The first wave of download content for Ninja Gaiden II has been detailed by Microsoft, which includes an 800 Microsoft Point (about £6.50) 'Mission Mode' pack and several secret-revealing videos. Mission Mode, the big one, includes 25 self-contained survival stages that feature trials not found in the normal single-player story.

Karma Attack missions challenge you to get the highest score, while Survival missions dish out a single weapon and then throw enemies at you until you kick the ninja bucket.

Ninja Gaiden II is the sequel to Ninja Gaiden and was released worldwide on Xbox 360 in June, 2008. It was developed by Team Ninja and published by Microsoft Game Studios, marking the first time a Team Ninja developed game was not published by Tecmo. While sharing the same number as the Nintendo Entertainment System game Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, it is not a conversion of that older title. The game has not been released in Germany, due to lack of a USK rating.

Reference:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/n/ninjagaiden2/default.htm

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 3:33 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Microsoft, XBox

Microsoft is cutting the price of its 20-gigabyte Xbox 360 video game consoles and rolling out a model with three times the memory space to take its place. The US technology giant's announcement comes two days before the official start of a major Electronic Entertainment Expo at which videogame console makers will be striving to portray their hardware as superior.

According to Microsoft it will trim 50 dollars from Xbox 360 models with 20 GB in the United States or Canada, cutting prices to 299 dollars. An upgraded Xbox 360 Pro model with 60 GB of memory will hit markets in those same two countries in August with 349-dollar price tags, according to the Redmond, Washington-based firm.

The reasoning for the boost in memory capacity is people's interest in storing digital photos, video, music and other data on gaming consoles which are essentially entertainment computers connected to television sets.

Reference:

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/community/news/2008/0713-consolestorage.htm

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 1:55 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, XBox

Microsoft Corp plans to cut the price of its best-selling Xbox 360 Pro model by $50, to $299 in the next few weeks, the Hollywood Reporter reported citing anonymous sources.

The price cut for the Xbox 360 model with the 20 gigabyte hard drive will come before the video game industry's biggest trade show, E3, taking place in Los Angeles on July 15-17, the report said.

A Microsoft spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.

Microsoft last cut the price of the Xbox Pro in August, from $399 to $349, prior to the release of "Halo 3" the following month.

A cut to $299 would make the Xbox 360 Pro $100 less than one of the console's major rivals, Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 with a 40 gigabyte hard drive.

Microsoft is locked in a three-way competition with Nintendo's (7974.OS) Wii and the PlayStation 3, which comes with a high-definition Blu-ray video player.

References:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i3a6a726c3dd89a148e015a61f32f42f8

http://www.xbox.com/en-us/hardware/

http://www.microsoft.com/xbox/

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 12:46 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Sharing, Microsoft, XBox

What does it feels like when you are politics and doing your job? It’s like a big, serious game! U.S. presidential election year was an idea of a new computer game called "Political Machine" casts you as Democrat Barack Obama, Republican John McCain, or other politicians trying to win the White House.

The underlying mechanics of "Political Machine" will be familiar to veterans of strategy games that usually have players collect resources, build facilities and make weapons. Instead of weapons like nuclear cannons and energy beams, players deploy spin doctors and smear merchants to take down opponents and boost their own ratings. Instead of conquering planets, players must win over enough states to carry them to electoral victory.

The game also offers alternate scenarios, such as the 1860 election that preceded the U.S. Civil War, and more whimsical ones like seeing what Europe or an alien planet would be like if U.S.-style elections were transplanted there. The game had mixed success in predicting the outcome of the 2004 election: it picked Kerry over Bush but correctly foresaw that the contest boiled down to who won Ohio.

"Political Machine" went on sale this week for personal computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system. Luckiest one who loves politics!

References:

http://www.politicalmachine.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Political_Machine

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 9:16 PM | 1 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games, Microsoft

For its first baby step, the game's Spore Creature Creator goes live at www.spore.com . The program, for Windows and Macintosh PCs, lets players design creatures using the game's editing tools. Those creations will populate the world - actually, the galaxies - of Spore when the full game launches Sept. 7. In addition to the free trial download, a $10 retail version is also sold in stores.

In development for nearly five years, Spore is an evolutionary simulation game that goes beyond the God game genre. In the full version of Spore, players can begin as a single-cell organism that must make its way out of the mire and onto land. Your critter evolves from a slug-like animal and gets smarter, joins tribes, creates a civilization and ultimately goes into space.

Each of the game's five stages - cell, creature, tribal, civilization and space - has a creative editor for evolving your creature and building structures and vehicles. The Creature Creator's drag-and-drop design tools that let you choose from a palate of body parts (mouth, eyes, legs and claws) and them adjust the malleable body and appendages to your liking. Also coming Sept. 7, in addition to the PC and Mac game is Spore Creatures, a game for the Nintendo DS, and Spore Mobile, two methods of evolving your creatures on the go.

Reference:

http://eu.spore.com/home.cfm?lang=en

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 12:56 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Microsoft

New research shows that U.S. retail sales of video games, consoles and game accessories hit $1.12 billion in May, a 37 percent rise over the same month last year. These parameters reported on Thursday by Market researcher NPD Group.


