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Confirming reports late last night, Microsoft has announced that the European price of the Xbox will be reduced to €299 / £199 effective from 26th April. "We are making a clear statement today," said Sandy Duncan, "we mean business in Europe." "The phenomenally positive response to Xbox through reviews, awards and game sales has demonstrated that consumers love Xbox. We want to make sure that price is not the obstacle to the Xbox experience." Microsoft has also announced that the Australian Xbox is to be reduced in price to AUS$399 (€241 / £150). Australia is now one of the cheapest places in the world that we know of to buy Microsoft's console, rivalling even Japan. The rest of the Microsoft press release is full of back-patting about software sales and attach rates, with the company pointing out that the 2.8 attach rate (confirmed by ELSPA ChartTrack) is one of the highest in UK gaming history. Of course, this does not mean Xbox software outsold PlayStation 2 software. As Handelsblatt reported last night, PS2 has been outselling Xbox since a week its 14th March launch. And those of you looking for a bit of consistency, please make note of the comments from Electronic Arts veepee David Gardner. "Xbox enjoyed a great launch in Europe - fantastic product and fantastic games," he pointed out. "It's great they're making a move that will enable more customers to enjoy Xbox," he said, before adding that 2002 FIFA World Cup and Xbox-exclusive Buffy the Vampire Slayer may now reach an even greater audience in Europe. Retail reaction so far seems quite positive, with The GAME Group plc. Commercial Director Lisa Morgan describing the price cut and free games for early adopters initiative as "a great move for Xbox." Xbox sales were never all that bad in the UK, of course, even if they failed to compete with PlayStation 2. "We will benefit from increased hardware sales, which in turn results in increased peripheral and game sales," she pointed out. "We're glad Microsoft has made an aggressive move to remove the price barrier." Related Feature - EA kicks Xbox's teeth in

German investment and markets news site Handelsblatt.com is reporting that Microsoft will slash the price of Xbox across Europe from 26th April, in an attempt to redress the balance in the perilous console market. Microsoft Xbox will be cut in price from €479 (£299) to €299 (£185, but likely to end up £199). Consumers who have already purchased the console will soon be in the position to receive two free games and a controller upon presentation of their receipt. Confirmation of the move comes from Microsoft's chief of operations in Germany, Hans Stettmeier. "People are interested, but the main complaint is price," he admitted, echoing the musings of virtually every journalist on and around the continent. The plan brings the console into line with European PlayStation 2 pricing, making Sony's ubiquitous console a realistic target for the once-floundering Xbox. With the right software and the impending release of Controller S, the console now has the potential to capitalise on its strengths, diminish one of its chief drawbacks and destroy the other. If true, this dramatic u-turn should at least emphasize Microsoft's commitment to this market. Related Feature - X Marks The Spot

Sony Computer Entertainment America plans to release three new PSone games before the end of July, confirming, it says, its continued support for the platform. The games to be released are Disney's Lilo and Stitch, Stuart Little 2 and the slightly more interesting c-12: Final Resistance, currently undergoing work at SCEE Cambridge.

Way back in September 2000 we spoke to Climax and Games Workshop about their new joint venture, an online strategy game based on their popular Warhammer universe. Since then their plans have changed drastically though, so we caught up with Warhammer Online general manager Robin Dews to get the latest information on the project...

Steven Spielberg's Minority Report will be made into a game by recent Activision acquisition Treyarch, the publisher has announced. The game, due out this winter on PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox, will take up the mantle of Tom Cruise's wrongly accused character, Detective John Anderton, and fight to clear his name. The in-production Minority Report, which also stars Colin Farrell and token Brit Samantha Morton, will be sculpted into a third-person action-adventure by the team at Treyarch, and we are promised a boatload of weapons and gadgets strewn around locations straight out of the film.

Codemasters have revealed that an Xbox version of their chart topping Cold War combat sim Operation Flashpoint is in the works at Bohemia Interactive. The new console edition of the game will feature gamepad-friendly controls and interface as well as enhanced graphics. It will also include the prequel campaign, Resistance, which is due out this summer on the PC as an expansion pack. Other details are scant at this stage and we've yet to see any screenshots of the game running on the Xbox, but given how entertaining the original PC version was we have high hopes. Codemasters are understandably said to be "delighted to bring [Operation Flashpoint] to the Xbox". Related Feature - Operation Flashpoint : Resistance screenshots (PC)

LucasArts have announced that they will be publishing Wrath, a strange looking fantasy combat game from The Collective which is due for release on the Xbox and other next generation console platforms some time next year. The Collective are best known as the brains behind the soon-to-be-released Buffy The Vampire Slayer Xbox title, as well as the under-rated action-adventure game Deep Space Nine : The Fallen. It's best to forget that they were also responsible for the diabolical PlayStation cash-in Men In Black. Related Feature - Wrath screenshots (Xbox)

Interplay last night confirmed reports that it is in "the advanced stages of negotiations with a potential buyer of Shiny Entertainment", who are currently working on a game based on the Matrix movies. Interplay are refusing to say who the bidder is and what kind of terms they expect to get from the deal, but given that their latest Annual Report (also released yesterday) admitted that they aren't earning enough money to cover their expenses, and that the product delays which have plagued the company of late could continue in the short term, we imagine that any deal to get rid of Shiny would have to be good news for them at this point. "Although the transaction is not complete and is subject to definitive agreements and satisfaction of various closing conditions, we envision this initiative as a key element in our future growth plans, providing the potential source of funding as Interplay builds on its leadership position in adventure and role-playing games on the PC and next generation consoles", CEO Herve Caen commented. Related Feature - Interplay taps into the Matrix

