played!

1 Gears of War
2 Crackdown Demo
3 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas
4 Call Of Duty 3
5 Lost Planet
6 Madden NFL 07
7 Battlestations: Midway Demo
8 Oblivion
9 Heavy Weapon
10 Saints Row

Some interesting UT3 info from Mark Rein!

Epic games hasn't ruled out exclusive patch content for the console versions of Unreal Tournament 3, producer Jeff Morris has revealed in an interview with CVG.

Morris told CVG that while UT3 will have the same content and likely be "the same sort of size" on PC and consoles, exclusive content could come in patches.

"While we want all of the versions to be the same that's not to say we won't do exclusive patches for each platform and that would enable us to do some pretty spectacular exclusive content," he said.

"We don't know the exact number of maps we'll ship with but we want it to be between 30 and 40 - that's substantially more than other games in the genre."

This article is from CVG

Major Konami Announcements on Monday!

Check back to this space on Monday for several major announcements on new games from Konami! From new franchises to returning favorites, you won't want to miss the earth-shaking news. You heard it here first!

From Konami.com

If they announce MGS4 for the 360, GAME OVER!

Cool solutions!

Ok, now I posted about a month ago about my 360 being ruined by my Intercooler. Well Nyko had me send in my 360 and about 5 days later they sent me a brand new Premium system with a new intercooler. Now I applaud Nyko for them taking care of me but I found a better cooling device. I traded in my intercooler they sent me and I got the pelican fan stand which is OK but I found This little item by Intec.

Now it is still new on the market and not easy to find but what makes this item the best out there is 1 it plugs into the wall not your 360 for it's power and 2 it holds your 360 really snug with cool green LED lights around it when it is on. Also this thing has 2 big *** fans that are relatively quiet compared the the noisy NYKO gimmick and the 1 small fan in the pelican deal.

So forget what you read and listen to me, I have owned 3 of these things and I know which one works the best and the Intecooler DID ruin my system and Nyko knows it did that is why they gave me another system after looking at mine so I don't want to here that it wasn't seated properly because once you put it on and then attach the power cable you have pretty much pressed that thing in as far as it will go and that is why Nyko has commented on this problem because there is one, so stop acting like there isn't one. For the people that say "mine has worked great for 3 Mon's, 6 Mon's and since it came out. Well so did mine, I didn't know there was a problem until I went to remove mine and found out that the plastic power inlet melted to my 360 power socket.

So what I am saying is be careful, and there is a known problem all I am doing is recommending a product that can only do good because of it's own power source along with my personnel experience.

20 million on advertising?

On a Thursday night this January 1, 400 breathless fans lined up around the block on San Francisco's Brannan Street. Photographers stalked, bloggers and journalists prowled, and smoke machines hummed. The event's stars were featured on 17-foot screens hung above the throngs. This was no movie premiere, however. It was the launch of Capcom's newest game, Lost Planet, for Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people )'s Xbox 360. And it's why the venerable Japanese gamemaker hired Mark Beaumont--to invigorate its business in North America and Europe, where Capcom had been living on the fading cachet of its past triumphs (Mega Man, Street Fighter) and marketing its games with Atari-era methods.

Beaumont's marketing prowess has already pushed Lost Planet to near-blockbuster status: Capcom shipped 1 million copies before the game went on sale Jan. 12. A game that sells 3 million units globally is generally considered a smash hit. Capcom has spent $20 million developing the game and will spend another $20 million promoting it. In the past that ratio tilted heavily toward development. Lost Planet anchors Capcom's quest to capture share in North America and Europe, which account for 80% of the world's $16.3 billion game market.

Article from Forbes.com

Another article on Possible PS3 price cuts!

TOKYO (AP) - Although Sony is blaming its faltering profits partly on PlayStation 3 price cuts in Japan, a senior executive said Wednesday that further slashing prices may be in store for the just-launched video game machine.

Pricing is among the factors Sony Corp. is studying as it expects to break even in its money-losing gaming business next fiscal year, said Senior Vice President Takao Yuhara, stressing that no additional price cut has been decided.

