Yesterday at the Halo 3 preview event that was held in NYC, Microsoft unveiled a Halo 3 themed Zune that is due out in mid June. Gizmondo.com has a series of pics that they took and posted for everyone's viewing pleasure.
Click here for pics of the Halo 3 themed Zune!
Xbox 360 Top Live Titles (UU’s)
1 Gears of War
2 Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six® Vegas
3 Guitar Hero II
4 Call Of Duty 3
5 GRAW 2
6 Crackdown
7 Catan
8 Spider-Man 3
9 Pinball FX
10 Oblivion
Top Arcade Titles (Full Versions)
1 Double Dragon
2 Catan
3 Pinball FX
4 3D Ultra™ Minigolf Adventures
5 TMNT 1989 Arcade
6 Centipede & Millipede
7 Worms
8 UNO
9 Castlevania: SOTN
10 Boom Boom Rocket
Original Xbox Top Live Games
1 Halo 2
2 Battlefield 2: MC
3 Forza Motorsport
4 Star Wars: Battlfrnt 2
5 Counter-Strike
6 Madden NFL 07
7 Call of Duty 3
8 Ghost Recon 2
9 Splinter Cell Chaos
10 PGR 2
Top 10 Weekly Movie Titles
1 Blood Diamond (HD)
2 Tenacious D in the Pick of Destiny
3 Beerfest (HD)
4 Double Feature: Horrorfest #1 (HD)
5 Deep Sea (HD)
6 The Dukes of Hazzard: The Beginning (Unrated)
7 The Italian Job (HD)
8 Crank (HD)
9 The Departed (HD)
10 Employee of the Month (HD)
Top 10 Weekly TV Titles
1 South Park (HD)
2 Comedy Central Stand Up
3 Enterprise (HD)
4 Jericho (HD)
5 Aqua Teen Hunger Force
6 Fights (HD)
7 Robot Chicken
8 Chappelle's Show: Uncensored
9 Babylon 5
10 Supernatural
Today's top stories:
Gamepro.com got their hands on the first exclusive video footage of Beautiful Katamari Damacy running on the XBOX 360. Now this game isn't my cup of tea, but if you are into really bizarre ass Japanese gameplay, than this is right up your alley.
Click here to check out the video!
Boy this one snuck in under the radar:
Dash Details: Modern day fears come to life in a familiar, yet extraordinary setting: A small American town swarming with alien life. The government is desperate, struggling to contain secrets so terrible they can no longer be kept. Everything hinges on the actions of Aeran Pierce, a former Special Forces assassin thrown into one of the most explosive moments in American history.
Size: 583 MB (approx.)
The following comes via Gamerscoreblog.com:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Soltrio Solitaire will be available worldwide – with the exception of Korea – for 800 Microsoft Points on Wednesday, May 16th, and is rated E for Everyone.
Here are some of the game features:
Right off the bat I am going to say that this is the most realistic racing sim I have ever played. There is no bullshit too be found here folks, if you are looking to do 150 mph through the turns you will have to go elsewhere for your Need for Speed and Burnout fix.
After I downloaded the demo, I hooked up my Force Feedback wheel and fired up the demo. Before I started the race, I wanted to make sure that all traction and braking assist was turned off because I wanted to feel the car, the only assist I left was brake lines on the track because I wanted a few laps to feel it out first.
Right off the bat, the first thing that jumped out at me was how the car feels in the turns. Forza 2 is the first racing game that has the sensation of taking your car to the edge, lap after lap I drove the car deeper into the turn before I would crack the throttle and the deeper I drove it the more I actually felt the car get closer and closer to spinning out. Part of that sensation is how well the wheel is incorporated into this game, it is absolutely phenomenal. Now I must say that the harder you drive into the turn only hurts your speed when exiting the turn so remember kiddies, sometimes you have to drive slower to go faster and in case you don't understand that, than stick to your shitty Need for Speed games.
