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New, Smaller Xbox 360 Motherboard Leaked on Chinese Forum

Ryan Whitwam — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 20:02:33 -0500

This generation of gaming consoles is all about minor hardware revisions. The Sony PS3 has already slimmed down and dropped a few hundred dollars from its price, but now it looks like the Xbox 360 may be up next. A leaked pic of what purports to be a new motherboard for the console was posted to a Chinese forum. The board is significantly smaller which hopefully means a more svelte console.

The board looks much smaller than the current version, and appears to have a CPU/GPU combo chip. There’s also an extra SATA port present. We’re apt to believe the authenticity of this board seeing as Microsoft is currently hiring a Motherboard Design Engineer to “implement and verify the motherboard and other various sub-system boards that make up the XBOX 360 product line.”

We don’t know if this hardware revision will come with a price cut, but don’t bet on it. The Xbox managed to beat out the Wii in monthly sales for the first time last month. The PS3 had no choice but to drop in price to be competitive. Would a smaller, cooler console with a few extra goodies get you to drop some cash for a new 360?

Image via Engadget

Xbox 360 Outsells Wii, Claims Top Spot

Paul Lilly — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 10:03:55 -0600

In what ranked as a poor month in overall console sales, analyst group NPD reports Microsoft's Xbox 360 outsold Nintendo's Wii console in February. In doing so, the Xbox 360 claimed the top spot in U.S. monthly sales, a feat it hasn't achieved in over two years.

Despite Microsoft's strong showing, it was a pretty bad month for consoles. Combined sales for software, hardware, and peripherals came out to $1.26 billion, with console sales slumping 20 percent to $426 million.

"Honestly, I had expected the industry to perform somewhat better this month," said Anita Frazier, a games analyst at NPD.

Not surprisingly, Nintendo's DS dominated the handheld gaming space, selling 613,200 units compared to Sony selling 133,400 PlayStation Portable units.

As for the games people are playing, Take 2's "Bioshock 2" topped the sales chart with 750,000 copies across all platforms, and 562,900 for the Xbox 360. "New Super Mario Bros." came in second with 555,600 units, and "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" slipped into third place with 667,100 units, now the third best selling game of all time with lifetime sales approaching 10 million units.

Darkworks New SDK Offers 3D Gaming Experience Without a 3D TV

Ryan Whitwam — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:26:45 -0600

Paris-based Darkworks is wandering the floor at GDC making some pretty big promises. They say their upcoming TriOvis for Games SDK will allow developers to build in 3D support to 2D games. The real benefit would be that it would not require the purchase of a 3D capable display.

Darkworks is saying that all the 3D-ification happens in the software and the special 3D glasses. Apparently, this means those not wearing glasses would see a regular 2D image without the blurring of a 3D image. The technology will be available for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.

If this proves to be a feasible option, we may see DLC for existing games that enable 3D with the TriOvis system. Darkworks has said that the process of adding TriOvis to an existing game is very simple, taking anywhere from a few days to a week. We are really floored by the possibilities here. Let’s hope this is for real.

Microsoft Demos Gaming Across the PC, Xbox 360, and Windows Phone 7

Justin Kerr — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:06:21 -0600

Microsoft's TechEd conference doesn't typically get a lot of news coverage around here given it's IT focus, but keynote presenter Eric Rudder was showing off some pretty interesting new Windows phone features which are worthy of note. During his presentation he was able to show off not just a cross platform game that worked across the Xbox 360, PC, and mobile phone, but also how he was able to keep all of his gaming sessions in perfect sync.

Its hard to imagine it will ever be much more than a gimmick when it comes to gaming, but it might have some interesting applications for everyday productivity tools as well. After all, finding a mechanic that works with a gamepad, mouse and keyboard, and even a touch screen is a bit of an unrealistic proposition. And before you ask, no, it won't play Crysis. One thing is clear; Microsoft is taking it's new phone platform very seriously, and is obviously hoping to use it as a hook in the future to help keep you in the MS ecosystem.

Hit the jump to check out the You Tube demonstration, and take careful note of how hard he had to try to say "Windows Phone Series". Yep, he forgot the 7! Guess even Microsoft can't remember its own broken English product names.

The Ultimate Achievement: Win $1 Million for Pitching a Perfect Game in MLB 2K10

Paul Lilly — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:53:52 -0600

Holy moly, talk about a kick ass giveaway. 2K Sports this week announced it would give away an unprecedented cash prize to the tune of $1 million to whoever is the first person to pitch a verified perfect game in Major League Baseball 2K10.

