Microsoft CEO’s vague comment fuels Blu-ray on Xbox 360 rumor

Was it a slip of the tongue or baiting when Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft - in an interview with tech site Gizmodo - said something a bit odd about Blu-ray support on the Xbox 360? What is even more bizarre is Microsoft’s PR department doing its worst to deflect or deny what Ballmer said, adding a little bit of fuel to a rumor we’re going to have to read about for the next 3 - 6 months.

Allright, i’ll bite.

In the interview Gizmodo asked Ballmer about the possibility of adding Blu-ray support of some kind to the Xbox 360, to which he replied:

“Well I don’t know if we need to put Blu-ray in there—you’ll be able to get Blu-ray drives as accessories.”

A follow-up by Gizmodo with Xbox division PR flaks yielded this response:

“Our immediate solution for Blu-ray-quality video on an Xbox 360 is coming this fall with Zune Video and 1080p instant-on HD streaming. As far as our future plans are concerned, we’re not ready to comment.”

Maybe Microsoft could say “no we are not doing that” instead of pretending that they might. And is it me or is Steve Ballmer the Joe Biden of the tech world? How many times can he misspeak before sites stop immediately slapping up headlines like “Ballmer Confirms Blu-ray Add-On for Xbox 360” and causing a general ruckus? That’s what I want for Christmas, at least.

Datel responds to Xbox 360 memory device lockout

If you own an “unauthorized” third-party device like a memory unit for your Xbox 360, it may not work for you thanks to Microsoft’s plant to block them in the not-too-distant future. In a post on the Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb’s blog, it was recently revealed that the next update (which will add support for twitter, Facebook and Last.fm) will lock-out unauthorized storage devices. Ain’t that a bitch? When they say unauthorized, what they really mean is unlicensed and unapproved by them. If you own an Arcade version of the 360 and don’t have a hard-drive or if you just like to back up your data on other versions of the console you may be forced to go out and by “officially endorsed” Microsoft memory devices.

Obviously companies like Datel, which has found success in selling its third-party Xbox 360 accessories at top retails like Target and Best Buy, are not pleased. A Datel spokesperson, speaking to CVG, said that locking out its devices would prevent consumers from having a freedom of choice and added that the company was “disappointed.” Here’s further comment from Datel, taken from that article and found over at GamePolitics:

“We are following this issue and awaiting the outcome like everyone else. Everyone is looking for ways to make their cash go further at the moment and we believe that Max Memory offers a good value, high capacity, alternative to the official Memory Unit.”

When this update goes live Microsoft had better be prepared for the deluge of Max Memory owners that will probably go ape shit crazy on them. When that happens we’ll let you know.

Video game hardware, software sales mostly flat in Sept.

While some might applaud the new batch of sales numbers for the month of Sept., they show that the sector, like many others in the world during this still shaky financial times, is feeling the bite just like everyone else. It is hard to imagine what hardware numbers might look like if Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft hadn’t slashed the prices on their respective home console systems. Even with those price cuts, NPD data for the month showed a meager 1 percent gain over the same period a year ago, with total videogame related sales in the U.S. of around $1.28. Again, if not for cuts, it would have been more downward trending for the sector. Still it’s hard to ignore that compared to August, sales were up considerably in Sept.

On the hardware front, the one relevant console that did not get a price cut, the DS (which includes the DSi and DS Lite), was at the top of the heap moving over half a million units in the month. The good news for Sony - if there really is any in a month that was mostly flat - is that it managed to beat out the Wii and Xbox 360 in the month with 491,000 units. The Wii was close by with almost 463,000 units and the Xbox 360 managed to move nearly 353,000 units. The PSP moved right around 190,000 units in Sept., - which we assume includes both the old model and the new PSP go. Finally, the PS2 managed to move 146,000 units.

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Left 4 Dead 2 demo details

Valve has revealed a few details and the release date for the demo of its upcoming zombie thriller sequel, Left 4 Dead 2. Most notable is what will be in the demo: it will feature gameplay taken from “The Parish” campaign, set in the New Orleans French Quarter. This will be playable by 1 to 4 players over local or Internet connections on both the Xbox 360 and PC (with two-player split screen available on the Xbox 360), the demo features all the new boss infected zombies and all the new melee weapons included in the full game as well.

