Amazon Xbox One Game Promo

AUG. 20, 2013 • One of the features the Xbox One will not ship with is built-in backward compatibility with Xbox 360 titles. Microsoft Corp.’s solution is for consumers to play their last generation games separately on an Xbox 360, or plug the older console dir.....

Xbox Live Real Money Beta Worries

JULY 10, 2013 • Microsoft Corp.’s beta test in the United Kingdom of the new real money transaction system for Xbox Live is raising some consumer alarms. Users in the test are reporting that games converted from Microsoft Points to real money are costing more.  The point values are being converted into pounds in real time  however, the conversion ends up costing consumers more for the same points value than was charged previously. For example, a game tha.....

Microsoft Prices Xbox One High

JUNE 10, 2013 • The Xbox One will launch this November in North America and Europe, priced at $499, €499 ($661) and £429 ($668). Microsoft Corp. had not detailed pricing or release month when it revealed its new console late last month. The company did receive criticism at the time for a presentation that was heavy on entertainment media content and enhanced voice/gesture interface features, whil.....

Xbox One Introduced

MAY 21, 2013 • Microsoft Corp. pulled back the curtain on its third console, officially named Xbox One, chosen to suggest an all-in-one experience. Although a release later this year was promised, no specific date or price for the system were disclosed. With a new garment box case design that is reminiscent of a 1980’s VCR, Microsoft’s latest video game system packs significant hardware upgrades, as well as a slew of new features to control media ins.....

Battling for Entertainment Dollars: 7 Major Companies in the Video Game Market

MARCH 5, 2013 • As we discussed recently in Can Sony & Nintendo Recover? one of the great ironies of 2012 was that Sony and Nintendo were not able to take advantage of strong consumer excitement over digital devices.  Hardware is clearly not a commodity and this should be good news for game hardware manufacturers that specialize in providing unique, proprietary systems.  Unfortunately, w.....

Xbox 360 Turns In Strong Performance

JAN. 11, 2013 • Riding an undercover $50 price reduction at retail, Microsoft reported that Xbox 360 sales reached a total of 1.4 million units sold during the month of December in the U.S. (Microsoft cited NPD Group data). That performance marks the 24th straight month the console has topped sales charts. Microsoft also claimed that seven of the Top 10 games for the month were Xbox 360 titles. Consumers spent more than $1.27 billion on Xbox 360 hardware, games .....

Microsoft SmartGlass Examined

OCT. 31, 2012 • The Kinect motion controller was a tremendous boon to the Xbox 360 released far back in 2005 – helping to extend market share for the console at the very time that sales should have been trailing off.  While much outside attention is being focused on what the next Xbox will look like and when it will arrive, Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division has launched a new complementary input technology, SmartGlass. Although Kinect can e.....