Halo 3 Hype Builds for Tuesday Release

According to Microsoft, more than 10,000 stores in the US will open their doors at midnight next Tuesday, the first day 'Halo 3' will be on sale. The midnight mayhem includes four major events in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami.

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Xbox 360 price is down by $50 dollars

Due to slowdown in sales, Microsoft announced a drop in the estimated retail price of their Xbox 360 console, by up to $50 to $349, as of Aug. 8, 2007. Two other configurations of the Xbox 360 will be cut by $20 and $30.

Gamers Will Watch Ads for Free Games

According to Macrovision, a maker of copy-protection technology, 83% of gamers are willing to view a 30-second ad in order to play a game for free.

They conducted a survey of nearly 400 gamers on its TryGames.com site; demographics of respondents were 69% female, with 29% aged 50-60 and 34% aged 35-49.

The survey also found that 53% of respondents were willing to purchase games only after having played a trial version.

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Build your own Games from Microsoft

Microsoft on Monday launched new software and an accompanying service that will let aspiring game developers create games and post them to share with one another. The XNA Game Studio Express software is available to anyone with a Windows XP-based PC. The company's new XNA Creators Club -- available for $49 for a four-month subscription or $99 annually -- provides amateur developers on the Xbox 360 with access to thousands of game assets, white papers, starter kits and technical product support. Microsoft also announced details of its "Dream-Build-Play" contest, which will publish the best amateur-developed game titles on the Xbox Live Arcade service.

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