xbox 360
Latest
Report: Rockstar investigating early copies of Grand Theft Auto 5
Rockstar is looking into the possibility of retailers breaking Grand Theft Auto 5's street date over the weekend, GamesIndustry International reports. The game is just two days away from beginning its life of crime. Rockstar told GamesIndustry that it is "in the process of investigating early 'sales' to determine how and why that is occurring." Its investigation follows photos posted online by users showing supposed copies of the game.
Game On: Smartphones pose little threat to gaming as we know it
Gaming is in a transitional period right now. We're approaching the end of a console generation, new handheld systems are attempting to gain a foothold, and smartphone gaming is just starting to put on its big boy pants and doing its best to swing with the big dogs. In short, it's a rather exciting time. A recent article by Horace Dediu and Dirk Schmidt of Asymco suggests that rather than standing before the scheduled rebirth of home gaming -- as we do every 5-7 years or so -- we are actually witnessing its last days, and the smartphone craze will be the executioner. I disagree. Before I dive in, I think it's important to separate mobile gaming and home console gaming. These are two very different beasts, and while you might see headlines for portable games alongside their console counterparts, the markets don't always share each others problems. First, let's look at home consoles. Couch gaming is king Nearly all of what Asymco's article uses as evidence of an industry on the verge of demise is taken from the current (7th) console generation, with little in the way of a historical perspective. So just to make things clear, the consoles that have been on store shelves since 2006 have overall handily trumped their predecessors in total sales. Gamecube: 21 million PlayStation 2: 155 million Xbox: 24 million Total: 201 million consoles Wii: 100 million PlayStation 3: 78 million Xbox 360: 78 million Total: 256 million consoles It's important to remember that the previous generation of consoles also has an additional 6+ years of sales at this point, and the Wii, PS3, and Xbox 360 have not yet approached their final sales numbers. The iOS App Store opened for business in 2008, so to take the twilight days of the 7th console generation and suggest that the products are somehow dipping in sales due to the emergence of gaming on smartphones appears a bit shortsighted. Nintendo Nintendo is featured prominently in the article because its tale of woe has been well documented and the company is extremely open with its sales numbers. What we see is a company that hit its sales peak in late 2008/early 2009 and is now coming back down to Earth. There are, of course, reasons for this: The Wii: The original Wii resonated with consumers in a way that no console before it managed to. This was thanks to its intuitive controller and a suite of games that even your grandmother could play -- and she probably did. It had all the appeal of a must-have holiday toy, a la Tickle Me Elmo, combined with a bargain price and, oh, it also had Mario. It was a perfect storm for Nintendo and they bathed in the riches for a long, long time. Now, the honeymoon is over and both the non-gamer and gamer markets have had their fill. The Wii U: It's still relatively new, but the fact remains that there has been very little in the way of must-play games for the console. There were already countless critics that pointed out the system's shortcomings even before we all realized its sales figures were nosediving, but it's extremely clear at this point that Nintendo dropped the ball here. It's an undesirable product, which has nothing to do with outside factors. Taking the flash-bang success of the Wii and following it up with a product like the Wii U produces a pretty convincingly negative trend on a graph, but there is no data that shows that smartphones are the cause. The only party to blame for this turn of fortune is Nintendo. I recently made the case that Nintendo needs to strongly consider using iOS as a platform for its own first-party games. I didn't suggest this because I think the console market is unsuitable for standalone gaming systems, but rather because after a string of very poor decisions it may be the one play Nintendo has that could both win favor with disenfranchised gamers and bring new fans into the fold. Consoles make money, but not in the same way smartphones do When Apple sells an iPhone 5, the company makes as much as $442 in profit. When Sony launched the PlayStation 3 it lost upwards of $300 per console. This is what makes debating console sales figures so difficult; It's a much more complicated metric than just listing how many iPhones were sold and calling it a success. Microsoft lost $125 on every Xbox 360 it sold during launch, but when the company turns around and sells 4.2 million copies of Halo 3 at a minimum of $60 each, things start to look a lot different. Halo 3 had a reported budget of $60 million (roughly half of which was spent on marketing), but the game made over $300 million in just its first week. That's why companies like Sony