Microsoft reports the Xbox 360 console had record beating Black Friday sales in the U.S. – outselling the PlayStation 3 by a three-to-one ratio and selling an estimated 25 percent more than 2007’s Black Friday sales figures.
Worldwide, Xbox 360 sales have also surged ever since the September price drop with Microsoft claiming the 360 consistently outselling the PS3 across Europe. “Console sales in Europe are up as much as 400 percent, with sales nearly double year over year and reaching 7 million consoles sold this generation.”
There’s no doubt that the recent surge in Xbox 360 consoles sales can be attributed to the price cuts but one must not forget about the recent holiday bundles that were introduced as well as the incredible bundles retailers were offering for Black Friday. In total, this is a good time to check out the Xbox 360 console.
[Check it out]
Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Xbox 360, Black Friday sales record
Written by flung on December 2nd, 2008 with comments disabled.
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First the good news – Jasper based Xbox 360 consoles have been confirmed in the wild. Now the bad news – there’s no clear way to differentiate a Jasper system from a previous (Falcon probably) system without opening up the box. In case you’re not familiar with the Jasper version of the Xbox 360 board, it features three main areas of improvement – graphics, power supply, and internal flash memory.
The Xbox 360 GPU – a key area for improvement gets one thanks to some die shrinkage – from 90 nm to 65 n. This translates to less heat which translates to smaller less powerful fans on the inside which… (drum roll) means quieter systems with lower power consumption.
In addition, the new 360’s appear to come with 150 watt power supply units – down from the traditional 175 watt units typically found. That should eek a few cents off of your electric bill.
Finally, the new rev appears to have 256MB of flash memory – up from the original 16MB. It’s assumed the larger space is being used to accommodate the New Xbox Experience.
This leaves us to the question of – how the hell do you tell a Jasper system from a non-Jasper system. Well, according to Anandtech, lot number 0842 from team FDOU or CSON and lot number 0843 from team FDOU have been confirmed to have Jasper units. HOWEVER, the irritating bit is – there have been confirmed Falcon units also within these lots. The only saving grace is this:
“If you get a console labeled 12.1A on the 12V rail and comes with a 150W PSU, you can be assured that you have a Jasper-based console. “
However, you won’t really know this until you open up the box. Good luck.. you might want to wait this transition period out before getting an Xbox 360 console. Jasper is the only reason I would finally get a new 360 over my current 360 (which has been replaced.. 4 times now I think?)
[Check it out via PC World]
Technorati Tags: Xbox 360, Jasper
Written by flung on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Those brave enough to venture into stores Friday were able to get their hands on some great electronics deals. Today is Cyber Monday when deals are offered by many retailers online. If you have an Xbox 360 on your shopping list to give to a loved one, Walmart has a deal for you.
Walmart is offering an Xbox 360 bundle today that includes an Xbox 360 Arcade console, Guitar Hero III Legends of Rock Game, Guitar Hero World Tour game, and a Wireless Gibson Les Paul controller. Other games are included in the bundle too like Sega Super Star Tennis, and five arcade games including Luxor 2 and Pac-Man.
The bundle retails for $269 and is in stock for delivery to the store or to your home. The only downside to the bundle is that the Arcade console lacks internal memory for downloading games from the online store. You might need to grab an external hard drive to go with the bundle.
Walmart
Written by Shane McGlaun on December 1st, 2008 with comments disabled.
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Most anticipated news this week was the launch of the BlackBerry Storm on Verizon Wireless, RIM’s first touchscreen handset. If you’re at all considering the Storm then make sure to check out our two part super-review: part one is here, part two is here.
Meanwhile, Apple released firmware 2.2 for the iPhone, bringing with it Street View and over-the-air podcast downloads among other things. Check out the full details of the upgrade here. That release was followed in short order by QuickPwn for v2.2. What the new firmware didn’t include was MMS messaging, but that might be arriving sooner rather than later if Mobispine have their way.
Microsoft launched the New Xbox Experience this week, but the update was mildly soured by the sudden disappearance of hundreds of Sony Pictures movies from Netflix. Sony Pictures maintain it’s not an Xbox 360-specific problem, merely one of licencing, but if our commentors are anything to go by their protests are falling on deaf - or doubtful - ears.
ASUS’ Eee Top ET1602 had its official launch in Taiwan on Thursday, a 15.6-inch touchscreen desktop. It’s the first of a range of similar all-in-one nettops, according to company CEO Jerry Shen, which they’ll need if they’re to compete with MSI’s just-revealed Wind Neton machines.
