Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 is a sales juggernaut in the U.S. In fact, according to the latest data from NPD, the Xbox 360 led all consoles in sales for 24 months in a row. The console even was able to beat out the Nintendo Wii U in December – a surprising feat considering that console just went on sale in November and the Xbox 360 has been available for seven years.

The Xbox 360’s staying power in the U.S. is nothing short of astounding. In December, alone, Microsoft sold 1.4 million consoles in the U.S., indicating gamers see no reason to hold off on buying the device until the Xbox 720 launches later this year. Better yet for Microsoft, many of those folks sign up for Xbox Live, providing the software giant with a steady stream of revenue over the course of its lifecycle.

All of that success, however, has me thinking: why is the Xbox 360 – a console that, at launch, some thought would be trounced by the PlayStation 3 – so popular in the U.S.?

Perhaps the first reason is its core market. Microsoft isn’t trying to take on Nintendo’s more casual gamers. Instead, Microsoft has found a loyal following in the hardcore segment, where gamers like to play online, pick up shooters, and play for hours. To those gamers, the Xbox 360 is a device worthy of its success.

According to NPD, Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was the most popular game in the industry last year. And for the fourth year in a row, the Xbox 360 version was the most popular option among U.S.-based consumers. That’s perhaps as much a testament to the console as it is its robust online-gaming service that delivers the features today’s customers want far more effectively than on competing consoles.

Speaking of competing consoles, is it possible that they’re causing the Xbox 360 to be so popular? Granted, the PlayStation 3 has sold more units worldwide than the Xbox 360, but let’s not forget that that is due mainly to Sony’s international success. In the U.S., the Xbox 360 is still the dominant force.

“Gamers became more wary of the PlayStation Network after the hacking scandal”

Perhaps that’s due to Sony’s sluggish online services. Although they’ve been around for years, Sony’s online services haven’t really caught on until recently. Plus, with the hacking scandal that rocked the platform, gamers became a bit more wary of the PlayStation Network.

The Wii and Wii U might also be pushing gamers to Microsoft. As mentioned, those consoles cater to a casual sector of the market – one that Microsoft doesn’t really care about. At the same time, hardcore gamers who have played the Wii and Wii U and try to stick with it have trouble. Like it or not, the consoles just aren’t capable of keeping their attention as much as the Xbox.

Finally, I think we should point to the Xbox 360’s strong library. For years now, it has offered just about every major franchise, and exclusives like Halo have kept customers coming back. Hardware might get all of the attention in the marketplace, but it’s software that drives customers to buy the consoles. And on that front, Microsoft is winning handily.

Of course, the Xbox 360’s success might be due to several other factors. Why do you think Microsoft’s console is so popular today?

Why is the Xbox 360 so popular in the U.S.? is written by Don Reisinger & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

NVIDIA’s Project SHIELD won’t rely on premium games or locked-down ecosystems to offset hardware costs, unlike traditional consoles, with the company instead looking to free-to-play titles already proliferating on Android. “We’ll make our money by selling the device to gamers” senior vice president of content and technology Tony Tamasi said today, contrasting NVIDIA’s approach with that of printer ink merchants.

“The business model that stems from [selling direct] means we’ll make our money by selling the device to gamers. (And we hope, by the way, that they’ll love it.)” Tamasi said. “This differs from the razors-and-razor blades approach, which isn’t just used by Gillette and Schick. Printer-companies use it, as well, making money from highly profitable ink. So do game-console companies, who primarily make their profit from premium games. This time-honored approach isn’t the one we’re taking with Project SHIELD.”

NVIDIA Project SHIELD hands-on:

Android games are often free-to-play, supported either with in-app advertising or purchases. As Tamasi also points out, gamers will be able to stream their desktop titles to Project SHIELD. “We want to help game developers keep you happily entertained with the magic that they dream up” the NVIDIA exec concludes. “We’re not looking to create a walled garden of software, even if it sprouts some gorgeous games.”

From our early play with Project SHIELD that streaming process works well – assuming you have sufficient bandwidth. NVIDIA showed us Call of Duty: Black Ops II from a GeForce-equipped PC, which streamed smoothly, albeit  in the same room and over 802.11n 2×2 MIMO WiFi.

Avoiding the hassle of creating an ecosystem of its own is a solid approach; even Sony, with its legacy PlayStation titles, has struggled to gain traction with the PlayStation Store on Android. NVIDIA also has its existing TegraZone brand, which corrals together third-party titles particularly fettled to suit the company’s Tegra chipsets, which it can leverage on Project SHIELD.

