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30 luglio Monday Meanderings 7/30Been a while since I posted due to some serious time constraints and the slowdown in info after the E3 rush. But I'm back with some things to chew on:
The "Project"
It is coming along nicely, as both items have arrived and are in the process of being put through the grinder. Look for some results within the next two weeks.
Gamerscore chase to 20K
Well, this one was a blowout until XboxAmerica community member CROOKLYNMAYO decided to make it a "race". He is still almost 1,000 points behind, with me needing around 900 or so to reach my goal. Oh by the way, NHL 2K7 is on the way from Gamefly ;-)
Xbox 360 price drop rumor
Well, this one "appears" to be real, as ads from Wally-World and Toys 'R Us have popped up on CheapAssGamer showing the new $349 price for the Pro in the August 12th Weekly. We will know soon enough if the release of Madden also sees that price drop.
Mass Effect garners some love
Looks like Mass Effect was the big winner among Xbox 360 titles at E3, pulling in a nomination for Best Console, Best RPG and Best in Show. It is a beautiful game and look for it to become the next franchise on the Xbox 360.
Xbox Live Arcade releases
This week we get Bungies Marathon: Durandal and Spygass Board Games. Chess, checkers and guns baby!
CES 2008
Finished setting up arrangements to head to Las Vegas for the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. The room is booked, plane ticket purchased and I registered for my Press Credentials today. I look forward to this show every year. Anyone that ever gets the opportunity to go (it is not open to the general public) must take it. The sheer size of the multiple show floors alone are staggering. 22 luglio The clock is ticking down...Well, I have mentioned a few times about the project I have been working on for a while now. The start of this project should happen this week with the arrival of the first items we are going to take a look at. All I can say is that this will be a unique experience for the Gaming media, as well as an extremely informative and important one just the same (we hope!). Once the item(s) arrive, I will get started on it immediately and keep you updated on the progress. I still won’t spill the beans on the exact content, but I think everyone will agree that it will be worth the wait. 20 luglio XbA Gamerscore challenge...Since the gauntlet was handed down on July 2nd by a couple of XboxAmerica community members, there has been a lot of action in the 1st to 20,000 Gamerscore challenge. Although Crook was sidelined for five plus days with a nasty case of Herpes Simplex 10 (well, it was some bad blood sugar levels, but we won't tell) he still padded his score to reach the low 17,000 range. Problem is, Zapa had been racking up scores on vacation, and yours truly decided to get serious. As a result, 18 days into the competition here is the current standings as of 7/20 at 1:30 p.m. EST: zoboa - 18,354 a1zapa - 17,668 CROOKLYNMAYO - 17,386 As you can see, now that the itching and burning has gone down, Crook is within grasp of Zapa, but a solid 1,000 points behind my big lead. Check back next week for another update, and possibly a winner in this race. 17 luglio Did I ever mention that Mt. Dew was my favorite soda company...After a pretty tough day at the office, I came home to find a big brown box sitting in my living room. The only thing I am expecting wouldn’t be that size, so I checked out who it was from. The name "Young America" sounded vaguely familiar, but I still couldn’t place it....until I opened the first box. Then I saw the note, and I knew instantly what it was. For those that tell you no one ever wins contests, they are dead wrong. What I had was a Mt. Dew mini Fridge that I submitted an entry for in the Transform Your Summer promo by Pepsi. Check out the photos below of my new toy. It is AC/DC capable, can hold two 2-liters or 12 cans of pop or combination of cans and 20-oz bottles. It also has a heat setting, so you can use it as a warmer. A nice pick me up to end the day. And for those that don’t know me too well, I have some very good luck with contests, having won my Xbox 360 from Mt. Dew, two (2) Sony PSP's, a 160 GB Seagate portable drive, $50 in Quizno's gift cards and now this Mt. Dew minim fridge. All in the last two years. I'm not bragging, just pointing out that you will come up empty in 100% of the contests you do not enter. 15 luglio And another comes on board....Well, it looks like our project at GamingNexus and XboxAmerica should have some legs. We received another verbal agreement on Friday to add to our list of participating companies. I'm pumped about it, and so are the staff at both sites. It will be unique in the Gaming Media sector, thats for sure. More to come next week after the paperwork has bbeen filed and the goods start to flow.... 13 luglio Sony, king of the console clusterf*ckI won't reiterate everything that Sony has managed to screw up with the launch of the Playstation 3 (and since), but even with a forced change at the top, they are still managing to keep themselves mired in console decision making hell.
The latest incident tracks to an interview that SCEE president David Reeves did with GameIndustry.biz where he stated that once the 60GB Playstation 3 sku is sold out in America, there will only be the 80GB model available. WTF is that all about? I could have sworn Sony used their last lifeline at the beginning of E3 week by announcing a $100 price cut on the 60GB model to help spur sales. Apparently it was a "fire" sale to get rid of that inventory and bring in the new 80GB to market as the only choice.
While it appears that U.S. consumers will get better value for their money (an extra 20GB of HDD space and a bundled $60 game) they will also lose the Emotion Engine chip and be stuck with the emulation software.