Take-Two Interactive Corp's Grand Theft Auto continues to be the No. 1 selling video game, and its version IV, released in April, sold 871,300 units in May. According to the research the top-selling hardware unit is Nintendo Co.'s Wii console. 675,100 units were sold in May. Nintendo's DS handheld player took second with 452,600 units sold. Those units have captured the top two spot's for four consecutive months. Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 3 and Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 trailed with 208,700 and 186,600 units sold.


As to hardware sales, they rose 34 percent to $428.6 million, while software sales rose 41 percent to $536.9 million, compared to the same month last year. Sales year-to-date come to $6.6 billion and the industry is on pace to bring in revenue between $21 billion and $23 billion for 2008.

Reference:
http://www.npd.com/corpServlet?nextpage=corp_welcome.html http://www.usatoday.com/tech/gaming/2008-06-13-video-games-sales-may_N.htm?csp=34

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 10:17 PM | 2 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Games, Hardware, Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox

GameStop will no longer stock or sell the Zune, citing weak sales and a poor fit with its "product mix". Despite recent the positive sales and only weeks short of Microsoft's launch of games for Zune, Microsoft's player will no longer be found at the gaming retail giant. The decision came about a month ago, and sales will continue at Gamestop.com until stock is depleted.

Adam Sohn, director of Zune marketing, confirmed the announcement: "We have a set of great retail partnerships that give Zune a strong presence at retail including Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and others. We will continue to invest in deep retail partnerships, and have seen good momentum online and at retail over the last few months including a great response to our recent Spring Update. We're looking forward to a continued strong presence at retail with our partners."

The move is unlikely to affect GameStop, whose sales come almost completely from video games but it puts up another hurdle in Microsoft's attempt to grow Zune sales.

GameStop has hundreds of stores across the country and losing that distribution channel could hurt Zune sales. Many of GameStop's customers are avid users of Microsoft's Xbox 360 console and could have presented a cross-selling opportunity for Microsoft. GameStop first offered Zunes to its customers for pre-orders in Oct 2006.

Microsoft has sold about 2 million Zunes since the device's release in Nov. 2006. Zune is estimated to have about 4% of the overall market share for digital media players currently.

The decision to stop selling Zunes took a toll on the company's margins in the first quarter. Gross margins for the quarter were 26.1%, down from 27.2% the same quarter year before.

Shares of GameStop were down $3.15, or 6.2%, to $47.72 following in-line guidance for the current quarter and fiscal year.

Reference:

http://www.gamestop.com/

http://news.yahoo.com

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 12:15 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Sharing, Microsoft, Zune

While Grand Theft Auto IV is racking up sales records, console makers are vying for bragging rights of their own, and Microsoft seems to be the victor.

GTA IV was released April 29 and global sales totaled more than $500 million in the first week alone. The first day the latest addition to the hit Rockstar Games series hit retail store shelves, sales were $310 million. More than six million copies have been sold.

The only question is, which console is the game being played on? GTA IV was developed by Rockstar North on two platforms -- the Sony PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360. Both manufacturers are reporting higher console sales as a result.

According to news reports that claim to have the inside scoop on Microsoft's sales data, Redmond is the big winner. Reportedly Xbox 360 console sales jumped 54 percent. Other reports estimate more than 60 percent of GTA IV games went to Xboxers, leaving less than 40 percent for PlayStation 3 gamers.

References:

http://www.gamerankings.com/

http://www.biline.ca/xbox_list.htm#g

Posted by Maka Asatiani at 8:40 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Game Development, Game Reviews, Game Sharing, Microsoft, PlayStation, XBox

Patients in Michigan's hospitals will have decent entertainment. Microsoft has teamed up with Cerner Corporation, an IT company specializing in healthcare, and Spectrum Health System, a group of hospitals in Michigan, to create a special Xbox 360 console for hospitals.


The Cerner Care Console along with watching movies and playing games will allow patients to take an active role in their care.





The entertainment component of the Care Console system is powered by Xbox 360 and Windows Media Player technology and allows patients to play games, listen to music, and watch TV or movies.



Source: http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Pwn-Therapy-Customized-Xbox-Developed-For-Hospital-Patients-8283.html

Posted by George S. at 1:30 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, XBox

Since 22nd of December Microsoft's Xbox Live has been experiencing technical difficulties. The situation got worse by Christmas and we can safely assume that users may experience even worse problems by the New Year.

The issues have been acknowledged on Major Nelson's blog, whose blog itself has been experiencing traffic overload.

It's a bit weird why the software giant was not able to anticipate the load and prepare redundant servers or whatever there is. Anyhow, I believe the engineers are working at their best to fix the problems so that users enjoy smooth and uninterrupted experience.

Posted by George S. at 10:17 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, XBox

Yesterday IBM announced that the company will be able to deliver 32nm chips to its partners by the second half of 2009. This means that Microsoft will have a possibility to make a new Xbox 360 based on that processor.

According to the IBM's estimates, the 32nm chip will offer almost 30% speed increase at a 45% power saving.

Hopefully, Microsoft will soon reveal its plans for the CPU upgrade for its popular gaming console.