``We may look at the price as part of our strategy to expand the market when the timing is right,'' Yuhara told reporters at Sony's Tokyo headquarters.

The PS3 launched in the United States and Japan in November, plagued with production problems that resulted in shortages and will keep the machines out of Europe entirely until March. The next-generation game player also faces immense competition with Nintendo Co.'s Wii and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360.

Sony's announcement Tuesday that October-December profit slipped 5 percent to 160 billion yen ($1.3 billion), largely because of PS3 startup costs, sent Sony shares down 1.4 percent in Tokyo on Wednesday. Shares also dropped 32 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $45.98 in midday trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Yuhara said red ink in the gaming division for the fiscal year through March could turn out to be worse than the 200 billion yen ($1.6 billion) operating loss that Sony is forecasting for now.

Startup expenses such as advertising and shipping were higher than the company had anticipated. Production delays forced Sony to ship machines by air rather than ships to meet launch targets in the United States.

But Sony hopes to break even in gaming during the following fiscal year, which ends March 2008, Yuhara said. ``Such factors, including price cuts to some extent, are factored in'' the company's break-even plans, he said.

Game machines generally come down in price over time. But faced with competition, Sony made an unusual move in lowering the PS3 price in Japan by about 20 percent even before sales started.

Even before the cut, analysts say, Sony was already taking a loss on each machine sold; manufacturers typically sell machines for less than their true costs, hoping to recoup the investment by selling games.

Analysts and game fans are watching to see when PS3 prices may drop again, which would depend on its proliferation in the market and cuts in production costs. Sometimes a price cut is timed with the introduction of blockbuster game software, expected to boost machine sales.

Sony has a lot riding on PS3's success, but consumers seem to be snatching up its rival Wii, which costs about half as much as the cheaper, $500 version of the PS3 and comes with a wand that players swing around like a bat, fishing pole or conductor baton, depending on the game.

Nintendo, which makes Pokemon and Super Mario games, saw profits for the first nine months of the fiscal year soar 43 percent and has shipped 3.19 million Wii machines globally.

Sony shipped 1.84 million PS3 machines worldwide through Dec. 31, the company said. The machine has already gone on sale in the United States, Japan and some other countries, but its sale has been delayed to March 23 in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Australia.

The company stuck to its earlier target of shipping 6 million PS3 consoles by March 31. Earlier, it said it shipped 2 million PS3 machines worldwide by mid-January, falling about two weeks behind its initial shipment targets in Japan.

Yuhara said Sony's earlier price cut in Japan was an effort to respond to the expectations of hard-core game fans and helped get the machine off to a smooth rollout.

``In the PS3 business, production was very tight, but we knew the market wouldn't wait,'' he said.

But price cuts can be risky for sophisticated machinery like PS3, which comes loaded with next-generation DVD called Blu-ray disk and is powered by a super-chip called ``cell.''

The challenge Sony faces is to sell the machine in numbers to bring down costs and make money in software sales to make the operation more profitable.

This article is from Silicon valley.com!

Man if this is true watch out!

A person by the name of Goofball1 posted a follow up in a gamepro.com article about the demo to GRAW 2.

"Sony should have put more memory in the PS3 and used a more updated GPU. If this were the case. We would not be discusing which system was more graphically capable. The PS3 would kick ***. But Sony did not do this. They rushed the GPU part of the design. The hardware scaler is inferior. Areas that make a direct impact to the visual aspect of games, Sony looked elsewhere. You know what Ivan. I am waiting for MS to drop the final bomb. I have said this before and i will say it again. The R500 GPU is one piece of work. It's actually the same as the R600 that is not even out yet.
Microsoft chose to disable Xenos other 16 pipelines to improve yields and keep costs down. Not many are even aware that the 360's GPU has the exact same number of pipelines as ATI's unreleased R600, but to keep costs down and to make the GPU easier to manufacture, Microsoft chose to disable one of the shader arrays containing 16 pipelines.
Those are disable. Not missing! All is needed is a bios flash or firmware update to enable those pipelines once MS reduces the Xeno cost(which will happen in mid 2007 with the die shrink)Ms said they have a big surprise left for the Xbox360. ATI did this with almost all of it's GPU's. IE: 9500PRO AND XL800XL.... "

If this turns out to be true, the Sony camp would freak out but then again no they wouldn't, they would put a huge spin on it by saying graphics don't mean anything then turn to the Wii fanboys and say, "The Wii sucks because the graphics are horrible".