Check out our full hands-on with Project SHIELD for more details.

NVIDIA: We won’t be like greedy console companies with Project SHIELD is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Those who received a physical copy of The Walking Dead on Xbox 360 for the holidays are experiencing some rather game-breaking issues. It appears that some players are having to deal with freezing and stuttering while playing the game. If you’ve ever played one of Telltale’s titles, you know that most of them make good use of quick time events – those aren’t very easy to complete if your game is stuttering or freezing entirely.

Indeed, in posts on Telltale’s forums, some users are saying that the stuttering issues are make it impossible to complete quick time events, thus making it impossible to progress in the game. It gets worse too, as stuttering and freezing aren’t the only issues players are experiencing. Some are attempting to begin episode 2 only to have the game drop them back at the beginning of episode 1.

There are even some who are saying that their choices aren’t transferring from chapter to chapter – for instance, a character who died in episode 1 is suddenly alive in episode 2, while those who made it to end of the first episode are nowhere to be found in the second. These are all pretty big problems, so it’s no wonder players have flocked to Telltale’s forums to complain. Telltale has released a statement on the issues, saying that they seem to only affect 4GB Xbox 360 Slims. That doesn’t appear to be the case though, as people using other Xbox 360 models are reporting problems with their game.

In any case, Telltale says that it will continue investigating the problems and will hopefully have more information on them soon. Here’s hoping these issues get ironed out quickly, because Telltale has quite a few fans asking for a refund at the moment. While these problems persist, it might be a better idea to go for the downloadable version of The Walking Dead if you’re planning to play through it on Xbox 360.

[via Joystiq]

The Walking Dead retail release plagued with freezing issues on Xbox 360 is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

It is always good to make sure that everyone has a hobby – simply because you love hobbies, and when you do something that you love, it does not feel as though you are “working” on it, but rather, time flies really fast while you are at it. I guess the best kind of careers to be involved in would be one that has your hobby worked right in, making money out of what piques your interest. Some folks collect books, others stamps, and while others look for rare coins from around the world. Kings of yore collected gold and wives, and the modern day rich man might see that starting a car collection is something worth looking into. How about collecting video games? That does sound rather nerdish, but it seems that an extremely well known collector in the video game community is putting up his SNES collection for sale – with a cool $20,000 asking price to boot!

Of course, he is open to other offers, and I am quite sure that he will be more than pleased as punch to accept anything higher. Heck, if I were him, I would have put it up for auction with $20,000 as the opening bid. The seller is known as “byuu”, and if he sounds familiar to you, that is because he is the brains behind the popular bsnes emulator. In an effort to ensure that every single ROM made available for the bsnes emulator will run perfectly, he has amassed the entire SNES game collection, taking three years to do so while delivering spot on accuracy for each cover scan. Selling off this collection after his task is complete is one way of recouping some of his losses.

Bear in mind that you would be getting every single licensed SNES game, which does not include unlicensed and promotional games. byuu figured out that his effort required around 2,000 hours of buying, scanning, and dumping the games, while taking another 60 hours to clean each one of the cartridges. The money that he recoups is meant to accumulate every single European and Japanese SNES game for a similar purpose, now is that dedication or what?

Source
[ All your SNES games belong to us copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]

The Ouya game console already has the distinction of being one of the most highly-funded Kickstarter projects of all time, and it aims to become an innovative gaming machine that will change the way people think about gaming consoles. It’s still up in the air whether the latter is true, but we’ll find out starting next month, with Ouya dev consoles shipping on December 28.

The Ouya folks have posted an update on their Kickstarter page along with a photo of an actual prototype of the console in hand. They announced that developer consoles will ship on December 28. Additionally, the software development kit for the console will be made available to anyone on that date as well.

We’re not sure what the difference is between the developer consoles and the regular consoles, since Ouya ultimately said that “every Ouya will be a dev console.” The only difference we know of is from the update they posted today, calling the dev consoles, “pretty special.” However, they’re mostly just releasing early so developers can get a head start on doing what they do best.

The first batch of regular Ouya consoles are expected to ship sometime in March 2013 for users who purchased the console without developer credentials. The Jelly Bean-based console launched on Kickstarter over the summer and it raised over $8.5 million, thanks to its extremely-low $99 price point and overall hackability.

Ouya dev console shipping on December 28 is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.