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Over on GameSetWatch, Simon caught something interesting during what might be one of his many games of Boom Boom Rocket — a familiar building. In his post, Simon says that the building happens to be facsimile of the 30 St. Mary Axe building in London. He points out that the, according to the Wikipedia article he and I both linked to, this isn’t the first time the building was used in a video game, having made an appearance in The Getaway 2: Black Monday for the PlayStation 2.

The only thing missing from the post was a screenshot of the building in the rhythm game developed by Bizarre Creations, so, finding his post interesting, I decided to oblige. I got credited more than I should have — I really didn’t go beyond the call of duty, I just wanted to contribute to what I found to be an interesting article. At least with 30 St. Mary Axe and the genre Boom Boom Rocket resides in, Bizarre Creations doesn’t have to worry about answering to a higher power.

Call me crazy, but on Thursday, July 12, I trekked down to Santa Monica solely to attend the C3@E3 event that Microsoft was hosting for bloggers, community sites and community members. There were some people I had worked with in various ways over the past two years that were planning on attending the event and I knew I wouldn’t have another chance to see them anytime soon. This was underscored by the point that I would not be attending E3 this year either, so it just turned out to be a mandatory thing for me to do. Despite first thing in the morning flights and an overall lack of sleep on either end of the trip, it was more than well worth it. I was happy to run into everybody I have ever interacted with and all the Microsoft folks too. Somehow everybody managed to look conscious through the night.

It was very important for me to meet Shigeo Tatsumi, who was attending E3 and was at the community event. I have talked to Tatsumi-san on several occasions over the past two years, which is partly what led to our intermingling of foreign piñatas in our respective Viva Piñata gardens. Obviously this was the opportunity I would have to talk to him, but not really talk to him because I don’t speak Japanese and he doesn’t really speak English. Thanks to our great translator Jennifer we were able to speak briefly and I’d seriously like to learn Japanese so I could have a bit more of a conversation than we ended up having. I definitely look forward to talking to and meeting Tatsumi-san again in the future. Be sure to check out a video recap of the “C3@E3″ event as captured by Tatsumi-san and his videographer for their Xbox Japan community site.

After meeting with Tatsumi-san is where the whirlwind of meeting people and talking about anything and everything started. Another guy from Japan I was looking forward to meeting was CheapyD from CheapAssGamer. I laughed at his retelling of funny behind the scenes tidbits when he was doing on-air interviews with the BBC and Bloomberg. However, he hadn’t imported a bottle of Pepsi Ice Cucumber for me, so he unfortunately loses quite a few points right there. Spencer from Siliconera (and from Greenwich, where I grew up, go figure), Ben from Opposable Thumbs and I went over our thoughts about the press conferences earlier in the week. Let’s see, my memory is a bit fuzzy a week later, but I also said hello to Chris (the other Chris) from ShackNews, Charles from GamingNexus, Howard from Popcultureshock and Ron from Destructoid. I also ran into Flynn (Fruit Brute) and David (Tiny Dancer) from GayGamer.net, which recently celebrated the site’s first anniversary — you can read the recap of their first ever E3 here. I also ran into Cameron, who is a game designer at Krome and is working on the recently announced Viva Piñata Party Animals, which I was not able to check out due to a lack of ESA pass. James, community manager at Insomniac Games — speaking of whom you check out Major Nelson’s podcast for a great head-to-head between these two. Robert, community manager at Infinity Ward, was demoing the super hot Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, but I didn’t get a chance to even check that out. The night wound down and most folks headed over to the Gamecock party down the street while I joined Flynn and David for one more stop before essentially not sleeping the remainder of the night before my flight.

I know I missed about a million people, so apologies for anybody I may have missed, but it was an amazing trip that was well worth it. I hope to see all of these folks and more at the next E3, wherever they decide to hold it.

Images courtesy of the “E3 - C3@E3 Community Party” Flickr photoset by Gamerscore blog.