SCEA's jack Tretton was interviewed in the March issue of EGM!

The cover of EGM's March issue boasts a PlayStation 3 stained with the red smear of a tomato that's been lobbed at the console and the word "BattleStation!" -- the article looks at what went wrong when the market leader entered this console cycle, and more importantly, SCEA's Jack Tretton explains Sony's side of the story.
In November, due to shortages, Sony sold roughly half as many PlayStation 3's as they'd expected to. But, Sony's PlayStation 3 steadily continued a seemingly uphill climb in the next-gen Gen Now console cycle -- selling 687k units before the end of the calendar year according to NPD figures. Sony has been the market leader for over 10 years. The PlayStation 3's forebears both sold over 100M systems worldwide and the PlayStation 2 was the top-selling gaming machine in December. Yet, the PS3 has faced tremendous amounts of scrutiny, both from mainstream and enthusiast press alike.
Sony's new system has been called a Trojan horse, designed as another way for proprietary technology, like the UMD format or betamax, to infiltrate living rooms and eclipse DVD as the standard disc format.

EGM: Do you believe the PS3 can push the Blu-ray format?

Jack Tretton: I believe we can complement the Blu-ray format. I don't think we can single-handedly drive the Blu-ray format. It's up to the consumer electronics companies; one of the [misconceptions] is that it's Sony's efforts. I don't know that we feel we can or should single-handedly carry Blu-ray on our back. I see it as an asset, though. Blu-ray is a great value for consumers as a movie format, but most importantly [it's of value] to the gamers. Blu-ray does wonderful things for the development community and what they can bring to consumers on Blu-ray ... that's something that no other machine offers.
The perceived loss of exclusives (think Assassin's Creed and more recently, Virtua Fighter 5) precludes discussions on the rising costs of development. Can third parties develop exclusively for platforms before the install bases reach a critical mass?

EGM: How do you nurture innovation when the financial risks are greater than ever?

JT: You better be [Resistance developer] Insomniac, and be a very proven entity if you want us to invest upwards of $30 million and give you three years to develop a game for our platform. I don't think that's a realistic opportunity for somebody right out of college, but conversely, we definitely have development opportunities on PS2, PlayStation Portable and online [downloadable] games, where we are absolutely interested in smaller houses or people that are in the early stages of their development careers.
If somebody asked me, "I wanna get into the games industry. What field is the most wide-open?" I'd tell you it's development. That is the biggest investment we've made in employees on a worldwide basis ... because at the end of the day, you need that compelling software to make your hardware relevant.
Is this console cycle a two-horse race? Nintendo's belief that mainstream involves a brand new way of playing games, and Sony and Microsoft reinforcing the type of gaming experiences gamers have enjoyed since the PlayStation-era, who is Sony's competition this cycle?

EGM: How do you view the Xbox 360 as a competitor?

JT: Well, I wish we had no competition, on one hand. On the other hand I think the competition is good because, as we certainly saw in Japan, we had the whole market to ourselves and that put a lot of pressure on the PlayStation brand. There's not only competition within the games industry, there's a lot of competition in entertainment in general that's going to take [consumers] away, so we want to keep people in gaming. If our competitors get people in the aisle, looking at gaming, reading gaming magazines, we feel that's in our best interest -- we've pulled them away from other forms of entertainment.

EGM: But how do you view the 360 specifically as a competitor?

JT: I think we've got a better machine, I think we've got a better business model, and I think we're going to win in the long term. I'm extremely pleased that we're selling more PS2 units than they are [360 units]. That's something that quite frankly surprised me. But while early indicators are not completely irrelevant, you can't completely ignore them, and I'd be a little concerned if I were them. On the other hand, what concerns me is if the Xbox 360 is being rejected, are the consumers on board with [next-generation] technology and is there enough [demand] there.