Overall this game impressed me, from the physics to the graphics this thing just plain screams "simulator". I paid a lot of attention to the way the cars feel because everyone else keeps talking graphics and not the way this baby drives. I also noticed that the cars even have the brake bias set properly and if you don't know what that is let me explain. A lot of race cars have a Brake bias knob that lets the driver adjust for more rear or front break which in turn alleviates some handling issues the driver might have, whether the car is tight or loose, the driver can adjust for more front brake. Now I am not sure if you will be able to adjust this in the retail game or not but I noticed it in the replay's. If you pay attention, you will notice that the front brakes would glow before the rear brakes which helps the car when entering the corner but you will have to select the R2 cars I believe too notice this.
So there you have it folks, for the people who understand race cars and or have driven one will understand my impressions of the game. If you only play Need for Speed and are 17 years old with a 94 CIVIC with a shitty exhaust and a K&N air filter that thinks adds usable HP to your existing 105 and have never driven a real race care, than this wasn't for you.
Next-Gen.biz is reporting that Mad Catz stock rose over the announcement made that Mad Catz has inked a deal to produce Halo 3 faceplates for the XBOX 360.
Shares for San Diego-based Mad Catz were up over 11 percent in midday trading to $0.88 per share on the AMEX.
The agreement with Microsoft is a multi-year deal that will have Mad Catz create faceplates for the Xbox 360 that feature characters from Halo 3.
Mad Catz expects the Halo 3 products to be available at major retailers prior to the Halo 3 launch.
The firm recently announced a deal to create Xbox 360 accessories based on the anticipated BioWare RPG Mass Effect. Mad Catz also created a line of Gears of War accessories for Microsoft’s console.
Mad Catz CEO Darren Richardson said in a statement, “The addition of this marquee license to our portfolio is further evidence of the ongoing success in our initiative to align ourselves with the most appealing brands and popular software launches…”
There was a lot of news today but nothing major or ground breaking so I have decided to wrap it up a little early. Besides, I have a Forza 2 demo to play and a copy of Nighty Nine Night's that I picked up. Why N3 you say? well I have always wanted to give it a shot but I never did, so I downloaded the demo and I really dug it. But between you and me, I hear the achievements are easy to get in this game so don't tell anyone.
Today's top stories:
Back in January, THQ announced plans to bring Saints Row to the PS3 but today THQ said that they have scrapped that idea in favor of doing a full blown sequel for the PS3 and XBOX 360.
"We've done great things for our brands by putting them in the right time frame," said CFO Edward Zinser during a quarterly conference call. "The most important thing for the Saints Row franchise is to have a simultaneous shipment into a larger installed base next year. That's what we're looking for with Saints Row 2."
About a month ago Microsoft unveiled a QWERTY keyboard that would snap into the controller and Microsoft had and is still calling this device the "text input device" because no official name has been announced yet.
Earlier today, the guys over at Joystiq stumbled upon something interesting while viewing the updates help doc. According too the doc, Microsoft is calling the "text input device" the "chatpad". Now I like the name, it's short and too the point and that's a good thing because Microsoft is known for giving their hardware peripherals long ass names (Microsoft Xbox 360 Wireless Gaming Receiver).
Today Sega announced that Condemned 2 Bloodshot is coming to the XBOX 360 and PS3. Sega made this announcement at their own event that they hold every year at their headquarters called "Gamers day".
Microsoft has unveiled a Simspons themed XBOX 360 to coincide with the release of the Simpsons Movie.
The following comes via engadget!
It may have taken forever for The Simpsons to reach the big screen, but it looks like Fox isn't wasting any time turning products yellow to tie-in with the movie, following up its Simpons-branded Samsung cellphone with a Homer-fied Xbox 360. Obsessive collectors could be in for a hard time tracking one of these down, however, as Microsoft's only producing 100 units to be given out at a series of special events and promotions. While they've gone all out with the branding, Microsoft has skimped on the console itself a bit, using the 20GB Xbox 360 Pro instead of the Elite. From the looks of it, you also won't be getting EA's just-announced Simpsons game with it, which, for a change, isn't actually based on the movie.
360-gamer is reporting that Namco Bandai is publishing more titles for the Wii and 360 than the PS3 do to sluggish PS3 sales:
In a statement released today, Namco revealed that it intended to publish 37 games for the Wii, 24 for the 360 but only 23 for the PS3 during the course of the next financial year – something that’s unlikely to please Sony.
