We always get some of the big company execs throwing little jabs at one another over business plans, projections, and financial statistics.  All companies also find away to spin their numbers or reports of success over failure; so it should come as no surprise that when Sony announced that the PS3 had passed Xbox 360 in overall sales in Europe a while back, Microsoft responded with a right hook in the form of ‘oh no they didn’t!’.

So as the two opponents dance around each other looking for a strategic opening, Microsoft’s European VP of strategic marketing for interactive entertainment (damn that’s long) David Gosen says that Microsoft will stay ahead of its rival by way of aggressive investment plans, “We have some very aggressive plans in terms of investing in this market to be successful. We are in Europe to win. We’re not here to come second or third.” Unfortunately, Gosen doesn’t lay out what he means ‘aggressive investing’ how that will be implemented.  Better SKU’s, cheaper games, advertising? We’ll have to wait and see.

Sony’s Kaz Hirai has a better answer on how the PS3 is going to come out on top not just in Europe, but when looking at the big picture.  Instead of talking about aggressive investment plans, Hirai is laying it down on the games, stating, “As PlayStation 3 approaches the second anniversary of its release, the release of PS3 software titles with the true generation quality only available on PS3 is accelerating.” Continue reading this story..

Blizzard, who recently made nearly every gamer religious when they announced Diablo III, might be a bit concerned about their exclusive PC release. Paul Sams, chief operating officer at Blizzard, has now said that it’s unfortunate that Microsoft are directing a lot of their attention towards the Xbox 360, thus making the PC stand outside the limelight.

In an interview with Gamasutra, Sams says “Their gaming focus is very much on the [Xbox] 360. And that makes sense, cause they’re a hardware manufacturer as well as a software developer. And so they’ve got a lot of money and investment tied up in that system,”

“And I kind of look at it and say to myself that it would be great if they put more emphasis on the Windows operating system, certainly probably the most prominent operating system in the world. Even more so than console boxes.” Continue reading this story..

In the never ending war to be the most affordable current-gen system on the market, the 20GB Xbox 360 looks like it’s going to be on the receiving end of a $50 price cut, which would bring it down to $299, in the US.  The rumor has been floating around for some time now, and is backed by some pretty legit-looking retail ads which were leaked.

There has been no official word from Microsoft regarding this, but that’s to be expected with E3 right around the corner, which would mean it would be following the path of similar rumors in the past — a few weeks before a big industry show, some news gets leaked and the thunder is taken out of the company’s presentation without them ever even getting a chance to surprise us.  Regardless, the Xbox 360 is definitely in need of something to stimulate sales. With the PS3 slightly outselling it in the last few months, Microsoft has to do something if they want to solidify their second place position in the states.

Not that anyone really had any doubt, but I guess this puts the final nail in My GamerPad’s coffin.  The first strike against it came with the news that it originated on the 4chan messages boards.  Now, if you’ve been on the interwebz for long enough, you know there are three cardinal rules to follow.

• Don’t click anything labeled “Tub Girl”
• If your friend sends you an anonymous link, it probably leads here
• Never trust anything from 4chan

As if the amatuerish photoshopping and the poorly-concieved avatar weren’t enough, it didn’t take long for the internet to sniff out one of it’s own.  It seems the background for My GamerPad is nothing more than a direct copy of a 3D render of one of the users on art hotspot deviantART.

I think that My GamerPad did prove something though.  It proved that internet optimism is still alive and well.  While some folks dismissed the image as a fake, there were droves of gamers that accepted it without question, and were promptly stomped to death by an army of PS3 owners chanting “thieves!”.  Now Sony, can you just release HOME already? I mean seriously, we’ve been waiting long enough, and in the world of videogames, good ideas only stay exclusive for a limited time…

You’d be pretty wise to take this “news” with an entire brick of salt, but with new information leaking from every corner of the industry, you can never rule anything out as being “too crazy”.

Originally showing up over on the 4chan picture boards, a user has posted images of what they claim is a new program/game for the Xbox 360 known as My GamerPad.  Not much is known other than the info that someone could deduce from the screenshots, but it’s pretty interesting nonetheless.  It appears to be one of the “Avatar” characters that we heard about earlier this month, in a virtual world of its own.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that this is more than a little like Sony’s oft-delayed HOME.  While it’s certainly still a rumor at this point, it would seem likely that Microsoft would have plans on where to use these “Avatars”, but to be fair, not a single thing, not even the “Avatars” themselves, have been confirmed or even hinted at by Microsoft.

