ROCKBAND to cost $170

It is now official that Rockband will cost a reasonable price of $169.99 though it's still expensive for a simple video game but that's just it. It's not just a simple video game. It puts you in the band of a rockstar. It sure is better then the previous $200 dollar price tag amazon was taking orders for.

The XBox 360 and the PS3 will cost $169.99 and the PS2 will cost $159.99. All bundles will come with the Guitar, Drums, Mic and the game itself. You could also still buy them seperately. The guitar will cost $60 for the wired and $80 for the wireless, the drums will cost $80, the mic will cost $30 and the actual game cost $60 dollars for the XBox 360 and PS3 while the PS2 will cost $50.

So if you buy them seperately it will cost you $250. Subtract $60 if your thinking of not buying the guitar because you have already the X-plorer Guitar (eventhough the Rock Band guitar has extra fret buttons closer to the base) then your at $190 and it will still cheaper to buy the bundle.

The XBox 360 and PS3 version will come out on November 23 and the PS2 version will shortly follow up on Dec 10. Just in time for the holidays. I'm sure this one will also sell out. Get your pre-orders!

PGR4 Realizm showcase

I was blown away when i saw this commercial. Project Gotham Racing 4 shows off their graphics and making real life not so distant from the capabilities of the XBox 360. This commercial of PGR4 starts out with real streets and real people and later going to real-time game footage. It's really hard to see where it ends and starts. See for yourself and see if you can figure out where it ends and starts.

Microsoft Mission Accomplish: Halo 3 World Record $170 million in 24 hours

Microsoft predicted that Halo 3 will beat all entertainment sales in its first 24 hours of release beating Spiderman 3 and the Harry Potter movies. $170 million in its first day of release including all preorders and release day purchases beats Spiderman 3's $120 million record. Even though movie tickets cost $10 and compared to the $129, $69, $59 prices of Halo 3 it still shows value of sales in the 24 hour period. Wow! I guess this is how Microsoft will get their money back from losing alot of that production cost of the consoles and still losing for every unit sold until now. Go Master Chief!!!

Microsoft's XBox 360 to be Powered Up!

From Joystiq comes the new holiday line up for Microsoft's XBox 360 and will be powered up!! An atempt to convert more Sony fanboys to join into the 360 pool (those who still has the PS2 and waiting to happen to the PS3), Microsoft is bundling alot of extras to all the SKUs currently in selves coming October. I made a little chart for you to check see for yourself.

XBox 360 Elite	HDMI port 120GB HDD Wireless Controller HDTV Component Cable HDMI Cable Games included Forza Motorsports 2 Marvel Ultimate Alliance Release Date: October 23, 2007
XBox 360 Pro	HDMI port 20GB HDD Wireless Controller HDTV Component Cable Games included Forza Motorsports 2 Marvel Ultimate Alliance Release Date: October 09, 2007
XBox 360 Arcade	HDMI port 256MB Memory Card Wireless Controller AV Cable Games included: Boom-Boom Rocket Pac-man Uno Feeding Frenzy Luxor 2 Release date: End of October

As you could see that the before Core package, now going to be dubbed Arcade like they have in UK, will have the most power ups. From a wired to a wireless controller and from without a HDMI to with a HDMI port. Also to be dubbed Arcade because it will come with 5 Live Arcade games pack in the 256MB Memory Card that its going to come with.

So this might not be a price drop because all will still cost the same $449.99, $349.99, and $279.99 but having all the extras maybe costing about $50 to $100 more then without it.

Is Microsoft being Sony to the punch again knowing that rumors going around that Sony might have another price drop? I think so.

Nintendo Japan is #2 in Mega Giant Companies

Nintendo being the strong video game company that it has been for the years it has been in the market with its ups and downs are now the #2 company in Japan.