and Microsoft have historically sold their systems at a loss -- it's about building the install base that will buy your games later, not about how much money is made from selling the console. The number of consoles sold is still important, which is why it's significant that more consoles were sold in the current generation than the previous one, but the point here is that Apple (or any smartphone manufacturer) needs to sell more and more of the profitable hardware each time. Console makers don't have to worry about selling a new system every year, or even every five years, because the profit comes from licensing content, selling first-party games, collecting subscription fees from online services like Xbox Live and PS Plus, and several other avenues. If home game consoles in general were hemorrhaging cash from their respective companies it would be pretty hard to explain why we're just a few weeks away from the third Xbox and fourth PlayStation. Apples and oranges Suggesting that an at-home gaming experience could somehow be replaced by a device like the iPhone or even the iPad is a bit like saying microwaves will soon replace stoves. Sure, your microwave can do some of the same things, and it may be more convenient, but when you want a hearty, home-cooked meal the microwave just can't do what your stove can do. Yes, there are first-person shooters on the iPad that -- at least in screenshots -- look like they could have been taken from an Xbox 360, but you'd never consider one as a replacement for the other. That's why home versions of Call of Duty regularly shatter previous sales records while portable versions of the franchise pop up out of nowhere with zero fanfare or anticipation. These aren't two sides of the same market; They cater to completely separate needs. The easiest way I can prove that is with a little help from the Angry Birds. Angry Birds is one of the most recognizable IPs in all of digital entertainment, with billions of downloads and fans in every corner of the globe. So, if portable games are reaching a point where they are making home consoles irrelevant, a console port of three of the franchise's most popular titles -- Angry Birds, Angry Birds Seasons, and Angry Birds Rio -- would probably flop pretty hard, right? Nope. In fact, sit-on-your-couch-and-play versions of these mobile hits are so popular that the crossover title Angry Birds Star Wars is scheduled to hit PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and Wii U next month. Portable gaming may feel the effects Consoles are one thing, but when it comes to games you can play on a bus ride or during a break at work, smartphones may soon push out the competition. I say this because unlike the systems we play in our living rooms, the portable gaming scene has long been unpredictable and prone to dramatic shifts. The 3DS, for example, was a hot preorder item only to see sales wane and then explode again a few months later. I still think there is room for dedicated handheld gaming systems and judging by the fact that we've seen new entries from both Sony and Nintendo within the past month, the companies believe so, too. In fact, the renewed life of the 3DS -- thanks to the 3DS XL and new software titles -- was the biggest factor in helping Nintendo turn a profit after the dismal Wii U launch. That said, the 3DS and PS Vita will definitely serve as the canaries in the gaming coal mine, offering us a more concrete glimpse as to what effect as smartphones and tablets gain gaming clout. But until Apple releases an iPhone with a pair of analog sticks, there's no need for gamers to panic.
PAX Prime 2013: World of Tanks blitzes onto the 360
While there was definitely some buzz at the PAX Prime Wargaming booth about World of Warplanes, which will get its commercial launch on September 26th, World of Tanks was the main source. Not only is Wargaming planning to integrate accounts for both Tanks and Warplanes, but it also has the XBox 360 version of World of Tanks in closed beta. I sat down with some of the Wargaming guys and attempted to play the new 360 version. I struggled a bit with the console controls, but that had more to do with a lack of familiarity than anything else. As I played, we discussed how Wargaming has rebuilt WoT from the ground up for the console market.
Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate has online 2 vs. 2, a new ranking system and a lot of costumes
In addition to the new characters, stages, and modes, Tecmo has announced that Dead or Alive 5 Ultimate will update its Grade Point system, add a new Character Points system, an online two vs. two tag mode, and have 231 costumes to choose from when the game launches on September 3 for Xbox 360 and PS3. Character Points will let you know how good an opponent is with the fighter they've selected, as well as their world ranking. Meanwhile, the four-player online tag mode will pit two teams of two players each against each other. Both winning players in an online tag match earn Grade Points, which count towards unlocking new costumes. Sadly, we're relatively certain none of the costumes will be a thong bikini for the sexiest of DOA's fighters, Bass.