EGM: Sony CEO Howard Stringer once ... admitted that the price of the PlayStation 3 is very high, but what we're really paying for is potential. Why can't we pay $600 for something that's worth the price right off the bat?

JT: What have you historically paid or would look to pay? Let's say $299 because that's what you paid for the PS2 when it came out or because that's what the low-end 360 costs. OK, if we're asking you to pay $600 for the high-end PS3, I would point out a couple of things. Historically our platforms have staying power. Not three years, not five years, but 10 years. So are you making an investment for the next 45 days, the next year, the next five years, 10 years? Because that would have a little bit of determination as far as the value.
I understand your point about, OK, the potential is there, but what's there day one? I would say that the PS3 has the best gaming experience of any platform that's ever shipped day one. [You're getting] the combination of great gaming, free online play, Blu-ray movie playback, being able to go online and surf the Internet, the ability to download your pictures, download your videos, rip your music to it ... and that's all stuff that I as a consumer experienced firsthand. If you want the ultimate gaming experience and you value all of those other experiences, all of a sudden 599 bucks doesn't sound like a whole lot of money.
Read the complete Jack Tretton interview and EGM's cover story "BattleStation!" in the March issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly -- on newsstands Feb. 13.

Article from http://www.1up.com

EGM reviews crackdown!

In the March issue of EGM they review Crackdown and it looks like it is going to be a pretty good game.

• Crackdown: 9, 8.5, 7.5

Mark Rein says 360 version of UT3 is getting user created mods!

"Speaking to Game Informer, Epic’s Mark Rein believes that user created content will be featured in the 360 version of Unreal Tournament III. In fact, Rein admits that user created content is the reason the 360 version of UTIII took so long to confirm. According to Rein, Epic was unsure that Microsoft would allow such content to pass through the dreaded certification process (Whatever happened to VelocityGirl?). Whatever the issue was, Rein is now confident that mods should be coming our way."

From Wii60.com

Streets of Rage Lego style!

Streets of Rage with a Lego spin.

New achievement policies!

Gamer score has posted new achievement policies on their blog.

1. All regular disc-based games MUST have 1,000 Gamerscore in the base game. This means that any consumer who buys a retail game will have the opportunity to unlock the full 1,000 Gamerscore without having to pay for any add-on content. Note that a publisher may decide to deliver a portion of this Gamerscore via add-on content, but the add-on content will always be free to the consumer.

2. Game publishers will have the option to deliver another 250 incremental Gamerscore on top of the 1,000 via add-on content from Marketplace. This add-on content could be either free or paid. So if you complete a game and earn the full 1,000 GS, you could by getting new add-on content earn up to a total of 1,250 points from a game.

3. Xbox Live Arcade games will operate in similar fashion, but given the size of these titles they will allow you to earn up to 200 Gamerscore from every game and up to another 50 points from add-on content.

The boys at Gamepro.com are smoking some sweet sh**!

Gamepro.com did a comparison between the Nintendo Wii, XBOX 360 and the PS3 and they have determined that the PS3 is the clear winner with the Wii in second and the 360 a distant 3rd. OK now what is a complete joke is the number one reason why the PS3 will have a better year is and I quote,

"when you actually look at how many probable stellar exclusive games it has lined up for the year to come, we have to put the PS3 in the number one slot. So many of these games are surefire blockbusters such as MGS4, Killzone 2, SOCOM 4, Gran Tourismo 5, Final Fantasy XIII, Ratchet & Clank...and the list goes on."

OK where do I start, MGS 4 is looking more like an 2008 release not to mention that the rumors are still flying that there could be a 360 release as well, Killzone 2 has no release date and not to mention the first one sucked so why is there so much anticipation for this game?
Socom 4 will probably be another pumped out rehash like the last 3, GT5 has no release date and oh boy another Ratchet and Clank game with another Final Fantasy game.
Hey Gamepro here something you might want to think about, Halo 3, Forza 2, Alan Wake, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Blue dragon, Crackdown, GRAW 2 and Shadowrun.
Now we cant forget the big hitters like XBOX LIVE and all of the content within.

