Xbox 360 Fanboy

(click to embiggen) Searching through some new'ish Microsoft provided press assets, we came across the official box art, packaging, bundle thingy for upcoming karaoke game Lips. Complete with two stylish microphones (we're partial to the white one) flanking the retail disc and a convenient harrying handle, the Lips bundle is a pretty well designed package. Check it out for yourself by clicking the pic above to view an embiggened version.

Prior to E3, when Microsoft announced the liquidation price cutting of the Xbox 360 20GB HDD models and the introduction of the 60GB HDD console, they made it clear that the changes would only affect North American territories. But now, thanks to UK retailer Play.com's £30.00 Xbox 360 20GB price cut, rumors are swirling that Microsoft will be making the same price cut and 60GB Xbox 360 announcements for European territories. An announcement that is speculated to happen during the Leipzig Game Convention this August.

Even though MS has already addressed this European price cut rumor saying that the Play.com's pricing has "nothing to do with us," we're optimistic our European fanboys will join in on the North American console restructuring. Because receiving cheaper 20GB HDD models and some newer 60GB HDD Xbox 360s is way, way cool.

Hot on the heels of Microsoft's "mock" price cut where they slashed the price of the 20GB HDD Xbox 360s to $299, only to replace the $349 SKU with a 60GB HDD, Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald is demanding a true 360 price cut to stay competitive with the Playstation 3.

"We remain very sceptical [sic] of Microsoft's pricing strategy and competitive positioning versus the PlayStation 3", Greenwald recently told investors saying that "at USD 349, with a 60GB hard drive, we just don't think it is a compelling product compared with the PS3 at USD 399 with an 80GB hard drive (along with more processing horsepower, Blu-ray, Wifi, HDMI, and going forward, more exclusive content)." Greenwald further picked apart Microsoft's E3 strategy mentioning that "Sony's biggest announcement was a strong counter-punch to Microsoft's USD 50 price cut on the 360", adding that "beyond Gears of War 2, Microsoft doesn't seem to have the same library of exclusive, must-have titles."

While we don't agree with Greenwald when it comes to the Xbox 360 lacking "must-have titles" or being less of a gaming powerhouse, we tend to agree that Microsoft missed an opportunity with their console pricing. Clearancing out the 20GB HDD models is fine by us, but we truly think a price drop across all models would have helped team Microsoft stay competitive with Sony and Nintendo. Especially in Europe. What say you fellow fanboys? Will a 360 price drop be necessary going into the holidays or will the 360's games library and content partnerships be enough to win the 2008 console war?

Update 4: Xbox head Don Mattrick confirmed that Bungie is working on a new Halo title. Whether this is related to the announcement is unclear.

Update 3: Luke Smith has commented to Joystiq: "We still have an exclusive publishing agreement with Microsoft, as we confirmed when we announced the split last year. That arrangement has not changed." Also, all teased images of an announcement have now been removed from Bungie.net and within Halo 3. View images in the gallery below.

Update 2: Luke Smith replied to a comment made in NeoGAF confirming the publisher in question is in fact Microsoft. Reponding to the comment, "Bungie is the one who made this great little hype machine. And--although this will just add to the fire--they never say it's Microsoft." Smith replied, "Our publisher is Microsoft."

Update: Bungie community lead Luke Smith has confirmed the postponement is legitimate. "We already are deeply disappointed with how things unfolded to this point without getting our fans to the intended payoff." When forum goers at NeoGAF assumed it was a joke Smith responded with the above comment and added, "Nope. Not our style." It's real everyone. Sorry.

It appears that the wait is over. Forgoing the original plan of waiting for the countdown clock to reach zero, Bungie.net has been updated with new information regarding the mysterious Superintendent. According to the newly refreshed site, the Superintendent is ... well, we don't know. According to the site Bungie was working toward a reveal when its publishing partner, presumably Microsoft, canceled the announcement.

Right now on Bungie.net a letter from Bungie president, Harold Ryan is displayed and reveals the cancellation of the announcement.