World of Tanks opens up European beta for Xbox 360 edition
Fans of tank-based combat who live in Europe have some good news today. World of Tanks has opened its beta servers for European players to test out the Xbox 360 version of the game, thus allowing another continent's worth of players access to all of the console-based tank mayhem. Eager participants in both North America and Europe are encouraged to sign up for the beta on the official site. This particular update doesn't just allow more people into the beta; it also adds new tanks to the game. United States and German tanks of tiers VII and VIII have been added to the game, increasing the firepower on all sides of the playerbase. No word yet on an official release, but the easiest way to speed it along is by logging in and testing to provide plenty of data on the console version's performance. [Source: Wargaming.net press release]
Rockstar reveals Grand Theft Auto Online
Rockstar Games today lifted the curtain on Grand Theft Auto Online, showing off the new title via a lengthy announcement trailer. GTA Online appears to be more than just a simple multiplayer iteration of the Grand Theft Auto franchise, and features player housing, a persistent world, and player-generated content. The game shares game elements and geography with Grand Theft Auto V and supports up to 16 players co-habitating in their own little online world. Players will be able to purchase and customize vehicles, own property, shape their appearance, and work their way through the criminal underworld, in addition to participating all the random acts of chaos the series has offered since its inception. In Grand Theft Auto Online, players have the freedom to explore alone or with friends, work cooperatively to complete missions, band together to participate in activities and ambient events, or compete in traditional game modes with the entire community, all with the personality and refined mechanics of Grand Theft Auto 5. Purchasers of Grand Theft Auto V will receive access to GTA Online when it launches October 1st on PS3 and Xbox 360 (and not PC). It is unclear whether the game will be available as a standalone product; we have reached out to Rockstar for clarification. Check out the reveal trailer after the break.
Heavily discounted 360 games at Microsoft Store
Microsoft is clearing out their Xbox 360 inventory before the Xbox One launches later this year with some impressively generous sales. A slew of notable games can be picked up for under 20 bucks. At the time of this writing, The Darkness 2, Max Payne 3, Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, Ninja Gaiden 3, Quake 4, Street Fighter x Tekken, Silent Hill: Downpour, Soul Calibur 5, SSX and Syndicate are all available for $10. Dead or Alive 5 and the action-crazed Asura's Wrath are $11 each. Assassin's Creed: Revelations is stabbin necks on its own for $13. The Devil May Cry HD Collection is $15 and, if it offends you, a great way to pretend the reboot never happened. The remaining offers are a bit pricier, but they're still decent deals. XCOM, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Darksiders 2 and Borderlands 2 are $20 apiece. Dishonored is creeping in the shadows on its own for $22. Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, Far Cry 3 and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance are $28 each. Dead Space 3: Limited Edition is slicing limbs and price tags at $33. Tomb Raider's origin story is $37, leaving Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 as king of the hill at $40. There were previous offers for great games that have already been sold out, so if you see something you like, rush it through the checkout. Of course, removing payment information from Microsoft-anything is an absolute chore. If you'd like to delete your card from their servers after your purchase, start here.
gdgt's best deals for August 7: Best Buy gift cards with Xbox 360, Wii U purchases
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals both come from Best Buy, which is offering big-ticket gift cards to those who purchase the latest Xbox 360 iteration or a Wii U. There's also an appealing offer out there for those who crave DirecTV's NFL Sunday Ticket Max app. Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
MMO Burnout: State of Decay
With an all-star dev team steering the ship, Undead Labs' State of Decay is topping sales charts and impressing fans, but it's certainly not done yet. The single-player zombie survival game for the Xbox 360 was created by several ArenaNet alumni (including ANet co-founder Jeff Strain) and aims to one day release an MMO version titled Class4. But in the meantime, it's breaking XBL sales records and showing us all how a decaying game premise like zombie survival can gain new life. I grabbed the game at launch to give me an idea of what to eventually expect from Class4, but I was quite surprised at what I found. A console game with a living world? A single-player action RPG with purpose and incentive? That's just what you get when you interrupt traditional console game development with a few designers from this crazy new genre known as MMORPG.