Posted by George S. at 11:04 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: IBM, Microsoft, XBox

Nintendo has been the most successful player on the gaming console market so far. The company has made impressive profits, while its main rivals Microsoft has made relatively modest income and Sony has deep loses altogether.

Both Microsoft and Sony, have made various price cuts. Given this situation, Nintendo has no intentions to cut prices. Moreover, shortly, Nintendo will be bringing a new feature, which will enable Wii users to view TV program listings on the Wii consoles that are connected to the Internet, further increasing value of its already popular gaming console.

Posted by George S. at 9:35 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii

Which gaming console is the best? I think this is a rhetoric question and will remain as such for good. However, the gaming console market has another side - financial and probably the most important to the manufacturers. So, let's cut down rhetorics and quickly look at how each console has been performing.

At last, news is quite good for Microsoft. Its Entertainment and Devices division has posted an operating income for the first quarter of 165 million dollars. This may look funny in comparison to Nintendo's 1 billion dollars made on Wii and DS sales. However, the same period last year left the Redmond company with a 142 million dollar loss. Things look even better for Microsoft if we compare Xbox's profits to that of PlayStation 3. Sony has a 849 million dollars loss.

While Microsoft has started making profits from the Entertainment and Devices division, the company is still losing money on each sold unit. However, business is not about how much you make on a single product but how much a business unit makes overall. Microsoft's losses on each sold Xbox are "covered" by the sold games to say so. Recently released Halo 3 has already taken off and is not the last word from the software giant.

Unfortunately, Sony's business model seems to be the same. However, PlayStation 3 lacks killer titles, which ruins the business model, hence Sony's deep losses.

Posted by George S. at 12:43 PM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox

Little time is left till the holiday season and the competition among gaming console manufacturers is becoming increasingly tough.

To boost sales for the holiday season, Sony has cut the USA price of the PlayStation 3 by 17% and at the same time has introduced a less expensive model.

The price cut has an immediate effect, so from now on the US 80GB model costs $499 (was $599) and the $399 priced 40 GB model will hit shelves from November 2.

Unfortunately, price manipulation is the only weapon available in Sony's arsenal. Nintendo Wii sales have doubled PlayStation 3 sales mark. Microsoft's Xbox 360 sales are pretty strong as well. Moreover, the release of Halo 3 has further boosted Xbox 360 sales and no price cut was necessary.

It will be in the range of possibility to assume that Sony may need to cut prices further to come close to competitors, not to mention matching the more than 120 million PlayStation 2s sold worldwide.

Posted by George S. at 7:42 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox

Microsoft has launched the gaming mouse-SideWinder. The new product segment is “limited”, if one can say “limited” about the number of video games fans.

SideWinder is very comfortable. Its weight is between 5-30 grams in 5 gram increments. The mouse has three main buttons that switch between DPI 400, 800, 2000. Other settings could be altered using special software.

SideWinder Features:
DPI resolution-2,000;
Max acceleration-20G;
Inches per second max speed-45;
Frames per second image processing-7080;
Clicks f the main buttons-9 million;
Quick Launch Button;
Programmable main buttons-5;
Advanced gaming software for programming macros and profiles and customizing game settings;
A wide metal scroll wheel;
Vertical metal side buttons.
Price-$80

SideWinder is expected to ship in October.

Posted by George S. at 9:48 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Hardware, Microsoft, Mouse

Until recently I have preferred playing computer games on a PC rather than on a console. Why not? My Sony Vaio easily crunches even the most recent games at a pretty high FPS. However, playing graphic intensive games on a laptop is not that comfortable, especially in a hot summer.

That is why I have decided to buy a gaming console and started exploring different options, understanding power and weaknesses of consoles from Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.

Nintendo's Wii is technologically the least sophisticated and the cheapest of all three consoles. Nevertheless, eight months since its launch, the Wii has outsold both Xbox and PlayStation. Nintendo expects to sell a total of 16.5 million Wii units in the fiscal year ending in March 2008, up from its previous forecast of 14 million. This is a spectacular comeback for Nintendo, especially considering the fact that the Kyoto based maker of "Pokemon" and "Super Mario" games had fallen behind Sony's PlayStation 2 in the previous generation of game consoles.

Nintendo's comeback isn't just based on the Wii. The DS portable game console sold 47.27 million units worldwide since its launch in late 2004, far outstripping any other console on the market.

Generally consumers win from fierce competition and the gaming console market is not an exception. Sony slashed US prices for PlayStation 3 game console by US$100 earlier this month to US$499 for the 60 gigabyte model. Microsoft's Xbox 360, which has been quite successful in the US, sold sluggishly outside of software giant's main US market. Shall we expect a price drop?
Consumers' quick reaction on Sony's price drop (PS3 sales more than doubled in the USA in the two weeks since the price drop) signal tough competition ahead.

Well done Nintendo! Price reduction on Sony PS3 is only welcomed. But my choice goes to Xbox 360.

Posted by George S. at 10:03 AM | 0 comments  

Labels: Microsoft, Nintendo, PlayStation, Sony, Wii, XBox