Five years of the Xbox
Gamesindustry.biz looks back at five years of the Xbox this week in a piece which notes that the killer game was Bungie's Halo, released towards the end of 2001.
Shipping six million plus units, Halo gave every FPS fan a reason to own Microsoft's console and silenced the naysayers that a PC keyboard and mouse were a prerequisite for success.
Halo 2 followed with even more units and the Halo 3 demo is set to be announced in March.
Digital delivery to rise
An analyst at eMarketer says digital delivery will comprise a large proportion of game content by 2010.
It is expected to be over one-fifth - and way more than its 2005 level of 8%. According to James Belcher, services such as Steam from Valve and Microsoft's Xbox Arcade will drive e-distribution further.
But the trend shouldn't worry retailers. Said Belcher, "Far from stealing revenue from retail outlets, digital downloads may help the gaming industry break through the plateau it has seen for the last several years."
eBay blocks PS3 touts
1. Buy a PS3 in Japan where they're already available
2. Sell it on eBay
3. Profit!
This business plan has just been thwarted by eBay in the US and UK. It has blocked users from selling PS3s on the auction site until February 2007, and then only units which have been purchased in the EU.
eBay's Catherine England told the AP that the measures had been introduced to avoid a repeat of previous console launch situations which saw "a high number of well-intentioned sellers unable to meet obligations due to restricted supply".
The PS3 launched in the US on Friday 17th, with a complete sell-out of the half a million available units.
Thanks to Gamesindustry.biz and Gamasutra.
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