August 30, 2010
Microsoft announced on Monday morning that it was increasing the price of an Xbox Live Gold membership by $10, from $49.99 to $59.99 a year, including for existing members in the U.S. starting November 1st. Members in the U.K., Canada and Mexico will also see price increases. The new price, the first time the company has ever raised its rates, represents a 20% increase, which will likely have a significant impact on the revenues of the moneymaking service.
The company is also raising the 3-month price of Gold membership from $19.99 to $24.99 and 1-month price from $7.99 to $9.99. But those who act quickly may be able to get a 1-year lock in price of $39.99, according to a special deal that launched on Monday as well.
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August 15, 2010
Sylvester Stallone has proven that he’s not quite expendable yet at the box office.
Stallone and his pumped-up pals lifted Lionsgate’s 1980s-style action romp “The Expendables” to a No. 1 debut with $35 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.
While the macho “Expendables” lured male audiences, Julia Roberts delivered a crowd-pleaser for women with Sony’s “Eat Pray Love,” which opened at No. 2 with $23.7 million.
The previous weekend’s top movie, Sony’s cop comedy “The Other Guys,” slipped to third place with $18 million, raising its 10-day total to $70.5 million. The Warner Bros. blockbuster “Inception” was fourth with $11.4 million, lifting its total to $248.6 million.
Opening in fifth place with $10.5 million was Universal’s graphic-novel adaptation “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” starring Michael Cera as a slacker caught up in duels to the death with his new girlfriend’s seven evil ex-boyfriends.
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August 13, 2010
Combined sales of video games and consoles fell for the fourth consecutive month in July, slumping 1% as U.S. consumers pulled back on buying new titles, with games for Nintendo Co.’s Wii suffering in particular.
A 12% jump in sales of game consoles last month failed to entirely offset an 8% drop in sales of games to play on the devices. Overall, players spent $846.5 million for consoles, games and game peripherals in July, down slightly from $850.6 million a year earlier, according to NPD Group, a market research firm.
“Hardware sales were impressive, but software sales were still down,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities.
The summer doldrums hit Nintendo software sales for its Wii console especially hard.
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July 23, 2010
When InFamous 2 was shown off at E3 back in June, it again featured superpower-wielding Cole as the main character, but not as fans remembered him: Whereas the original Cole had a shaved head and sporty yellow jacket, the new Cole had hair and arm tattoos.
But before their Comic-Con panel, developer Sucker Punch confirmed that due to overwhelmingly negative fan reaction, they’ve decided to change Cole’s look back to the original design for InFamous 2. Images of Cole’s new (and by new we mean old) look haven’t been released yet, although IGN describes him as looking “more like the person we played as in the original InFamous.”
It’s not a big surprise to see Sucker Punch revert Cole to his old look, as even back at E3 we got the feeling from game director Nate Fox’s almost apologetic tone that they would consider a redesign if fans weren’t happy. Turns out, fans weren’t happy.
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