April 12, 2007 - Sony Computer Entertainment America has confirmed that its axing the $499 20GB version of the PlayStation 3 in favour of the far more popular 60GB model.

Although there are still 20GB versions available in stores, Sony won't be replacing them once stock runs out. "This is based purely on consumer and retailer demand, which favoured the ($599) 60GB model 10 to one," explained SCEA PR boss Dave Karraker.

For those existing 20GB PS3 owners, Karraker confirmed full PlayStation support will continue to be available. Furthermore, as is customary these days, Karraker also took the opportunity to take a swipe at Microsoft.

"Current 20GB consumers will still be 100% supported with software and services," he boasted, "since all PS3s have the same basic architecture. Unlike if Microsoft were to stop selling their Core system, which would allow publishers to actually use their hard drive for gaming purposes, leaving the Core user out in the cold." Oooh, get you.

The news is likely to be met with casual indifference in Europe, where the lower-end PS3 was never released.

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This is news I'm indifferent to. I never had a plan to buy a $500 PS3 as the number of items it lacked, Wi-Fi, 60GB HDD, Shinny face Plate, etc caused me to only want to higher end one. As for the 20GB ones not selling, they haven't been on store shelves for people to buy. In my area where PS3s are abundant, I haven't seen a single 20GB in stock. Mainly because stores aren't ordering them, but that is also due to lack of consumer interest. Maybe when the $600 sees a $100 price drop I'll pick one up, but not before.

With only one visitor, probably a spider, I'm not sure this is worth updating daily.

*UPDATE* The news must gone on. I won't be set back.

Looks liek I'll be enjoying smashing people with Hulk, and teaming up Spiderman with Venom. Can't wait to check this out.

Well I got into the Games for Windows - Live beta last night. And I must say the live panel and system works GREAT with a mouse and my wireless 360 controller. Unfortuantly the one game we have to test is Bug Bash. I know it's just a simple game to try and test out Live on windows but at least give the testers something more intresting to play. All it is, is whack a mole with only 4 holes. Each corraspond to a button on the 360 controller, and there isn't a "How to Play" before you launch the game. All you do is mash the buttons and hope to have the most hits.

I spent more time going through the Live tabs and trying to get my mic working that I had plugged into the 360 controller. It works, but the volume level was so damn low I wasn't triggering it unless the mic was in my mouth. Overall I think it is a nice change to the Windows MP gaming environment, but paying $50 for it should never even be considered.

UK, April 4, 2007 - Following on from rumours earlier this week, Microsoft has confirmed that a Forza Motorsport 2 demo is go, go, go and scheduled to hit Xbox Live Marketplace shortly.

An official announcement from the company revealed, "Soon you'll be able to take the game for a test drive on Xbox Live Marketplace - the rumours this week of a downloadable demo are true and the details on timing will be confirmed in the coming weeks."

Microsoft’s Aaron Greenberg has been defending the price of its $180 120 Gig hard drive for Xbox 360, from consumer criticism that it is too expensive.
Image The company's group product manager for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live says the drive is comparable in price to plug-and-play external drives for PC, adding that Microsoft carries extra testing costs for the drives. He also says it’s consistent with the firm’s pricing across Xbox 360 hardware.

Speaking to weekly podcast Game Theory he said, “We know it is expensive and we have definitely heard that feedback but it is a little apples and oranges to compare it to internal PC hard drives because those are off the shelf drives that you have to install yourself. You have to format those and figure out how you are going to move your content over. There is a lot of work there for your average consumer it is not a plug in and play experience for them.

“What we have done is release a smaller laptop size drive. If you compare what we are offering with a real plug-and-play drive the closest thing would be to take a 120 gig self-powered external PC drive and in that case we are seeing those retail at anywhere from $160 to $200 for comparable laptop sized external hard drives.

“I know it sounds expensive to a lot of consumers but we are comparable to those types of drives and also we have to go through a lot more testing and security. When we buy from suppliers we require a lot more spec reports and tests because that drive has to be able to perform at specific speeds all the time in order to support our environment and our gameplay experiences. Those are not the same specs that they are able to deliver to with off-the-shelf drives.

“We do hear consumers but we pay a premium for these drives. That’s just the nature of it. If you started with the core $299 SKU, everything we have done is based on adding storage. If you had the $100 hard drive that gets you to $399. If you added the $179 hard drive to the $299 SKU that gets you to $479 which is the Elite SKU so there is consistency in the way we think about this.”

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I don't care what way they slice it, $180 is way too damn expensive.

Burnie Burns of Rooster Teeth announced on their forum two nights ago that their infamous Red vs. Blue series of Halo machinima will be concluding with its landmark one-hundredth episode. The series that for the past four years has made it worth living through the weekend, brought the concept of machinima to the masses, as well as gave a wildly different perspective of the Halo universe.

Now this is a REAL disappointment! I've been a sponsor for quite some time and I loved the series. Saying I didn't see this coming would be like saying I never saw the sun set. Lately they have been slow to update and a lackluster posting about the episodes, has made me wonder. I hope they continue to make stuff as I know a lot of people enjoy machinima. Oh well, it'll be $20 less a year I'll be giving to them once RvB is over.