Posted Jan 4th 2008 7:15PM by Chris Powell
Filed under: News
The rumors of Skype support coming to the PSP have now been confirmed by Japan's Nikkei Net news organization. Unfortunately for most PSP users, however, the news service stated that Skype support will be limited to the PSP-2000, but that it may come as soon as this month.
Skype service will be free for PSP-to-PSP and PSP-to-PC calls and vice versa. Additionally, users can register for a dedicated number for around $20 every three months for what should provide support for landline and cellphone calls. The software will more than likely be part of a future firmware update, and users will use an external microphone for communication.
At this point, we're not entirely sure why service is limited to the PSP-2000. Could there be some other hardware addition to the updated handheld that we didn't previously know about, or could this be a diabolical scheme to get us to upgrade our PSPs? Whatever the case may be, we know we certainly want to use this new technology that more or less answers the question whether Sony is interested in a PSPhone.
The Xbox 360 began production only 69 days before launch.[77] As a result, Microsoft was not able to supply enough systems to meet initial consumer demand in Europe or North America.[78] Many potential customers were not able to purchase a console at launch. This lack of availability caused Xbox 360 bundles to sell on eBay at inflated prices; some auctions exceeded US$6,000.[citation needed] Forty thousand units appeared on eBay during the initial week of release; this was 10% of the total supply.[79] By year's end, Microsoft had shipped 1.5 million units, including 900,000 in North America, 500,000 in Europe, and 100,000 in Japan.[80]
At E3 in May 2006, Bill Gates announced that Microsoft would have a head start of 10 million units by the time Sony and Nintendo entered the market.[81] Microsoft later specified that goal and estimated shipments of 10 million units by the end of 2006,[82] a target it passed by 400,000 units.[citation needed] As of August 2007, the Xbox 360 has sold 8.9 million units worldwide.[citations needed] As of September 1, 2007, 6.3 million Xbox 360 units have been sold to consumers in the United States,[citations needed] and as of July 18, 2007, 420,000 units in Japan.[citation needed] Although the console had struggled in Japan, it was reported on October 29, 2007 that the Xbox 360 outsold the PS3 for a week in Japan.[83]
During an earnings call in January 2007, Microsoft's CFO downgraded estimated Xbox 360 sales for the first half of 2007.[citation needed] Cumulative sales from the system's launch until June 30, 2007 were predicted to reach 12 million units, down from 13 to 15 million units estimated earlier. Microsoft later announced they shipped 11.6 million units cumulative to June 30, 2007.[citations needed] Being released one year ahead of its competitors, the Xbox 360 was the market leader throughout the first half of 2007. However on September 12, 2007, it was reported by the Financial Times that the Xbox 360 had been surpassed by the Wii in terms of worldwide console sales.[84] On October 4, 2007, Microsoft stated that Xbox 360 sales have more than doubled when compared with the weekly average before the Halo 3 launch.[85]
Based on figures from October 19, 2007, the Xbox 360 outsold the Wii for the month of September in North America, helped in part by the spike in sales seen after the launch of Halo 3, which sold 3.3 million copies in the U.S. in a 12-day period.[86] The Xbox had sales of 528,000 units for September, while the Wii had sales of 501,000 units.[87]
However, despite these sales figures, Microsoft's gaming division is losing money. Through 2005, the Xbox gaming division had lost over $4 billion dollars.[88] However, Microsoft expects the console will start making money in 2008.[89] The losses are due to the market strategy of selling consoles below cost in order to obtain market saturation and gain profits on software and peripherals that have a much higher profit margin.[90][91] Also notable is that Microsoft expects it needs to spend one billion dollars for repairs or replacements of bricked Xbox 360s.[92]
Notes- ^abcd On included video cable. The Elite and Pro versions come with the Component HD AV cable, and the Core version comes with the Composite AV Cable.
- ^ The Elite comes with a separate AV dongle for users using HDMI 1.2 exclusively for video and who need audio from separate cables.
- ^ Due to the Xbox Live December 2007 update, all downloaded content requires an internet connection to be played.
As part of the December 4, 2007 dashboard update, a new feature, called Xbox Originals, was launched allowing users to download original Xbox games directly to their Xbox 360. The games have not been altered in any way, except that any demos and game previews have been stripped out. Currently all titles are available for 1200 Microsoft Points ($15USD) each.[60]
The games available from the launch of the Xbox Originals are: Halo: Combat Evolved, Fable, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, Psychonauts, Fusion Frenzy, Indigo Prophecy, and Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge. Videos previewing the service had shown Burnout 3: Takedown as a title, but it was not included at launch, no reason has been given.
