Tech Lobby

Late yesterday, Microsoft announced that it will cut the price of the three Xbox 360 SKUs in Canada due to the ongoing battle with Nintendo and Sony to gain household dominance.

Microsoft spokesman David Dennis noted that prices only affect the Canadian market and prices will not change in the United States as “each market makes its own decision on the matter”.

According to the article, the Standard and Elite models will be getting a $50 price drop off their original prices (making them $349 and $449 respectively), while the Arcade model is only dropping a mere $20 to $279.

Has this price drop influenced your decision on whether to get a Xbox 360 or not?

News source: Reuters

In what could only be considered as good news for the franchise’s cult following, Microsoft and Epic Games have announced their intention to give Gears of War another go. Despite only scraping by with a couple of million units sold, Microsoft is determined to help the motley bunch of macho marines break into the niche shooter market with an Xbox 360 sequel, Gears of War 2.

The game was officially announced by Epic’s CliffyB during Microsoft’s GDC keynote entitled, “A Future Wide Open: Unleashing the Creative Commnunity … and then give them Chainsaws.” The game will be coming exclusively to the Xbox 360 in November, 2008.

News source: Teaser Trailer
News source: Joystiq

Although the Xbox 360 has been, in many regards, a success for Microsoft, Japan has yet to embrace the console like the rest of the world, preferring instead Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s Playstation 3. Tokyo-based Enterbrain, which publishes game magazines and tracks video game sales, says only 257,800 Xbox 360 consoles were sold in Japan last year, in contrast to 1.2 million PS3s and 3.6 million Wiis. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that MS has decided to start selling a cheaper model in order to woo gamers there. This entry-level offering, which went on-sale in the US last year for $279.99, goes on sale March 6 in Japan for roughly $260 - about a fifth less than the least expensive Xbox 360 now costs in Japan. Still, it’s doubtful whether this move will help to spur sales of the machine in Japan; games are what sell consoles, and MS needs more games which appeal to the Japanese market to start making an appreciable dent there.

News source: AP

A stealth-mode startup is readying a Linux-based handheld gaming device with WiFi, USB, and a 4.3-inch 800×480 touchscreen. The “Pandora,” headquartered at OpenPandora.org for now, runs Linux on a next-generation ARM SoC with integrated OpenGL 2.0 compliant graphics processor. Powered by a lithium-ion battery, Pandora measures 5.5 x 3.3 x 1.1 inches — slightly smaller than Nintendo’s DS Lite, or GamePark Holdings’s Linux-based GP2X player, from which it arguably evolved. In terms of processing power, its designers claim Pandora will compare to Nintendo’s GameCube, a non-mobile gaming platform.

OpenPandora.org was launched last year by “CraigIX” and “EvilDragon,” both members of Gamepark Holdings’s GP2X gaming community. The two launched the site and began working on Pandora after GamePark Holdings released its second-generation handheld gaming platform, the GP2X F-200. Thus, the Pandora appears to be positioned as a more powerful successor to the GP2X, a leading (and one of the only) Linux-based game platforms. Since few games are available for native Linux, GP2X supports a variety of game emulators, including MAME, SNES, Genesis, and PC Engine. This lets users enjoy a variety of game titles originally written for other platforms. Pandora will initially offer full-speed PlayStation 1 emulation, says the group, with N64 emulation planned in a later release.

View: Full Story @ Linux Devices

Interested in ramping up on XNA but like to learn in short and sweet videos? Jennifer Marsman has created a short set of videos to help you learn XNA five minutes (or less!) at a time. To get started, Jennifer introduces part 1 of the XNA Development Ramp up with an XNA Framework overview. In this screencast, you’ll learn the software needed to get started using the XNA Framework to develop games for Windows and the XBOX 360.