If this news is true and Mr. Europe didn't mis speak for his American counterparts, then Sony is right back where they started at the beginning of E3 week. 11 luglio Thoughts on Microsoft E3 press briefingSitting here this morning trying to shake off the after effects of a late night, I have finally had time to digest the info from the Microsoft Press Briefing at E3. Although I wasn't in attendance in-person, the video feed from G4 wasn't to bad, so I have a pretty good idea of what went on (along with some real-time, on-site chat from Charles Husemann, EIC of GamingNexus). Here are some of the major topics and my thoughts:
Press Event
According to Chuck, it wasn't as spectacular as last years event (and this may be a recurring theme with E3 thsi year), but from my perspective it wasn't too bad. No major unexpected announcements on the Xbox 360 side except the Disney distribution agreement, but plenty of goodies from the Games for Windows side.
Rock Band rocked the House
While Peter Moore isn't the best game guitar god, he joined three members of Harmonix on stage to premiere Rock Band to the world. The mic for the lady signing was somewhat poor, but otherwise it looked like the set rocked pretty hard. Moore twice cut them off by pausing the game accidentally, but otherwise put on a good show. This should be a must have if you have the extra cash lying around for all the instruments.
Betas are in, Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat up next
This was pretty funny. They made the announcement after the CoD 4 demo that a Public Beta will be offered and you could sign up at the website http://www.charlieoscardelta.com (Which is age gated). I was pulling up the site within 5 seconds of the announcement and it had already crashed LOL. It finally came back online about an hour later, but there s only some brief details of the beta, and no sign up yet.
Viva Piñata brand still getting support
This hasn't really been talked about much, but Viva Piñata and it's accompanying Saturday Morning cartoon really haven't been getting much publicity lately. In my mind, that brought into question whether the brand would continue to get support from Rare and Microsoft. Well, that was answered last night with the announcement of Viva Piñata Party Animals. It looks to be a small shift in strategy, as the game will no focus on 50 minigames utilizing the Viva Piñata characters from the cartoon. If this goes over well, Microsoft could be looking at their own party game for Kids of all ages....
Xbox 360 Price Cut
It simply didn't happen, and I didn't think it would. A Bloomberg article today cites Shane Kim (VP of Microsoft Game Studios) as saying that a price cut announcement will happen sometime, but not at E3. My guess is still at the start of the Holiday selling season around the time Halo 3 hits retail shelves.
Unreal Engine 3 gets Live Integration
Make no mistake, this was a HUGE coup for Microsoft to get Live built into this Physics Engine. What this means is that any game made using the technology will be instantly be able to utilize Microsoft's Online Live Network, whether it is Xbox 360 based (required) or Games for Windows on Vista. Coupled with their current dominance in this market from the Xbox 360 side, this should give Games for Windows a needed boost into the online world.
Games for Windows and Live
This theme was stressed last night, as not only were 60+ titles announced for Games for Windows, but 12 will have Live integration. This includes Gears of War and Viva Piñata. The whole Games fro Windows and Live integration has been dangling at the end of a carrot for awhile now, so these updates were sorely
Gears of War on PC with new goodies
Cliffy B was trotted out to show off the new Gears of War for PC with Live integration. It looked great, and it will have some extras that the Xbox 360 version does not have. In addition to five new modes, you will have the ability to fight the Brumak and get new achievements. It is expected out later this year on Vista and potentially XP.
Disney Distribution deal
Another huge coup for Microsoft, as they continue to strengthen the already surging Xbox Live Video Marketplace. No less than 34 titles (many in HD) went live immediately after the press briefing, with a pledge of continuing support from all four Studios under the Disney corporate umbrella (Walt Disney, Touchstone, Hollywood and Miramax). Strategy and pricing will be the same for downloading and "renting" the Disney content.
A couple of things that flew under the radar
Cliffy B made a comment about Gears of War coming to both Vista and XP with Live integration. Problem is that XP currently is not Live enabled. I'm sure a software patch could correct that, but not at this point. We verified onsite if the XP was an "oops", and Microsoft PR said it was. However, when the releases showed up last night, their was five references to Live integration in XP in the one release. This one is still up in the air.
A new Halo 3 Limited Edition Console was announced and shown by Peter Moore. It looked sweet with a green combat paint scheme. However, I don't believe it was mentioned whether it is a Pro or Elite under the hood.
Scene It was also introduced as an exclusive title coming to Xbox 360. The key component is a new controller (looks like a Childs Toy remote with one big red button and the four regular buttons aligned vertically) will be introduced for this game. I believe they mentioned the game and four controllers will come packaged for the price of one Xbox 360 title ($59.99?). More to come....
Resident Evil was shown and was the only game that will not be out this year. This was another coup getting this game away from being an exclusive to Sony. It looked really good.
A special thanks to G4 for webcasting the event live, Chuck Husemann for chatting live with me from on-site (2nd row, stage left) and Major Nelson for providing real-time Twitter updates. 09 luglio Monday Meanderings 7/9: E3 editionIt's E3 Week, information will be flowing...
