Now is the time to grab your XBox 360

Attention all avid South African gamers. As of today (Friday the 14th) all Xbox 360 prices will drop by as much as 25%. This massive price drop, which will be implemented in both Europe and South Africa, is a welcome surprise for budget conscious gamers throughout the country. It has also come at a time when sales of gaming consoles has somewhat declined. Some industry experts regard the XBox 360 console as the number one gaming console in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). The XBox 360 Pro, a 20GB game console will have an estimated retail price of R2, 999, dropping just under 20% of its current price. The XBox 360 Elite, which comes with an impressive 120GB hard drive, will drop from its current retail price of R4, 600 down to R3, 999.

But clearly the biggest money saver is the XBox 360 Arcade console. This entry-level machine, whose price is just below that of the Nintendo Wii, will drop from R2, 700 to R1, 999, an impressive 25% drop.

This new pricing system is an obvious step towards competing against the likes of Nintendo, which has been beating market share since the arrival of the Wii. Sales analysis show that while the XBox 360 owns the market share in EMEA, the console falls short of the Nintendo Wii and the PS3.

Even though the Wii cannot match the superior graphics of the XBox 360, its leadership in interactive technology has made it a market leader in South Africa. With the XBox 360 Arcade console now below the price of the Wii, the Wii will now find itself competing against a much more formidable opponent, the XBox 360 Pro.

When comparing the last six months’ XBox 360 sales to that of the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii, it is clear that something needs to be done to boost sales. With PS3 peaking at over 400,000 sales in the last six months, and the Wii with more than 300,000 sales, it is clear that a price reduction is in order. Interestingly enough, PS3 has recently also reduced its price, and has now exceeded XBox 360 sales.

With this much anticipated price reduction, people are guaranteed to step back from their PS3s and Nintendo Wii’s and start giving the XBox 360 some much needed attention. And with Microsoft changing their pricing strategy, Sony and Nintendo are sure to follow suit. Not that any of us will mind too much. Let the games begin.

Our team here will be watching and waiting anxiously to see when Digital Planet will decide to drop their prices in their response to this move by Microsoft.

A quick look at Far Cry 2

A lot of gamers out there will remember the original Far Cry – and for quite a few reasons. Ubisoft timed it perfectly. At a time when there was a dearth of first-person shooters available and every gamer alive was anxiously waiting for the marvels to be (Doom 3 and Half-Life 2), Ubisoft injected this little gem into the market, almost single-handedly revitalising the genre and setting benchmarks that the abovementioned games’ developers knew they had to beat.

Far Cry had everything going for it. Stunning visuals, good gameplay, awesome storyline, decent AI – and in my personal opinion another thing modern games lack – a lot of game time. There was no way you would be finishing Far Cry in a single sitting.

That said, Far Cry became almost frustratingly difficult, especially in the latter stages of the game.

Because of all this, it became a massive hit, more so because of the lack of hype surrounding the release of the game – in the end producing quite a bit of a surprise for most people.

So when Ubisoft announced the sequel to Far Cry last year, a number of gamers sat up and started paying attention.

Far Cry 2 has a lot to live up to. At the moment the FPS genre is almost glutted with games – Call of Duty 4 and FEAR: Perseus Mandate to name two. Call of Duty 4, especially, has pretty much removed CouterStrike as the multi-player game of choice at LAN’s,

So what can we expect from Far Cry 2. According to Tony Key, Ubisoft’s VP of marketing, “”Far Cry marked the beginning of a new era for shooters. An era of gorgeous graphics and of advanced artificial intelligence. We are confident that Far Cry 2 will have the same impact again on the FPS genre landscape.”

Doesn’t tell us a lot, does it? But, I’ll let the screenshots below speak for themselves and hope that the developers at Ubisoft don’t let us down. Far Cry 2 is slated for release in March/April this year. For more infomation of this, go check out the official Far Cry 2 page at Ubisoft.

Far Cry 2 is available for pre-order from Digital Planet for the measly price of R251,00 – so go ahead and place your orders now.

You can also click on the thumbnail on the left to enlarge the second screenshot. All our screenshots are courtesy of GameSpot.

I’ll update you on any news we receive – also, look forward to any other game related news in the near future.