I don't know if Gamepro was paid to say this shi* or if they really mean it because the PS3 in 07 does not look good at all, now don't get me wrong I love Gamepro or I used to if they keep writing crap like that.

Good Charllote named XBOX LIVE artist of the month!

YAAAAAAAAAWWN, why did I post this? Because I am sure there is at least one person in this country that might care.

512MB memory card? (UPDATE)

You may have seen yesterday that Gamestop.com had listed a 512MB memory card for pre order with a street date of 3/1/07.
Well as of this morning Gamestop.com has removed the memory card from their website, they might wanna wait for confirmation from Microsoft next time.

PS3 price cuts being considered!

This week, Sony announced that profits had fallen some 5.3 percent over last year in the company as a whole, with the games division suffering third-quarter losses of 54.2 billion yen (approx $455 million). Some had predicted that the company would suffer even greater losses. In a survey conducted by Bloomberg of five industry analysts, the median estimate was that the company would report a 50 percent loss.

Historically, the time period after a console's launch sees the parent company reporting a loss, a gamble that is intended to pay off when profits are recouped from software sales. Sony's senior vice president, Takao Yuhara, told the Associated Press that his company's loss could in fact be more than the 200 billion yen (approx $1.6 billion) that Sony has currently forecast for the financial year ending March.

Many of the costs associated with the PlayStation 3's launch were higher than anticipated, including advertising promotions and production delays that forced the company to use air rather than sea shipping.

Yuhara revealed that Sony's strategy was to have the games division breaking even by the end of the next fiscal year, March 2008. He told AP, ''Such factors, including price cuts to some extent, are factored in'' to the company's break-even plans. No date was given for when Sony would be considering making the cut or how much it would be slashing from the current price of $599 for the 60GB model (which will be 599 euros in Europe, £425 in the UK).

The company has already made the unusual move of cutting the PS3's price in Japan, where the console was launched on November 11, taking the 20GB version to 49,980 yen ($429), 10,000 yen ($85) less than previously slated. However, this move appeared to backfire, as it was slammed by some analysts, and the company's shares took a tumble after the announcement.

This story is from
Gamespot.com

360 gets UT3 before PS3! (UPDATE)

Boy does news spread like wild fire, apparently Mark Rein of Epic games got wind of this story and debunked it immediately.

Stay tuned for more on this story because I have a feeling there is a tug o war contest going on behind the scenes between who will get it first and Epic games is in the middle of it all so lets see if this game is released on the same day for all 3 or if there will be different dates staggered over a 3 - 6 month time frame.

360 gets UT3 before PS3!

Apparently the 360 version has been in development the same amount of time as the PS3 version. Now that is interesting because at E3 2005 Sony was talking this game up and showing tech demo's like it was an exclusive.

This morning UT3 publisher Midway in a press release listed details of the game and the release dates for the 360, PS3 and PC versions of the game, so I posted the release date's from Midway's press release.

Platforms: PC
Xbox 360
PlayStation®3
Ship Date: PC/Xbox 360 - Second Half 2007
PlayStation®3 - 2008
Genre: First Person Shooter
Publisher: Midway
Developer: Epic Games, Inc.
ESRB: Rating Pending

512MB memory card?

Gamestop.com has posted a 512MB memory card on their site for pre order. This does make sense because the current memory card is 64MB and Microsoft told XBLA developers that the games had to be no larger than 50MB so the games could fit on a card for people who dont have a hard drive. Well now that microsoft has raised the limit on all XBLA titles to be no larger than 250MB it makes sence that this new memory card all of a suddon shows up, although it is a little strange that Microsoft never officially announced the new larger card but maybe they didn't think it was realy that big of a deal.

GRAW 2 demo now up!

The demo of Ghost Recon Advanced War fighter 2 is now up on the XBL marketplace for download, the download comes in at 650 MB so you might want to start downloading it now and while you are waiting for it to finish you can play some Pac Man, Doom or whatever else you like to play.

EB employee murdered!

A San Antonio EB Games Clerk ws found dead in the store Monday afternoon, police there said.

