Science and technology news blog

Thanks to Halo 3, Microsft’s Xbox 360 finally beat the Wii in console sales in the US. However, the disappointing figures in Japan have made Microsoft announce a 13 percent cut in the console’s price. Sony’s PS3 also got a 10 percent price cut in Japan. On the other hand, Nintendo’s Wii is steal beating industry expectations as the units are still hard to find even after 9 whole months of its launch.

Microsoft may also announce a further price cut globally, come holiday season, to be more competitive against the PS3 and also against the Wii. Its been almost 2 years since the Xbox 360 was launched and, despite the hardware problems, the console has enjoyed superlative success thanks to games like Gears of War and Halo 3, with more to come. PS3 on the other hand, seems to be going the Betamax way. It may be well ahead in technology, but even that could not prevent Sony from selling its Cell processor-making unit to be sold.

Microsoft announced today that come christmas, the Xbox 360 will be bundled with two games – Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance. This will further tighten the noose over Sony’s beleaguered Playstation 3. Despite price cuts, the Sony console still lags way behind the 360 and Nintendo’s Wii. Sony may have a futuristic system in its hand, but lack of quality, and more importantly, exclusive titles has hampered sales.

Microsoft’s announcement should further spark sales of the 360 after Halo 3 initiated a second coming of the Xbox’s latest iteration. With latest news on Bungie splitting from Microsoft, the monolith wants to cash in on all the hype surrounding the console at the moment. I wouldn’t be surprised if all the new consoles came with the 65nm processor. Sony desperately needs  some much needed system-seller games if it doesn’t want to go the Betamax way with its heavily priced console.

Some interesting Halo Facts:

• Halo and Halo 2 have sold more than 14.8 million copies worldwide (Xbox and PC versions). By the end of the year, more than £500 million would have been spent on the franchise.


• American gamers have already reserved more than one million copies of Halo 3.


• In May, Microsoft gave gamers a sneak peek at Halo 3 with a multiplayer beta test included with its Crackdown title. It attracted more than 820,000 people to participate from 25 different countries, who spent a whopping 12 million hours playing it online. That is the equivalent of 1,400 years of continuous play by a single person.


• Xbox Live has seven million members, 80 per cent of whom have played Halo 2 online. In fact, 300,000 gamers still log on to play each day.


• Master Chief is the first gaming character to be enshrined in wax by Madame Tussauds and will be seen at the London attraction. The 7ft 2in figure weighs 275lbs and was created using 1,000lbs of clay. It took 10 studio artists 892 man-hours to complete, including 687 hours for sculpting, 168 hours for moulding and 37 hours for painting.

In a recent interview between Gamespot.com and Xbox regional director for Australia and New Zealand David McLean, there were a couple of important questions and answers regarding the release of Xbox Elite:

GS AU: Can you tell us when the Xbox 360 Elite console will make it to Australia?

DM: For Australia, we will be coming out with some announcements around Elite. It certainly is coming to our market—we’re just currently trying to define our pricing and volume strategy on it. And obviously, with our decision to make the pricing announcements on Core and Pro now, we need to consider the knock-on effect for Elite. You’re not going to be asked to wait very much longer. I think within the next week or so, we can give you details on what we’re planning to do with Elite.

And on the HDMI ports on US Xbox consoles:

GS AU: Finally, US consumers are starting to see HDMI ports on Pro consoles. Will Australian 360s be soon fitted out with those as well?

DM: Yes, we will—we’ll start to see the same thing in Australia. We’re just reviewing our inventory position and when that will start to flow into the market. No specific details to give you on it, but what’s happening in other regions in the world will certainly happen in Australia.

To get the full article, click here.

Hot on the heels of a $50 price drop on all Xbox 360 versions, Microsoft has also announced that the new Xbox 360 premium versions will have built-in HDMI output. This has been a much-wanted feature and with rising competition from the PS3 (which had its own price drop recently), Microsoft has done well to include it before the release of Halo 3. On the subject of cooling noise, Microsoft has not yet said anything. But this could also be due to the fact that they do not want to admit in the open that Xbox 360 has a design flaw.