"To compete, gamers must play in MLB Today mode, select from any of the available matchups, and then choose the option to participate in the ‘Major League Baseball 2K10 contest’ that will automatically default to the proper gameplay settings according to the official gameplay rules," 2K Sports states. "Entries must be recorded via camera or digital video recorder in compliance with guidelines provided by 2K in the Official Rules, and all eligible entrants must submit a copy of their recording in its entirety for verification. Submissions will only be accepted on DVD."

There are a handful of other rules you must follow, such as not being allowed to make any pitching substitutions, pause the game, or wait 60 seconds or more in between pitches. But should you be the first to get through nine innings with no walks, no hits, and no runs, you could end up a millionaire, at least until the tax man takes his cut.

Note that this contest only applies to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions.

Rules and Other Info

Image Credit: 2K Sports

Rumor: Lag Proving a Buzz-Kill for Natal?

Paul Lilly — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 08:24:43 -0600

Microsoft's Project Natal looks to make air guitar a bona fide gaming skill, as well as all kinds of gestures applicable to a "controller-free gaming and entertainment experience." But before Natal can get to that point, developers have to resolve a potentially crippling issue with latency, says news and rumor site Fudzilla.

Citing sources who "wish to remain nameless," Fudzilla says Natal's sensor-based control scheme could suffer from lag as much as .08 seconds to .12 seconds, most often hovering around .10 seconds. That might not sound like much, but it's enough to create tracking problems for fast paced titles.

Keep in mind that Natal hasn't shipped yet so there's still plenty of time to iron this and any other bugs out. Playing the part of Pessimistic Patty, Fudzilla says even while development continues, "it is doubtful that [the lag issue] will be able to totally be eliminated." Our take? We'll reserve judgment until the thing actually ships.

Image Credit: videogames.co.nz

Datel Space Dock, External Hard Drive for PS3, Xbox 360

Bart Salisbury — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:49:39 -0600

Gaming consoles are more and more positioned as entertainment centers. All well and good, as they’ve got the power necessary to live up to the task. One thing they don’t have, however, is hard drive space. And adding an external drive, for some reason is more of a chore than it deserves to be. Datel says it’s got a solution: the Space Dock, which provides a simple plug-and-play method for using an external hard drive with a PS3 or Xbox 360.

The Datel Space Dock is a 2.5-inch/3.5-inch SATA HDD docking station. It will handle SATA hard drives up to 1TB in size, and transfer data at up to 480Mbs. To use it with either a PS2 or Xbox 360 just plug it in. The Space Dock also connects to your PC and, using the “unique Memory Manager Software”, you can drag and drop movies, music, and pictures onto the external drive. What’s more, the Space Dock can be used to manage back-ups of your console’s internal hard drive.

Wonderful, except Datel’s product description is a bit sparse. For example, the folks at Gizmodo aptly note there’s no instructions on set-up other than plug it in. Gizmodo assumes that the drive is automatically formatted, with all necessary files for compatibility installed. But we all know what happens when we assume, don’t we? Furthermore, Gizmodo reckons the back-up feature only works with the PS3.

While the Space Dock is a good idea, it may be an even better idea to wait for a bit more information about the Space Dock to trickle out before plunking down $40 for one.

Image Credit: maxconsole.com

What Do Your Gadgets Actually Cost To Build?

Justin Kerr — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 21:27:47 -0600

Being a PC enthusiast and a gadget nerd go pretty much hand in hand, but have you ever wondered what it actually cost the manufacturers to assemble your army of iPod's and book reader's? Well wonder no longer because marketing research group iSuppli and Business Week have teamed up to tear down over 25 popular gadgets and have come up with what they consider a pretty accurate ball park picture of the manufacturing costs. Some of the results appear to be a bit out of date, particularly when it comes to the consoles, but it still gives a pretty good overview of how much money each product is raking in.

As you would expect most gaming consoles continue to sell at a loss, but many of the popular new smart phones actually make a fair bit of money when you factor in the kickbacks they probably get from the carriers. You can check out the full article to read about all 25 of the gadgets from the tear down, or review our sampling below for some of the more interesting snippets to save you time.

Gadgets
Apple iPad $499 MSRP - $219.35 Cost
Amazon Kindle $259 MSRP - $185.49 Cost

Phones
Apple iPhone 3GS $199 With Contract - $176.16
Google Nexus One $179 With Contract - $174 Cost
Motorola Droid $199 With Contract - $185 Cost
Palm Pre $200 With Contract - $137.83 Cost
Blackberry Bold $300 With Contract - $169.41 Cost

Consoles
Microsoft Xbox 360 $399 MSRP - $470 Cost
Sony Playstation 3 60GB $599 MSRP - $840 Cost

Any of these prices surprise you?