Would Xbox 360 Live may cost double?

“I don’t foresee a scenario where we’re going to double the price of LIVE any time in the next couple months”

You may have heard rumblings around the net that Microsoft's Xbox 360 LIVE monthly and yearly subscription may double in price in the next few years. Videogame analyst/financial/inside guru Michael Pachter suggested the company's $50 Xbox LIVE membership fee, which players pay to access special features, could double in the next couple years.

Michael Pachter was quoted: "You can't hook a guy into Xbox LIVE Gold if he's playing on a PC," said Pachter. "That's the other problem. You really want to hook every gamer who has a 360, you want them to buy all their games on 360, play everything multiplayer, pay $50 a year, so that in a couple of years, it's $100 a year. That's going up, we all know that."

Microsoft’s spokesman David Dennis made some very interesting comments in a post-NPD conference call. The man with two first names David Dennis states: "I don't foresee a scenario where we're going to double the price of LIVE anytime in the next couple months," said Dennis.

According to that statement, it's feasible that a price increase for Xbox 360 LIVE can happen as early as the first of next year. The fact the Dennis mentions the next couple of months makes me think, he either misspoke and meant a couple of years or he knows something that he is not telling.

To throw my two cents into the pot--with the advent of 1080p HD Streaming arriving on Xbox 360 in the near future there has to be a huge cost associated with such a feature. Sony is currently making a killing charging a premium for Blu-ray movies. I can see Microsoft increasing the cost of LIVE to cover the cost of 1080p streaming and at the same time adding a premium value to their service. It makes sense for Microsoft to go this route--plus many will still pay to play. Microsoft logic behind such a feat would be "why not", we have an establish game library and everyone that owns a 360 has a pretty sizable friend list. We have Games on Demand, 1080p HD streaming, Facebook, Tweeter and Netflix. Why wouldn't someone pay a $100.00($8.33 per month) a year to access these premium features?

I would not pay a $100.00 a year to play with friends would you?

Microsoft Bricks Unauthorized XBox 360 Storage Devices

Microsoft's Major Nelson has issue a warning that next week's XBox 360 update will see the blocking of unauthorized storage devices such as the XBox 360 Memory Unit 512MB or XBox 360 Max Memory Card 2GB. This makes no fucking sense Microsoft, I currently used my Xbox 360 Memory Unit to store my profile and game saves just in case I happen to go to a friends house.

Major Nelson states:

"When Preview Program members start receiving the Xbox 360 system update next week, one of the changes is that unauthorized Memory Units will no longer work with the Xbox 360.

If you’ve moved your profile or saved games onto one to “back it up,” you’d better move it back onto an authorized Xbox 360 storage device prior to taking the update.

If you continue to use an unauthorized Memory Unit after the update, you will not be able to access your stored profile or saved games."

I do not understand this move and the purpose of it, will try to contact Microsoft for details.

Via:[PS3news]

Fist of North Star To Sell A Million Domestically

Kenji Matsubara, Tecmo Koei Holdings head honcho, expects great things from the recently announced multi-platform title Hokuto Musou aka: "Fist of the North Star". The game is based on post-apocalyptic martial arts manga Fist of the North Star (Hokuto no Ken). One of the best Anime to ever be released.

"Only in Japan, the game should sell a million copies," Matsubara told the Nihon Keisai Newspaper. According to the paper, the game is expected to launch worldwide, given the international familiarity with Fist of the North Star.

Turn 10 responds to Forza III graphics

The demo of Forza Motorsport 3 was released on September 24th for the Xbox Live Marketplace. While having the potential to be a huge hit when released, many are still complaining about the games graphics.

Che Chou, the community manager of Turn 10, was kind enough to address some of the concerns across multiple game forums.

Here is his response to a claim that the in-game graphics of Forza Motorsport 3 are different than the ones found in photomode:

"One clarification about photomode and screenshots we've released so far. Aside from the added effects such as AA, DOF, and motion blur, all assets you see in photomode are the same although I do stand corrected on one factor which is the player car. They do have higher detail in photomode while all other cars, the environments, etc. are exactly what you see in game. And as you know in replays everything is the same. Anyway, did not mean to mislead or 'play dumb' with earlier statements as I misunderstood how LODs were being used in the various modes. That said, many of the screenshots we've released thus far have used the in-game graphics car models since we often shoot a scene including cars that aren't the player car. It all looks good and representative of the game, imo

The demo is visually representative of the full-game so racing in-game won't look much different.

I don't see that many jaggies on my multiple TVs at home and at work, but everyone's setups can be varied.

I guess that's the thing. Overall, when I'm racing around the track, my eyes are not bleeding. I am a fairly big graphics ***. I love taking photos in photomode. Games with bad graphics distract me from my experience. That said, when I play FM3, I do not think about how awful the graphics are or low in-game car models, etc. simply because the overall effect is that the game looks good. Can it look better? Yes, totally and I agree it is not perfect. But does it justify the vitriol of some of the threads I've scanned this morning? I'm not sure that it does. Everyone has their own opinion on the matter and that's fine and there's not much I can say except I hope you'll give the final game a chance and have fun with it."