The price cut and the new HDMI version are for US only at the moment. So for all the rest of the world we will have to wait and watch. Precisely what I have been doing since the launch of Xbox 360.

Update

Microsoft has also announced that Halo 3 pre-orders have surpassed 1 million leaving many gasping for breath. Halo 3 could well be the biggest selling game on the platform, no surprises here.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 was the first to be launched in the next-gen console wars. However, despite being released for over a year, the three rings of death still dog the console. And Microsoft has no answer to fix it. With the recent announcement of a 3 year retrospective warranty they have atleast healed a few wounds. Although this is not going to last in the long run. What will happen once the warranty period is over? If consumers still experience the same problem, is Microsoft going to fix it free of charge. This really is a design issue rather than anecdotal.

Xbox chief Peter Moore talked to NEWSWEEK’s N’gai Croal explaining the how, the why and the what.

Here is a small excerpt from this interview: (more…)

First Microsoft released an SDK (Software Development Kit) called XNA Game Studio Express for individuals and hobbyists to program games for the Xbox 360. And now Nintendo seems to be following the same path with the release of WiiWare. According to Nintendo, the tool will allow game developers to release smaller and more interesting titles which gamers can purchase and download from the console’s Wii Shop channel.

Well, to me, this is just the next inevitable phase for the console makers as this would enable fans who also have programming skills to create games that they would like to play themselves and in turn earn money as well. It also enables to console to have a more broader appeal. Say for example, my friend would like to play a game that has not yet been released or may never be released. He can then go ahead and create his own game and with the number of consoles that Nintendo has sold, this will give him an opportunity to market this game and earn money from something he enjoys.

Sony, you better be watching as this is another tight slap on their face, not that they need anymore after dismal performance of their next-gen console, PS3.

So Microsoft is marching Xbox 360 v.2 into stores in less then a month. Dubbed the Xbox 360 Elite, it boasts a beefed up hard drive and a high-def output, in addition to a new black finish.

But do you really need to go out and spend $479.00 on this new system? Can current 360 owners upgrade their existing Premium or Core systems without spending the big bucks? And if you’ve been thinking of buying your first 360, which system – Core, Premium, or Elite – is the best for you.

We’ll go into all the details here and hopefully help you decide which system, or upgrade, is best for you.

To begin with, the Elite contains the same guts – same parts, processors and chips –as the Core and Premium and has identical dimensions. The main difference is 2 inclusions – an HDMI port and a 120GB hard drive.

The Elite also comes with the same wireless controller and headset as the Premium, but in matching Elite black. The Elite also ships with an Ethernet cable, a composite cable and a HDMI cable. Of note, Sony’s PS3 has the same HDMI port on both its 30GB and 60GB models but does not come with a HDMI cable packed with it. A good HDMI cable can range from $25-65, so the fact that the Elite comes packed with one is nice.

So essentially, you’re paying $80 more for the 120GB HDD and HDMI port and cable with the Elite ($479.99) than the Premium ($399.99).

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Sony will not be able to match the success of PlayStation 2 with its new gaming console, the PlayStation 3, according to outgoing Electronic Arts CEO Larry Probst. He feels that Sony’s days of dominance of the console market may very well be over.

Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 and Nintendo’s’ Wii games consoles have made rapid strides even as Sony is struggling to deal with production issues that have beset the PlayStation 3. The console was also released one year after the Xbox 360 and appears to have let go of its advantage.

“We expect that there will be a more level playing field this time around than last time,” said Probst. His comments were delivered at an investor conference by Morgan Stanley. Probst added that the main issue with the PS 3 was its cost.

Last year Sony had announced that a high-end model of the console would cost $600 as compared to the $400 price tag on Xbox 360. Nintendo’s Wii is the cheapest of the lot. Probst said that Wii was off to a great start, but it would not be wise to write off Sony.

“No one should count Sony out at this point in the game. This is going to be a long race,” Probst added.

Sony has sold over 115 million PS2 consoles, but is finding it tough to get the PS 3 onto the markets. The latter is set for a European release on March 23.

Nintendo’s Wii game console outsold Sony’s PlayStation 3 by nearly three to one last month in Japan, the country’s largest video-game magazine publisher said Tuesday.

