xbox

Look out, modders: federal customs agents have just announced a new crackdown on the smuggling of "illegal" devices that enable gamers to play pirated wares on Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360, Sony's Playstation 2 and other consoles.

As part of an ongoing investigation into the sale and distribution of such "circumvention devices," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents from 22 offices said they raided businesses, storefronts and residents in 16 states on Wednesday. They reported executing 32 search warrants, but there was no word on whether any arrests were … Read more

GameSpot UK is running an article that's based on an interview with Warwick Light, Sony Computer Entertainment New Zealand's head of marketing. The article appeared in New Zealand's The Press under the headline "The Future According to Sony."

What's interesting about the article is that Light uses terms such as "future proof," "true next-generation machine," "scope for scalability," "home entertainment system," and "super computer," to describe the PS3. He also goes on to talk about the flexibility of the machine, noting how "We (… Read more

E3 came and went, and while another company announced a "price drop," the Internet-wide speculation of Microsoft doing the same at the big show went unmentioned.

Well it seems that these Xbox 360 price-drop suspicions were not completely unfounded; over the weekend it was discovered that multiple retailers will have the Xbox 360 premium listed at $350 beginning in early August--most likely to coincide with the release of Madden 08.

Thanks to Cheap Ass Gamer, we have two scans of predated ads from Wal-Mart and Toys R Us displaying the $50 price cut. It is unclear, however, about whether this will affect the Elite and Core versions of the console as well.

Check out the Wal-Mart ad scan after the jump.… Read more

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Things we Crave

Poker-playing computer

Sony MP3 player without Sonic Stage or ATRAC

Insider Secrets

Emeraldgirl93 writes "Hi Tom and Brian, I like to do a lot of video editing, I currently use Windows Movie Maker, which is ok but i'm looking for something better. Can you recommend A good FREE Video editing program? Thanks!"

Make your own Adobe CS3 for free… Read more

Ah, the prices for HD DVD players just keep falling. This time it's not one of Toshiba's standalone players, but the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360. Starting August 1, the player will shed $20, dropping to $179. If that isn't enough to entice you, the press release notes that "buyers can choose five HD DVD titles for free from a selection of 15 popular titles via a mail-in offer."

All that said, in terms of pure hardware costs for a game console/next-gen DVD player, the 60GB PS3 (with built-in Blu-ray player) remains … Read more

Gamespot's James Yu was able to get some hands-on time with the Xbox 360 chatpad, a clip-on keyboard for the Xbox 360 game controller. Microsoft had first announced the chatpad add-on after the spring '07 dashboard update with MSN Messenger support made it obvious that some sort of texting accessory would eventually be coming our way.

Preliminary testing tells us that the keyboard has a solid feel with buttons that provide ample feedback. The chatpad will not get in the way of your gaming, since your hands rest comfortably on either side of the device.

The chatpad will be … Read more

(Sorry for the brief hiatus... I had an important deadline to deal with at the office.)

On July 5, Microsoft announced that it was offering three years of warranty coverage for the "three red flashing lights" problem on the Xbox 360 (press release here).

This announcement began an interesting series of statements, interpretations and outright false conclusions from a variety of sources.

The press release… Read more

"The segment with Molly 'playing' video games was horrible. The 360 was upside down and the game playing was Resistance, which is a PS3 game."

Er. D'oh. Yes. Yes, all that is true.

Now, let me explain. I am using my Xbox 360-to-PS3 adapter. See, I love Resistance: Fall of Man, but I have an Xbox 360, and I just really prefer that controller. So, I use my adapter to play cool PS3 games. Oh, … Read more

Miss any of this week's big E3 news? CNET TV's got you covered. Veronica Belmont wraps up all the announcements from Santa Monica, including the highlights from Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo.

Earlier CNET TV coverage: