Filed under: Gaming

It wasn’t any secret that the Xbox 360 was getting a price cut in the next week or so, and now it’s official — Major Nelson just confirmed that as of September 5th, the Arcade will be $199, the Pro will be $299, and the Elite will be $399. No motion controller, goofy Live starter pack, or tweaked controller to be found, but we’re not arguing with price cuts.

Update: Here’s the Microsoft press release.

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Filed under: Gaming

The next Xbox 360 Dashboard update promises to be a big one, with a totally revised menu system, Netflix support, and Wii-like avatars, but so far Microsoft’s kept mum on when it’s coming — but we’d circle November on your calendars for now, since that’s what MS UK apparently told the crew at RPG-TV. It’s still not official official, but at least now you have something to look forward to in November besides awkwardly hanging out with people from high school over Thanksgiving.

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Filed under: Gaming

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Filed under: Gaming

It’s sad that the petty bickering between Activision, Harmonix, and Konami required console makers to step up and ensure that gamers didn’t end up with piles of redundant plastic instrument controllers, but things are starting to get better — just as Sony did yesterday, Microsoft announced that it’s requiring Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Revolution to be cross-compatible on the Xbox 360. The post on Redmond’s Gamerscore blog isn’t chock-full of details, but we’ll commend Microsoft and Sony for getting involved to make sure that all the lawsuits and infighting don’t adversely affect their customers — now if they could only find a way to make those drumkits actually fit into a living room, we’d be all set.

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Gaming

We’ve been hearing whispers that an Xbox 360 price cut is in the works, and now we’re starting to see some evidence — VGChartz scored this image of an unknown retailer’s inventory system showing the 360 Arcade dropping to $199 on September 7th. There’s no word on whether the rumored 60GB and Elite price cuts are coming as well, but they’d certainly be welcome — and with Rock Band 2 scheduled to hit just a week later, we’d say next month is looking like a good one for Xbox fans.

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Filed under: Gaming

Console modders out there have been doing crazy things with controllers for a while now, and while this latest piece isn’t as crazy as the one-handed Access Controller, it’s still good for a double-take — check out this wired 360 controller shoehorned into a DualShock3 shell, complete with green LEDs. THe modder, RDC, says it works great, rumble included, but that there’s no headset connector and the L2 and R2 triggers aren’t analog — both things he’s hoping to fix in the next version. We’d suggest keeping the DS3 buttons as well — while the colorful 360 buttons look pretty hot against that black case, we’d rather break this thing out and blow minds stealth-style.

[Thanks, Aguiluz]

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Filed under: Gaming

Console modders out there have been doing crazy things with controllers for a while now, and while this latest piece isn’t as crazy as the one-handed Access Controller, it’s still good for a double-take — check out this wired 360 controller shoehorned into a DualShock3 shell, complete with green LEDs. THe modder, RDC, says it works great, rumble included, but that there’s no headset connector and the L2 and R2 triggers aren’t analog — both things he’s hoping to fix in the next version. We’d suggest keeping the DS3 buttons as well — while the colorful 360 buttons look pretty hot against that black case, we’d rather break this thing out and blow minds stealth-style.

[Thanks, Aguiluz]

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

var digg_url = ‘http://digg.com/business_finance/Microsoft_and_Netflix_announce_partnership’; After months of speculation and rumors, Microsoft just announced that it’s partnering with Netflix to allow Xbox 360 owners to stream movies from their Netflix queues for no extra charge. Microsoft says the 360 will be the only game system that allows Netflix access for no additional cost — which isn’t entirely accurate, since it sounds like only Live Gold members will get access. Streaming movies can also be shared with your Live party, allowing you to watch content together. Users will have instant access to their Netflix instant access queues, but it’s not clear what resolution the content will be streamed at — we’d guess it’s roughly the same DVD-quality res that Roku’s Netflix streamer is getting for now, but hopefully that’ll change when the service launches in the fall with the new dashboard.