The reason for this? Despite being one of the most loyal supporters of both the PlayStation and PS2, the slow sales of the PS3 have taken their toll on Namco’s own PS3 range, with games such as Gundam falling short of the half a million sales Namco had targetted.
Nevertheless, it’s still quite a kick in the teeth for Sony. While the fact Namco is getting behind the Wii is no real surprise – it has been flying off the shelves, after all – the fact the 360, a console with no real presence in Namco’s native Japan, will be receiving more games this year than the PS3 will be a bit of a shock.
This story comes via 360-gamer.com!
Looks like May 29th is going to be a very expensive day for XBOX 360 owners. Forza motorsports 2 has gone gold and will be released May 29th, the same day as Shadowrun so you better start scrapping your pennies together now.
When I picked up the XBOX 1 at launch with Halo, I remember thinking to myself, wow this is one of the best games I have ever played but I had no idea that Halo was going to turn into the phenomenon that it has.
There is a rumor going around that Halo 3 has hit 4 million pre orders:
According to Gamestop officials, over four million preorders have been made for Halo 3 on Xbox 360. Xbox Evolved has verified this information at five different Greater Cincinnati Gamestop locations, including Gamestop stores, EB Games stores, and Funcoland stores, all under the same umbrella. This information was verified at all locations, however company a document showing this information was not revealed.
In the coming months, if this information is verified this would be the most preordered videogame of all time. Many of Gamestop’s employees believe that a large portion of the preorders are being made by consumers that don’t even own a Xbox 360, that are just waiting for the price of the system to go down.
In comparison, Grand Theft Auto IV’s combined PS3 and 360 preorders at the chain of stores comes in a very distant second. Microsoft reported three weeks before the release of Halo 2 in 2004 that the combined retail outlet preorders for the title was 1.5 million, which at the time was a record in itself. Gears of War, the best-selling title on Xbox 360 has worldwide barely cracked the four million mark. If this is all true, it is very likely that Halo 3 will outsell even Halo and Halo 2 combined. We will have more as it develops.
When and if this is confirmed than without a doubt Halo 3 is going to sell a lot of XBOX 360's.
It was announced on Bungie's website that Halo 2 has reached 5 million players. What that means is, 5 million unique users or gamertags have signed into Live and played a Halo 2 match online:
Moments ago, we watched the odometer of Halo 2 players roll over the 5,000,000 mark. Today also happens to be the 2.5-year anniversary of launch. Here's to continued growth of 2 million players per year!
If you're curious, "ultra theodore" is the 5 millionth player.
(This number refers to the number of unique Live accounts that have played Halo 2 online, not including guests)
Edit - I also just noticed that we're a few hours away from 700 million unique multiplayer games on Live. (The largest number, player-games, where each game counts once per player in it, will hit 5 billion in a few weeks)
Teamxbox.com got an exclusive look at the downloadable content for Crackdown and it is one of the biggest that the XBOX 360 has ever seen. So I have decided to include a link to Teamxbox.com because the list is waaayyyy too big to post here, so do yourself a favor and check out what Realtime worlds has planned for Crackdown.
Click here for the details!
Today was an interesting day, I was excited to try out the new dashboard features but I couldn't really enjoy them at first because I felt so shitty. I'm not sure if it was something I ate but whatever it was it is beginning to pass. Besides feeling like shit, the new dashboard navigates quicker and I love the low power mode when downloading content, not to mention the laundry list of new features that is too long to name. Now I sit here with anticipation while I wait for the Forza 2 demo, I am giddy as a school girl.
Today's top stories:
Just got my hands on some pretty big Forza news. According to Turn 10's community manager Che Chou, a demo to Forza Motorsports 2 will go LIVE Later tonight. This is really good news for everyone on the west-coast.
Demo is definitely hitting tonight -- but it'll be pretty painful for east coasters.
Trying to pin down an exact time.
It has been announced that Shadowrun, the cross platform, online multiplayer FPS has gone gold for the PC and XBOX 360. Not only has the game gone gold, Shadowrun now has a release date of May 29th.