Note: To clarify the speculation that Harold Ryan is not the president (effectively the studio manager) of Bungie LLC, you may want to listen to the January 18, 2008 Bungie Podcast [link opens iTunes]

Jump in to read the letter.

Coming straight from Microsoft's Community Briefing yesterday (the same one where we got the chance to nibble on delicious chocolate delights), we learned that an Avatar's wardrobe could not only be comprised of those items offered through normal channels, but could potentially come from the earning of game achievements.

Team Microsoft said that the potential is there and developers are showing interest in offering unlockable Avatar content using game achievements. Think of items like a Gears of War 2 tshirt for your Avatar to wear if you earn the Seriously achievement or the unlock of a special ninja mask for completing Ninja Gaiden II on the hardest difficulty. It'd be an extra incentive to go after an achievement IF the achievement itself isn't enough, but the rub here is that you have to actually care about your Avatar's clothing. Us, we're all about forgoing the whole wardrobe unlock thing, sporting a naked Avatar and getting double the game's Gamerscore.

With the Microsoft press conference starting in less than half an hour, it seems that Gamerscore blog has updated via a Microsoft Media Alert in their Video Podcast that showcases the announcements that are going to be made during the conference.

• Two player local and Xbox LIVE co-op for Fable 2. (Coming Oct. 2008)
• Gears of War 2 campaign level unveiled and Horde mode (5 player co-op multiplayer)
• Guitar Hero: World Tour – eight player Battle of the Bands, redesigned guitar, drums, microphone, and studio music creator
• Rock Band 2 will play all your old music and exclusive on Xbox 360 – new online and instrument options
• Lips karaoke game with motion-sensitive microphones
• New avatar system
• Uno Rush – includes brand new avatar system
• New Xbox experience (dashboard?)
• Portal: Still Alive coming in 2008!
• And more (not announced in the video)

We should have more details on all that and more as the press conference begins and continues on.

Get comfortable, grab an extra pair of pants and glue your face to your computer screen (seriously, get the glue out), because today is the day Xbox 360 fanboys have all been waiting for. E3 2008 is kicking into high gear, because in mere hours, Microsoft will be taking the stage and revealing all their E3 secrets. A new Bungie game? Some avatars? Maybe Lips? Nobody knows, but we're certain Microsoft's E3 press conference will be kicking off this afternoon at 1:30PM eastern (10:30AM pacific) and we'll be blogging live! No, not live-blogging (Joystiq will be doing that), instead Richard and Dustin will both be participating in a live-chat. Think of it as a candid chat, where we'll be posting commentary of what we see on stage while it happens and (even better) you'll be able to interact by posting your own messages. It's like a big Microsoft E3 conference fanboy chat that's guaranteed to be good times. Oh, don't forget to play BINGO too.

Remember, Microsoft's E3 press conference will start today at 1:30PM eastern, so make sure to be here prior to and during the conference to experience our live-chat. See you here.

After all the controversy that has surrounded the game, gamers can finally give Too Human a shot for themselves. While it's possible that the demo of the Norse inspired dungeon crawler might not give one the full flavor of the game considering how story and loot driven the experience is supposed to be. Still, something is better than nothing, especially with a game that has been so divisive as this one. The demo is 1.1 gigs and is online now.

So the media blitz begins. GameTrailers just put up quite a few new Gears of War 2 videos, kicking off the massive amount of video that's going to hit the tubes during E3. The above video is about 5 minutes of multiplayer gameplay complete with curb stomping and meat shields. The rest of the videos (posted after the break) consist of a single old-map new-map comparison (Gridlock) and map fly-throughs for River, Security, Gridlock, and Day One. Oh, and be wary, this'll use up some serious bandwith.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

With E3 beginning so soon the news is really starting to flow, and over the next few days things'll be moving pretty fast around here. The first thing we've got are a few new Halo Wars screens along with a bit of concept art and info. Apparently Ensemble has worked hard to make sure to get all sorts of little things from the Halo universe into the game. We'll be seeing Sentinels in one or more forms (with a least a single variant that aids you if you gain control over its factory), and while the developers are coy about it, it's extremely likely the flood will show up in some fashion.