Managers found Amber Belken, 24, at the store about 2 p.m. after going by the store to see why she wasn't answering the phone. Police said a witness saw Belken enter the store alone around 9 a.m. and that they believe she was confronted by her killer as she prepared for the store's 10 a.m. opening.

Police believe robbery to be the motive in the killing. Anyone who lives in the area and was near the store between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. should call police, 210-207-7635 if they have any information. Brian Crecente

10 new XBLA titles announced!

This is a detailed list of 10 XBOX LIVE Arcade games coming soon.




“3D Ultra Minigolf Adventures,” from developer Wanako Games and publisher Sierra Online, allows gamers to putt their way through 36 fun-filled holes of manic minigolf action on wild courses that range from the Old West to outer space and feature a bevy of crazy hazards and obstacles.

“Alien Hominid HD” from The Behemoth features side-scrolling, hysterical cartoon action with a quirky twist and exclusive Xbox Live Arcade features.

“Band of Bugs” from NinjaBee is a fast-paced tactical strategy game that offers gameplay deep enough to satisfy tactical genre fans and friendly enough to appeal to casual gamers. Creative gamers can even design their own levels with the built-in level editor, then play them solo or over Xbox Live with friends.*

“Castlevania: Symphony of the Night” from Konami is a faithful version of this legendary classic updated for Xbox Live Arcade and featuring the game’s full soundtrack and memorable side-scrolling vampire-hunting action.

“Catan,” from developer Big Huge Games Inc. and publisher Microsoft® Game Studios, is a faithful remake of the immensely popular strategy board game.

“Eets: Chowdown” from Klei Entertainment Inc. is a completely revamped version of the popular PC title of the same name. It offers new items, 120 new levels and the exclusive debut of Marsho Madness, a high-adrenaline action game in which players must keep the impending evil marshmallows at bay.

“LUXOR 2,” from developer MumboJumbo LLC, sets a new standard for action puzzlers as players match and shoot their way through the land of ancient Egypt.

“Paperboy,” from developer Digital Eclipse and publisher Midway, is a classic coin-op hit, specially enhanced for Xbox Live Arcade.

“Root Beer Tapper,” also from developer Digital Eclipse and publisher Midway, features fast-paced reflex action as players scramble to keep thirsty patrons happy without dropping root beer mugs in the scramble to earn the biggest tips.

“Worms” from developer Team 17 Software Ltd. features armies of adorable weapon-toting worms locked in tactical combat.

This list is a compilation from Team xbox.com!

XBLA joystick review!

Team XBOX.com has posted a review of the new XBLA stick that was released by MAD CATZ. Keep in mind that all 3rd party manufactures are not allowed by Microsoft to produce a wireless controller using Microsoft's proprietary wireless technology. Overall they liked it and I personally had a chance to play Galaga with it and I enjoyed it but I'm not sure if it is worth the $60 price tag.

Generate your own achievements!

I stumbled across this achievement generator while browsing XBOX 360 fanboy.com.
So if you have nothing better to do just sit there and see how creative you can get kind of like I did LOL.

Holy NES collection Batman!

This dude on Ebay has every licensed NES game ever made, that is 660 total and the bid is over $15,000. If you wanna see the bid for your self and read all the details of what he is selling, check it out here!
When the bid ends I will post what the entire collection went for so stay tuned.

Sony including Blue Ray into the PS3 is killing them and THEY know it!

Jan. 29 (Bloomberg) -- Sony Corp., the world's largest maker of video-game players, may report third-quarter profit fell 50 percent after its flagship PlayStation 3 lost market share to Nintendo Co.'s Wii.

Losses from games probably drove net income down to 84.1 billion yen ($691 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, from a record 168.9 billion yen a year earlier, according to the median estimate of five analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Sales at Tokyo-based Sony, which reports earnings tomorrow, probably rose 9.6 percent to 3 trillion yen.

The results may highlight Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer's failure to fend off Nintendo, whose $250 Wii console outsells the PlayStation 3 by two-to-one. Sony may still exceed its full-year profit target because of a weaker yen, sales of Bravia televisions and growth at its movie unit.

