Dean Takahashi from The Mercury News claims that "Sony pleaded with third-party developers not to abandon its struggling platform," and believes the change in attitude "is a marked difference compared to the arrogance of past years." Takahashi's speculations after the release of NPD's sales charts for September favor the Microsoft Xbox 360, as he expresses doubts if the Sony PlayStation 3 can offer something good this holiday season.

Takahashi believes the Xbox 360 will lead with big titles like Mass Effect and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, noting that even multiplatform games will sell more units on Microsoft's console than those on the Sony PS3. Nintendo is putting up a fight with Super Mario Galaxy, but Ninty would've posed a bigger threat if Super Smash Bros. Brawl wasn't delayed. Sony, on the other hand, is limping with Ratchet & Clank: Tools of Destruction without other potential big sellers.

Even the release of Sony's 40GB PS3 selling for US$ 399 is not enough to convince Takahashi that the former leader in the gaming industry can move out of third place this generation. "The Wii is doing surprisingly well given the hype around Halo 3," he added.

In a recent blog post by Dean Takahashi, it was revealed that the new motherboard coming for the Microsoft Xbox 360 will be codenamed "Jasper." It's set to be incorporated into Xbox 360s come August 2008 and is predicted to bring in some good stuff for console buyers.

The new motherboard will have a 65-nanometer graphics card from ATI along with smaller memory chips. If all goes according to plan, Jasper will result in lower costs for Microsoft and more reliability for consumers.

The post says that in a neutral point of view, Jasper may indeed make the Xbox 360 a lot safer from the "red lights of death" than its predecessors. The smaller graphics chip, the post says, will result in less heat, making temperature management a lot easier.

The article further predicts that a new price cut should follow since the Xbox 360 shaved US$ 50 off its tag after the Falcon motherboards were implemented months ago.

The only gripe that the source had over the matter is that it's not happening any sooner than scheduled. Implementing Jasper with all its benefits should make the Xbox 360 more competitive with the Nintendo Wii, at the same time create more space between it and the Sony PlayStation 3's market share.

Ordinary consumers won't have to go through the trouble of digesting all the tech talk. All they need to understand is that come the third quarter of next year, they might be worrying less about the dreaded breakdowns and more about how to stop playing their favorite titles.

Microsoft has been sending out Halo 3 press packages worth US$ 800 to various gaming journalists. San Jose Mercury News game journalist Dean Takahashi, who received one of the packages, pointed out that this move was "nothing less than a bribe to try to get me to be favorably inclined to accepting the idea that Halo 3 is 'the entertainment event of the year.'"

The contents of the press package included a copy of the game, a Halo 3 Xbox Live Headset, a Master Chief Helmet, and even a Halo 3 Limited Edition Xbox 360. However, fans of the video game, speaking from various Xbox 360 discussion boards, have pointed out that this was simply Microsoft's way of getting the reviewers into a "Halo mood." Takahashi, on the other hand, plans to send the Halo 3 press kit back to Microsoft to deliver his point.

So far Microsoft hasn't given an official statement on these allegations. Hopefully, they'll be releasing one about soon to clarify their stand on this. While waiting, why not check out our review of Bungie Studios' Halo 3.

Thanks to Elliott for the tip!

After close to two months, more details on Microsoft's Project Falcon have risen: it's a new model of the Xbox 360, built with a board that houses the Microsoft 65-nanometer chip. Said to be Microsoft's counterattack to Sony's US$ 100 price cut at the time, it seems the project is so secret that the Microsoft guys at E3 never even heard of it.

Journalist Dean Takahashi is at it again and his recent report detailed the said project. Should the news prove true, the 65-nm chip is a significant step from the former 90-nm. Not only would this mean less heat and more reliability for the console, but it will also cost less. This answers a lot of concerns that have plagued Microsoft for some months now. If the cheap chip is real, it is probably the reason Microsoft was able to implement its price slash.

The first batches of the Xbox 360 Falcon are said to currently be on their last stages in manufacturing. We'd probably get some more details and confirmation before the new models come in reportedly this fall. In case you're interested in reading the entire report, click the link below.

Mercury News journalist Dean Takahashi has just reported on Microsoft's alleged new move to counter Sony's recent price cut for the PlayStation 3. The strategy will be under the codename "Falcon" and, according to Takahashi, will center around the latest internal electronics in the Xbox 360.

The said internal electronics will be composed of an IBM microprocessor and an AMD/ATI graphics chip that are manufactured in a 65-nanometer production process. We've already talked about this one before. Basically, these chips are similar to the 90-nanometer ones but are smaller and more efficient.

Takahashi added that this will ultimately solve the console's problems with overheating. Quite interestingly, the journalist also noted that Microsoft may opt to do a lot of things: put in the unsightly brick-style power supply inside, make a smaller version of the core or beef up the console even more.

Dean Takahashi spoke with one representative from Microsoft but the spokesperson declined to comment. However, when he asked Head of Games Division Peter Moore regarding Falcon, the following was the response he got:

We have a bunch of different projects that cost reduce and improve quality as you find issues, as does our competition. Once you get millions in the field, you learn about the box under all kinds of different circumstances, you can adjust and tweak what you do accordingly.

Microsoft is still keeping it zipped on Xbox 360 failure rates. Just recently, Dean Takahashi sat down with Microsoft’s corporate vice president of Gaming and Xbox Products Group Todd Holmdahl, only to fail at attempts of squeezing out answers regarding the 360 performance issues.