We’ve had a few exclusive unboxings this week, with Sleek Audio’s W-1 Wireless headphones adapter, the Nanovision MIMO UM-710 and UM-730 USB displays and Apple’s new late-2008 model MacBook Air all dropping into the SlashGear postbox. We also took a hands-on look at HP’s Touchsmart tx2 multitouch Tablet PC.
Meanwhile in reviews the HP Mini 1000 netbook, those cute Nanovision displays and Samsung’s Behold all got put through their paces. Finally we looked at HP’s xw6600 and xw4600 workstations and came away impressed: if you’d like to win the latter machine, make sure you check out our SlashGear HP workstation giveaway! Good luck!
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Written by Chris Davies on November 23rd, 2008 with no comments.
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One of the headline features of the New Xbox Experience is the ability to load games onto the 360’s hard-drive rather than run them from the disc. That’s intended to speed up load times and avoid frustrating drive noise. However it seems that not every title stands to benefit from the system in the same way: in Halo 3, for instance, loading from the hard-drive actually makes things slower.
The problem arises because of the way Halo 3’s developers tried to pre-empt loading time frustrations. The game automatically copies map data onto the Xbox 360’s hard-drive; now, when you try to install the whole title to the disc using the NXE system, Halo 3 is actually copying from one part of the drive to another. That takes longer than it does to go from disc to drive.
Developers Bungie have explained that Halo 3 was shipped before Microsoft finalized the NXE disc-copy feature, and as such they were unable to make the game compatible. While a patch is possible they don’t sound especially keen, describing it as “a significant undertaking” especially when gamers aren’t actually prevented from playing Halo 3. Perhaps all that’s needed is a warning that flashes up on the Xbox itself should gamers try to copy the title across, mentioning that performance for certain games won’t be improved.
[via Kotaku]
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Written by Chris Davies on November 20th, 2008 with no comments.
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Just a reminder to all you Xbox 360 console owners out there. Make sure to turn on your Xbox 360 today to get the New Xbox Experience user interface. In case you forgot, there’s a lot to the NXE, including a new user interface, user avatars, Netflix streaming, Xbox LIVE party, and much much more. Experience it yourself starting today by turning on the 360 and connecting to Xbox LIVE.
I totally forgot to do this early this morning so I won’t be able to do this until later tonight.
In other related news, Microsoft announced that 25 million Xbox 360 consoles will be sold by the end of this month.
[Check it out]
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Written by flung on November 19th, 2008 with no comments.
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Last weekend I downloaded the Mirror’s Edge demo for my PS3 and spent a bit of time playing. The game is very cool and fun. You are a free runner that moves atop the buildings in a massive city delivering messages.
To get from one place to the other you have to run, jump, and fight your way there across rooftops. The game has a very cool premise and offers very original gameplay. EA announced this week that it has shipped Mirror’s Edge to retailers worldwide.
The game will be available for the holiday season on the PS3 and Xbox 360. PC gamers will get their version in January. I never understand why they won’t release the PC version at the same time. I guess they are hoping the game will drive console sales. This will be one of the coolest games this holiday season.
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Written by Shane McGlaun on November 12th, 2008 with no comments.
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If you’ve been anxiously awaiting the arrival of Sonic Unleashed from Sega and you live in Japan, you might just have to wait a little bit longer. The original release date for the Xbox 360 and the PS3 was December 18th, but it has been moved back to sometime in the spring of 2009.
The game is set to be called Sonic World Adventure in Japan, and the delay is said to be due to Sega’s desire to improve the game. This seems like a good enough reason to me, but the quality assurance doesn’t seem to be across the board.
In fact, Japan is the only place that will experience this delay. The U.S. will still see Sonic Unleashed before the year is out, on the Xbox 360 on November 24th and on the PS3 on December 12. This is just plain weird. So the U.S. version of the game will have problems but will be released anyway? Color me confused! However, it seems the Wii version will still be released in both the U.S. and Japan on its original release date. So, that version will have problems everywhere–I guess.
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Written by Brenda Stokes on November 11th, 2008 with no comments.
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Microsoft reports the Xbox 360 console had record beating Black Friday sales in the U.S. – outselling the PlayStation 3 by a three-to-one ratio and selling an estimated 25 percent more than 2007’s Black Friday sales figures. 
