167w ago - The XBox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Kit that used to be free is now being sold separately for $15 as an official Microsoft accessory.

In the past if you bought a used XBox 360 hard drive you could call a toll-free number and dupe Microsoft into sending a free transfer cable, then they got wise and charged $12 before bumping it up to $15.

To quote: "The cable went up on the Microsoft Store, sold separately, for $14.99 this past week (you still get one free if you buy the 120GB drive from Microsoft).

That's cheaper than the used ones you get from independent resellers on Amazon, and the super cheapy kit does not work; it's for transferring gamesaves from a 360 to a PC. The cable also appears to be a different configuration, if aesthetics matter to you for this."

179w ago - This is interesting.. According to iSuppli.com Sony now losing just $36 on every PS3 Slim sold.

To quote: "The PlayStation 3 was the biggest risk yet for Sony with an estimated manufacturing cost between $690 and $805 when it first hit the market. The retail price was just $599 showing how much each sale hurt.

The saving grace, however, is the fact that manufacturing costs come down and most of the profit is generated from game sales rather than the hardware itself. In January Sony was thought to have reduced its manufacturing costs by 35% to just $448, but still $48 above the then $399 retail price.

Then the PS3 Slim was created which involved a development cost and new components. That pushed the loss back up to around $100, but was combined with a surge in sales increasing the profits garnered from game sales.

Now with Christmas fast approaching iSuppli has done a new report showing that Sony has reduced costs to $336 meaning each sale now only loses the company $36. That paves the way for profit at some point next year when certain PS3 Slim components fall in price."

216w ago - Last week, word spread that Microsoft would soon reach one million Xbox 360s sold in Japan... and that is what has been announced today.

According to sales figures from Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, lifetime sales for the Xbox 360 have crossed the million sold watermark in Japan with 1,001,191 units as of March 29.

The Xbox 360 went on sale in Japan on December 10, 2005.

Enterbrain has also released lifetime domestic sales figures for the PS3. The Sony console has sold 3,008,395 units since going on sale November 11, 2006. Wii sales figures were not released, however.

221w ago - Sony has revealed that global PlayStation 3 sales have eclipsed the 21 million mark. According to the platform holder, life-to-date sales figures for the console now stand at approximately 21.3 million units.

Additionally, the firm also confirmed that PlayStation Network has now achieved 17 million registered accounts, though neglected to specify whether or not this included duplicate accounts and/or excluded PSP accounts, and those activated on the PSN Web site.

To quote: As part of the Sony's announcement regarding its bid to launch hardware across Latin America, the firm claimed that life-to-date sales of the PS3 were now at 21.3 million.

The company also stated that the PlayStation Network has amassed 17 million registered accounts, though this was given as a whole number and not specifying if it included duplicate accounts and/or excluded PSP accounts and accounts activated on the PSN Web site.

238w ago - Total sales figures for both PS3 and XBox show that Microsoft's price cut was not enough to win the quarter.

Sony's recently revealed Q2 earnings report reveals that the PS3 has sold 2.43 million units worldwide during the three month period ending September 30th.

That's an improvement of over a million on its Q2 2007 sales figures and brings the number of PS3s around the world to a total of 16.84 million. Software sales for the console have also more than double from the same period last year to 21.1 million.

Microsoft recently reported that the 360 sold 2.2 million consoles worldwide during the Q2 FY period, just shy of PS3 sales despite a price cut which came into effect in early-mid September.

Q3 is going to be an interesting battleground, what with Sony being adamant about not cutting price. We're intrigued to see whether LittleBigPlanet and the PS3's other big exclusives (we'd love to see some real marketing for Valkyria Chronicles -- that game deserves to sell well) will push boxes this quarter despite the 360's price cut momentum. Only time will tell.