Microsoft Corporation announced today an “inventory surge” which will put “two to three times” the number of Xbox 360 gaming systems into retail channels beginning this week. Since its launch in November 2005, Microsoft’s new gaming platform has been hindered by limited availability in the U.S. and European markets.
“Today we have turned a major corner,” said Peter Moore, corporate VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business in the Entertainment and Devices Division at Microsoft. “With more consoles on their way to retail, 80 games available by June, and new content and experiences coming to Xbox Live all the time, there has never been a better time to own an Xbox 360.”
Microsoft is also promoting a number of forthcoming Xbox 360 games from major game publishers which should increase the appeal of the console system to gamers looking for the latest and greatest, graphically intense experiences, as well as content expansions for Battlefield 2: Modern Combat, Project Gotham Racing 3, Perfect Dark: Zero, and Kameo: Elements of Power. Forthcoming Xbox 360 titles include:
According to Microsoft, more than 85 percent of Xbox 360 consoles that are connected to the Internet have downloaded games, movie trailers, and videos from Microsoft’s Xbox Live service. Xbox 360 systems will launch March 23, 2006 in Australia and New Zealand.
Although Microsoft’s move to push the Xbox 360 harder in the retail marketplace as manufacturing capacity comes online, costs go down, and more games become available was expected even before the systems were launched, today’s announcement follows just on the heels off Sony’s announcement that it’s forthcoming Playstation 3 gaming console wouldn’t be available until November 2006, giving Microsoft a full year to establish the Xbox 360 in the market ahead of the current leader in console game systems.
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.