Microsoft has made it official: the company has taken $50 off the price of the base Xbox 360 console. Effective August 8, 2007, the estimated retail price of the base Xbox 360 console with a 20 GB hard drive will drop to $349.99. Microsoft’s hard drive-free Xbox 360 Core system will get a $20 price drop to $279.99, while the high-end Xbox 360 Elite with a 120 GB hard drive will see its price lowered $30 to $449.99.
Widely rumored beginning last last month, the price drop surprises almost nobody and falls just before the retail release of Electronic Arts’ Madden NFL 08, the latest installment in the top-selling video game football franchise, on August 14. The announcement also marks the first significant price shift in the Xbox 360 console since it was introduced in late 2005.
“The fact that we have been able to keep our launch price longer than any other console while retaining our leadership position demonstrates that consumers believe in the value of Xbox 360,” said Mitch Koch, corporate VP of Microsoft’s Global Retail Sales and Marketing Group, in a release. “On the eve of the best holiday games lineup ever and the launch of Madden NFL 08, there has never been a better time to jump into Xbox 360.”
The move is widely seen as an effort to increase the appeal of the Xbox 360 console as Microsoft begins to gear up for the holiday season. While Sony has just introduced an 80 GB version of the PlayStation 3, it has taken $100 off the price tags of exiting 60 GB consoles to spur sales. However, both consoles are struggling to compete with the success of the less-expensive Nintendo Wii, which—with its low price tag, innovative controller, and games that appeal outside the traditional gamer demographic—has proven to be a runaway success. However, the price of gaming consoles isn’t typically a deciding factor in a system’s success: that falls to the games, and Microsoft is betting heavily that the upcoming Halo 3 will propel the Xbox 360 to new sales heights—particularly since the company recently had to set aside more than $1 billion to cover the costs of extending the Xbox 360 warranty to three years.
Although unconfirmed at this time, Microsoft also apparently plans to begin introducing updated Xbox 360 hardware at the same time it rolls out the $50 price cut: according to report, Xbox 360 Core units will remain unchanged, but the so-called “premium” edition Xbox 360s will acquire an HDMI port, use a quieter DVD drive, and incorporate 65 nm processor technology to reduce heat. These changes would seem to include modifications Microsoft is making to improve Xbox 360 reliability, since quality issues recently forced the company to extend warranty coverage to three years. There’s no word on what sort of HDMI Microsoft will be supporting; Xbox 360 Elite and the forthcoming Halo special edition already offer HDMI connectivity.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.