Nintendo sold 405,000 Wii units in January, compared with 148,000 PS3s, publisher Enterbrain said.

Wii and PS3, made by two of the biggest players in the $30 billion global video game industry, went on sale late last year in a three-way showdown with Microsoft’s Xbox 360.

A wider range of software titles and a lower price tag is helping the Wii, Enterbrain said.

The basic model of the PS3 sells for $416 (49,980 yen) in Japan, double the price of the Wii.

Nintendo has sold a total 1.4 million units of the Wii in Japan, far outpacing the 614,000 PS3s sold, Enterbrain said.

“There could be a price cut for the PS3 by the end of the year, and more software titles will hit the market. I expect the PS3 to be doing better after awhile,” Enterbrain President Hirokazu Hamamura said. “Of course, the Wii will keep running ahead all the while.”

The PlayStation 3 recorded its worst week of sales last week since its launch in Japan, according to figures published Friday.

The data, from Media Create, put PlayStation 3 sales at 25,531 units for the week ending Jan. 14. Overall the entire market for newly launched consoles was poor, with total sales of the PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360 hitting an estimated 128,274 units. That’s the lowest week in sales since Nintendo’s Wii launched in Japan on Dec. 2 and made the market a three-console race.

Wii sales for the week were estimated at 93,708 units, the second-worst week of sales since the 85,439 units sold during the week immediately after the Wii’s launch.

Sales of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 totaled 9,035 units, according to the data. The year-old console got a boost in early December when the “Blue Dragon” title was launched and offered as a bundle with the machine, but weekly sales are now dropping back to levels seen before that game was launched.

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For video-game players, the holidays are clearly the busiest, most wonderful time of the year. The shopping season is when most of the biggest games are released and when hardware makers like Nintendo and Sony usually unveil their snazziest products.

For people who actually make games, however, the holidays can actually be kind of slow. That’s because by December their new babies have been shipped out the door, the boxes are in stores and warehouses and all that is left to do is sit and wait for the sales data to come back from NPD, the market research firm most everyone in the industry depends on.

For 2006 the big day was Thursday, when the firm released its annual retail report of hardware sales and the Top 10 selling console games of the year. (The data released on Thursday do not include PC games.) The list includes a mixture of sequels and newcomers; some well regarded games didn’t make it at all.

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Microsoft on Thursday claimed victory for its Xbox 360 games console in the key US holiday season, citing industry sales figures that gave it a 51 per cent market share.

Sony’s PlayStation3 was beaten into third spot by Nintendo’s Wii in next-generation console sales recorded by the NPD group.

Microsoft said NPD put sales of the Xbox 360 at 1,132,000 in December against 604,000 for the Wii – a 27 per cent market share – and 491,000 for the PS3, or 22 per cent.

Microsoft was aided considerably by the Wii and PS3 being in short supply since their launch in November. The Xbox 360 also had a year’s head start over its rivals and Microsoft announced this week the console had sold 10.4m units worldwide since its launch in November 2005.

The figures up to December 31 were half a million ahead of its projection, Robbie Bach, president of the Entertainment and Devices division, said in a speech at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

“That’s a significant milestone,” David Hufford, director of Xbox product management, told the Financial Times on Thursday.

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In what is expected to be another record-breaking year for the more than $10-billion-a-year video game industry, the breakout hit is a science-fiction action game called “Gears of War.”

The game didn’t sneak up on anyone – developer Epic Games and Microsoft hyped it for nearly a year and a half leading up to its release Nov. 12 – but the futuristic sci-fi combat game has overcome an industry hurdle in establishing a new intellectual property as a hit.

It’s not easy to compete in the marketplace with Mario, Madden and other established franchises.

“Gears of War” has sold more than 1 million copies in the United States and an estimated 2 million copies worldwide, making it the best-selling game for Microsoft’s year-old Xbox 360 video game system.

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As per engadget.com, a new Xbox 360 is about to be released “soon”. The following image has been taken from an article on the website:

The new version will have an HDMI output and a massive 120GB hard drive, which is twice as what PS3’s top-end console has. And the price, well I am guessing it is still going to be the same as Microsoft is not going to throw away their advantage by making the console too expensive.