IL y a quelques semaines Microsoft annonçait ses jeux Xbox 360 à 60 €. Aujourd’hui Electronic Arts vient d’officialiser le prix de ses softs figurant dans le line up de la console : 60 €.

Microsoft continue son opération de séduction des développeurs japonais et a réussi à attirer l'une des plus talentueuses équipes de ces dernières années.  
 
Le talentueux développeur japonais, G Rev, a officialisé son soutien à la Xbox 360. Auteurs des excellents Border Down sur Dreamcast, de Senko no Ronde et de Under Defeat sur système Naomi, ces fantastiques codeurs ont donc annoncé rejoindre Microsoft sans pour autant annoncer un premier titre.
 
A l'instar de Treasure (Ikaruga, Radiant Silvergun) avec lesquels G Rev avait travaillé sur Gradius 5 et Ikaruga, il s'agit définitivement d'une excellente nouvelle pour les fans de jeux d'arcade et de shoot them up.
 
Microsoft prouve donc qu'il souhaite, à tout prix, s'attirer les faveurs du public japonais en diversifiant au maximum les développeurs de leur prochaine console et par conséquent la future offre de ses titres.

When it comes to showing off next-generation products, few companies have been as open as Sega. At E3, the publisher showed off two Xbox 360 games playable for anyone who wanted to try on the show floor, in addition to five more via trailers in a theater. And now the company has taken the next big step in showing off next-gen games by being the first company to publicly show off games running on the Xbox 360 developer Beta kits.
 
At Wednesday's taping of the Gphoria awards show in downtown Los Angeles, Sega brought out fresh versions of Condemned: Criminal Origins and Full Auto running on the updated development hardware.
 
These Beta kits, which were released to the development community roughly three weeks ago, have recieved quite a bit of chatter amongst hardcore Xbox fans who have been disappointed by certain Xbox 360 games shown thus far -- which were running on Alpha kits -- and want to see the games improve graphically before they hit stores.
 
As it turns out, the Beta kits look able to achieve solid results, but it's doubtful they will provide the instant visual leap many players were hoping for. We tested both Full Auto and Condemned, and they featured roughly the same amount of visual detail as was in the E3 versions, but both games had problems keeping a smooth framerate. It's obvious this is due to the Beta kits only having been around for three weeks and not poor programming -- the Full Auto team expects their framerate to be back where it was at E3 time in just one week from now -- but it shows that the Beta kits are not the immediate miracle that some fans were hoping for. Developers will not be able to port over existing code and see it magically look better.
 
Of course, there are certain areas where the new hardware looks to excel. One developer we spoke with noted that the sound capabilities of the Beta kits are far superior to what had been around previously, which should help in the short term, and universally all developers we've talked to agree that, with time, the new hardware will allow them to produce much better results than we saw on the Alpha kits. Some even claim that this upcoming hardware generation will -- more than any other before it -- see games take years to exploit what it's capable of, so it's not really possible to make any snap judgements after three weeks.
 
All we know is that right now, it just feels good to be playing a next-gen game without having it coming out of a giant Apple G5. We're sure the framerates of games will get in order and the games will look gorgeous -- it's just a question of how much more gorgeous than what we've seen already, and the jury's still out on if the leaps we're hoping for will be achieved by the Xbox 360 launch.

Playable Xbox 360 games are to be showcased at the Leipzig Games Convention 2005 in Germany this August.
 
Square Enix has revealed that its upcoming Xbox 360 version of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) will be playable to the attendees of the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, which runs from August 17-21.
 
Presentations will take place at both Square Enix's own stand as well as Microsoft's Xbox stand. European gamers will be the first to play the Xbox 360 version that was only showcased in demo form at this year's E3 back in May.
 
Attendees will be able to explore some of the areas within the game that are up and running. Special Leipzig giveaways include an exclusive CD-ROM containing a brand new Final Fantasy trailer and a link page to download a free trial version of the title. Final Fantasy XI is also the company’s first ever product for a Microsoft console.
 
Following Square Enix is THQ, who has confirmed that Relic Entertainment's WWII action-strategy game The Outfit will be present as will Volition's much-talked about action title Saint's Row.  
 
Versions showcased at the Games Convention are expected to be in a more advanced state than what was shown in LA with the launch of Xbox 360 creeping closer by the day.
 
Expect more playable Xbox 360 titles to be announced for the Leipzig Games Convention in the coming weeks.