Late Night Consoling

That's what analyst Michael Pachter of respected firm Wedbush Morgan Securities postulates might happen in a very specific set of circumstances. First in this hypothetical scenario, says Pachter, Xbox would be marked down to $99 after Xbox 360 launches. In response, Sony would drop the price of PS2 to $99. With these price points, Microsoft would continue taking a loss on Xbox whereas Sony would not on PS2, which costs less than $99 to manufacture. Another contributing factor might be Sony not having the capacity to meet PS3 demand in 2006, prompting them to wait until enough units could be manufactured. Finally, and most importantly, the decision would hedge on 360's initial performance. If 360 succeeds, Sony will want PS3 out as soon as possible, but if 360 suffers from poor sales and/or launch selection, Sony may want to coast on profitable PS2 sales as long as possible, considering their recent fiscal loss.

Apparently, employees of retail giant Wal-Mart have seen the final price point for Xbox 360, and they're claiming it's $299. These reports are of course unofficial and unconfirmed but also unsurprising. Analysts and news outlets have been speculating for months that the 360 would launch at that general price point to stay competitive with the likely more expensive PS3.

As anyone would reasonably have expected, the recent supposed Nintendo "RS" "leaked" "photo" is in fact completely fake. First the Nintendo ON, and now this. Why is it that people on the internet seem to really want Nintendo's next console to be spherical in some way?

Though he did not indicate a release period for the game, Takeuchi did note that next-gen projects can easily take up to five years of development time. No further details will be released until next year, though the game is Capcom's current top priority.

Hey, more Rockstar news. At least it's not about GTA this time. Various entities, including the UK's Bullying Online as well as infamous loudmouth attorney Jack Thompson, are already calling for the demise of Rockstar's schoolyard-simulator Bully. The game is not due to hit shelves for almost three months. The game puts the player in the roll of a schoolboy who stands up to bullies, rather than casting the player himself as a bully, as Thompson and Bullying Online probably assume. So, will Bully ship with Hot Coffee: Child Porn Edition? We'll have to wait and see.

Interviews with Final Fantasy XI producer Hiromichi Tanaka, in which details on the 360 version are covered, exist on 1UP and Game Informer.

Rather oddly, Ubisoft interviews Q Entertainment's Tetsuya Mizuguchi by way of a press release. He talks about Lumines.

IGN speaks with Treyarch creative director Christian Busic about Call of Duty: Big Red One.

Gamasutra interviews Nippon Ichi's Jack Niida.