Coming soon to a console near you: MMOs
Remember E3 2013? That huge video games conference thing from earlier in the summer? Weeks have passed since Microsoft and Sony squared off in the Los Angeles convention center (while Nintendo posted up at Best Buy and Ouya sulked in the parking lot), but the news made there continues to reverberate through the games industry. One curious trend seems to have been missed amid the clashing of proverbial titans: There sure are a lot of MMOs and online-focused games due on consoles this generation. And since MMOs are the business of Massively, we thought it might be fun to compile a quick list of all the ones we can find that are either already available on our current consoles or set for launch on the next batch. The list, as it turns out, is pretty extensive.
gdgt's best deals for July 24: 47-inch LG LED 3D HDTV, HP Officejet Pro All-in-one
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include an eye-popping price on a sexy 47-inch LG LED 3D HDTV, an intriguing sale on HP's high-end all-in-one and a slew of cheap products for students and professionals. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
gdgt's best deals for July 22: Nintendo 3DS, RCA HDTV
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include Nintendo's 3DS at one of the lowest prices we've seen, as well as a hot deal on a 32-inch RCA HDTV. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
Wargaming CEO: Current Xbox certification process "unacceptable" for free-to-play
Wargaming.net is something of an expert when it comes to free-to-play game design. The studio's World of Tanks is one of the biggest F2P titles in the world, boasting over 60 million registered users and holding the world record for player concurrency. This population is likely to expand when World of Tanks launches on the Xbox 360 later this summer. There's just one hitch: According to Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi, Microsoft's current certification process is not very friendly to free-to-play games. Here's Kislyi speaking with Polygon about the struggles the studio faced in bringing World of Tanks to Xbox Live: One of the biggest challenges with Microsoft was the frequency of updates because the QA process and certification process takes an extremely long time. Totally unacceptable for a meaningful free-to-play. We are working with them to do quicker updates. Kislyi noted that Wargaming is trying to help Microsoft streamline the certification process, but that there is quite a bit of work on the tech and admin sides that needs to be done. As for whether any of this will result in meaningful changes for developers looking to launch on Microsoft's current or future console, Kislyi noted, "We will see." This isn't the first time Kislyi has talked about frustrations with Microsoft. A few weeks ago, he expressed his unhappiness with the fact that World of Tanks: Xbox 360 Edition players will need an Xbox Live Gold account to get online with the game.
Best Buy Back to School sale includes Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Metro: Last Light [Update]
Best Buy is pitying those of you returning to school in the coming months by having a gaming-related sale. Luckily, the rest of us can cash in on it, too! The sale ends on Saturday, July 27 and is only good for as long as quantities last. Highlights include the Xbox 360 Slim 250GB Darksiders II and Batman: Arkham City bundles, which are now $250. Bioshock Infinite, Metro: Last Light and SimCity are all $40 apiece. Battlefield 3: Premium Edition, Tomb Raider and Dead Island Riptide: Special Edition are $30 each. Assassin's Creed III and the Wii U version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 are both discounted to $20. NintendoLand is also available for $18, while in-store customers can pick up Kirby's Dream Collection: Special Edition for $8. Lastly, select 360 controller models are $10 off. Update: Listing changed to note sale includes only Wii U version of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2.
