Xbox 360 to Retail for Around $300
J. Allard, Microsoft Corporate VP, and Chief XNA Architect, has confirmed that the Xbox 360 will have a price similar to that of the original Xbox.
In an interview with thestreet.com, J Allard confirmed that the Xbox 360 will retail for a price similar to that of the Xbox's launch price.
To read the whole interview, click
here.
I gasped a huge sigh of relief, because until this point I had only seen the Amazon pre-sell price of $1000. Let's face it, a grand is a lot of money for a game console, especially considering that you can now buy a decent PC for about the same price.
Allard went on to boast that they will be releasing the console to all three major continents for the same Holiday Season. This is unprecedented.
Sony still plans to counter with their latest release, although this time they won't be privileged to the 19 month head start that they were lucky enough to receive prior to the first release of the original Xbox.
The bottom line is that Allard wouldn't confirm a set price just that it would be around the same price as the original Xbox. Hey man, I can afford $300, bring it on!
XBOX 360
The XBOX 360 has been officially announced, and it looks like a serious player’s console. Once again the XBOX development team has proved that they are way ahead of the curve. This is going to be monster.
The XBOX 360 was officially announced via the MTV special: MTV Presents: Xbox, The Next Generation Revealed, hosted by Lord of the Rings actor Elijah Wood and rock musicians The Killers. The frosty white console stands upright, similar to the PlayStation 2 Console, with a very minimalist design similar to the IPod, and dig this SWATCH fans, you can switch out the face plate to customize the look. Sure, it looks sharp, but the real deal is what lurks under the finish.
The technical specification and other information can be found at the Xbox official website: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/xbox360/factsheet.htm
In a nutshell, the Xbox 360 is designed to now be the center of your home entertainment center, allowing for control of your DVDs, MP3’s and basically customizing every aspect of your game play. A new Xbox Live video camera has been added, which not only allows for video and audio communication between players, but now you can customize your games by placing your face on the in-game characters. The whole system is wireless ready, with out the need of external wireless power adaptors. This means that the Xbox 360 can not only rip video and audio from CD’s for use in customized game play lists, but it also able to transfer files to and from your home PC. Even the new hand-controllers are wireless, although many of the first reviews complain that they are UGLY. Hey Microsoft, bring back the huge original controllers, I loved those things!
Just check out the technical specs, and its’ easy to see that the Xbox 360 takes gaming too a whole new level. With its custom-designed IBM PowerPC-based CPU with 3 symmetrical cores running at 3.2Ghz each; 2 hardware threads per core and 6 hardware threads total, and a 500 MHz custom-designed Graphics Processor chip, developed by Microsoft and ATI; 48 parallel processing units (at 24 times total power), it’s easy to see that this console is going to deliver some serious eye candy with plenty of horse power to run the most sophisticated games.
As of the time of this writing, there really aren’t any video games available to showcase the amazing power of the Xbox 360, leaving us to wonder what the real possibilities will be. Many gamers have shown some apprehension towards the Xbox 360, as they did before the release of the original Xbox. Unfortunately, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo all of the games show were incomplete, which is to be expected of any game still in development.
Personally, I think that Microsoft has a real grasp of what today’s video game freaks are looking for in both a console and game. The Xbox delivered in online performance where other consoles have yet to go, and with the release of the Xbox 360 it looks like the sky is the limit.
So, I have some questions. Sure, the console promises to deliver an amazing amount of horsepower and graphics capability, but how will this power curve translate into the already LAG infested online gaming environment? Will these high power games have the same impact on Xbox Live? Or will we be forced to struggle with more annoying LAG?
Only time will tell, and with an expected release date ready to capitalize on this years holiday shopping season, my bet is that this is going to be on everybody’s Christmas Wish List. I know it’s on mine. I guess I better hit my affiliate marketing sites and start raising the cash. I don’t want to be the only hard core gamer on my buddy list still waiting for the back order to get filled.
Written by Bob Narley
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Halo 2 Stats RESET - New Maps
Halo 2 has 4 new maps and Bungie has re-set your skill ranking.
So you turned on your Halo 2 yesterday to find out that you had a big number 1 next to your ranking. Early in the morning Bungie re-set every ones ranking back to one, and all your hard work over the last 6 months has gone for not. Hey, at least you get to start with a clean slate. The bad news is that quitters are more popular than ever as they try to rebuild their score at the cost of their teammate’s loss.
I hate quitters. Bungie still needs to come up with a courage ranking. Quitters and betrayers should have a visible ranking showing their lack of team spirit. Perhaps if they dropped below a certain point that would be forced to play only unranked games with the rest of the newbie’s.
The good news, 4 more maps are available for download. Go to your download area and check them out. 2 of them are free while the Killtacular maps will cost you a whopping $5.99.
Are they worth it? Hell Yes! I paid the $5.99 with a smile on my face, and I would recommend that you do the same. If your running short on cash, you can still download the 2 free ones, while the Killtacular maps will be offered for free download after June 28th.
Go Halo!
