Monday, August 14, 2006 - Posts

Sony dismisses rumours of PSP price cut

Following the emergence of rumours that a PSP price cut is imminent, a Sony representative has told GamesIndustry.biz that there are no plans to reduce the cost of the handheld at present.

The suggestion of a PSP price cut initially came from industry analyst P.J. McNealy, who told CNN Money: "There is a price cut coming in the second half of the year."

According to McNealy, the PSP "has lost momentum. Nintendo has had a great run since it launched the DS Lite and Sony needs to regain some ground." He believes that Sony will slash the price of the handheld in the US from US$199 to US$149 - bringing it closer to the DS price point of US$129.

But a Sony UK spokesperson told GI.biz: "Currently we have no plans to cut the price of the PSP at this time."

It's more likely that Sony will cut the price of the PlayStation 2, as predicted by other industry analysts. The console currently retails with an RRP of GBP 104.99 in the UK, but many retailers are already cutting the price to below the magic GBP 100 mark - and it's thought that Sony could well follow suit with an official price reduction in time for Christmas.

Source: GamesIndustry via PSPUpdates
posted by Auri with 0 Comments

Microsoft to Release Tools for Homebrew XBox 360 Games

The company plans to show off on Monday a new set of developer tools that will let college students, hobbyists and others create their own games for the Xbox 360 console, for a Windows PC or both.

Dubbed XNA Game Studio Express, the free software is expected to be available in beta form by the end of the month, with a final product available sometime this holiday season.

"The tools we are talking about make it way easier to make games than it is today," said Scott Henson, director for platform strategy for Microsoft's game developer group. Microsoft will demonstrate the new software at Gamefest, a company-run show for game developers that takes place in Seattle this week.

Read the entire article here.


posted by Auri with 0 Comments