xbox 360

Digital creativity revs up in Cannes

June 22, 2010 4:34 pm by Tim Bradshaw

The Cannes Lions International Advertising festival is upon us. Once again, agencies, advertisers and tech companies are vying to out-geek each other, to prove they’re on top of the latest digital trends.

Delegates are welcomed to the Palais des Festivals by a giant “touchwall” – a 12-foot by five-foot screen by WPP unit Schematic, showing seminars, 3D maps and other interactive goodies.

SapientNitro – the digital agency which caused a stir last year by buying a traditional agency and scooping several awards for its “best job in the world” campaign for Tourism Queensland – has unveiled what it claims (and who could say otherwise) is the world’s first smile-activated ice-cream van. The van dishes out Unilever treats from Ben & Jerry’s and Wall’s to passers-by in return for a photo of a big grin, which is (inevitably) uploaded to Facebook.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is crowing about its first advertiser to use Kinect, the motion-sensing camera for Xbox 360 that was unveiled at E3 last week. Read more

Tags: advertising, CannesLions, kinect, microsoft, xbox 360
Posted in Digital media, Europe, Games, Tech | Permalink

Video games suffer fourth-worst month ever

May 14, 2010 12:43 am by Chris Nuttall

The US video game industry suffered one of its worst sales declines last month, according to April figures released on Thursday by the NPD research firm.

Console sales fell by 37 per cent and software sales by 22 per cent, with the industry suffering an overall 26 per cent fall to $766m in revenues, down from $1.03bn a year earlier. Read more

Tags: Nintendo, PS3, Sony, xbox 360
Posted in Games | Permalink

Beatles beat Guitar Hero, PS3 finally hits No 1

October 20, 2009 12:00 am by Chris Nuttall

The Beatles: Rock Band outsold Guitar Hero 5 in September in the US, while Sony’s PS3 console beat its rivals’ sales figures for the first time, according to the latest figures from the NPD research firm.

The “Battle of the Bands” was a key focus as the two titles were released at the same time, but both were outsold by the latest release in the Halo franchise - Halo 3: ODST - and Madden NFL 10. Read more

Tags: Beatles, Guitar Hero, PS3, Wii, xbox 360
Posted in Games, Hardware, Mobile, Software | Permalink

A good start for the PS3 Slim – but is it good enough?

September 8, 2009 6:38 am by Robin Harding

Sony PS3 The first data are starting to appear on sales of Sony’s revamped Playstation 3 “Slim” since price cuts went into effect at the start of September. The data are good. The question is whether they are good enough.

In Japan, research company Enterbrain says that Sony sold 150,252 PS3 Slims in the four days between its launch on September 3 and September 6. That is the highest weekly sales number Sony has recorded for the PS3 since its launch in 2006 and also compares well with products past, such as the 170,779 units of Nintendo’s DSi handheld console sold during its first two days in the shops last autumn. Read more

Tags: playstation 3, price cut, PS3, Sony, xbox 360
Posted in Asia, Consumer Electronics, Games, Hardware, Tech | Permalink

techfile 3.06.09

June 3, 2009 6:00 am by morning call

Acer said it would start producing the world’s first mainstream notebook computer using Google’s Android operating system before the end of September. The move opens a new front in Google’s battle with Microsoft by offering an alternative to the Windows operating system on small, low-priced PCs.
Sony has unveiled a new motion-sensing technology for its PlayStation 3 following a trend set by Nintendo’s Wii. The announcement at the E3 video-game trade show came a day after Microsoft demonstrated its Project Natal motion-sensing device for the Xbox 360.

Tags: Acer, android, Flickr, google, Hotmail, microsoft, Nintendo, PS3, Sony, twitter, Wii, Windows 7, xbox 360, Yahoo
Posted in Techfile | Permalink

techfile 08.05.09

May 8, 2009 6:00 am by morning call

Google executives mounted a concerted public defence of how the search company wields its wide-ranging power on the internet amid signs of growing regulatory concern. The comments came as a Google lawyer confirmed for the first time that US regulators had shown their interest in possible competition issues raised by chief executive Eric Schmidt’s position as a director on Apple’s board.
Hulu, the US online video service owned by NBC Universal, Fox and Walt Disney, has signed its first batch of content deals with international television producers, the first step towards a full global launch of the service. The company was set up 18 months ago by the media companies as a viable alternative to YouTube for professionally produced content.