Game library Main article: List of Xbox 360 gamesThe Xbox 360 launched with 14 games in North America and 13 in Europe. The console's best-selling game for 2005, Call of Duty 2, sold over a million copies.[61] Five other games sold as well in the console's first year in the market: Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter,[62] The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion,[63] Dead or Alive 4,[64] Saints Row[65] and Gears of War.[66] As of January 3, 2008, Halo 3 is the Xbox 360's best-selling game with 8.1 million copies sold.[1] Only six games were initially offered in Japan, and eagerly anticipated titles such as Dead or Alive 4 and Enchanted Arms were not released until several weeks after launch. Games more suitable to the region are planned or have since been released, such as Chromehounds, Ninety-Nine Nights, and Phantasy Star Universe. Microsoft-backed Mistwalker has since released Blue Dragon in the region, and currently has two other Japanese-****games in development, Lost Odyssey and Cry On. On October 19, 2006, with over 10,000 pre-orders, a limited-edition Blue Dragon bundle sold out in Japan on the first day. The pack, priced at JP¥29,800 includes the Xbox 360 core system with a copy of Blue Dragon, along with a table calendar, Blue Dragon faceplate, and five miniature character figures. At the Lepzig game convention in 2007, Microsoft revealed details of Project Gotham Racing 4, Rock Band, Tom Clancy's EndWar, Dark Sector, FIFA 08, Call of Duty 4 Modern Warfare and Tony Hawk's Proving Ground.
E3 2006 was the first large-scale show after the console's launch and the first trailer for Halo 3, the sequel to the original Xbox's best-selling game, was shown there. Fable 2, a sequel to the Xbox's best-selling RPG,[citation needed] was also shown, along with Alan Wake, Mass Effect and Too Human. Bill Gates spoke of plans to integrate several Microsoft services into one entity with Live Anywhere. This service will allow multiplayer games and communication possible between Xbox 360 and the Windows Vista operating system for the PC.[citation needed] Shadowrun was the first game announced to be compatible with Live Anywhere. Several games originally released on PC have also been released on the Xbox 360, such as F.E.A.R. and Quake 4. Grand Theft Auto IV was shown and will be the first title in the series to be released for the Xbox 360 the same day as its PlayStation 3 counterpart. At X06, Microsoft announced several new titles, along with information on future releases. Splinter Cell: Conviction, set to release after Splinter Cell: Double Agent, was announced to be exclusive to the Xbox 360, as were BioShock and Banjo-Kazooie 3. At the event, Halo Wars was also announced, along with an untitled Halo project. In additon, Microsoft published sequels to some of its more successful franchises on the original Xbox, such as Forza Motorsport 2, Project Gotham Racing 3 & 4, and Fuzion Frenzy 2. They have published original games based on new IPs, such as Viva Piñata and Gears of War.
Hardware and accessories Hardware Main article: Xbox 360 hardwareThe main unit of the Xbox 360 itself has slight double concavity in matte white or black. It features a port on the top (when vertical, left side when horizontal) to which a custom-housed hard drive unit can be attached in sizes of either 20, or 120GB. Inside, the Xbox 360 uses the triple-core IBM designed Xenon as its CPU. Graphics processing is handled by the ATI Xenos which has 10MB of embedded eDRAM. Its main memory pool is 512MB in size.
Accessories Main article: Xbox 360 accessoriesMany accessories are available for the console, including both wired and wireless controllers, a wireless steering wheel, headsets, a webcamera, an HD DVD player, three sizes of memory cards, and two sizes of hard drives, among other items, all of which are **** to match the console.
Technical problems
An Xbox 360 showing the "Red Ring of Death" Main article: Xbox 360 technical problems The Xbox 360 can be subject to a number of technical problems. Since the console's release in 2005, the console's reliability gained a bad reputation from the general public and in the press through articles portraying its poor reliability and relatively high failure rates,[67][68][69][70] although every Xbox 360 that is made after July 2007 has the new heatsink built in to reduce overheating.[citation needed]
Microsoft has subsequently introduced design revisions and extended the 360's manufacturer's warranty to three years.
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