"A drop in third-quarter results is largely expected on the games division. There's no surprise unless the company further reduces its profit forecasts,'' said Mitsushige Akino, who oversees $468 million in assets at Ichiyoshi Investment Management Co. in Tokyo. Akino doesn't recommend investors buy Sony stock "until the company improves its earnings.''

----------

After botching the PS3's debut with production delays and cutting the price to compete against cheaper Wii and Xbox players, Sony will probably lose 191.9 billion yen from games this fiscal year, compared with profit of 8.7 billion yen the previous year, according to the Bloomberg survey.

The The Cooler king!

I am not a fan of the Nyko intercooler because the damn thing toasted my last XBOX, but, to be fair Nyko did replace my XBOX free of charge so at least they stand behind their product.
Well there is a new device called the Cooler king and it does look like the Intercooler except it doesn't use the 360's power inlet to run the thing wich is a huge plus. Now I do like the hookups this thing is sporting, infact it looks almost to good to be true so I am going to wait on a few reviews first, but if you want it now there is a UK website called Play.com where you can purchase it for roughly $20 U.S.

SPEED channel and Microsoft Game studios team up!

SPEED has joined forces with Microsoft Game Studios in presenting a live-action mini-series based on Xbox 360’s new Forza Motorsport 2 video game.

Forza Motorsport Showdown, produced by Bud Brutsman of the popular SPEED reality show, Payback, is set to air February 2007. The four-episode series will be hosted by Lee Reherman, best known as ‘Hawk’ on hit television show, American Gladiator.

Each episode rigors a diverse group of competitors through a roster of competitive motorsports disciplines – drag racing, road racing, autocross and drifting – in a $100,000 winner-take-all format. Forza Motorsport Showdown is designed to be the ultimate test of high-performance driving and mechanical skills.

“These are real people, real crews and real cars battling it out for a very significant cash prize,” said Robert Ecker, VP of Programming for SPEED. “It’s a very dynamic production encompassing an incredible amount of drama and suspense. Each team and personality has to excel in every one of these racing categories to be competitive; there’s not much room for error.”

Forza Motorsport 2 is Microsoft Game Studios’ sequel presentation to its award-winning Forza Motorsport title, which debuted in 2003. This offering is expected to set new standards for high-definition gaming, customization, driving, physical and damage simulation. In addition, Forza Motorsport 2 allows gamers to collect more than 300 personalized racers and pursue worldwide competitions through its revolutionary Xbox Live gaming community.

Even the Japanese wont buy a PS3!

Here is an article from Gamepro.com that we "XBOTS" might like, as the Sony fans call us. Oh and I thought the Japanese would sell their own children for anything and everything Playstation.

"The PlayStation 3 suffered its worst week of sales since launch for the second week in a row. A total of 21,105 of the consoles were sold during the week, said Media Create Co. Ltd. The research company receives data from around 3,000 stores across Japan and uses that to estimate nationwide sales.

Sales of the PlayStation 3 were highest during the launch weekend, when 81,639 were sold over two days, the company estimates. The sales dropped and then peaked again at 76,992 units in the last week of 2006. But sales have dropped each week since the new year, according to Media Create.

Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. said last week that shipments of the PlayStation 3 in Japan reached 1 million on Jan. 16. The figure includes products in transit to retailers, in shop store rooms and on shelves waiting to be sold, in addition to units actually sold. SCEI's original target was to ship 1 million units in Japan by the end of 2006.

Media Create estimates that 20,169 PlayStation 2 consoles were sold during the same week, only slightly less than the PS3 sales.

Sales of the rival Wii console from Nintendo were 86,395 for the week to Jan 21, Media Create said. That's also down on the prior week. Xbox 360 sales also dropped, to 7,041 consoles.

Overall sales of new-generation consoles in Japan were weak during the week at 114,541 units, the company said.

Leading the overall market was Nintendo's DS Lite handheld device, which sold 127,647 units. Surging sales of the DS Lite and the Wii, along with their games software, helped Nintendo achieve a substantial increases in sales and profits in the first nine months of its financial year, it said on Thursday.

In the software chart, the game ".hack//G.U. Vol.3" for the PlayStation 2 was top-ranked, with sales of 136,790 units."