Nintendo has 8.34 Trillion yen in its pocket and only being 2nd to japan's mega company Toyota. Nintendo recently beat Canon which has 8.12 Trillion. Don't expect Nintendo to overtake the reigning champion anytime soon because Toyota has 24 trillion in its bank. That's 3 times more so unless nintendo has 3 times more game, consoles, accessories, marketing that's equally as successful as the currrent Wii and DS then it won't happen.

Sony New SKU Rumor Gets More Evidence

The rumor has been out for a while now and though they didn't announce it at the Tokyo Game Show, we have new evidence that it will happen. The picture above is the new FCC approval of a new model Playstation 3. Sony likes to renumber every new hard drive that they put in. So though it's not confirmed, this is a light to the upcoming price drop that everyone has been talking about. Let's hope it happens. But when it does happen, will this help out in the sales of the console?

Capcom to make Platinum Games

Capcom's Clover Studios which is responsible for the cool game Okami was liquidated and fromed the company Seeds, with talents of Viewtiful Joe's Atsushi Inaba, Resident Evil's Shinji Mikami and Devil May Cry's Hideki Kamiya. This was an awesome line up. But even before making a single game they had to stop operations.

Seeds was to be merged with company ODD. Now to be called Platinum Games, they will be having a bigger work force then ever before. Lets expect from these guys one heck of game. We'll fill you in when news starts to surface.

Halo 3 Goodness

Lately I haven't been posting much and it's because of all the Halo 3 madness going on. I've been trying to gather some people to go with me to the Wal-Mart midnight sale for this game. I have some friends that has the game already and so the news is true that the game is already in consumer hands.

There is also an event at GameCrazy (Hollywood Video's game section) that will be giving away extra stuff like TShirts and Used games along with your purchase. Not bad!

I also saw and AD that a guy is selling the legendary edition for $250. I called him up and it was sold. Lucky or unlucky buyer?

As for the end of this article, here is a commercial for Halo 3 and wow did this give me goosebumps.

Radio Shack to have Games!!!

Radio Shack is now venturing to new things in fear of sales are going down. So they have decided to get into the gaming industry. As a first step they are starting out with major games and not all. Starting September 24 they will have Halo 3 for sale and some major ones. Not more then 14 games from the big 2 consoles. Yes I said 2 and not 3. They have decided not to have the PS3 in store. I feel bad for Sony.

Radio Shack's stocks has gone done 6.6% last month and is taking steps to prevent it from happening again. The growing industry of video games was the step to go. And this is how they are starting out and said if all goes well they will have the full line up. Hey! Maybe they'll have PS3s now also!

World Of Warcraft Account sells for $10,000

We know that online gaming accounts has been sold before but not as much as this. 7,000 euro dollars was the price ($9,700) for a Rogue with the best items. The character had Legendary Swords from Illidan Stormrage and 4/5 of a Tier 6 armor set. The guy that sold it, Zeuzo, is currently making another character also a Rogue.

What's more sad is that the guy that bought the account has not been seen since Sept 3. There is only a few explanations for this. One could be that he's tired of playing WoW and retired or and emergency and has to do something else or the account might of been banned because selling of accounts is not permitted in the terms and conditions of Wow. Sad!!!!

Sony Is Announcing the Rumbled Sixaxis

Its just a rumor but word is out that Sony is revealing the rumbled enabled Sixaxis controller for the Playstation 3 on the Tokyo Game Show. Word has been going around now that some development companies has been receiving rumble enabled sixaxis developer's kits to work on. So this news isn't really a long shot and can be quite true. Let's hope it!

August Sales: Nintendo is top followed by Microsoft

Here are the figures of the month of August. Stated that the video game industry had a total sales of $993 million in this month alone, it has increased almost %50 since last year are clearly topping the movie industry.

Nintendo Wii: 403.6K (4 million total)

Nintendo DS: 383.3K (12.7 million total)

Microsoft Xbox 360: 276.7K (6.3 million)

Sony PlayStation 2: 202K (39.1 million total)

Sony PSP: 151.2K (8.3 million total)

Sony PlayStation 3: 130.6K (1.75 million total)

The PS3 stays at last place once again. Michael Pachter's prediction of 2 to 1 sale of the 360 over PS3 is very much a given with these figures, not to mention that September is when we get to finish the fight.