Those who pre-order the game (at participating retailers or via Steam) will obtain early access to the demo on October 27. The demo will then be made available to Xbox LIVE Gold members and PC gamers on November 3. Then all Xbox LIVE members will obtain access to the demo on November 10.

The full game on Xbox 360 and PC will be released on November 17.  For further details on the full game, check out www.l4d.com.

How Xbox 360 can save lives

We all know that video games are therapeutic to some of us. Shooting down airplanes during World War II or playing some virtual bowling soothes the savage beast, right? And likewise, our console systems are now at the center of our entertainment universe, offering games, television and movies to keep us occupied for hours. But can home console systems serve an even greater purpose beyond those distractions? According to an Associated Press report, home consoles can be used to detect heart defects and what happens when a black hole collides with a star. Amazing.

A computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England is using the Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and helping prevent heart attacks using some custom designed software and the Xbox 360. Revealed in the August edition of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry, this system was created by scientist Simon Scarle, whose connection to the video game industry is more than tenous. The software being used to do this is based on software he developed when he worked in the Rare video game unit of Microsoft as an engineer.

Besides developing the software, Scarle modified the graphics chip in the 360 so it could deliver data tracking for electrical signals moving in the heart around damaged cardiac cells. This method allows doctors to identify arrhythmia, a disturbance in the normal rhythm of the heart which causes it to pump blood less effectively.

Besides being a clever use of the Xbox 360 hardware, Scarle’s little experimental invention has other benefits; it is a lot cheaper than the method currently used: super computers. To create a heart model presently, researchers must use supercomputers or a network of PCs to process millions of mathematical equations related to the proteins, cells and heart tissues, which is a time consuming expensive process. Scarle’s Xbox invention can deliver those results, five times faster than current methods and at a cost that is 10 times cheaper, according to the study.

But Scarle is not alone in his use of home consoles for scientific research The Xbox 360 isn’t the only video-game console that is being used for scientific research. At the University of Massachusetts campus in Dartmouth, Mass., scientists and researchers are using the Sony PlayStation 3 to simulate black-hole collisions. This allows them to simulate what might happen when a black hole swallows a star. And of course, we can’t forget Sony’s support of the Folding @ Home project, which is also helping provide massive number crunching processing power through networked PS3’s sharing the burden around the world.

Incredible stuff.

Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 console is spiffy

A limited-edition Modern Warfare 2 Xbox 360 console has been announced, offering a special Modern Warfare 2 paint job, the game, and a 250 GB hard drive. Methinks that Microsoft thinks that Modern Warfare is going to be a huge game for the platform. I won’t argue with them on this fact. The most interesting thing about this bundle is that it offers the largest hard drive for the Xbox 360 to date, and according to a report on Game | Life, this hard drive will not be sold separately - at least for now.

No doubt at some point Microsoft will want to sell that hard drive separately so that consumers (read: everyone that already owns an Xbox 360) will go out and upgrade.

Source: Game | Life

Hardware sales for August 2009

While the PS3 and Xbox 360 are saw an uptick in hardware for the month of August in North America, Nintendo’s platforms continued to be at the top of the pack. The Nintendo Ds (DSi included) moved over half a million units in August, followed by its more expensive sibling moving a little over half of that in the month. The Xbox 360 beat out the PS3 in August but not by much (215K compared to 210K, respectively) and sales for Sony’s platform were up a staggering 300 percent according to NPD.

What will be interesting is the numbers for September. Will sales of the PS3 continue to climb? Will the Wii ever get knocked down below second place? Will Microsoft’s price cut strategy employed in August be enough to stop any momentum Sony has with the PS3? We’ll have to wait and see but these price cuts have certainly changed the dynamic for Sony. It’s hard to understand why it didn’t cut prices sooner.

August 2009 Hardware Sales:

Nintendo DS - 552.9K units

Wii - 277.4K units

Xbox 360 - 215.4K units

PlayStation 3 - 210.0K units

PSP - 140.3K units

PlayStation 2 - 105.9K units