I find it a little bizarre that the 360 version will be $60 as compared to the PC version which will go for $50.
Last years E3 an announcement was made that Sega will be bringing their Sonic the Hedgehog games to XBLA. After almost a year since the announcement was made, Sega finally released some info on what they call the "Sega Vintage Collection" exclusive to XBLA, a series of games from Sega's past with Sonic leading the pack.
No date or price has been announced but you can click here to view some screenshots from the original Sonic the Hedgehog.
In the latest dashboard update, Microsoft has improved the 360's video playback capabilities. So how does it compare to the Apple TV? according to a series of test's that engadget has performed, it appears that the 360 is the clear winner:
Technically speaking the Xbox 360 now officially beats out the Apple TV in the digital video arena, both in resolution and bitrate. (At best the ATV only does up to 720p at 5Mbps, while the Xbox does 1080p up to 10Mbps; neither supports higher than stereo audio.) In other words, if you're an Xbox owner thinking about an Apple TV for playing back video in your living room, you might want to think again.
The following is a list of what engadget tested:
Microsoft added
Today's top stories:
Just as I was getting ready to do my final post of the day (after playing F.E.A.R. for 4 hours online) this rather large news diddy landed in my lap. This Wednesday, Ubisoft will release the "Throwback Pack" a series of 7 maps based on classics maps from Ghost Recon, Ghost Recon Summit Strike and GRAW.
Tomorrow, Ubisoft will officially announce the "Throwback Pack" map pack, including price and exact time of availability.
[UPDATE]
It has been announced that the price for all 7 maps will be 800 points.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Original Game: Ghost Recon 2: DLC
Recommended # of Players: 4-12
Several bonfires punctuate a thick mountain forest. The abundance of trees breaks up sight lines and makes fast moving targets difficult to engage.
Original Game: GRAW
Recommended # of Players: 2-8
A rocky desert landscape carved into channels by rivers long since dried, featuring rolling terrain. Ridges overlooking twisting paths make long-range engagement and close-quarters tactics both viable options.
Original Game: GRAW
Recommended # of Players: 8-16
Dilapidated urban area gives way to a rustic fishing village near the shoreline. This map features a rolling, open terrain, abundant trees, and thick underbrush, making tactical movement a key to victory.
Original Game: GRAW - Chapter 2 DLC
Recommended # of Players: 6-12
A mining complex set in the jungle of El Salvador. A massive multi-tiered structure dominates the central mine, and provides ample access to the many levels of excavation in the surrounding area.
Original Game: Ghost Recon 2: Summit Strike
Recommended # of Players: 8-16
An abandoned Soviet base situated in the mountains of Kazakhstan, featuring narrow passes and dense pine forests in the surrounding terrain. Fortified ridges provide excellent defensive positions.
Original Game: Ghost Recon 2
Recommended # of Players: 4-12
A waterfall cuts a path down a steep mountainside, with the fast moving river dividing the map. Rocky cliffs provide excellent firing positions on enemies below.
Original Game: Ghost Recon 2
Recommended # of Players: 2-8
A remote village built on a peninsula with bridges connecting many areas of the map. Houses provide good cover when in a close-quarters combat situation.
Ok folks it's official, the XBOX LIVE operations team will begin rolling out the dashboard update at 2:00 AM PT. This story just broke on Majornelson.com and Gamerscoreblog.com, so for all of you impatient assholes that kept drilling Larry on his blog with "WHERE IS IT MAJOR? WHERE IS IT?" you can now enjoy your new dashboard features in a few hours.
Teamxbox.com has posted some screenshots from a few of the soon to be released XBLA titles. My favorite is a game called Spyglass board games, I like how the Vision camera is implemented while playing chess and checkers just too name a few.
The screenshot pretty much speaks for it's self!
Click here to go too Teamxbox.com to view a series of screenshots from Rush'n Attack and Mad Tracks.
