Konami just doesn’t think that a $100 price cut will have enough of a positive impact on the PS3’s sales. Konami just doesn’t think it’s enough for Metal Gear anymore.

“I wonder if Sony can win back user support by the price cut of just $100,” speaks Kazumi Kitaue, head of Konami’s North American and European operations.

Konami is considering releasing it on other formats to pay for the development costs that went into the game. They would like to hold it as a PS3 exclusive since it was “born” with Sony, however with the PS3 costing as much as decent personal computer they’re reconsidering keeping it with Playstation.

In response to Sony’s price cuts of their PS3s, and to maintain the price advantage Microsoft enjoys, Microsoft has announced price cuts on all three versions of the XBox 360.

The Elite’s price is going from $479 to $399, the price of the Premium version is going down from $399 to $349 and the price of the Core version is going from $299 to $249.

-Unstable

Good news for Gamesoul, we have a huge target audience to reach out to. comScore, a leading researcher in our digital world, has determined that one in four or 217 million people worldwide visit gaming websites.

Yahoo! Games reached the largest audience with a bit less than 53 million unique visitors, followed by MSN Games with 35 million and with the bronze Miniclip.com reaching out to 25.5 different people.

Read the rest of comScore’s results here: http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1521

Interesting stuff. You readers are 1 in 217 million.

In an open letter to Xbox 360′ers Peter Moore, the VP of Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment devision, has sent out his apologies for the problems experienced with the 360’s hardware. They are owning up to their problems saying,

“You’ve spoken, and we’ve heard you. Good service and a good customer experience are areas of the business that we care deeply about. And frankly, we’ve not been doing a good enough job.”

They have also changed the warranty so that all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address these problems. There is now a 3-year warranty that covers all of the hardware “flashing red light” problems.

Here’s a copy of the entire letter:

Open Letter From Peter Moore

To our Xbox Community:

You’ve spoken, and we’ve heard you. Good service and a good customer experience are areas of the business that we care deeply about. And frankly, we’ve not been doing a good enough job.

Some of you have expressed frustration with the customer experiences you have had with Xbox 360; frustration with having to return your console for service after receiving the general hardware error message on the console.

The majority of customers who own Xbox 360 consoles have had a terrific experience from their first day, and continue to, day in and day out. But when anyone questions the reliability of our product, or our commitment to our customers, it’s something I take very seriously.

We have been following this issue closely, and with on-going testing have identified several factors that can cause a general hardware failure indicated by three flashing red lights on the console. To address this issue, and as part of our ongoing work, we have already made certain improvements to the console.

We are also implementing some important policy changes intended to keep you in the game, worry-free.

As of today, all Xbox 360 consoles are covered by an enhanced warranty program to address specifically the general hardware failures indicated by the three flashing red lights on the console. This applies to new and previously-sold consoles. While we will still have a general one year console warranty (two years in some countries), we are announcing today a three-year warranty that covers any console that displays a three flashing red lights error message. If a customer has an issue indicated by the three flashing red lights, Microsoft will repair the console free of charge—including shipping—for three years from the console’s purchase date. We will also retroactively reimburse any of you who paid for repairs related to problems indicated by this error message in the past. In doing so, Microsoft stands behind its products and takes responsibility to ensure that every Xbox 360 console owner continues to have a fantastic gaming experience.

If we have let any of you down in the experience you have had with your Xbox 360, we sincerely apologize. We are taking responsibility and are making these changes to ensure that every Xbox 360 owner continues to have a great experience.

This will take a few days to roll out globally, and I appreciate your continued patience as we launch this program. I’ve posted an FAQ that should address some additional questions, and we’ll update it over the next few days.

I want to thank you, on behalf of all us at Microsoft, for your loyalty.

SCEE(Sony Computer Entertainment Europe) contacted Gamesindustry.biz regarding a  major announcement that they will be making Thursday at the E3 Media and Business summit.

They weren’t specific, however they mentioned it will be related to the recent price slashing and introduction of an 80GB version in North America.

Cross your fingers Europeans.

Well you gotta say the PS3 does look amazingly obscene with its J. Lo curves and its Ice Cube grill. I proudly own one of the amazing machines but with all my biaset comments as such I will put them in the cupboard and lock them up and really see if its worth around £500.

Well the GUI (Graphical User Interface) well for some of you normal people this is just the menu screen which basically the same as the PSP menu but with just one different menu this is the user where you can set up your account for each other. So really they have not made the menu any advanced compared to the processor power which is included in the PSP. Another great thing but can be awkward menu is freinds which can be very useful but chat and other things have not been devolped fairly well but can be sorted through firmware.

The PS3 is definetly over priced but if used to full capabilities, is a machine to have but many customers just wanna play games so this is overlooked as a pricy console but soon people will appreciate this console…

Is this just another failure such as the UMD . . .

NEWS UPDATE: Sony may scrap UMD.

The other day when I was at a local department store, I decided to take note of prices and what was in stock. Here is what I saw from each of the three main console companies:

First is Sony. There were plenty of slim PS2’s in stock for the price of around $130. The games had a price of about $20-$30 on average. The PSP’s price was around $180. The games were selling from $20-$40. Finally, the PS3. The store seemed to be overflowing with them, and it’s no wonder with the price of the console at $600 and games selling for upwards of $60.

Next is Nintendo. There was the DS that was selling for about $80 and the game for around $30. There wasn’t anything really special to comment on for the DS but I saw something that was pretty rare. There was a Wii in stock (Though it’s probably gone now) and it was selling for $250 with games selling for $40. And for the Gamecube, I happened to overhear an employee telling another customer that they were trying to get rid of all Gamecube games except for Zelda: Twilight Princess. The console was selling for its usual price of $100 and the games were selling for about $20-$30.

Last but certainly not least is Microsoft. Their XBox 360 appeared to be doing very as there were only a few in stock and I saw a couple people buy a 360. They had both varieties, the $400 and $300 and the games were selling for $50 mainly, though there were plenty of $40 games a few $30 and $60 games.

So in conclusion, PS3s weren’t moving but 360s and Wiis were going off of shelves with the PS2 still attracting a few buyers, and in the handheld side of things PSP and DS had been going at a fairly healthy rate.

Comments are encouraged.

-Unstable

NOTE: All prices are USD.

Nintendo has now picked the top 10 short films from their contest. On June 18 they’ll pick the top 3. You can also vote on what you think is the best film. Here’s the link http://www.nintendoshortcuts.com/launch/

You heard it here folks, rumors are flying through the internet that Nintendo’s official magazine, Nintendo Power, might be killed.

The rumor comes from the fact that Nintendo has started to perform massive layoffs, and told those employees that they had to find work before this September.

Though nothing is certain, if anything happens Nintendo Power might become published by a third party. We’ll be sure to keep you posted!

-Zenywolf

Now that Sony has a good supply of Blu-Ray diodes but now those same diodes might cost less. All the way down to $8 each. Now that the part’s price has been cut can we expect a PS3 price cut?

Maybe, as Wedbush Morgan’s Michael Pachter says, Sony is “definitely in a position to cut prices.” He continued on to say, “God knows whether they will, but lower costs usually lead to lower prices. The right question to ask is whether the full bill of materials is below US$ 499, allowing them to cut price and still avoid losing money. I’m not competent to answer whether it is, but I am competent to say that when cost is below US$ 499, we should look for a cut to that level.”

I sure hope for a cut too