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Filed under: Gaming

So you’re hankering for a little Halo on the go but you’re not willing to put your skills to the test and build an Xbox 360 laptop yourself? Never fear — we’ve got just the sketchy web store for you. For just $550, a one-man shop in Kansas called Portable Gaming Solutions promises to convert your 360 into a suitcase-sized 15-inch laptop complete with keyboard and speakers. The web site has quite a few pictures and videos of the mod in action, but we’re definitely a little wary of sending our 360 off into the wild blue yonder — although even Ben Heck had to get started somehow. Anyone daring enough to take the plunge? Video after the break.

[Thanks, Airsoft]

Continue reading Portable Gaming Solutions offers Xbox 360 laptops to the daring

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Filed under: Gaming

Microsoft is making some noise today about the Xbox 360’s sales numbers — it’s the first of this generation of consoles to top 10M sales in the US. That’s well ahead of the Wii, which stands at 8.8M, and the PS3, which has under half the 360’s installed base at 4.1M units sold. Worldwide, the 360 is also doing quite well: Microsoft says it’s moved 19M consoles total, and that 12 million people are signed up for Xbox Live. That’s behind the Wii’s global sales of 25M units, but Microsoft isn’t exactly content with second place — it’s making a point to say that the 360 has the ” largest global install base of any current gen, high definition gaming console.” Take that, Mario. Meanwhile, the PS3s doing quite nicely for itself as well: in addition to outselling the 360 in both the US and Europe, Sony says worldwide sales were up an astounding 156 percent last year with a total of 9.2M units coming off shelves, and that it expects to sell another 10M consoles by March 2009. Looks like the console race is hitting the next level — any bets on how things will shake out in a year?

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Gaming

We think we’ve already got a handle on the various chipset revisions planned for Microsoft’s too-beautiful-for-this-world Xbox 360*, but it looks like that planned 45nm “Valhalla” combined CPU / GPU motherboard design we’ve been hearing about might also come in a redesigned, smaller case. That’s certainly news to us, but TG Daily has the refresh happening on the same fall-2009 timeline we’ve been hearing about, so at least all these sketchy rumors line up. We’ll see when we see — it sounds like the 65nm Jasper units are coming off the line for that August release in the meantime to keep us all warm at night.

*Guess which Engadget ed had his 360 go RRoD over the weekend? You only get one try.

[Via Xbox 360 Fanboy]

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Filed under: Gaming

Alright, take this one with a huge grain of salt, but MTV News is reporting that Microsoft is secretly developing a Wiimote-like motion controller for the Xbox 360. The source says that the new unit has been under development since August, and that a new unified interface is being developed by Rare, which has missed a few deadlines. The idea is to match and exceed the capabilities of the Wiimote, so the controller reportedly features four face buttons, an analog stick, a microphone, and possibly integration with the Xbox Live Vision Camera. However, it doesn’t seem like things are going all that smoothly — the source says the project is a “colossal clusterf***,” and that Microsoft is scrambling to figure out how to get the thing out by the end of the year. Interesting — but several other major 360 developers wouldn’t confirm anything, so until we hear something for real, interesting is about as far as it goes.

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Filed under: Gaming

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Filed under: Gaming

It wasn’t all Zune gaming at Microsoft’s GDC keynote this morning — a lot of time was spent discussing Community Games, the new official name for XNA-based games. Amateur devs will get “creator identities” along with their gamertags, and Live members can rate, grade, and discuss your efforts. Of course, as we’ve heard, games can move from the 360 to PCs to second-gen Zunes, which is definitely pretty cool, but it’ll be interesting to see what that means for devs who want to try and take advantage of the 360’s horsepower — will they be restrict their code to a specific platform? While we wait for those answers, it looks like we’ll be able to get a taste of what Community Games have to offer right away — Microsoft announced that the first seven XNA-based games are available immediately, with an open beta to begin in spring and full-on launch by the end of the year. List of games after the jump — but what are you doing reading this when you could be playing?

Update: We just tried downloading RocketBall and the process is totally different than you’d expect. First you have to download the XNA Launcher, which is under New Arrivals in the Marketplace blade — but you don’t need a membership, so skip that, and the XNA ad that displays points you to the wrong thing, so ignore that as well. Then head over to the Games blade and select Games Library, but don’t open the Launcher, cause it’ll just kick you out. Instead, press Y to view the list of games and download one. So far the “YouTube of games” seems a bit convoluted — hopefully the next Dashboard update makes this all a bit simpler.

