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Xbox Price Cuts Confirmed
Kotaku notes that the suspected price cuts to the various Xbox 360 systems have been confirmed. Xbox Live's Major Nelson posted the new prices ($199 for the Arcade, $299 for the Pro, and $399 for the Elite) and pointed out a BusinessWeek story discussing the changes. The price cuts will take effect on September 5th.
I think the RROD started being much less common with the HDMI-equipped models, but then again I have a first-gen that has been fine since day one. They have been updated a few times since they were introduced, and each generation has been more reliable.
Microsoft already switched to 65nm parts from the original 90nm parts quite awhile back.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Xbox+360+goes+65nm
From what I remember, after that people were liking how cool the systems ran. There also were some obvious ways to check your system, to identify which it was. (I think this was aimed at those getting potential refurbs from the RRoD)
Slashing the price of the 360 to below Wii levels isn't going to do anything.
The first Xbox sold around 24-25 million between November 2001 and June 2005 when it went out of production.
The Xbox 360 has sold just over 19.5 million worldwide(sorry vgchartz fake sales numbers) with about 9 months left before it reaches the same point in the Xbox's life where Microsoft pulled the plug on the console.
The Xbox and Xbox 360 are selling at a virtually identical rate.
Microsoft only shipped 2.3 million new Xbox 360's worldwide for the first half of 2008.
The Xbox 360 is selling at a virtually identical sales rate in the three major console regions, Japan, US, and Euopre.
Dead in Japan.
Dead in almost all of Europe outside the UK
Almost all the remaining sales coming from the US.
The Xbox 360 is selling to the exact same people who bought the first Xbox. Cutting prices isn't going to do anything. The demand simply isn't there. Just like the first Xbox there already is talk of the next Halo on the next Xbox being the savior of the platform.
Microsoft is letting PC gaming die from neglect while they waste their time getting nowhere in the console market. The 7 billion dollars Microsoft wasted in the console market could have been better used to revitalize they dying PC game market and keep PC developers from jumping to the console market.
In 2-3 years when you have an HD TV and surround sound, please tell me how good the Wii is. As an owner of Wii, 360, and PS3, I can assure you that the Wii gets by far the least amount of usage. It's a GameCube with a motion sensor remote. Is it really that enthralling?
To answer your first question, I found a refurbished 20GB hard drive on Gamestop.com for $60. To answer your second question, no, GTA4 does not require a hard drive (the box says it requires 1 MB of space to save). AFAIK, the only boxed 360 game that requires a hard drive is Final Fantasy XI.
The extension to Oblivion (assuming you had the original version and not the game of year edition) needs to be installed on the hard drive to use it as well.
I was wondering the same thing so I did some looking around. It is easy to find used drives (especially 20GB) - look on ebay, amazon, your local game shop, etc.
If you want a larger drive, you can hack one in. I don't think anyone has had luck getting any SATA drive to work, but you can buy the exact same model that MS uses and flash the firmware to make it compatible. Then you can either swap out the case with another 360 hdd, or solder up a cable to use the drive internally.
Nintendo has plurality, and sits a little over 3 million from majority share of the current generation console market. And if they continue to innovate at the current rate (improved sensors in the Wiimote, starting as an add-on; Wii Zapper utilizing Wiimote, basically free with $20 game; Wii balance board; etc), their install base will start growing a little faster but much more lucrative as the hot games begin to universally require some specific upgrade (balance board for snowboarding/skateboarding, zapper for gun games, advanced sensor for fine-control games but that goes straight into the Wiimote as an upgrade later), raising their $250 profitable console to $420 on currently available hardware alone.
Had Nintendo developed Guitar Hero 4, the guitarist would mimic your stance based on the balance board and Wiimote (enhanced with better sensor) in the guitar; the drum sticks would contain a small sensor; and the microphone would make you horny baby. Or not. But they would have probably toyed with trying to full-immerse you in the game.
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Burnout Paradise City also requires it.
I don't have the exact stats to hand but the vast majority of Wii owners apparantly just buy the basic console with Wii sports and never buy another game. Some people buy one or two. Very few have any sort of library. As a result, despite its market penetration, it's a brave company that spends a lot of money on developing a Wii title.
I want a list of atrocities done in your name - Recoil