The following comes via MajorNelson.com and is for the US video marketplace:
Movies
Happy Feet in HD (5/11)
Popeye
Posse
The Reckoning
The Virgin Suicides
You Can Count on Me
Sleeping Dogs Lie
TV
Pimp my Ride
Real World: Austin
Wonder Showzen Season 2
Juvies
Free Clips
J. Leno Headlines
Peoples fascination with Lego's is just mind boggling and the latest video is proof of this. Gamevideos.com has posted a video that recreates the Halo 2 trailer using Lego's. After watching this video I began to think, what would a Halo game be like if it was done in Lego's? Just imaging for a second....imagine a Lego game based on the Halo universe and done as a FPS, (that would be a first) multiplayer and all. Just imagine playing in a multiplayer match and instead of falling over when you die, you would instead fall apart into a bunch of little pieces.
Bungie has said that Halo 3 will be the final game in a trilogy, but how could Bungie and Microsoft just call it quits on a money maker like Halo, I mean why stop at 3? after all we had too deal with dozens of those shitty Army man and Dragon Ball Z games, yet we only get 3 games from a franchise that is actually good? So I was thinking, maybe we could get another Halo game done with Lego's, kind of like the Lego Star Wars games. It would be another reason to produce another Halo game using Halo's classic multiplayer gameplay but with Lego's, how cool would that be? then again I think that would be Halo "Jumping the Shark" so never mind.
OK, I have had enough with this news story that has been popping up today on places like Digg and Kotaku saying that Major Nelson and e degrade Epic Games in Major's latest podcast. This story is so bullshit and is being blown way out of proportion and if you don't know what I am talking about the following is from Kotaku.com:
Larry Hryb is Xbox Live Director of Programming. That's his job. Major Nelson, though...he's a community guy. Over the past year or so he's emerged as a go-to guy for 360 owners, since his blog and podcast have served as an excellent "bridge" between the 360 userbase and Microsoft Corp. As such, the Major has been an invaluable PR asset for Microsoft, regardless of whether that's his job or not.
At least...he was.
On his latest podcast, the Major and his guest "e" (Xbox Operations Manager) get onto the subject of the new Gears multiplayer maps, and in particular how much they cost. This is a sensitive issue - since they're crazy expensive (800 points) - so in light of the backlash he received over his comments on the Guitar Hero II downloadable content, you'd have thought he'd play it safe.
Nuh unh.
He mocks. Get to the seven-minute mark of his podcast and hear what it sounds like when a man and his show's guest not only completely undermine more than a year's worth of community-building PR, but take a nasty little swing at the team behind the 360's sole AAA title. Highlights:
Larry (and "e"), 360 consumers don't give a SHIT about Microsoft's business decisions (though I'm sure Epic just love the fact you're blaming them for the map pricing). Telling us why you think four maps are worth $10 means nothing, because that's not our problem. On our end, as consumers, we judge a product on its worth, not its cost, a point everyone involved in the Xbox Live marketplace would do well to realise. Luke Plunkett
Hey Luke, try listening to the podcast because it is clear that you didn't, also what's up with you saying that the 360's sole AAA title is Gears of War? are you high?
Major is the only guy in this industry that truly is in touch with the community. With Major we get daily sometimes hourly updates of what's going on behind closed doors and nobody at Nintendo or Sony does that. Also, if anyone just for a day stood in his shoes where he gets blamed for everything from pricing, hardware reliability to XBOX LIVE dashboard updates would probably crack under sheer frustration and stress might think twice before talking shit. Even after going through everyday as the XBOX 360 complaint pinata, he still puts together a show in his own time not to mention on Sundays of all days, he is that passionate. This guy loves doing what he does and he is the best at it, so when I see the media taking something he said and twist it like the way it's being twisted just pisses me off.
People are also complaining because the Gears of War map pack isn't free which blows me away. The reason shit cost money is because there is hours of design, programming and testing involved which cost's a lot of money and the video game industry isn't a non profit organization.
So if you break it down, Epic has released 6 maps this year for a total of 800 points, that is about $1.60 per map. If that is too much, get a fucking job, besides Major himself said that the publishers set the price for DLC and guess who published Gears? Microsoft and they have spent a lot of cash on advertising, publishing and distribution and are looking to make what they can, it's their game.
Hey Luke Plunkett, do you work for Kotaku for free? I think you get the point.
Sorry for any errors in this post, I was in a hurry!