Video: WMV (High) | WMV | MP3 | WMA | iPod | PSP | Zune
View: Part 1 (Silverlight Required)

The US space agency is exploring the possibility of developing a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. The virtual world would be aimed at students and would “simulate real NASA engineering and science missions”. The agency has published a “request for information” (RFI) from organisations interested in developing the platform. NASA believe the game would help find the next generation of scientists and engineers needed to fulfil its “vision for space exploration”. “A high quality synthetic gaming environment is a vital element of NASA’s educational cyberstructure,” the RFI reads. “The MMO will foster career exploration opportunities in a much deeper way than reading alone would permit and at a fraction of the time and cost of an internship program.”

View: Full Story @ BBC News

Xbox Live gamers will be entitled to a free download of Undertow from the XBOX Live Arcade in response to the recent excessive XBOX Live downtime. The game will be available to both silver and gold members.

Quote:

We’re pleased to announce that from 2:00 a.m. PST Wednesday, January 23, 2008 through 11:59 p.m. PST, Sunday, January 27, 2008 you can download the full version of the recent Xbox LIVE Arcade game, Undertow free of charge.

News source: Statement from Marc Whitten, General Manager of Xbox Live

After Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 3 arrived on the PlayStation 2 a few months ago in all its so-so glory, many fans were left wondering what’s next for Goku and team. Looks like Atari didn’t keep us waiting long. Today they officially announced Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit, the first fully next-gen videogame iteration of the franchise. Some may recall that Burst Limit was quietly unveiled for the first time at Jump Festa 2008. This new announcement confirms that the game is coming and will be hitting North America this year.

While the core Burst Limit gameplay seems to be sticking to the formula developed in the Buokai series, major additions will be worked into the game, not the least of which is a complete online mode. Naturally the graphics will also be receiving a huge boost. Keep watching for more Burst Limit information, including a solid release date, in the near future.

News source: 1UP

Tokyo show shifts from September, confirms Oct 9-12 dates

The dates for this year’s Tokyo Games Show have been revealed, and organiser CESA has decided to push it back from last year’s September slot to October 9-12. The show, which takes place at the Makuhari Messe in Tokyo, will again feature two business days and two public days, a plan introduced last year in a bid to take advantage of the downsizing of E3.

That move saw a record-breaking attendance of over 193,000 attendees, according to official figures, as well as a total of 217 exhibitors from 19 countries - and specifically around 27,000 extra visitors across the two business days when compared to the single business day in 2006. Following last year’s slimmed down E3, the organising body ESA has opted for a return to the LA Convention Center - though it’s not intended that it will resume its previous format and has promised tougher measures on admittance.

News source: GameIndustry

Microsoft Corp’s Xbox video gaming unit still fully backs Toshiba Corp’s HD-DVD high-definition DVD format but could consider supporting Sony Corp’s rival Blu-ray technology should consumers want it, an executive said on Tuesday. “It should be consumer choice; and if that’s the way they vote, that’s something we’ll have to consider,” Albert Penello, group marketing manager for Xbox hardware said when asked whether Microsoft would support a Blu-ray DVD accessory in the event that HD-DVD failed. Microsoft does not believe the surprise decision last week by Time Warner Inc unit Warner Bros, the top seller of home movies, to abandon HD-DVD format in favor of Blu-ray should affect sales of its Xbox 360 video game console, Penello said.

“I fundamentally don’t think … this has a significant impact on Xbox 360 versus (Sony’s) PlayStation 3,” Penello told Reuters in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. “With the PlayStation 2, DVD was a big part in the beginning, but over time, people were not buying it as a DVD player after first year or two,” Penello said. The Xbox 360 supports a plug-in HD-DVD accessory that is bought separately, while Sony, hoping to give its next-generation video format a leg up, built a Blu-ray player into its PlayStation 3 machine. “You can’t say it’s not a bummer, not a setback, but I’ve seen this battle declared over so many times,” Penello said of Warner’s decision. “I want consumers to have a voice in this and I think there are a lot of consumers who bought HD-DVD who are going to have a say in how this shakes out.”

News source: Reuters