I’ve got to say, I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see if something similar to this pans out to be true.  With the ridiculously long development time that HOME has undergone, it is certainly plausible that Microsoft saw a window through which to take out one of the PS3’s future bullet points. But is My GamerPad it? Looking at the character detail in this image, I’m going to have to say it’s doubtful at best.

The flow of rumors just refuses to stop and smacks us in the head and lays eggs in our brains. This latest snippet of rumor filled goodness relates to Microsoft who’s had more than their fair share of information leaks in the past few weeks. A person posting on NeoGAF forums posted pictures that they say is from a K-Mart ad set to run in the future. The very near future.

The images show that on July 6, the retailer will be selling a 20GB Xbox 360 for $299. For those not playing the math game, that’s $50 less than what the Xbox 360 Pro bundle currently retails for. If this ad proves to be legit, an official announcement from Microsoft is likely not far behind. And if that is so, we could possibly see price drops on the lower end Arcade 360 console as well. The real question is why didn’t they save this kind of bombshell for E3? Could this mean Microsoft has much bigger announcements in store for us then?

E3 2008 is almost upon us and hordes of gamers and fanboys are ramping up their excitement at what to anticipate from the fallout of announcements that will be coming out of the woodwork in the upcoming weeks. As many sites, magazines, and bloggers are testing out their crystal ball’s prediction skills, some companies are dropping hints as to what to expect from them at the conference. Case in point, Microsoft’s European VP of strategic marketing for interactive entertainment (whew!) David Gosen recently let us know that Microsoft will unveil some “fantastic surprises” this year at E3.

Gosen says, “We’re always working on new things, and you’ll continue to hear lots from us that we believe will be game-changing.”

No clue what that could be. Added functions for your 360? Halo 4: Master Cheif Lost in Space? Who knows. If you want to hear more about what he has to say you’ll have to pick up a printed copy of MCV. Until then, just use your imagination.

I wasn’t there at last year’s innagural E for All event but from what I garnered it wasn’t quite all it could be. With only one of the big three showing up in the form of Nintendo, the ESA sponsored festival was a great place to game with other gamers but not the best place to get your hands on the latest and greatest games. Still, it was the event’s first year and it seemed like for everything they got wrong they also did a lot of things right. Thus this year’s E for All should be even better, especially now that Microsoft is confirmed as a participant meaning that Nintendo won’t dominate the entire show room floor like it did last year (which for some fanboys is probably bad news).

Today pricing and dates went live for the event, setting the LA festival’s days as Oct. 3-5 and ticket prices at $35 for a single day and $75 for the entire weekend. If you order early you can get the single day for $30 and the entire weekend for $60 (the savings are incredible!). They seem to have a pretty impressive line-up this year with a few gaming comptitions going on and plenty of stuff for the average gamer to have fun with. Of course most people have already planned their gaming convention related trips around PAX, but going to two conventions is better than one. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of you readers there.

Microsoft announced last Thursday that some key executives will be assuming new roles. Head of Microsoft Game Studios Shane Kim will step up to the newly created post of Corporate Vice President of Strategy and Business Development. Filling the void left by Kim will be Phil Spencer, formerly the general manager of Microsoft Game Studios Europe. And rounding out the shuffle is Jeff Bell, who will be ringing in the New Year somewhere else.

That is to say, the Corporate Vice President for Global Marketing will be leaving Microsoft in the fall. Many gamers will recall his uncomfortable media debut at E3 2007. Peter Moore was leaving Microsoft, and it seemed as if Bell were being groomed to be his replacement as the Microsoft press mouthpiece. That was short-lived, however, as Bell’s presentation (video above) ranged from uncomfortable (sounding like a used-car-salesman), to downright embarrassing (trash talking with Reggie Bush: “You got me on that one, brutha!”) Continue reading this story..

Ever since Microsoft announced their intentions of using the DVD-9 format for the Xbox 360, it has come under scrutiny by publishers and gamers alike. Many feel that it just doesn’t offer the storage capacity that is needed for “next-gen” games which support hi-res textures and the like. This concern was brought to the forefront with games like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey that required multiple discs upon release.