Continue reading First Xbox 360 Community Games to hit Live “immediately”

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Filed under: Gaming

Although word on the street is that Microsoft is planning to release the successor to the Xbox 360 in 2010, the company is still apparently planning on updating the 360 design several more times in the next couple years. Just like the “Falcon” motherboard now on shelves updated the original 360 design with a 65nm CPU, the upcoming “Jasper” revision should take the GPU to 65nm as well — but that’s more or less common knowledge. What we’re hearing now is that all those RRoDed 360s sitting in warehouses are going to be retrofitted with the same 65 / 90nm CPU / GPU combo as Falcon, but on a mobo design called “Opus” that fits the original Xbox case molds. That means no HDMI, since pre-Falcon cases didn’t have the openings — but apparently MS is only planning on sending these out as warranty replacements. The real action, however, appears to be “Valhalla,” a supposed final rev of the 360 that integrates the GPU and CPU into a single “superchip.” Details on that are more than sketchy, and we’re definitely skeptical — especially since we’d been hearing chatter about 45nm CPUs, but nothing about a unified architecture. We’ll see when we see — as long as all these boxes play CoD4, we’ll be happy.

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

No, it won’t get you “true” HDMI, but older 360 owners looking to get rid of those clunky component cables might want to take note: that MadCatz HDMI Conversion Kit is now official. The $90 adapter comes with cables and supports HDMI 1.3, 1080p, Dolby Digital and DTS — but there’s no telling what the VGA-to-HDMI signal conversion will do to your image quality, so you’re probably better off doing the eBay shuffle and getting a new 360 with HDMI built-in.

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Filed under: Gaming

Naturally curious as to why Xbox 360 Elites are so difficult to find, we went straight to the source — and Microsoft tells us that demand is simply outstripping supply on the 360 Elite right now, and that no model lineup changes are planned at this time — especially since the Elite is their hot seller. Well, so much for that conspiracy — guess we’re back to reading the PS3 tea leaves.

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Filed under: Gaming, Home Entertainment

Just over a year after launching the Xbox Live Video Marketplace in the US, Microsoft is finally ready to bring the service to Europe, with Computer and Video Gaming reporting that it’ll open for business on December 11. Sadly, it looks like it’ll be rental-only, at least at first, with 720p flicks going for 320 MS points (about £3.23, or $6.64) and SD movies for 250 points (about £2.13, or $4.39). Rentals will stick around on your hard drive for 14 days after you download them, but once you hit play they’ll delete themselves after 24 hours — a system which seems needlessly complicated to us, but we’ll take what we can get. Peep the full list of titles available at launch after the break.

Continue reading Xbox Live Video Marketplace to launch in Europe next week

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Digital Cameras, HDTV

Sure, regular HD is nice — you really get a gander at an anchorman’s makeup, and the stars’ wrinkles are shocking — but does it go far enough? Olympus doesn’t think so. The camera company — long known to bring the goods on the picture-takin’ end — has just created the first 360-degree, 1080i camera and projection solution. Utilizing a proprietary system based around an “axisymmetric free-form-surface lens,” the camera can shoot video at horizontal and vertical viewing angles of 360-and-50-degrees, respectively; the images can then be projected in the same range by a separate unit. Obviously, you won’t see this in the consumer sector any time soon, but it does open some pretty interesting opportunities for installations and security alike.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

Filed under: Gaming

Engadget’s favorite hardware hacker Benjamin Heckendorn is at it again, and his latest mutant mashup is the one-handed Access controller. The modular rig features five interchangeable pods — one each for the analog sticks, d-pad, main buttons, and shoulder buttons — that can be rearranged to make any control scheme one-hand-friendly. Ben says the Access is in pre-production with eDimensional, and will be hitting in PS2 / 3 versions first with a planned 360 version to follow — although it certainly looks like a brave 360 controller was involved in making that prototype. More photos await you at the read link.

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!