It’s been quite a week for Xbox already, with the launch of the hotly anticipated update to the Xbox Dashboard having just been released. However, Microsoft isn’t resting on its laurels — the company also released a companion app for Windows Phone 7 users and, yesterday, an official iOS Xbox Live application for Apple users.
Its arrival comes almost immediately after the Windows Phone 7 companion app, but the application for iPad, iPod and iPhone users is no where near as packed with features. Users of the Windows Phone 7 app can read up on whatever movie, TV show, music or game that is playing on their console; navigate through their console; play, pause, fast forward, or rewind content; initiate purchases; retrieve friend activity, achievements and related items; and launch a movie, TV show, game or app on the connected console simply by selecting a search result. Unfortunately, iOS users aren’t nearly as spoiled for features.
Microsoft’s Major Nelson says the free app will allow you to read and send messages to friends, manage your friends list, invite new friends, read and edit your full Live profile, change your avatar features, and view and compare your achievements with friends. Not quite as cool, but better than nothing.
Wii U Daily says it has talked to a developer with access to the new console, who claims that the device will use a 45 nm, PowerPC-based 3 GHz processor with four cores. The source claims that the Wii U’s processor is “very similar” to the Xbox 360 processor.
Additionally, the console may get 768 MB of DRAM that is embedded with the CPU, but shared between the CPU and GPU. The GPU appears to be a 40 nm AMD design. As we Wii U Daily mentions, these specs were previously shown to developers by Nintendo, so there is no surprise besides the fact that these may be the final specs. Nintendo has always focused much more on the game experience than on the hardware, but it is somewhat obvious that the Wii U will have to be much more powerful than the current Wii to enable gamers to move up to HD gaming.
Nintendo reportedly sold more than 500,000 Wiis during the Black Friday weekend and scored its best launch into the Christmas shopping season since the console’s launch in 2006. However, total sales for November were estimated to be down by about 17 percent to about 1.5 million units. In contrast, Microsoft was able to sell about 900,000 Xbox 360s as well as 750,000 Kinect sensors during the Black Friday weekend. Total Xbox 360 unit sales for the month were 1.44 million. Given the Xbox 360′s age, those numbers are impressive, but there are plenty of people who believe that many of those 900,000 Xbox 360s went into households with Wiis and consumers who were looking for an upgrade of their Nintendo device. There is a good chance that Microsoft is already chewing off Nintendo’s user base.
Sony, by the way, sold about 750,000 PS3, according to Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter.
We’ve seen a lot of nifty commercials in our time but these, these kind of take the cake. The Verge reports that Sony Entertainment teamed up with creative agency Studio Output and the Marshmallow Laser Factory to create a series of online videos to promote its PlayStation Video Store. Though the resulting spots don’t offer any idea as to what the PlayStation Video Store is like, they are pretty incredible.
Each purportedly shot in a single take, the movies are shot in an all-white room with a white couch, a couple of ‘helpers’ in white body suits and one actor. Virtual 3D environments are then projected onto the room, making it look like the man sitting on the couch has been transported to another world. Read more…
While Sony confirmed that the PS Vita will be able to dive into the PSP’s back-catalog from launch, it looks like it’ll miss out on anything pre-millennium. An updated page from the PS Vita’s Japanese site has backed up rumors that PSOne Classics and other “archive games” won’t be available when the quad-core console arrives in Asian stores next month. However, it’s not all bad news for anyone hoping to relive those jaggy-edged gaming triumphs of the late 90′s — the official response adds that plans for older titles will be announced in due course.
Earlier this month, Microsoft announced that its Xbox 360 dashboard would be getting an upgrade “in the coming days.” Today, the company has clarified that statement, declaring that the revamped interface will launch on December 6th. The update promises to bring deeper Kinect integration (including sharper voice recognition capabilities), Facebook sharing mechanisms, and a cleaner interface. Redmond also says that the fall clean-up will introduce “a wealth of new content,” including live TV, music and movies, available for streaming. For now, the dashboard is still in beta, though it certainly won’t be long before the masses get their hands on it.
Analyst group Flurry estimates that games released on Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android will make around $1.9 billion in combined revenues across the United States this year. This suggests that games based on these two platforms now bring in more revenue than Nintendo DS and Sony PSP games combined.
According to the group’s study, the Nintendo DS dominated the portable gaming market in 2009 with a 70-percent share followed by Sony’s PSP with an 11-percent share. Interestingly, the iOS/Android group already conquered Sony with a 19-percent share in the same year. By 2010, they commanded 34-percent of the market, reducing Nintendo’s share to 57-percent and Sony’s share to 9-percent.
By the end of 2011, the iOS/Android duo will consume 58-percent of the mobile gaming market while the Nintendo DS takes another hit, reduced to 36-percent. Sony’s PSP seemingly doesn’t have a chance with a meager 6-percent share. However when using actual dollar amounts, these percentages mean the entire mobile gaming sector took in an estimated $2.7 billion in 2009, $2.5 billion in 2010 and $3.3 billion in 2011.
“The most striking trend is that iOS and Android games have tripled their market share from roughly 20-percent in 2009 to nearly 60-percent in just two years,” Flurry states. “Simultaneously, Nintendo, the once dominant player, has been crushed down to owning about one-third of market in 2011, from having controlled more than two-thirds in 2009. Combined, iOS and Android game revenue delivered $500 million, $800 million and $1.9 billion over 2009, 2010 and 2011, respectively.”
