Xbox 360 shapes up for holidays with Arcade and family TV

Stan Beer
Wednesday, 24 October 2007 04:34

Your IT - Entertainment

With Xbox 360 sales bubbling along stronger than ever now that Halo 3 is on the market, Microsoft is keeping the pressure on with the announcement of new family friendly content on its Xbox Live online service and the release of a new low priced Xbox 360 console targeting the mass market.

The HDMI compatible Xbox 360 Arcade games console has hit shelves at US$279 is aimed squarely at the market currently served spectacularly well by the US$249 Nintendo Wii. The new console comes bundled with five complete versions of classic games, including favorites such as Pac-Man Championship Edition and Feeding Frenzy as well as a wireless controller.

In addition to the new budget priced console, an additional 100 TV episodes from Nickelodeon and Warner Bros'classic Looney Tunes cartoon series will be made available for on-demand viewing from Xbox Live.

The new offerings from Microsoft are aimed squarely at the low end of the games and home entertainment market that both Xbox 360 and PS3 are missing out on, while Wii continues to cleans up.

The latest figures show that Xbox 360 at least momentarily lifted the mantle of number one selling games console in the US when Halo 3 was released. However, the handily priced motion sensitive Wii continues to sell as strongly as ever.

With Sony slashing the price of PS3 and bringing out a cut price 40GB version and Microsoft bringing out Xbox 360 Arcade, and ready availability of inventory on store shelves, with perhaps the exception of Wii, the Christmas holiday shopping season could be a defining period in the console market war.