Hasta La Gadget!

Microsoft apparently held a media roundtable last night after its Xbox press event, confirming that it will eventually phase out its existing models in favor of the new “slim” model.

My colleague Dean Takahashi at VentureBeat reported:

“The new Xbox 360 with a 250-gigabyte hard drive and the smaller black
design will sell for $299,” Takahashi wrote. “The older Xbox 360 Elite console with a
120-gigabyte hard drive will sell for $249. And the Xbox 360 Arcade
console, which does not have a hard drive, will sell for $149. The Elite
and Arcade consoles will be sold until existing supplies run out.”

Microsoft has not said if it will release versions of the Elite or Arcade models with the new design. The latest Xbox costs $299, and will be available this week.

To date, Microsoft still has not released a price for the Xbox Kinect peripheral; Aaron Greenberg, an Xbox product manager, denied reports that the Kinect’s price had been set. Gamestop reportedly posted a Web page claiming that it would be priced at $149.

“No Kinect price announced yet, retail price
estimates are purely speculative, final price & pack-in details are
not yet determined,” Greenberg tweeted.

Microsoft’s own official Twitter account, however, has revealed that Kinect will go on sale on Nov. 4, backed by 16 launch titles. Microsoft will begin selling the new slim Xbox in Europe on July 16.

There are E3 press events, and then there are Activision E3 press events. Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft–all small potatoes compared to the show Activision put on tonight. The company rented out the Staples Center (home of the Lakers) this evening to celebrate a handful of upcoming releases. There were R&B stars, rock bands, pro skaters, full gospel choirs, and more DJs than you can shake a stylus at.

The stadium was nearly full by the time Activision kicked off the event at around 9:30 this evening, with back-to-back-to-back DJ sets featuring turntablists Z-Trip, DeadMau5, and David Guetta, celebrating the October 2010 release of DJ Hero 2. R&B superstar Usher took the stage next, performing a few fully choreographed numbers.

Electronic Arts helped kick off E3 2010 today with a flashy press conference at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. The company set the stage for the spectacle to come by handing out Crysis 2-branded 3D glasses to all present.

The event highlighted 10 new games from the game-publishing giant, including new additions to the Medal of Honor, Need for Speed, Crysis, and Dead Space franchises. Also on display was new Star Wars title and the latest Madden game, the latter of which was presided over by football legend, Joe Montana.

The event opened with a quick and loud trailer for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit. The latest addition to the popular racing series lets the user decide whether to play as a cop or racer, the two sides pitted against each other in the titular “hot pursuit.” The game will be available on November 16th.

Next up was a brief “cliff hanger” demo for Dead Space 2. Steve Papoutsis, the game’s executive producer, promised that the remainder of the demo would be shown during the Sony PlayStation media event tomorrow morning. The game is due out on January 25th of next year.

The latest Medal of Honor game got arguably the flashiest demo of the event, as PCs dropped on a rig from the theater ceiling for a 24-person multi-player game. The game abandons the series’ familiar WW II settings for the deserts of Afghanistan. It will be available on the Xbox 360, PS3, and PC on October 12th. A playable beta will be made available on June 21st.

Video gaming’s biggest annual event, the E3 Expo 2010, is hitting Los Angeles next week, and PCMag will be there. Join us on Monday, June 14, at 1 PM Pacific, 10 AM Eastern 10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern (corrected) for PCMag Editor-in-Chief Lance Ulanoff’s live blog of the Microsoft press conference.

So what can we expect? Project Natal (or whatever its real name will be), Microsoft’s entry into the you-are-the-controller gaming space, should be the star of this show. No doubt we’ll get updates on Gears of War, Fable III, and Halo: Reach. And rumors are flying that we might see a new, slimmer version of the Xbox itself. (Check E3 2010’s Top Ten Rumors and E3 2010: The Most Anticipated Games for more previews and speculation.)

Overall, Microsoft really needs to pull out all the stops to catch up with its rivals–and to distract us from the vacuum left by the recent departure of Robbie Bach and J Allard. It should be quite a show! See you then.

Update: See our full transcript along with photos and commentary after the jump!

The Vogel TwistDock is a sleek and sexy PS3 docking station that not only keeps cables and controllers neatly organized but also charges them (even when the system is powered down). Available exclusively for the PS3 and PS3 Slim, the TwistDock also adds two extra USB ports, which you can expand to six with the optional 4 USB Hub accessory.

TwistDock pricing has yet to be revealed (that’s to happen this summer), but what’s known is its availability: the holiday season.