Late Night Consoling

A Reuters report indicates that Microsoft will be benefitting from manufacturing cost cuts on its Xbox 360 console on an annual basis, according to Xbox corporate vice president Todd Holmdahl. Despite the Xbox's increasing market share, Microsoft lost a great deal of money on the console in this generation and the company is hoping to see a different situation in the next generation. Microsoft's goal is to break even on the Xbox 360 within the newer console's first two years out of a total planned life cycle of six or seven years.

It seems Microsoft has some breathing room in pricing compared to its primary competition; GamesIndustry.biz reports that Xbox 360 will have a manufacturing cost of approximately $100 less than Sony's PS3. It seems likely that if Sony's machine is priced comparably to Microsoft's, the latter company might have the leeway to pass on some of those savings to the consumer in order to remain competitive with Sony.

At Tokyo Game Show, Metal Gear mastermind Hideo Kojima has announced his intention to abdicate control of his legendary franchise after the completion of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots (PS3). Kojima has been at the helm of every game in the series since its inception, save for what he considers a poorly produced NES sequel. Longtime Metal Gear illustrator Youji Shinkawa will also be taking leave of the series. Kojima claims that "there are other things that [we] want to create."

Later on at TGS, Kojima half-jokingly invited fellow designer Masahiro Sakurai to take the Metal Gear reigns upon his departure. Sakurai, formerly of HAL Laboratories, is the creator of Kirby and was the director of Super Smash Bros. (N64) and Super Smash Bros. Melee (GCN). According to GameSpot, Kojima considers Sakurai "one of the few great video game designers still left in Japan."

Publisher/developer Koei, best known for its Dynasty Warrior franchise, confirmed its support for Xbox 360, Nintendo Revolution, and PC. The company will of course be developing for PS3, as PS2 was its primary supported platform this generation. Koei has released products on the PC in the past, and has already announced Xbox 360 projects, but this is the first time the publisher has announced support for Revolution.

In an interview answer that makes me wonder what the actual question was, Xbox vice president Peter Moore has told GamesIndustry.biz that he is not threatened by Metal Gear Solid 4 on PS3. In a sentiment that has been shared by several Xbox executives over the past few months, Moore stated his belief that Xbox 360 and PS3 are on equal ground technologically. He even observed that "the fact that they feel the need to have Snake tell you that it's powerful, that could be seen as a sign of worry, or weakness, potentially." Moore is referring to a shot in the highly-publicized MGS4 trailer at Tokyo Game Show in which a robot supposedly powered by the Cell processor (the eight-core CPU powering the PS3) is described as "the key to winning the console war." Moore also cited Microsoft's first-to-market placement in the upcoming "war" as a tangible advantage.

Despite worrying appearances, Dr. Uwe Boll will definitely not be sitting in the director's chair for the Hollwood adaptation of Bungie's Halo (Xbox). The film's iMDB database entry gives Boll a director credit but the good doctor's own fan site confirms that he is not in fact working on the project. Looks like somebody was just having a bit of horrible, horrible fun.

GameSpot posts the full sales rankings for console and PC games in August.