60GB Xbox 360 Rumor Flows

The current rumor is “later this month” Microsoft will announce a 60GB model of the Xbox 360 and phase out the old 20GB product line. This was intercepted (read: leaked) from an e-mail Microsoft sent to gamestop and Blockbuster, so you can only take it as “rumor” until a real announcement.

This new SKU would make the gap between 20GB (small) and the 120GB (big) smaller, allowing for consumers to pick a product in the middle without spending needless cash on the 120GB version. The larger disk is great for media downloads, movie rentals on Xbox Live, but for the typical gamer it might be a bit over-done. However, with Rock Band and Guitar Hero having downloadable content (DLC) having 20GB is getting harder each month.

The e-mail went on to say that stand-alone purchase of the 60GB hard disk would retail for $99.99. Great news, unless you recently purchased a full priced 20GB disk. The 120GB disk would also reduce by $30.00 in response.

Believe it or not, it’s a rumor that continues to flow from multiple sources. Undoubtedly Microsoft is going to deny anything about it until they actually want to announce it.

(Thanks, 1up)

0 thoughts on “60GB Xbox 360 Rumor Flows”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Post

July NPD Unit Sales: Wii On Top… AgainJuly NPD Unit Sales: Wii On Top… Again

Believe this, Nintendo and their Wii console takes another month as top seller. The only product that moves more hardware than the Wii is the DS. As a gamer, it’s hard to understand how the Wii product continues to sell like this with the least supported game library on the planet.

The DS is completely understandable as it has a huge library of games, is more cost effective, comes in pretty colors and can save you tons of arguments and fighting from your kids on a long trip. In many ways the DS is synonymous with peace and quiet. What does the Wii offer us? Wii Sports and a new control scheme along with a few hit titles from Nintendo but little else for now.

I’ll be the first to admit, I thought this would be Nintendo’s chance to turn it all around and get the third parties involved. They have everything going for them in terms of sales, third party developers should be pushing out games each month considering the craze factor of the hardware. This just isn’t true.

(more…)

Duke Nukem 3D Certified For XBLADuke Nukem 3D Certified For XBLA

Duke Nukem 3D has now been certified by Microsoft and is ready for the big time, let’s rock. It seems like “forever” since we’ve seen a Duke Nukem game, even if this is simply a flashback to 1996. There were plenty of gamers that have an Xbox 360 now that didn’t get to play Duke Nukem 3D back then

This is a great time for younger gamers to experience an old school FPS in the days where we had to network our DOS systems together and play over IPX, before the Internet would bloom to where it is today. This version of Duke 3D has Xbox 360 achievements, so you can go back and re-live and re-achieve like never before.

“Murderous aliens have landed in futuristic Los Angeles, and humans suddenly find themselves atop the endangered species list. The odds are a million-to-one, just the way Duke likes it!”

It’s important to look back at some of our old games and replay them to see just how much we’ve advanced. It may not, however, be enough to make an old school gamer re-buy the game again. I find it odd that someone took the time to put energy into porting old Duke 3D and have yet to release Duke Nukem Forever, that was promoted back in 1997 is that next great Duke game. Where is it? Instead, we get a rehash of the last title. Interesting decision.

(Thanks, Kotaku)

Small Games Make Big WavesSmall Games Make Big Waves

The game industry is doing “okay” in this bad economic time compared to other industries.  Primarily, Nintendo is rocking the house with their games, hand-held’s and consoles while mobile developers are showing some great successes in the industry. Many success stories in our industry are based on small titles, downloadable games of the more “casual” style while a few larger titles are experiencing slower than expected sales trends.

wiiwareWe’ve mentioned this in the past, but the tough economy gives many smaller developers great opportunities for success. While big publishers struggle to look good in the eyes of the investor, tiny developers can produce quality titles for minimal cash investment and time to market. Ten years ago, smaller developers tried to compete with the big boys making larger titles, cloning successful titles or simply asking investors to put it on the line for their game. Today, developers can create a small iphone app, a cute WiiWare title or exploit the XNA efforts of Microsoft for Xbox Live Arcade and actually have a chance.

There are still challenges with these smaller developers when working in the WiiWare and XBLA publishing channels, your game marketing and promotion becomes highly reliant on Nintendo, Microsoft or Sony for PSN. Tom Prata, senior director of Nintendo of America talked to Gamespot about this issue:

“Finally, there’s the problem of promotion. It’s not enough to make a great game if nobody notices it. Prata specifically said Nintendo will be devoting more resources to support the promotion and development of WiiWare games in the future.” (gamespot)

Of course, in the world of smaller game titles and downloadable casual games, you’re going to be at risk of finding a lot of “shovelware” — products that are only released to make a quick dime, often based on some license or popular theme/character. The great game titles will, hopefully, rise to the top and show themselves off amongst all the wanna-be money makers.

Those smaller developers putting a huge passion into their titles actually have a chance in this new industry trend. Game makers, internationally, now have a chance to grasp a small piece of the industry and make their dreams come true. The core audience may see this as a trend of noisly low quality titles, but I believe the industry needs this change to grow a new generation of developers based on niche interests.

While many can wait for their next release of Madden the rest of us will continue to spend a little money to see what the future innovators are going to be bringing to the table.