Someone needs to take Microsoft aside and tell them that sometimes the obvious penny savings still aren’t the ones to make. According to several GameStop employees, Microsoft have not only changed the packaging of the Xbox 360 Elite, but yanked the HDMI cables out of there too. In fact, they’ve made changes to the included accessories that – out of the box at least – limit new users to SD resolution graphics.
Since Kmart jumped the gun this morning and updated their site to tease the upcoming Sony PS3 Slim, we’ve been eagerly hitting their link in the hope that the preorder page might show up. Sure enough, the PS3 Slim has made an appearance – although in a very spartan listing with no image as yet – priced at $299.99.
Hot on the heels of FYE’s apparent PS3 price cuts comes a prominent new banner on Kmart’s website confirming “The rumors are reality”. According to the retailer, there’s a “new low price and a new exciting Playstation 3″; it seems their banner designer is yet to alert their pricing team to that fact, though, as clicking through takes you to the existing, non-discounted prices.
Rumors of the imminent PS3 Slim continue, with the latest fuel for the speculative fire being new promotional material talking up price cuts for the existing console at FYE. A store employee sent images of the posters in to Kotaku, with the cuts billed as a “new low price” rather than a “sale”. The 80GB PlayStation 3 is down $100 to $299.99, while the 160GB drops to $399.99.
According to information supplied to Eurogamer, would-be Xbox 360 buyers in the UK may have to budget a little more for their gaming fix. Chain retailer Argos had updated their listing of the Xbox 360 60GB model to say “We are very sorry, but Microsoft have discontinued this line”, since removed, while an unnamed smaller retailer had come forward to corroborate the discontinuation as well as suggest that the Xbox 360 Arcade bundle will in fact be seeing a price increase in the UK.
We may be feeling sour about the PSP Go’s hardware, but its software may end up putting a smile on our faces. According to Pocket Gamer, the upcoming handheld’s downloadable PlayStation Network (PSN) games will be priced at €1, €2 and €5 apiece ($1-$7), bringing them to the level of titles from Apple’s App Store for the iPod touch and iPhone. They also claim that Sony have been actively courting iPhone developers, in the hope that they will port their existing titles over to the PSP Go.
It looks like Microsoft isn’t phasing away only one of their products, but this time the end result is a bit different. We aren’t expecting a new Xbox any time soon, but we have all been hoping that the Xbox 360 Elite would get dropped in price, and it looks like that time is quickly coming upon us.
Rumors are always just rumors until the press release drops in our inbox, but evidence for Sony’s PS3 Slim update continues to pile up. After the leaked photos and the anonymous mutterings from retailers, Pocket-lint is next to stick their neck on the line and say that their sources – “close to the product” but, as always, unnamed – have tipped the refreshed console as launching next week at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany.
Guitar Hero 5 is set to be the first Wii game to offer full loading from SD card, with Activision promising SDHC streaming for the upcoming music title. IGN sat down with the team to discuss the change, which will see over 800 songs together with audio quality, note data, album art, and any mo-cap triggers or song-specific displays fitting on a 32GB SD card.
Microsoft have begun to push out the Xbox LIVE update for their Xbox 360 console, and along with the games on demand, new avatar customization and UI improvements comes confirmation that the company has signed an exclusive deal with Netflix for instant streaming to a console. The partnership means that the Xbox 360 will be the only console on which Netflix streaming is possible, effectively cutting the PlayStation 3 and Wii out of the loop.
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