Given that this week was E3 and therefore the volume of community discussion too much to keep up with — the three press conferences, Killzone 2, Wii Fit, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, etc. — I’m foregoing this week’s weekly summary. Check back next weekend for Vol. 3.

First community summary for 2007 and it’s JULY. So awesome. - Ed.

• Microsoft Extends Warranty to Three Years for Xbox 360 Consoles Afflicted by Three Red Lights
• Circuit City Weekly Circular Reveals $100 Price Drop on PLAYSTATION 3

Microsoft Extends Warranty to Three Years for Xbox 360 Consoles Afflicted by Three Red Lights

Microsoft announced this week that they will be extending the warranty to three years for any Xbox 360 consoles afflicted with a general hardware failure, as indicated by the three red lights. In addition, the warranty would be offered retroactively to customers who have already had their consoles repaired by offering refunds for any out-of-warranty repairs that have been paid for. The announcement was accompanied by an open letter from Peter Moore and a posting on Gamerscore blog. An analyst conference call with Microsoft executives, transcribed by Joystiq, provided more detail as well. As part of the announcement, Microsoft also revealed that they would take a $1.05 billion to $1.15 billion pre-tax charge in fiscal fouth quarter as part of the warranty extension.

The announcement was far and away the discussion with the highest volume among the community this week both because of the nature of the warranty and, subsequently, the implications of the pre-tax charge Microsoft will take. Initial reactions from bloggers and the community were mostly positive at Microsoft’s move to reassure their existing customer base, exemplified by comments such as “Classy show, Microsoft. Real classy. Let’s hope this move is coupled with hardware revisions to keep your customers — and shareholders — happy.” from Joystiq. However many did say that they felt it was about time for Microsoft to address the growing discussion and media attention the console was garnering in recent months as pointed out by Chris Kohler over at Game|Life where he states that it looks “like this issue finally caught up to Microsoft. With a renewed interest in the problem and E3 coming up, they couldn’t just continue to deny that it exists.”

Community members on forums also felt the apology and warranty was an unprecedented move by Microsoft in support of their customer base and that, given the consistent denials of any issues present in the console in the face of media inquiries for the past year or more. Over on the massive NeoGAF thread, posters were initially happy about the news (”Wow, didn’t expect this. Even an apology. Pretty good! Clever that they did this before E3.”) and felt that they could “game without fear” now. One poster did some “napkin” math and using the (obviously flawed) calculation of dividing the $1 billion charge by $400 for each console, theorized that Microsoft expected upwards of 2.5 million consoles rendered inoperable by the three red lights. Curiously this figure was later cited on at least one mainstream news story. Later on, discussion turned more cynical on how Microsoft either had to have been aware of the issue for a significantly longer period than they had let on and that the warranty was only now extended because the bottom line and increasing customer dissent had forced Microsoft’s hand — in addition to some speculating that this move could pre-empt any class action lawsuits that may have been pending. As time passed since the announcement many, such as Xbox 360 Fanboy, began to wonder if this move was enough to instill confidence in those who have been disheartened by or even dissuaded from the Xbox 360 console due to the reports of hardware issues.

It’s clear that regardless of where the discussion lay or what the nature of the discussion was, a large majority of the community felt very passionate on their views and what they felt they deserved out of both the console itself and from Microsoft given the announcement of the warranty extension. Writing on Aeropause, George Walker summarized the dissenting views among the community in a post titled “Microsoft Warranty Fallout (not the good kind)” by stating

What makes the mistake into a full-blown failure is when you strive to cover it up, pretend like nothing is happening, and then after months and months of ignoring the issue, then you finally decide to do something about it, only after it becomes obvious that it’s hurting your bottom line. See, if you were smart, Microsoft, you would’ve realized a LONG time ago that it could’ve been addressed for much cheaper than $1 billion if you had done so a YEAR AGO.

That’s what you get for trying to screw over your customers. Thanks for playing.