Halo Madness Continues

Even banks are jumping in with the craze.

Halo Themed 360 comes out Sunday

Its official and Microsoft has announced that this coming Sunday the Halo Themed 360s will be out for the public. The question still stands if this is really worth $50 dollars more for few designs on the console and different colored accessories? One thing that is different then the Premium pack is the included Charge 'N' Play kit that comes with this package, a $20 value. So your actually paying $ dollars more for the paint job. Maybe for people that has an 1080p HDMI enabled TV that chose the 360 as their console of choice but don't have it since they bought the unit that don't have it yet, they could use that as an excuse to get this and sell their current 360. Maybe?

Even the Charge 'N' Play kit is Halo-themed

Nintendo Stocks continue to Go UP!

Nintendo is not stopping and still going up. Just 2 weeks ago the stocks were priced at $330 and is currently at $450. People that bought stocks a year ago must be really rich right now. I find no reason for the stocks to stop increasing since the holidays are coming and Nintendo's strategy to divert more Wiis to US then in Japan since most of the population is here. Congratulations Nintendo!

World Series Of Video Games Is No More

WSVG, the supposably World Cup of video games has ended and pulling the plug. The reason? They say there are not enough advertisers and saying too much work for not enough money. I guess that these guys are in it for the money and not for the gamers. Someone should make a non-profit video game competition medium and let it be heard that gamers are the next big thing.

Michael Pachter Slips Secret PS3 Price Drop

The PS3 40GB rumor came from none other then game analyst Michael Pachter. It is categorized as rumor because no word yet from Sony. But mentioned at CAGcast #90, Sony has been woeing Mr. Pachter and giving some probably major info and wasn't probably suppose to be announced quite yet but I guess slipped out the month of Mr. Pachter. If this is true, then we all could expect that rumor to be a reality next week at the Tokyo Game Show.

Halo 3 and XBox 360 Predictions by Michael Pachter

Here are more predictions from the analyst of the gaming industry Michael Pachter.

XBox 360 will outsell PS3 2-1 or more for the month of September, the month of Halo 3's Finish The Fight.

Halo 3 will sell 3 million copies in the first 2 weeks of release on September 25, 2007.

XBox 360 sales is expected to be over 400,000 for the month of September.

With these predictions, Microsoft must be really smiling to their ears with these figures. It really looks like Halo 3 really is a console seller. 1.5 million pre-orders already currently reserved and yet more too come with the people that are just release day buyers. Halo 3 madness continues to go all over America. As for Japan, we can't say the same.

TGS pre-knowledge PS3 AND PS2 getting price drops

There you have it. Michael Pachter mind powers of predicting the video game future is true. Being announced at the Tokyo Game Show is two different announcements but same category.

The PS3 is getting yet another price drop but not directly. This is being expected sooner then thought previously. They are coming out with a lower model, the 40GB PS3. 40GB you say??? Yes 40GB PS3. Its going to cost $399 hence the price drop. If this trend keeps going then maybe we could looking at $299 for the 20GB version and $199 for one that don't have a HDD. But anyways, with a $399 price and competing directly now with the XBox 360's price of $449 $349 $279, we'll finally see a more even match of which really do people want since now they have the choice when they have about $400 to spend. Will they get a PS3 or a 360??

The second announcement is the PS2 is also getting a price drop. The current 129$ console will now be $99. Nothing really to discuss about here except if you still don't have a PS2 in your house and your read this video game news freakin get one already. I mean, get it when the $99 PS2s come out.

Eternal Sonata for the PS3? We're pretty sure. Not Official though!

