On Saturday, we posted up an article about a price increase for the Xbox 360 and it’s software that will come into effect in January 2009. Local gamers are fuming and everybody is cringing or complaining over the concept of paying a thousand Rand for triple A titles. We got on the phone with Microsoft’s Product and Marketing Manager, John …

A press release that came in from Ster Kinekor this week is showing that Sony is confident that they are the dominant console in Europe, stating that they have: “moved to dispel Microsoft claims that Xbox is outselling the PS3 in Europe, revealing internal figures that say its console has sold 300,000 more units than Xbox 360 in PAL territories.” …

Anyone who has been paying any sort of attention to the gaming industry knows that Microsoft have taken a very aggressive approach this year by making some major slashes to the price of their Xbox 360 SKU's. In an interview with Videogamer.com, Stephen McGill, the head of Microsoft's gaming and entertainment department in the UK has said that he thinks that the Xbox 360 is "great value" and is at a "great price now". His explanation, after the jump. He says that Microsoft won't drop the price for "many many years in the future in the future I suspect" and also later goes on to say that: "It's great value. And I think the value not only comes from the price of the console but the content. With NXE launching and obviously that's free for everyone, and the portfolio. There isn't a better range of games and entertainment, basically fun, on any other platform, and we're incredibly affordable."" He is right though, the amount of console you are getting for the prices that they are now available is pretty remarkable and I really can't see that Microsoft would even be able to lower the prices any further, at least not for a couple of years. Sony on the other hand is holding tight with it's prices. With the line-up that the PS3 has got going for it as well as the strong brand recognition worldwide, I don't doubt that they will be selling consoles by the bucket-loads this Christmas either.

An anonymous source has informed us that a local distributor has released a press release to retailers stating that games prices will be rising due to the economic crisis. The press release apparently states that due to the Rand weakening some 22% (R9.45 to the Dollar at the time of writing) that game prices will be increasing as of October 27. If game prices go up to between 20% - 25% we may very well be looking at the possibility of R850 for standard titles. We have a word of advice, after the jump. It doesn't take long to realise that there are going to be a lot of massive titles releasing in November and December, so if I can give you a word of advice it is this. Pre-order, Pre-Order and Pre-Order. That way the prices are locked down and the retailers can't charge you more. Also, if there are any October titles that you were thinking about picking up at a later stage (not pre-owned) then you may want to get your hands on them before the 27th. This is bad, bad news considering that we are about to run into what is arguably the greatest summer line-up of all time.

With PS3 sales overtaking Xbox 360 sales in the last couple of months there have been many articles and reports flying around the internet saying that the PS3 is finally starting to catch up to the 360 and may possibly even overtake it soon. Interesting concept, except for the fact that it's flawed. The current sales of the Xbox 360 and PS3 on VGchartz are as follows: Xbox 360: 20.44 Million Playstation 3: 15.05 Million The thing is, that if you look at the console sales, you can see that the gap in sales between the PS3 and Xbox 360 is still roughly the same as it was when the PS3 was launched. This means that in the current state, the sales of the PS3 are at best only matching the sales of the Xbox 360 even though sales for Sony's console have picked up recently. The PS3 is indeed becoming more popular and the past problems with the Xbox 360's hardware have made quite a difference. However, we all know that the Xbox 360 is going to be the only console offering HD next-gen gaming at the magic price of $199 US dollars. As we have stated in previous articles, come Christmas time, parents are going to be flocking to stores to ensure a truckload of new foul mouthed children join us on Xbox Live and when they do, the low price of the Xbox 360 is going to be incredibly tempting, especially with Nintendo's Wii suffering from shortages abroad. As much as the PS3 enjoys strong brand recognition and a a large fanbase from the PS2 generation, the purchasing decisions are that of the parents and not the children and when the price is right, the parents are all for it. So how is the the future of the PS3 looking? We spend so much time discussing exclusive titles and graphics comparisons that we forget that at the end of the day it largely comes down to parents, standing in a store, staring at shelves with PS3's and Xbox 360's on them. They don't care about MGS4 and Gears of War 2. They see a low price tag on one of them "new console thingamajigs" and the truth is, its not the PS3. It seems pretty obvious which one is going to be leaving in their trolley.