[UPDATE]
The next time you go to Taco Bell, I want you to raise hell and say: How dare you charge me for this taco, it should be free, I don't care how many people were involved and how much time was spent to get this taco in my hand.
Xboxyde.com has posted a series of exclusive screenshots of Beautiful Katamari Damacy for the XBOX 360.
Click here to check them out for yourself!
Gamerscoreblog.com has posted a list of 6 games that are confirmed for XBLA later this year:
· “Mad Tracks.” This 3-D racing party game from Load Inc. and D3Publisher recalls all the fun of playing with toy cars from childhood. Up to four players can race micro cars in a variety of gameplay modes in familiar settings such as a living room, a restaurant and a toy store.
· “Rush’n Attack.” Also known as “Green Beret,” from Konami Digital Entertainment Inc., this is a faithful next-generation update of this classic coin-op arcade title where the player assumes the role of a special forces agent sent behind enemy lines to infiltrate an enemy military complex and free captured prisoners of war.
· “Soltrio Solitaire.” From Silver Creek Entertainment, this is a collection of 18 different solitaire games, offering co-op and competitive two-player solitaire game modes.
· “Spyglass Board Games.” From Strange Flavour Ltd. and Freeverse, this offers classic versions of the world’s most beloved board games, including chess, checkers, mancala and reversi, as well as the ability to enjoy video chat with friends via the Xbox LIVE Vision camera.
· “Street Trace:NYC.” This is a hover board racing and arena battle game from Gaia Industries Inc. set against the urban wasteland of future New York City. Make your mark on the leaderboards in intense eight-player action over Xbox LIVE, or battle at home through split-screen or single-player tournaments.
· “Undertow.” This is a fast-paced action shooter from Chair Entertainment Group that thrusts players underwater as they battle for control of the oceans, and features a robust single player/co-op campaign and up to 16-player multiplayer action over Xbox LIVE.
Like all Xbox LIVE Arcade games, the above titles will have a free demo that will allow gamers to try out a game before deciding to buy. More details will be available closer to each title’s launch later this year.
The following comes from MajorNelson.com:
400 points will get you ‘Double Dragon’ which will be available this Wednesday on the Xbox Live Arcade.
Some of the the features include:
Sure it's not 2 or 3 games like the past few weeks, but it's Double Dragon and it's only 400 points.
When Microsoft purchased Rare a few years back, that left a lot of questions to be answered like, who owns the Diddy Kong series and Goldeneye 007 since they both appeared on the N64? does Nintendo own the right's too those games or does Microsoft since they own Rare? I think there is no clear cut answer but I can assure you that there are lawyers involved.
In a recent interview, Rare was asked if Goldeneye will ever appear on the Wii's virtual console or as an XBOX LIVE Arcade title and from the response that Rare gave, even they don't know.
"GoldenEye is caught up in a convoluted web of rights the likes of which would make the Weaver from Perdido Street Station jealous. That doesn't mean it won't happen, just that a lot of people with a lot of different perspectives are involved."
Man, I would hate to be in the middle of this one.
This story comes via Cubed3!
Just like everyone else I have been wondering where J Allard has been, it seems that the man behind the Xbox has disappeared, or has he? according to his temporary bio page you will see what he's up too and where we'll see him next. I would also like to say, hats off to Allard for having a sense of humor and sticking to his guns and by sticking too his guns you will know what I mean when you read his temporary bio page here!
Today when I got home decided that my lawn needed a good mowing so I decided to fire up the lawn mower and get it over with. But I decided that it would be a good time too finish listening to Major's latest show while I mowed the yard. So I had my wife toss me my MP3 player and I listened while I mowed and weed whacked, I guess that would make me a geek huh?
[UPDATE]
As I finished the above paragraph my wife called me into the living room and when I got there, she wanted me to show her how to turn on my 360 because she wanted to play Luxor 2. Part of me thinks it's cool that my wife want's to play my 360 and the other part is pissed because I was going to host some matches of F.E.A.R. when I finished this update.