Judging by the picture alone above, it looks like the PS3 is getting the supposably exclusive Eternal Sonata for the XBox 360. This picture was taken from Joystiq.com and is part of the ESRB rating the game. Namco Bandai denies it though, saying that it is an XBox 360 exclusive. Famitsu is saying that its coming out next year spring. So what's really going on here NAMCO BANDAI?!

US Shares Europe's PS3 Compatibility Pain

Oh so it hurts!!! The pain!!!

Not really physical pain but and not all that bad since everyone practically has a PS2 anyways so its not really all that worth mentioning but I will anyways. The backward compatibility of the PS3 80gig version of Sony suffers from the same backward compatibility of that of Europe. Here is a quote from Joystiq.com stating some problems that may occur on some of the game.

-God of War -- 60GB: "No major problems for this title." 80GB: "During various FMV sequences throughout the title, the audio plays overlapped by static audio distortion."

-Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater -- 60GB: "No major problems for this title." 80GB: "During various FMV sequences throughout the title, the audio plays overlapped by static audio distortion." & "Throughout gameplay, the title performs at a significantly slower than normal performance speed."

-Final Fantasy X -- 60GB: "No major problems for this title." 80GB: "At various points throughout the Opening FMA sequence, the graphics jitter."

-Destroy All Humans -- 60GB: "No major problems for this title." 80GB: "At specific points during gameplay, character weapons do not function as intended."

Like I said, not all that bad.

CAGcast reports on the Circuit City... thing!

The whole thing about the Circuit City has been on hold for a while now. They have their "Motion to Quash" still pending and still waiting for results of that but what was interesting in the podcast was that CheapyD discusses that he gets alot of secret intel from circuit city now because of this publicity that's going on.

The latest news that was mentioned was that Circuit City is planning to be renamed "The City". Wombat wanted to call them "KFC" for "Kentucy Fried City". Listen to it at www.cheapassgamer.com and listen to it yourself. Awesome stuff!

Jam Session for the DS bundle

Here a nice thing to talk about. Jam session, the DS' version of Guitar Hero, is coming out with a bundled "First Act" amp. So if your a music gamer and want to get a hand on this then you'll have to wait until November. The bundle will cost $69.99, with game and amp to rock and roll!!!

Aerosmith Themed Guitar Hero

This just from Joystiq.com with an article with Aerosmith. From Billboard, Joe Parry says that Guitar Hero IV will be Aerosmith centered and to be the dedicated to them. So the well knowned guitarist, Joe says they are working hand in hand with the developers.

We can't say if its Activition or Red Octane but since Activition has rights to Guitar Hero now and Hermonix now has Rock Band then its pretty much safe to spectulate that Activition will be doing this game. This is probably a leak and no one is suppose to know that Guitar Hero IV is in the works even before the release of III.

Analyst says Asian MMO sales of $2.5 Billion

Asian MMOs are very much diverse and very different from American MMOs. They could have mini characters shooting cabbage or rocks against each other and be a successful game or have a side-scroller adventure platform game and have massive multi players all at the same time and still be fun and profitable. The asian markets of MMO is so many that last year they made $2.5 billion in revenues and is expected to grow more. Analyst says 20%. I say that americans should embrace this concept and not just stick to WoW. Try something else, they might just like it.

PSP-2000s now available

No one really waited for this release since its not much of a difference but the new PSPs are coming out dubbed PSP-2000. It comes in slivery white and sells for 200 dollars and comes with Daxter and Family Guy and with a 1Gig Memory Stick. That's alot of "and"!

WAIT!!!! Have you seen one in stores? Apparently not yet so what really going on Sony? Today was supposed to be the actual release date but nothing has been popping up. Others say during Christmas but since no one really is anticipating this release, no one really know too.

Analysts saying again PS3 Price Drop

Alot of analysts, one of them being Michael are talking about another price drop for the PS3. NO! Not next year but this year to follow up the holidays. I guess if this gets out of hand that sony will sue the analysts now. But anyways, with this news and if we take these analysis to consideration then we'll just wait again for this price drop before they pick up a PS3.