14 DAY TRIAL // Lots of rumors regarding the future of the Xbox 360 consoles can be heard, from pure speculations about Blu-ray implementation to bigger hard disk drives and new motion-sensitive controllers and price cuts. The strange thing is, however, that there have already been price cuts in Europe for Microsoft's console and if more are needed for the Xbox 360 to keep going, something might be wrong. Or the competition could be just winning ground.
Signal Hill analyst Todd Greenwald is one of the people who believe that only a price cut would not help the Xbox too much since the console has already lost "significant momentum" in Europe to the Wii and PlayStation 3. Therefore, it would need "something else" in order to bring in some mainstream gamers beyond the classic "Halo-Call of Duty 4- GTA IV" crowds. One of the things that would definitely get the Xbox back on track would be the release of the rumored motion controller (even though Microsoft insistently denies).
We'll surely learn more on the 14th of July when Microsoft has its conference scheduled, but until then, we should know that a $50 price drop (to $299) for the Pro model is expected to commence by the end of the year. This, according to analysts, means that the console would be more appropriate for mass market consumers; this would further point out that Microsoft should focus on creating more user-friendly, casual-like titles and features. Banjoo Kazooie is one of them, along with the rumored Lips (nobody knows exactly what type of game it is, but it could be anything from a racing to a karaoke title) and the customizable Mii-like avatars.
"Hopefully, Microsoft will have something else up its sleeve [at E3], such as a new motion-enabled controller (to better compete with the Wii)," said analyst Todd Greenwald. Hopefully.