Well, it’s been a while since we did this, hasn’t it? The post-GamesCom videogame industry has been relatively uneventful, and will likely remain that way until the Tokyo Game Show. But nonetheless, a few things caught my eye today and I deemed them worthy of sharing with you. Shall we?
All that minus the HDMI cable now just $299
Xbox 360 Elite Price Cut, Pro Discontinuation Confirmed
So, yeah, remember the rumors about this? And then how Microsoft didn’t say a thing about them at GamesCom? I’m not really sure why, but it seems they didn’t care to make a big deal out of it. In any case, Microsoft officially confirmed today that the Xbox 360 Elite model was receiving a $100 price cut, meaning it now costs the same as the Pro model. ($299). What’s to be done with the Pro model, you ask? Well, it’s receiving a $50 price cut, and being phased out of production. Pretty sweet deal all around, though sadly, the Elite will no longer be packaged with an HDMI cable.
Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft’s director of product management for the 360 said that this price cut was a direct result of lowered production costs. Oh, and for what it’s worth, he denied the “rumors” of a slimmed-down 360 console, claiming that the 360 hasn’t even reached “half its lifespan.”
Verbinski Not to Direct BioShock Movie
This is actually somewhat old, but still disappointing enough to share. Because of the film’s new overseas filming locations, Gore Verbinski is stepping down as director of the BioShock film. And just to add insult to injury, 28 Weeks Later director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo is taking his place. (By the by, Fresnadillo is not to be confused with Danny Boyle, the director of the superb 28 Days Later. Days was awesome. Weeks sucked.)
Damn straight.
And with Verbinski goes the last of my hopes for the BioShock film. At this point, frankly, I see it going the way of the Halo movie. And perhaps that’s a good thing. In fact it almost certainly is.
Well! I have two hours before I have to leave for work, and a fresh copy of Dissidia sitting on my desk. Just arrived in the mail this morning; a bit late, but I can forgive them.
Yes, I’m kidding. I drove across the street and bought it with my own hard-earned cash. I’ll be there someday, though…
Tags: Bioshock, Hey! Look! Listen!, Xbox 360
I never really had high hopes for the film, but now I think it will turn out to be a full blown insult to fans.
I don’t think Microsoft wanted to draw attention to the fact that the Elite has less to offer than the PS3. Blu-Ray player and wireless internet to be specific. And not breaking as much. …as far as we know…
…. And free online play.
Meh. Xbox Live is cheap and way more streamlined, reliable, and consistent. I have zero problem paying less than $5 a month for that.
But you’re right, it’s worth pointing out. Games like Fat Princess have been running great on the PSN (save the first bumpy week).
Yeah, as a yearly thing Live’s not that bad, but still $0 better than $50, and I have just as many problems with my 360 lagging out as my PS3. To be fare, though, I think most of my connection issues can be blamed on my wireless network more than either system or service.
Still, I’ll agree the PS3’s a MUCH better deal from an overall electronics standpoint. Built in WiFi, Blu-ray, better media streaming (well, sometimes), upscaling (which I don’t think the 360 has, but I’m not sure). Good stuff overall, but I’ll still bemoan the loss of PS2 compatability and dual booting.
Good point, Darth. The PS3 is definitely better to play DVD movies on, and if you have the right media server, the PS3 typically does a better job of streaming as well.
@DG- I don’t know about watching DVDs, but the 360 is way better at upscaling games than the PS3.
Really? I didn’t know the 360 has any upscaling capabilities (good to know, though). Does it work for any 360 games, or just Xbox Originals or something? If they have the ability to upscale video on the fly, I don’t see why they wouldn’t use it for DVDs as well. I usually don’t like playing DVDs on my 360 just on account of the noise level, though.
@Ethos: My media streaming situation’s always been weird. I’ve got 3 different devices, each of which work somewhere between 80 and 95% of the time, but none of them work perfectly all the time. The PS3’s great for findng the servers (something the 360 will fail at periodically), but it seems like once in a while my network will slow to a crawl or something and the video buffer will constantly get used up. It’s really weird, but I’ve tried it wired, wireless, off a NAS, off a internal HD on a server machine, through a proxy, 3 different server-side programs, everything. Only common factor seems to be the network itself (if I download the videos to the PS3, they work great). Oh well, just one more of my laundry list of streaming media problems.
It shouldn’t matter too much that it won’t be packaged with an HDMI cable, as most people who have an HD Television already have one!
However, if you wanted to avoid paying $100 for an HDMI cable ( like I did today, bundled with TV Cleaner and Surge Protector) I guess you could’ve gotten an XBOX for 299 + the Cable.
Oh well,
Wii all the way,
Rosie
@DG- The 360 was designed with an internal upscaler which can upscale both original and 360 software up to 1080P. Additionally original Xbox software also benefits from the inclusion of extra anti-alising which was never part of the game’s initial programming. By contrast I can’t notice the difference between upscaled PS2 games and SD PS2 games.
@Darth – SN is right about the game scaling, and I’m right about the DVD scaling. But I totally should have mentioned that.
@Rosie – HDMI is pretty unreliable no matter how good quality the cable is. Paying for more really doesn’t do anything. I’m sorry you had to pay that much!