XBox Live pricing

Gamespy has an article up detailing next year’s pricing for XBox Live! Link is here but I’ll save you the click. $49.95 for a 1 year renewal. Good news indeed, as there were rumors going as high as $10/month. More details at the link.

Console price drop?

Overheard at a local EB: talk of a $50 price cut for game consoles at E3 next week. Can you imagine? $150 for a PS2 or an XBox, and $100 for a Gamecube? Sweet!

If the rumor is true, I’d love to know who is driving the cuts. Sony seems mighty comfortable in first place, so I see no competitive reason for them to make a cut. MS is bleeding red ink every time it sells an XBox now and it seems like a price cut would be a real economic hardship for them. So maybe Nintendo? It’s in 3rd place and struggling…but you can really imagine Gamecube sales picking up when the little boxes are only $100. But then the question becomes, would MS and Sony bother following Nintendo down right away?

Eh, it’ll probably be just a rumor, but it was a store manager talking in a corner to one of his clerks. Good thing I have keen ears!

Warrior Challenge

Just heard about this new(?) show on PBS, Warrior Challenge. It’s a mix of documentary and ‘reality show’ *cringe* that puts current day warriors (mostly from the armed forces) in the shoes of gladiators, romans, vikings, and the like. Haven’t seen it yet, so no idea if its any good, but it sounds kind of interesting.