Via[examine]

Japanese Charts: PS3 Sales Decline Pokemon Sells like Gold & Silver

Sony saw a dip in PS3 sales to a respectable 51,055 units shipped. For the second week in a row, Pokemon Soul Silver and Pokemon Heart Gold led Japanese charts, as the new slim PlayStation 3 hardware experienced a mild decrease. Total sales of Pokemon Souls Silver & Pokemon Heart Gold where 443,133 units. Microsoft is still trying to gain some sort of traction in Japan with only 4,965 total units shipped.

Tales of Vesperia for Sony PS3 also made the top three with 216,593 total units falling 6000 short from the number one spot. Sony sales will spike tremendously this holiday season due to the release of a 250GB PS3 bundle, Uncharted 2, and Final Fantsy XIII in Japan. From the looks of it, Sony may be making some serious head way to catch up with the Xbox 360.

DSi 66,073
PS3 51,055
PSP 21,073
Wii 16,698
DS Lite 13,555
Xbox 360 4,965
PS2 2,723

LW	TW	Title	Publisher	Platform	Weekly Sales
1	1	Pokemon Soul Silver	Pokemon Co.	DS	222,579
2	2	Pokemon Heart Gold	Pokemon Co.	DS	220,554
NEW	3	Tales of Vesperia	Namco Bandai	PS3	216,593
NEW	4	Jikkyou Pawapuro Pro Yakkyuu Portable 4	Konami	PSP	104,377
NEW	5	SaGa 2: Hihou Densetsu Goddess of Destiny	Square Enix	DS	91,547
3	6	Tomodachi Collection	Nintendo	DS	72,629
NEW	7	Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Tag Force 4	Konami	PSP	50,697
NEW	8	Ys VII	Nihon Falcom	PSP	33,349
4	9	Dragon Quest IX	Square Enix	DS	32,603
NEW	10	Idolm@ster: Dearly Stars	Namco Bandai	DS	30,786

Aaron Greenberg: Sales boost from price cuts will last "a month or two"

Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg does not expect recent price cuts for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 to leave a lasting impression on the console sales race.

"I don't believe the price cuts that both companies have made will impact the market dynamics too dramatically in the long term," Greenberg, who is director of product management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live, told our sister site Eurogamer in an interview published today.

"We typically see a month or two of lifts and share adjustments, but then things tend to settle back to roughly the established market ranking."

PS3 Bayonetta "Bad Port": Blame it on Sega

PlatinumGames company's CEO Tatsuya Minam has spoke out about the recently weak showing of Bayonetta.

When Sega showed off the PS3 version of Bayonetta at an event in Tokyo late last month, many who attended were disappointed by the blurry graphics and surprisingly erratic frame rate when compared to the Xbox 360 version. Tatsuya Minami discusses the issue in a blog post today on the PlatinumGames blog, explaining that Sega is the company handling the PS3 port.

"With Bayonetta, we created the Xbox 360 version of the game first, and then handed off all the data and other assets to SEGA so they could begin the process of porting Bayonetta to the PS3, giving them advice regarding the porting process along the way and overseeing the progress to ensure that the PS3 version would be the best it could be."

PlatinumGames seems to be distancing themselves from the sub-par experience that too many PS3 owners has come to experience when it comes to multiplatform games this generation.

"As the developers of Bayonetta, we have overseen both versions, and I would like to make one thing clear. The Xbox 360 and PS3, as hardware platforms, both have their own distinct differences and peculiarities, and these characteristics will naturally give birth to differences in the final product. However, all involved endeavored to exploit the specific traits of each console to create an enjoyable experience. We feel the best way to evaluate this is by actually playing the game for yourself and coming to your own conclusions."

Both version will be shown at Toyko game show in the coming weeks and we will have a chance to see if PS3 owners again will be getting yet another mediocre port courtesy of Sega.


Fall Harvest [PlatinumGames Blog via Kotaku]

PS3 Motion Control Game Revealed

EA has leaked one of the first PS3 motion control PS3 games that will take advantage of this new tech when it arrives in Spring 2010. EA Sports made it know to the world that “Grand Slam Tennis”, which originally debuted on the Wii, has been in development for the PS3 and Xbox 360 for some time but was mysteriously delayed back in August.

Grand Slam Tennis will arrive on the Sony PS3 in the Spring when Sony PS3 MoCo glowing wands arrives. Xbox owners will be seeing a similar version later on Natal in the fall 2010. With Sony being first to the HD MoCo wars it will be very interesting to see how the gaming public warm up to Sony attempted to capture the casual gamer.

Shane Kim To Depart from Microsoft By Year End

Microsoft exec Shane Kim, the former VP of Microsoft Game Studios and current corporate VP of Strategy and Business Development for Interactive Entertainment Business, will be leaving Microsoft by the end of this year, he will be retiring.

Shane Kim over saw some of Microsoft biggest exclusives such as; Halo, Age of Empires, Fable, Gears of War and Forza Motorsport franchise for the Xbox 360 and Windows PC platforms. His career at the company spanned some 19 years, with 14 of those working in Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business division.