With E3 this week in the Los Angeles area, there should be plenty of juicy info flowing from the West Coast. Sony started early with the PS3 price drop, so how the other companies will react. Xbox Live Marketplace will get flooded with HD quality trailers and coverage, and game announcements galore will be seen. Probably the single best time of the year for the Gaming industry, but with E3 being pared down and spread out, the information flow may be a bit tempered. As information rolls out from E3, I will continue to commentate on it, good bad or otherwise.
New Xbox 360 releases this week
We don't have an Xbox Live Arcade title yet (but it should be something special with E3 going on), but Project Sylpheed is the only retail game release. With all the hype at E3 of the new game announcements, this isn't much of a surprise.
XboxAmerica Happenings
There is a grassroots Gamerscorewhore competition going on between A1zapa, Crooklynmayo and zoboa to see who can get to 20,000 the fastest. Crook has been quiet since 7/7 for some odd reason and was passed yesterday by myself. As of today, the standings are a1zapa 17,448, zoboa at 17,164 and Crooklynmayo at 16,851.
Pasta has some cool new toys about to be released upon the masses, I can't say what they are yet, only that they are coming.
Expect to see a redesign of the Article pages soon. We already changed the scoring back to a 10 point system to match what others around the gaming community do, and will be spiffing up the pages soon enough.
We are still missing Xbox Live members from the following states: Alaska, Washington D.C., Mississippi, Vermont and West Virginia. If you know anyone from those states, encourage them to sign up at XboxAmerica.com, as they will be the leaderboard champs for their state....
I mentioned it Friday, but it is too cool to not say again, we will be debuting a new feature on XbA and GamingNexus in the near future. It's something I have been pursuing for the last several months, and the first door to this project was opened last week. Stay Tuned! Sony already backtracking on quantity of games being released?Looks like Sony is already backtracking (for the second time) on how many First Person Software titles will be released through the end of the year. Back in June, new President and CEO Kaz Hirai declared that Sony will release over 380 retail and download only titles for the PS3 by the end of Q2 2008. Gamespot contacted Sony regarding that figure, and Dave Karraker (Sr Director of Corporate Communications) backtracked that number down to 105 retail games and 40 DLC games and content.
Yesterday, Sony's press release on the decrease in price of the 60 Gig PS3 and introduction of the 80 Gig PS3 had this little note slipped in there "...Throughout the holidays and this fiscal year, more than 120 new first and third-party software titles will be available for North American PS3 users to enjoy, in addition to the more than 40 software titles currently available." So basically, we are now down to 120 titles (which is still around 20 releases a month) that will be available for the PS3 by the end of the year. It is simply amazing how those numbers have been beaten down in a matter of 20 days....Again, it is pure bullshit and posturing on Sony's part until the consumer actually can see thee games become available. Sony PS3 cuts price, is the Xbox 360 next?Yesterday, Sony finally made it official and pulled out the last desperate card they had, which was to cut the price of the 60 Gig PS3 by $100. While doing this, they also introduced a 80 Gig model for the original $600 price, but it comes bundled with Motostorm. While this may spur sales for the console, Sony has involuntarily ticked off some users with the third (technically only two after already abandoning the 20 Gig PS3) sku who would have wanted more hard drive space, and they will continue to lose even more money on each console sold. It will be interesting to see when analysts believe the PS3 project will finally break even. The other funny thing is to see the lineup of games Sony touts that are coming. The majority are available on the Xbox 360 as well, with very few exclusives. The bottom line remains this is a system without a killer app(s) to drive it. Motostorm is a great game, but will people really pay an additional $100 for the game and another 20 Gig of HD space? Does anyone use (or even need) the 60 Gig that are available now?
Now, what does this mean for the Xbox 360? Is a price drop imminent for the Premium and Elite models? Will we get Gears of War or Halo 3 bundled in with new consoles? The answer will probably be seen at E3 this week, but my gut feeling is that no, we won't see a price drop (or bundling) until later this year at the earliest. Even though there are reports that Microsoft had been making (as opposed to losing) money on each 360 that is sells, a $1 billion charge to fix defective consoles and extend the warranty for the three-red-lights issue will likely deter a price drop until the all important Holiday selling season.
However, if Microsoft wants to stick a fork in Sony, now is the time. The folks up in Redmond aren't dumb, they have been planning for the day the PS3 price drop hits. The question is not will, but when will they pull the trigger and drop the Xbox 360 price. The second question will be and how far will the price drop be? My best guess is the Elite will drop from $479 to $429, and the Pro will drop to $399 to $299 and the core from $299 to $249. But who knows, the core may get the ziggy like the PS3 20 Gig model. Time will tell. 06 luglio Exciting news!I got back from vacation today and had a pleasant surprise waiting for me. The "project" I have been working on for over a month has finally come through per my contact. By next week, I should be up and running. I know I am still being cryptic, but until it is firmly in hand, I don't want to go overboard. |
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