Adding weight to the rumors of a planned Xbox 360 price drop to coincide with E3, Microsoft have cut the price of all Xbox 360 models in Australia. The not-quite-entry-level, hard-drive-less Xbox 360 Arcade is now priced at AU$349, and the Elite at AU$649 - but most impressive is the massive drop on the Xbox 360 Pro - now $499.
Dear Bill,
In the eight years since you announced the original Xbox, the Xbox division has made it a lot harder to hate Microsoft. The original Xbox was the modders dream, and I know plenty of people who still have one in their living room as a media center. Xbox Live remains the benchmark for online and community features on a console (unlike the Zune, Live is “the social”.)
You also made the people from Bungee rich (something I felt was already deserved for gracing the Doom-less Macintosh with Marathon in 1994) and then gave them back their independence once they had polished Halo as much as any game should be polished.
My original Xbox 360 might’ve died within six months, but I was playing again within a week. It took Sony three consoles before they turned out a reliable launch unit, and they definitely didn’t treat me so well when my launch PSX died.
And besides - if the Xbox 360 didn’t exist, Blu-ray-pushing Sony wouldn’t have been in any rush to add DivX support to my PS3 - nor would I have played Gears of War.
I guess what I’m trying to say is… I don’t know where you were for that whole Vista thing, Bill - but thanks for the Xbox 360.
Regards,
Tim Hanlon
A beta for the ridiculously-named Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is scheduled to start on June 25. Only Ken and Ryu will be playable on one stage, with the test running for eight weeks. Capcom says testers will be able to submit bug reports and suggestions.
Ahh, the end of the financial year. Retailers discount heavily, and we try not to spend our tax returns in advance on shit we probably don’t need. JB Hi-Fi are consistantly one of the cheapest game retailers in Australia, but there’s some particularly good deals available for the coming weeks - with most new releases available for under $80, and the brilliant Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune for just $40. And I was impressed when Amazon took 33% off earlier in the week…
Click through for more bargains.
Can’t be bothered setting up a Japanese Xbox Live account? You’re in luck. According to Major Nelson, the Ninja Gaiden 2 demo will arrive tomorrow at 2:00 AM PT, in all regions except Germany and India. That’s about eight and a half hours from now - which makes knocking off work tonight seem a lot more exciting.
The demo for Ninja Gaiden 2 has arrived…in Japan. Those of you with Japanese Xbox Live accounts (and I assume there’s probably more fake accounts than real ones) will probably need no encouragement to get on the download. Those of you who don’t have Japanese Xbox Live accounts will probably want to see this Destructoid post running you through the process.
Ubisoft will be running a Private Beta of Tom Clancy’s EndWar for three weeks in June and July. If you’ve got an Xbox 360, a Live Gold account, broadband, and 3GB of space left on your hard drive, head over to the signup page, verify your e-mail address, answer a whole bunch of questions, and cross your fingers. Oh, and it’s open to people outside the US - bravo, Ubisoft!
Famitsu has broken the news that Street Fighter IV won’t just be an arcade game - with ports under development for the PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. No dates have been announced, but you’re probably immune to waiting by now thanks to the still-dateless Street Fighter HD Remix.
Microsoft will begin to remove games from the Xbox Live Arcade if they meet all three of the following criteria:
Gamerscore Blog recently answered a number of common concerns - even if a game is removed from the service, those who purchased it will still be able to play it (including online functionality) and re-download it if required.
As to what games will be removed, here are the games that have less than 65 on Metacritic - obviously I can’t comment on which of these have a conversion rate of below 6% - but I can certainly say I wouldn’t miss any of them:
| Hardwood Hearts | 64 |
| Crystal Quest | 64 |
| Speedball 2: Brutal Deluxe | 64 |
| Contra | 63 |
| Time Pilot | 63 |
| Marathon: Durandal | 63 |
All aboard the rumor train! A list of achievements supposedly from the Xbox 360 version of Grand Theft Auto IV has been doing the rounds, and are now available here for your perusal. They certainly look legit to me - check the full list of achievements after the jump and let us know if you agree.