Now, if the infamous Intellisponse leak is to be believed, the crisis is hitting home with the decision to spread Microsoft’s marquee racing game onto two DVDs. If the rumor turns out to be truthful, Forza 3 will feature over 400 cars racing on over 100 tracks and will arrive on store shelves as a double-disc title. The rumored leak also notes that the game will feature some type of “assist system”…whatever that means.

While this news, if true, will be sure to bum some folks out, you have to remember that this isn’t the first time that a racing game has arrived on two discs. Gran Turismo 2 landed as a double-disc game. One disc for simulation mode and one disc for arcade mode. However, given the fact that the Forza series is almost strictly simulation-based, it’s hard to know how the game will be broken up. I just hope this time around they put a better filter on car graphics, because I’m sick of getting smoked in an online match-up by a guy with Adolf Hitler painted on his hood…

I’m not really sure what my opinion on this is. Microsoft have previously said that they’re aware of Nintendo’s huge success with Wii, and that they probably need to rethink their strategy and bring some more fun to the Xbox 360.

So, what we get is.. Newton! SeattlePi has confirmed the previously rumored Wii remote clone for the Xbox 360 is in the making at Microsoft, and that it may be out this as soon as this year (the author even promises to give his Wii to charity if it doesn’t). Though, Newton is still only a codename for the product and the image above is of course not the actual product. (Thank god, my left and right hand would fight so much over space that it would become awkward.)

I definitely see a pattern here. We just got news that Microsoft might be introducing avatars to Xbox LIVE, which share a close resemblance to the Mii’s of Nintendo, and now they go the whole nine yards. Furthermore, Sony might be coming up with a breakaway controller as well. Are Microsoft and Sony making the right moves? Continue reading this story..

Ah, you just have to love the undisputed speculative power of the internets! I mean where else can you go to get movie times, step-by step directions to a place you’ve never been before, a healthy (or unhealthy) dose of information, and spoilers or game leaks?

So here’s the score - first word hits the net that Microsoft could adopting Mii-like avatars. Then there’s the rumor that they’re ripping off coming up with a SingStar type game titled Lips. Then it “leaks” that they are possibly developing a game show channel to help cement their push into the casual market.

After all the speculation formed on unfounded “leaks” it turns out that a lot of this info was taken from marketing surveys aka “Let’s just ask a test group a bunch of questions and take it from there.” Continue reading this story..

Nintendo’s Wii has be completely demolishing the competition ever since it launched, and it’s no secret that the other consoles are trying to tap into the newly discovered market that has emerged from this. Coupled with the fact that the PlayStation 3 will be enjoying the upcoming Home, you knew that Microsoft had to have something up their sleeve.

Well here it is, via a supposed leak on the website of a company called Intellisponse, the Xbox 360 will be getting Avatars this coming holiday season. Now, like any rumor, you have to take this whole thing with a large grain of salt, but it seems pretty possible given the circumstances. Intellisponse performs product surveys in order to help companies decide what direction to go in regarding certain products or gauge how much excitement might occur surrounding the release of said product. It looks like they’ve gotten quite a bit of buzz going, but not in the way they might have wished. Continue reading this story..

It’s no secret that the Xbox 360 just hasn’t caught on in Japan like Microsoft probably wishes it had. The console just plain doesn’t sell well to the Japanese audience and it seems like Microsoft has tried everything in their power to raise the console’s sales from the dead but nothing seems to work. They’ve released some rather high-quality, traditional JRPGs such as Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey (with more on the horizon) but that has only had a mild effect on sales figures. But fear not, Microsoft has a plan, and that plan is to… just keep doing what they’re doing?

It seems so, and in a recent interview with Gamesindustry.biz, Microsoft’s Shane Kim outlines the plans for the Japanese market and not much seems to have changed, “We’ve been very realistic about our near-to-mid term opportunities in Japan, specifically with respect to the current console generation. Obviously it’s a challenging market with well entrenched competitors.” He continues, “I’m excited to see developments such as the new RPGs from Japanese developers - I think that’s a recognition in the developer-publisher community that the Xbox 360 is a great platform, and we’ve got a great installed base in the rest of the world.” Continue reading this story..