The Choice is easy?

Today Microsoft announced they are cutting the price of the Xbox 360 Elite to $299, signaling the beginning of a mini price war. The announcement comes on the heals of Sony’s PS3 price cut a week ago in Cologne, Germany.  Effective Friday August 28, the $100 price cut puts the PS3 slim and Xbox 360 in a position to vie for gamers this holiday season and marks the first time this console cycle that gamers will be able to choose between equally priced consoles. As part of the price cut, however, Microsoft will no longer offer an HDMI cable. Online play remains free on the PS3 and $50/year on Xbox Live.  360 slim rumors were denied.

Cologne, Germany- 30-30-30. As anticipated, Sony has slashed the price of the PS3 gaming console $100 from $399 to $299, effective immediately. Sony has also introduced a new slimmer, lighter, cheaper, more power efficient PS3, retiring the 80-GB model once sold out. The new model comes with a 120GB hard drive, launches September 1st and will be 36% lighter, 33% slimmer, and 26% cheaper. In an interview with Gamasutra, Eric Lempel, Sony PlayStation Network operations director, explains that a number of changes were made to make the system more affordable.

As dust continues to settle from this year’s E3, analysts’ price-cutting speculation is giving way to a bundle of retail clarity: Sony remains bullish on its stagnant profit strategy amid mounting losses and cost cutting initiatives. Publishers are growing weary. While time reveals all, the PS3 will probably not see a price drop until end of summer at the earliest. Instead, recent leaks from Best Buy and Game Stop reveal a mediocre bundling strategy coupled with an aggressive Experience Playstation Now project aimed to educate and communicate to consumers the inherent value of the powerful, but expensive, sleek, but game deficient $399/$499 priced, black glossy console. Supposedly, Best Buy will receive a “limited edition” 80GB SKU including two games at $399. Game Stop is rumored to offer a limited time Final Fantasy VII Blu-ray 80GB bundle priced at $399.

In recent years, there has become an increasing reliance on metacritic scores as the executive bar of success in the video game industry. There is no question that these scores are transforming the way games are judged and marketed. Not surprisingly, there is ongoing gunslinging between manufacturers, publishers, and developers over which games and platforms are the best in terms of these scores. This is a question that we are very interested to answer, both qualitatively and quantitatively here at LudoGrind. While scores vary tremendously by platform, genre,  publisher, and a plethora of other segments, I figured it would be good to start at the top in terms of overall average scores by platform. On May 1, I took a snapshot:

Los Angeles- Skateboards, rabbits, dresses and…air? Clearly the industry is taking a turn towards virtual reality of lost past, physical and social motion sensing connectivity an overwhelming theme thus far at E3, Hollywood media and film convergence a close second. Hype, it appears is not without a sense of gimmickery.

Here’s a list of game changing happenings thus far at E3 in order of press conference extraveganzas.

Activision-Blizzard (Sunday 5PM 5:16PM)
Rock music, safe harbor statements, making an entrance, and an appearance by Tony Hawk, CEO Bobby Kotick announced the market is large and growing to $55 billion by 2012 ($39 billion in 2008), revealing a powerful online monetization strategy. More people, more time, more money playing video games fueled by

In yesterday’s results call to analysts, Take-Two Interactive reported heavy fiscal losses for the quarter, underscoring Grand Theft Auto IV’s preeminence and proving just how important blockbuster titles are to the hit-driven publishing industry. Net loss for the second quarter was narrower than expected, reported at $10.1 million ($.13 per share), down by a factor of almost 10 compared to last year’s haul of $98.2 million ($1.29 per share). The loss was fueled by paltry year-over-year earnings, net revenue falling by 57% from $539.8 million this time a year ago to a mere $229.7 million. To make matters worse, Take-Two announced they have delayed the release of Mafia II and Red Dead Redemption until first half 2010, citing further development time needed to ensure quality and market performance.