While we’re all waiting for the eventual arrival of Halo 3: ODST, the rumors about Xbox 360 console price cuts have proved correct – well, mostly. On Friday, the price of the Xbox 360 Elite and Pro will both be cut, to $299 and $249 respectively. The UK will also see a price cut of £30 for the Elite – but a hike in the cost of the Arcade, which goes up by £20 due to “exchange rates” according to Microsoft, though they don’t explain how one version can go up while another goes down at the same time. The Pro version is to be phased out in the UK. [Source]
Whether they intended it or not, MS are showing themselves up as grasping yet again, which won’t surprise anybody, I guess. This greed is already obvious by comparing Xbox Live, which you have to pay for with the similar offering from Sony for the Playstation, which is free. MS’re adding a couple of new services, both of which cost absolutely nothing if you access them from a PC – but you will have pay to be a Gold user if you want to access them on the Xbox. Twitter and Facebook will be accessible to Gold users (only) after the fall update. [Source]
Market analysts say that, at $299, the Elite is not cheap enough to compete with the superior PS3, especially if you factor in the free online services. This means that sales of the console are not likely to be affected by the reduction, they say. I’m not sure I agree with this, $50 is $50 after all. And there are plenty of people who will go for the Xbox just because of Halo 3, still outselling many new titles after all this time, plus ODST due “any day now”. [Source]
While you’re waiting, some great Halo figures made out of clay can be seen on the Walyou blog.
There’s this market analyst called Michael Pachter who works for Wedbush Morgan Securities. Apparently this position gives him the insight to be able to predict the future for the game console market 6 years ahead.
Leaving aside that this guy’s expertise is probably more relevant to stock than gaming, it’s worth remembering that the recent disaster called the Credit Crunch significantly failed to be predicted by any of these so-called experts. So when he says that by 2015, the Xbox 360 will have fallen to third place behind the PS3 and the Wii, we can maybe take what he says with a big pinch of salt. [Source]
His analysis is based on the fact that the PS3 comes with BluRay, while the Xbox is currently stuck with an inferior technology. Since Sony owns the rights to license BluRay, and MS is its arch-rival on the console front, this might seem like a nobrainer. But there’s a gamechanger in the wings, and it has nothing to do with movies…
Project Natal’s developer kit for Microsoft’s camera driven full body motion controller is already out with game manufacturers (according to a piece in the UK’s Daily Mirror). It’s not due for release until the end of next year, but a new motion controlling “wand” for the PS3 is due out early next year – even though very few developer kits have been made available, which seems pretty strange.
Halo Reach is also due out at the end of next year, and Harold Ryan of Bungie says it “could” be enabled for Natal. Given that MS has made most of its money so far from the Halo franchise, it wouldn’t be surprising if this was the plan, or at least part of it. [Source]
And finally… If you’re a Worms fan, you’ll be pleased to know that the xbox live title Worms 2 is now available, and according to Team Xbox it’s worth playing. They give it 8.8, which is pretty good.
If you want the chance to win an xbox go over to NZ Gamer’s site and answer the question. You can find the answer in the full preview, linked to just above the competition itself.
The new Jasper boards are being shipped with more ram and disk space. No news on how to tell them apart, full story here.
Left4Dead 2 has caved in to pressure to replace the chewed off fingers on their original box art after lots of protests from the pc brigade. As you can see, Amazon’s image of the box doesn’t even show this, but has blacked out the pic altogether. If you want to see what it looks like now, Joystiq’s got a picture.
The rumors that Xbox’s new “full body controller” won’t work with dark skin don’t seem to be credible if you watch the video here. It seems the difficulty N-Gai Croal of Newsweek experienced when demoing the system may have another cause – like his dreads. Thinking about it, I don’t recall seeing anyone with long hair in any of the demos so far released. Whatever, you can be sure Microsoft are working on solving this issue right now.
Some industry people are predicting that motion control (including the Wii’s motion controller as well as this new development from MS) will take half the market, so it’s in Microsoft’s interests to make a success of this, and release it on time and with as few bugs as possible. This would be a first. Microsoft’s projects have a history of being late, buggy and often overpriced as well.
If you’re thinking of buying Damnation, this review may change your mind. Just Cause 2 by contrast gets a rave review at With Leather (wtf?). It comes out on 30 September. See the video below for a demo. Looks like fun. Wonder if it will work with the new full body control?
Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare has lost part of its title, as pointed out by Destructoid. Due out on November 10, it seems that the level of what Destructoid calls “grenade spam” has improved some – at least, no grenades were seen in the demo, but “increase according to the difficulty level”. [Source]
The new Games on Demand has been cursed with a name you can’t really abbreviate, but I doubt it will have any appreciable effect on its popularity. Microsoft just released a video showing how it works, and it seems impressive (see below). [Source]
Backing up your game disks is more than just a good idea, as a single scratch can stop your favorite game working for good – and having to pay out twice for the same game is no joke. Play safe, and back up your game as soon as you get it home, then play from the backup, and put the genuine disk away safe from harm. This is perfectly legal, so long as you only do it for your own use, and don’t go making multiple copies and selling them all over the net. Easy Backup Wizard is currently on special offer, so get your copy now, for less than the cost of most games. You’ll never lose a game to scratches again!
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If you want the chance to win an xbox go over to 
The rumors that Xbox’s new “full body controller” won’t work with dark skin don’t seem to be credible if you watch the video 
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by contrast gets a rave review at 
has lost part of its title, as pointed out by 