The announcement was picked up widely across the blogosphere this week by blogs such as Joystiq, Kotaku, Destructoid, Evil Avatar, Engadget, Gizmodo, Xbox 360 Fanboy, Aeropause, Game|Life, Ars Technica, Siliconera, GayGamer.net and Cathode Tan.

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Circuit City Weekly Circular Reveals $100 Price Drop on PLAYSTATION 3

A reliable forum member of the Cheap Ass Gamer (and DVDTalk) forums posted information from an upcoming Circuit City weekly circular which revealed that the chain would be selling the 60 GB model of the PLAYSTATION 3 at the reduced price of $499 on July 12, down from the $599 price point the console was released at in November 2006.

The circular and the subsequent scan of the circular (as posted by Kotaku) grabbed a significant amount of attention as many bloggers and community members have long griped about the high-price of the PLAYSTATION 3 console. Many have also felt that the exceptionally low monthly sales for the console as reported by the NPD Group is a clear result of the high price point. As a result, the price cut elicited an overwhelmingly positive reaction from the community as they felt Sony was beginning to understand what would make them be more competitive against two lower priced consoles in the marketplace. Many feel that this will help sales for the console a little, but at $499, the PS3, as one member on NeoGAF states, “will have a really nice price for what it offers. Still probably won’t be cheap enough for the masses to bite, well, en masse.”

The price cut was confirmed late Sunday night via a Sony press release which also announced a new, albeit limited edition, variant featuring a larger hard drive (80 GB) and Motorstorm bundled into a $599 package.

News of the circular was picked up widely by blogs such as Joystiq, Kotaku, Destructoid, Evil Avatar, Engadget, Gizmodo, PS3 Fanboy, Game|Life and GayGamer.net.

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Looks like someone jumped the gun too quick and posted a press release due to go out on Monday. The release, most likely to be released over the AP wire at 12:01am on July 9, reveals that Sony is indeed reducing the retail price of the 60 GB version of the PLAYSTATION 3 to $499. However, the release also mentions the interesting and unexpected development that Sony will release a 80 GB version of their console, bundled with Motorstorm, at the retail price of $599 — essentially replacing the $599 version.

The full release, in case it is removed, from KOTV.com is reproduced below.

New Version Of PlayStation 3 To Go On Sale In August; Sony Cuts Price On Older Model
AP - 7/8/2007 6:57 PM - Updated 7/8/2007 6:58 PM

Sony Corp. announced a revised PlayStation 3 console Monday with a bigger hard drive for storing downloaded content such as video games and high-definition movies.

The new $599 PS3 increases the system’s storage capacity from 60 to 80 gigabytes and also includes a retail copy of the online racing title “MotorStorm,” a company spokesman said.

Starting Monday, the current 60 gigabyte model will cost $499 _ a $100 price drop.

The larger capacity machine won’t be available in the United States and Canada until August.

It plays into the company’s upcoming strategy of eventually offering downloaded high-definition movies, video games, movie trailers and demos, Sony spokesman David Karraker said.

Karraker said further details on high-def movies for download would be released at a later date.

The announcement comes two days before the E3 Media & Business Summit in Santa Monica, Calif., where dozens of industry heavyweights including Sony rivals Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co. are expected to show off their latest games and related products.

In April, Microsoft began selling a version of its Xbox 360 with a 120-gigabyte hard drive and a souped up high-definition video connection. Called Xbox 360 Elite, the black-colored system sells for $479.99.

Xbox gamers who already own the $399.99 20-gigabyte model can buy a snap-on 120-gigabyte hard drive for $179.99.

Karraker said Sony would use the E3 show to focus on two areas: ways to increase the number of consumers who own PS3s and other products such as the PlayStation Portable handheld system, and expanding the system’s library of available games.

He said Sony would be releasing 100 new video games during the current fiscal year, including 15 titles that are exclusive to the PS3 such as the hack-and-slash action title “Heavenly Sword.”

UPDATE: The official Sony press release (via Joystiq) reveals that the 80 GB model is currently listed as a limited edition bundle only.