Japan might be the home turf of video game console giants Sony and Nintendo, but Microsoft refuses to give up the idea it can carve out a significant share of the market, and plans to launch it’s revved-up Xbox 360 Elite console in Japan on October 11.
The Xbox 360 was the first of the so-called “next generation” game consoles to hit the market, beating the PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii out the door by a year. The Xbox 360 Elite improves on the original Xbox 360 console by adding a 120 GB hard drive—all the better to store music, video, television programs, and music downloaded from Microsoft’s Xbox Live service—and an HDMI port for displaying high-definition content. The Xbox 360 Elite also comes with a wireless controller and black Xbox Live headset for Internet-based multiplayer gaming and chat.
Microsoft says the Xbox 360 Elite will sell for ¥47,800 (about $390). The basic version of the Xbox 360 console currently sells for ¥29,800 (about $244) in Japan. In North America, the Xbox 360 Elite sells for about $480.
Although the Xbox 360 has sold well in the United States and Europe, the console has struggled to make headway in Japan, despite aggressive marketing and price promotions. According to figures from game magazine Enterbrain Microsoft sold just under 123,000 Xbox 360 systems in Japan during the first half of 2007; in the same time period, Sony sold over 500,000 PS3 consoles in Japan, and Nintendo moved 1.78 million Wii consoles.
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 One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it.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.