“Within the portable category, an abundance of digitally distributed free and $0.99 games, available on hardware, that is both comparably priced and more powerful than traditional portable game devices, better appeals to many consumers,” the group continues. “As a result, the days of paying $25, or more, for a cartridge at a retail store may soon end. Further, the installed base of iOS and Android devices has not only reached critical mass, but also continues to grow at unprecedented rates. In their latest public statements regarding installed base, Apple and Google reported a total of 250 million iOS devices and 190 million Android devices activated, respectively.”
The report goes on to point out that Nintendo is facing its first fiscal year loss since the company began reporting profits in 1981 thanks to the slumping sales of the Nintendo DS and the Nintendo Wii console. The new 3DS also didn’t quite catch on, forcing the company to take another hit by dropping its price to $169.99 USD. Meanwhile Google and Apple are entering the console space by invading the consumer living room thanks to the tablet form factor (with HDMI output no less) and upcoming Apple and Google TV initiatives.
“Beyond 2011, if Nintendo continues to face financial hardship, it may be forced to consider difficult choices such as divesting its hardware business and distributing its content, for the first time, across non-proprietary platforms,” Flurry states even though Nintendo recently stated that it has no plans to enter the smartphone sector whatsoever.
Is it really game over for Nintendo and Sony in the mobile sector? For Nintendo, the end may be near if the 3DS doesn’t gain enough traction. Sony on the other hand has chosen to cast out a safety net (should the PS Vita fail) by supporting the Android platform. Maybe Nintendo will eventually figure that out too.
When Sony mentioned that the Vita wouldn’t support the PSP’s existing UMD library, we had to wonder what would become of the little discs. Sony hinted that something was on the way for physical media aficionados at TGS, but wasn’t ready to go into detail yet. Today, however, SCEJ announced the UMD Passport program — a service that will let Japanese PSP owners register UMD games through a PSP app to secure discounts for repurchasing titles on the new console. The discounted games average between ¥500-1,000 (about $6 and $13, respectively) a pop, but can go for as high as ¥2,400. The UMD registration app hits the Japanese PlayStation store on December 6th, and Sony hopes to make the system compatible with roughly 200 titles. Hit the source links below for Sony’s official press release and an initial list of Passport compatible games, in Japanese, of course.
We first got wind of Sony’s PlayStation Suite SDK back at the Tokyo Game Show in September, but the company just opened up the application process for a closed beta test, letting Windows XP and Windows 7 users in the US, UK and Japan submit their credentials for early access. Those getting the nod from Sony will be able to develops apps for use on the PS Vita, which is set to hit in February, along with the PS Suite — that “hardware-neutral” framework that’ll allow access from non-PlayStation branded products, including the Xperia Play, Tablet S and Tablet P, with the potential for third-party devices to come as well. The SDK uses the C# programming language, and doesn’t require devs to have access to actual Sony hardware — so don’t expect a Vita to show up at your door anytime this year. Think you have what it takes to be a Sony dev? Hit up the source link to send ‘em the word.
Whether it will be called Xbox Next, Xbox 720 or Xbox Loop, the next-generation Microsoft gaming console slated to make an appearance in 2013 will reportedly feature a “Zune HD-like” hardware platform: an ARM-based heterogeneous system-on-chip (SoC) with multiple dedicated assistive cores for graphics, AI, physics, sound, networking, encryption and sensors. The SoC will even be custom designed by Microsoft along with two unannounced partners.
In addition to the ARM-based SoC, rumors suggest that the console’s operating system will be built around a Windows 9 core. Yet a recent leaked roadmap suggests that Windows 9 won’t even go into Developer Preview mode until the BUILD conference in 2013, the same timeframe when Xbox “Loop” is slated to arrive in stores. For that matter, Windows 9 isn’t scheduled to enter beta until CES 2014 if Microsoft stays on track. Using a Windows 8 core sounds more likely for the unannounced console to better connect it with Windows Phone 8 devices and Windows 8 PCs.
According to rumors, the next Xbox will rely on the ARM-based architecture in order to make it smaller and cheaper than the current Xbox 360 system, further enabling Kinect adoption. Microsoft may be looking to make it more portable despite previous conceptual designs of the future console, but don’t expect the company to remove the optical drive just yet — physical media is still the preferred method of content delivery.
For years Microsoft has stated that the Xbox 360 console will have a lifespan of up to around 2015, but that never meant the company would hold off on releasing a new console until then. Yet with mobile technology progressing at an accelerated rate and the uncertainty of the gaming industry’s immediate future, it’s understandable that Nintendo and Microsoft are scrambling to push the console sector into another generation. The Wii U looks to take on a tablet approach while current rumors suggest Microsoft wants something a bit more portable… possibly with 3G connectivity?
As always, take all of this with a grain of salt: nothing is official or set in stone.
The Xbox 360 hasn’t received its new coat of paint for the fall yet, but Microsoft just announced Xbox.com will be seeing similar changes in “the coming days.” The old “My Xbox” section is getting the boot in favor of a “Social” area that lets you keep track of your XBL friends, thanks to some of the new features enabled by the upcoming dashboard update. Before the dash update is released, Xbox.com users can check out Beacons that let them mark which games they’re willing to play, or check out a friends activity page that resembles recent additions to Facebook and Twitter by informing you what friends are up to in real-time. Also revamped is the video section that lets users buy or rent movies and TV shows for viewing on their console, Windows Phone or Zune. Hit the source link for a few more screens of its Metro UI-fashioned new face and additional details, we’ll let you know when it all goes live.
Recent Comments