Holmdahl was deadset on sugar-coating the box, as if holding the number of broken units insignificant. His response to owners reporting to have had more than a couple of problematic consoles:

We’re very proud of the box. We think the vast majority of people are having just a great experience. You look at the number of games they are buying, the number of accessories they are buying, the Live attach. They love the box. They continue to buy the box. That said, we take any customer issue very seriously. We continue to look into these things very deeply. You have seen we have made some changes to our customer service policy.

When asked about defect rates affecting the business model, he replied, "I would say we don’t have a high defect rate. The vast majority of people are really excited about their product, and that we are targeting profitability for next year."

About warranty policies being changed, Holmdahl continues to avoid faulty hardware being a cause of anything. "There are no systematic issues. The vast majority of the people just love the product, have a great experience with it. When there is an issue, we get on it and address it as quickly as possible," he said.

If that's not enough, he keeps on driving the point that people love their 360.

The overriding thing is that people have the product, they love the product, it continues to sell well. The stuff we talked about with Live has been very successful. The game attach has been very successful. The accessory attach. We are absolutely committed to delivering a high quality experience. When people do have issues, the leadership team works to make sure that those issues are dealt with as pain free as possible. We go out of our way to try to ensure that happens.

That said, he refused to comment about how many defective units there were during launch or how many have been sent back for repairs. Why they're keeping supposedly small failure rate numbers in the dark, we may never know.

San Francisco got a lot of recent Covvie-loving at that Halo 3shindig Microsoft and Bungie threw. Everyone who wanted to sneak a peek at the multiplayer beta, up close and personal, was there to write about it - for example, the San Jose Mercury's Dean Takahashi. You can find out how much fun (lucky...) he had at the Via link.

But why are we sitting here writing about it? Gamespot has some vids, uploaded to YouTube by alliah08. Videos. Of the Beta. With rocket launchers. What's stopping you from hitting the Play button?

More videos after the jump!

My my, you readers really do have a sense of humor when it comes to your handles and your nicknames. You see, this bit of Microsoft related news comes from a QJ reader who prefers to be addressed as "microsoft." No, we're not kidding. Anyhow, thanks for the tip microsoft, whoever you are.

On to the news: Despite Microsoft's dismissal of year-old Xbox Portable rumors, it seems that predictions that Microsoft will enter the handheld scene just won't stop. Unleashed_Power posts in the official PlayStation.com Forums several images taken from an Xbox Magazine. Behold the image:

 

If you're having trouble reading that, here's what it says:

To enter the handheld console space in holiday 2007 or early 2008 is Microsoft, according to market analyst The Diffusion Group. This prediction jibes with San Jose Mercury News tech writer Dean Takahashi's report that microsoft has an internal team working on such a project. We have just one request if it happens, Mr. Gates: We need two thumbsticks. Without them, the inevetible handheld Halo won't fly. And without Halo, this thing will probably forgotten faster than Freddy Prince Jr.(On the other hand, we'll probably never be able to forget the horror that was the Wing Commander movie.)

Two thumbsticks. Yes, that would make a lot of sense. Halo on-the-go would also be a very nice thing, especially if the handheld was able to capitalize on Wi-Fi clouds and such.

Anyhow, what's your take on this never-ending rumor? You think it's likely? Well, even Mercury News tech writer Dean Takahashi thinks so. Some of us here at QJ are thinking though that Microsoft will prioritize their performance in certain eastern markets first, before entering the handheld scene. That would be reasonable, right?

Kris Graft of Next Generation reports that when Microsoft XNA framework developer Shaw Hargreaves was asked on the Microsoft forums whether or not the HDMI output of the much rumored Xbox 360 Elite would require any code changes, the response was simple: "No changes required."

This of course, adds more fuel to the Xbox 360 elite fire as the said developer did not make any denials about the existence of an updated Xbox 360. As for more "official" word on the rumored upgrade, Microsoft continues to keep quiet about the alleged hardware update that we all now refer to as the "Xbox 360 Elite."

Other proponents of the existence of the Xbox 360 Elite includes Dean Takahashi of Mercury news, who has cited in his blog that he is confided that Microsoft is ready to announce the Xbox 360 Elite; the folks from Game Informer, who has several "images" of the rumored console; and Engadget.

The Mercury news' gaming journo Dean Takahashi expects Microsoft is all but ready to print out the press release for the Xbox 360 Elite. Of course the rest from there is the same game everyone else has been playing: guessing what will come in the new Xbox.

The guesses are in line with, for example, Engadget or Game Informer: the black plastic, the HDMI, the 120GB HDD and the IPTV, the lack of an internal HD-DVD. That makes all the guesses unanimous, then - although even Dean says he could be wrong, and only the press release will say when.

The interesting thing he added was the emphasis on 65nm chips, and not only in the 360 Elite. "[Microsoft] is overdue for a shift from the 90-nanometer chips that it started with in 2005 to the 65-nm chips commonly in production elsewhere." And not just for Elite production, too: the implication is that the current Core/Premium SKUs will also have 65-nm chips, "bringing costs down fairly dramatically" and improving performance. "That transition isn't yet complete but it should be by the fall."

That gives a potential timetable for the rumored "Elite will be the new Premium, Premium will be the new Core, and Core will (more or less) be kaput" rumor brought up elsewhere. If that rumor is true, probably by winter 2007-2008 or spring 2008, the Xbox 360 SKU lineup (and price markup) will shake up in that fashion.