Major Nelson has posted on his blog "Another way to enter the Pac-Man contest" for people who have some film skillz but no game skillz:
I am sure you are all aware of the Pac-Man World Championship…but did you know there is ANOTHER way you can enter? This one requires NO gaming skills, but rather your short form video skills. The ‘PAC-MAN FANatic’ contest is your chance to submit a 2–minute video telling us why you are the ‘greatest fan of Pac-Man and the Xbox 360.’ If you’re video is chosen, you’ll be flown to New York City for the Pac-Man Grand Finals to compete against the rest of the winers. Not sure if the Pac-Man videos we produced last week will help or hurt your creativty, but fire up your camcorder and get your entry in by May 9th. Good luck
[Read the complete rules here]
Major Nelson responded to peoples questions about the dashboard update, unfortunately he left the following message deep in his blog:
I'll provide an update on the dash when I can. The team is wrapping up on it and they're going to let me know soon. We're getting close.
You can read his original post here!
According to an NPD study, the XBOX 360 plays host to the highest online gaming community with 54% of of it's users playing online:
Xbox 360 seems to be the biggest draw for players' time spent online, with the respondents reporting an average of 7.1 hours per week spent playing games online on the console. The PlayStation 3 ranked second with an average of 6.1 hours, while PC/Mac users reported spending an average of 5.8 hours a week on playing games online on those platforms. All other systems were found to account for less than four hours a week of online gaming.
The most popular genres found by the report were card, puzzle, arcade and word games, which 44 percent of those surveyed noted as their most played game types. Family-oriented games ranked second among players' interests with 25 percent, while massively multiplayer games took the third position with 19 percent. Online gambling games also proved most popular among 17 percent of those surveyed.
women make up a large number of the overall online gaming community as does the middle class:
According to the report, women accounted for 42 percent of online gamers, while a majority of online players were found to be between the ages of 25-44, be console owners, players of casual games, and live in middle income households ($35,000-$75,000).
You can read the statistical breakdown between all the consoles, including the PC by clicking here!
This Friday/early Saturday morning's episode of Gamehead which air's at 1:00AM on Spike TV will have a bunch of interviews at Bungie's headquarters. The episode will coincide with the Halo 3 event that will be held on the 11th in San Francisco and New York to give the media a sneak peak at the Halo 3 beta before it hit's LIVE on the 15th.
Halo.Bungie.org has all of the details!
Microsoft has put together a PAC-MAN tournament presented by Quiznos:
Nine finalists will be selected from regions around the world to compete in New York City for the first-ever PAC-MAN World Championship, presented by Quiznos. From there, only one will make gaming history and be crowned the first-ever PAC-MAN World Champion. Maybe it'll be you!
As part of this contest a series of videos were made with PAC-MAN running around the XBOX LIVE offices that feature Peter Moore, Major Nelson, Trixie and E. Thankfully a YouTube user compiled all of the videos into one 2 min video that is worth watching. Keep an eye out for my favorite which includes PAC-MAN being caught screwing around in the XBOX LIVE server room and Major Nelson reporting PAC-MAN to human resources.
All of the tournament details can be read here!
I along with many others have been wondering when Microsoft would announce a price cut for their XBOX 360 console. The Digitimes compiled and published a report that iSuppli put together showing the manufacturing cost's between the XBOX 360 Elite and the 60GB PS3 and the numbers are staggering.
According to iSuppli's report, the XBOX 360 Elite cost's $323.20 to manufacture and that is good news for Microsoft because that means they are making money, not to mention that they could drop the price at any time. Now it should be noted that the cost doesn't include controllers cables and any other peripherals that are packed with the 360. Now if iSuppli's list is correct, there wont be any PS3 price drop for a while, not with a manufacturing cost of $840.35.
With Microsoft making $156 per Elite sold and probably more than that if you were to do a break down on the premium and core models, Microsoft has an ace up it' sleeve. If they feel that Sony is catching up in sales or that the interest is the 360 is declining, Microsoft at a moment's notice can cut the price of the 360.
With Sony losing over $240 per console sold, they absolutely cannot afford a price cut, which means Sony is going to have to start producing good games and hope that the interest in the PS3 grows because if it doesn't they will be is some serious trouble.
Digitimes has a price breakdown of each part found in the PS3 and Elite.