gdgt's best deals for July 15: Samsung 24-inch 1080p HDTV, ASUS Nexus 7
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include a dirt-cheap, dorm-ready 24-inch Samsung HDTV and a low price on an ASUS Nexus 7. It's also worth noting that the Kindle Fire HD, which we've featured before, has hit a new low at $159.99 at Best Buy, where it's available for in-store purchase only. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
gdgt's best deals for July 10: Logitech UE Air Speaker, 24-inch ASUS LED Monitor
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include an AirPlay-enabled iOS device speaker at its lowest price yet, as well as a hot deal on a 24-inch ASUS LED gaming monitor. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
gdgt's best deals for July 3: RCA 55-inch LED HDTV, Canon EOS 60D
Ready to save some cash on your tech buys? Then you've come to the right place. Our sister site gdgt tracks price drops on thousands of products every day, and twice a week they feature some of the best deals they've found right here. But act fast! Many of these are limited-time offers, and won't last long. Today's hottest deals include a 55-inch LED HDTV and Canon DSLR available at prices worthy of fireworks-like oohs and ahs. Want the latest deals delivered to your inbox? Join gdgt and add the gadgets you're shopping for to your "Want" list. Every time there's a price cut, you'll get an email alert!
Wargaming CEO wants to teach Microsoft a thing or two about payment models
Why is World of Tanks jumping to the console? Because if you can't bring a gamer to a game, you take the game to the gamer. That's the basic philosophy Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi shared in a recent interview with Games Industry International. He stated: We are an entertainment company and we have to cater to our players whatever they use. If you want to play World of Tanks on console, we have to make is possible for you. People have been playing with their console for seven years, so we shouldn't be trying to make them suddenly play on PC. We take the game to them. These people won't spend $1500 on a cool gaming PC for World of Tanks." Kislyi expressed unhappiness with the fact that players will have to purchase an XBox Live Gold Membership in order to play WoT on the 360; he'd rather add significant numbers of non-gold members who would monetize occasionally than force a pay wall on players. Kislyi also shared more thoughts on the integration of free-to-play and consoles in general, including the fact that Wargaming stands ready to advise Microsoft on how to embrace different payment models. You can read all the details in the full interview.
Takedown: Red Sabre bringing tactical shooting back to Steam and XBLA
Indie developer Serellan billed its first-person shooter Takedown: Red Sabre as a "spiritual successor to the original Rainbow Six and SWAT 4" when the developer successfully raised $221,833 on Kickstarter in April 2012. Squad-based tactical shooters, where real-life military tactics take priority over the run-and-gun trappings of triple-A shooters, are arguably harder to come by and have become a niche in the broad FPS genre. Crowdfunding Takedown made more sense to creative director Christian Allen then, who told Joystiq at E3 that "part of [the decision to crowdfund] was figuring out what people really care about and what people really wanted." The project's 5,423 backers saw promise in the game, due in no small part to the team's history; Allen is a former creative director on the Ghost Recon series and was design lead for Halo: Reach. Perhaps equally reassuring for tactical shooter fans is the fact that Allen spent about nine and a half years serving in three different United States military branches: Four years as law enforcement in the Marines and over five with the Air Force and Army. Takedown: Red Sabre features single-player, six-player co-operative and 12-player competitive multiplayer modes. Like tactical first-person shooters of the past, sprinting through the non-linear maps isn't a viable strategy, as the game places an emphasis on slow, strategic and realistic warfare. Part of that realism comes from the work put into the game's weapons: Allen said that creating just one gun for the game takes about three weeks of development time for the Seattle-based team of about 10 developers. %Gallery-192121%
May NPD: 3DS steals top console spot
The Nintendo 3DS finally edged out the Xbox 360 in May 2013 as the best selling console across hardware and portables, according to the NPD's monthly report on the retail sector. In what the NPD claims was a slow month overall, the 3DS landed three different games on the top 10 (including Donkey Kong Country Returns at number three, Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon at number five, and Lego Batman 2: DC Super Heroes at number 10), and saw a sixty percent growth in software sales overall since last May. 3DS hardware sales were only even year-over-year, but that was enough to finally supplant the Xbox 360 as the top-selling platform. The other consoles didn't fare quite so well, with Injustice: Gods Among Us keeping the top spot for video game sales. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 jumped back up into the number two spot, and Battlefield 3 reappeared at number nine. Metro: Last Light had a relatively successful showing in the number six spot, while Trion's Defiance MMO fell right off the list, after starting off at number five in April. Accessories saw a six-percent drop to $115.3 million, according to the NPD, with most of that money coming from Skylanders.