After tomorrow's press conference there'll likely be much, much more on Halo Wars. Including, if loose talk is to be believed, some news on a demo.

They've become so common with Microsoft that pre-E3 rumors and leaks are often thought to be absolute fact. While most of the other rumors about Lips had some sort of thread tying them to Microsoft, this one seemed to just come out of left field. From over at Gamekyo come not only the pics, but also the confirmation that the developer of the game is iNiS, the devs behind Elite Beat Agents. But honestly, no matter the pedigree of the rumored developer, this looks so cheesy that we actually kinda don't want it to be real. The mics do look good, but if this is accurate they really need to change the art. Ugh.

[Via NeoGAF]

After the Microsoft Gamers Day a while back, Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts was seen by many in the community as too much of a departure from the older formula. The addition of vehicles, parts, and the creation of the former using the latter wasn't exactly traditional to the series' formula. Despite the fact that what we saw and played was fun, we can definitely say that the bits we had time with weren't exactly reminiscent of the N64 days.

Rare looks to have anticipated the outcry and saved much of the more traditional stuff for later reveal. IGN recently got some media out of Rare that seems designed just for that reveal, the first video introduces you to Showdown Town, the game hub, and where most of the more traditional platforming happens. The second video showcases Banjo Land and displays some of the vehicle creation and editing, as well as some of the quirky world exploration. Get watching!

By the way, listen closely around 4:00 into the first video for what could be a possible mention of a long rumored item.

Alright kiddies time for some sleuthing courtesy of the Gears of War Official Forums. The Gears site has a new splash page up (above) and in Marcus' hand are some Dog (Cog?) Tags. Immediately upon discovery, there was the speculation that this meant death and loss would play some larger part in the game's story. But then someone decided to take a closer look at the number sequence visible on the tag: 033-116-117-126-071.

Seemingly random right? Nope. Match those numbers with one of these ASCII tables, and you'll get yourself the following letter string: "ESC N O V 9". We'd love to beleive that this was simply thrown in there to mess with the community, but it seems to be too much of a coincidence to be something wholly meaningless. Is this an early "word" on the release date? We sure hope so.

Hit the break for a closer look at the tags.

[Thanks Laron Alexander]

Well as E3 approaches, it looks Microsoft just can't keep a lid on their announcements. The lowered price on the 20GB unit has been rumored for a while now, and the idea has even been bandied about that its purpose was to clear the shelves to make room for a 60GB unit. While this of course is still waiting on some sort of official word (likely coming around or at MS's E3 press conference), a leaked email supposedly sent out to GameStop and Blockbuster company buyers seems to confirm both the new 60GB SKU as well as a "Live Starter Pack" for Arcade owners, which consists of a 60GB HDD, 3 Months of Live, a Headset, and an ethernet cable, all for $99.99.

Additionally, the email states the 20GB HDD is being phased out altogether and that the 120GB stand alone drive will receive a price cut to $149.99 (HA!). Word is that the 60GB Pro Unit will hit before the month is out and the Live Starter Pack will hit late October or early November. Whether or not the new 60GB SKU will be subject to the new price drop is unknown, but doubtful. Likely the 20GBs at $299.99 are a fire sale, and the 60GBs will still be $349.99.

The full text of the email can be found after the break.

E3 2008 is less than a week away when Monday morning, Microsoft will hold their conference and usher in the start of the expo. And just like years previous, Xbox.com and their team of investigative reporters headed up by non other than Major Nelson will be reporting live, dishing out the E3 news mash and asking if anyone wants a second helping. Currently, Xbox.com's E3 page has a preview of the content to come including an official E3 blog, news, videos, trailers and photos sections. It'll probably be a website you'll want to add to your bookmark list prior to next week, on top of your X3F bookmarking, of course. And if you didn't already take our "what do you want from our E3 coverage?" survey, maybe you should voice your opinion and cast a ballot.