EA have teamed up with Digital Bridges to make sure that no platform under the sun is without an EA SPORTS™ 2002 FIFA World Cup™ game this year, with the announcement today that the franchise is heading on to mobile phones. In fact Digital Bridges are developing two seperate games under the 2002 FIFA World Cup™ brand, both of which will be available in lo-fi SMS and not-quite-so-lo-fi WAP formats, with a special colour WAP version available for those of you with the latest mobile technology. The first game puts you in control of one of the national teams and lets you play either a single quick match or a full length tournament. As well as having the option to go up against a random stranger, you'll also be able to set up your own private competition for up to eight people. The second game is more of a management affair, letting you choose a starting squad of 11 from your chosen country's 23 player team and set up training, formations and tactics for them. Meanwhile individual members of your team will gradually pick up experience (or merely injuries) which can effect your team's future performance. "This year, there is nothing bigger than the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan™", Digital Bridges CEO Brian Greasley declared in the most ™ festooned press release in living memory. "We believe the EA SPORTS™ 2002 FIFA World Cup™ mobile games will introduce a huge number of new users to the world of mobile entertainment, and drive the most dynamic new medium in the world today towards its deserved status as a mass market activity and business." For their part, EA believe that "wireless gaming has a very big future in Europe", with EA.com European director Andrew Phillips adding that "we are delighted to bring our most important European sports franchise to the mobile market". Both World Cup™ games will be available to over 36,000,000 Orange mobile phone customers across Europe this summer thanks to Digital Bridges' UNITY (™?) platform. Related Feature - 2002 FIFA World Cup screenshots (Xbox)

Thrustmaster have unveiled what they describe as the world's "first interactive football pitch for video game consoles", the catchily named 2002 FIFA World Cup Football Stadium. The controller is made up of a non-slip mat "designed like a soccer field to totally absorb players in the game" (in other words a small piece of tacky looking green plastic) which is fitted with three vertical sensors "based on the latest technology". These detect your feet (or any other part of your body for that matter) as you move them over the sensors, translating your movement into in-game actions as you shoot, lob, pass and tackle an imaginary football. Depending on how long you keep your foot hovering over the sensor, the power of your shots can be adjusted accordingly. Yes, it's essentially a high tech sporting equivalent of the infamous dance mat, and as such is almost guaranteed to make you look incredibly stupid, as the photo above amply demonstrates. To make matters worse, you still need to keep hold of your gamepad while precariously balancing on one foot on the mat, because the Stadium only controls a handful of actions. Little things, like controlling which direction your player runs in, are apparently beyond it. "We have created the 2002 FIFA World Cup™ Football Stadium for all soccer enthusiasts, eager to get hold of an interactive gaming accessory which means that they can really live out the biggest sporting event of the year", according to product manager Jocelyn Denis. "Now they can enjoy the game, not only on a real pitch but in front of the console too, with family and friends!" If you have a burning ambition to make a total tit of yourself, you will be able to buy PSX / PS2 and GameCube versions of the diminutive Football Stadium for £35 in May. Related Feature - Thrustmaster obtains World Cup 2002 license

Japan is one of the most creative countries in the world when it comes to video game development, but only a handful of their games ever get released over here. Luckily then Eidos have stepped in to change things with their new Fresh Games label, dedicated to unleashing bizarre new Japanese titles on an unsuspecting public here in the west. One of the first arrivals from Fresh Games is Mad Maestro, and what a great debut for the budding label it is too. If you imagine the offspring of an unholy marriage of Rez and Parappa The Rapper, done to a full-on orchestral score featuring some of the greatest classical music ever written, you're still nowhere near understanding just how utterly weird and yet strangely addictive this game is. You take on the role of a young conductor going by the unlikely name of Takt, who has been tasked with saving the local concert hall from demolition by Symphony, a fairy who lives there disguised as a statue. To rescue the hall you must play a rousing recital to remind the people of why music is so important, but first you must assemble a full orchestra. An orchestra which includes a trapeze artist, a guy in a lion suit, a temperamental super-model and a trio of translucent green aliens who play the xylophone. I told you it was weird...

ELSPA has honoured a number of top-selling games with its Gold and Silver ELSPA Awards. During weeks 9-13 of calendar year 2002 (that's March, basically), long-awaited PlayStation 2 release Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, along with FIFA 2002 on the same console and Mario Kart: Super Circuit on the GameBoy Advance, all topped 200,000 sales in Europe and receive Gold Awards. The Silver Awards go to titles which top 100,000 sales but fall short of the Gold Award. Winners in this category include the frankly awful PSone title Duke Nukem: Land of the Babes, and the very nearly awful PlayStation 2 game Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex. The third title to take the Silver was Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and isn't it nice to see a good PC title receiving recognition for once?

BTopenworld is to start charging £15.99 for its BTopenworld Anytime product. The package, which gives users multiple email accounts and unmetered Internet access (up to a point), usually costs £14.99, but in a letter to subscribers last Friday the company announced that the price will increase to £15.99 from 1st May. Account holders will start seeing the increased charge on their next credit card bill after that date, although this is presumably less comforting than the email makes out. This writer's sister currently uses BTopenworld Anytime. Unfortunately, she could not be reached for comment at the time of going to press. Related Feature - BT announces 'cheap' ADSL

Acclaim has announced financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2002. The company reported a 75 percent increase in Net revenues compared to the same period last year, which it attributed to critically acclaimed annual updates of its chief series, including the multi-platform All-Star Baseball 2003. The company aims to continue this upward trend with the forthcoming releases of Turok: Evolution and Aggressive Inline in the second half of the fiscal year, according to CEO Greg Fischbach, although he did confirm that platform oddity Vexx has slipped. "Followed by the launches of Vexx and Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 3 during the first quarter of fiscal year 2003, we believe that Acclaim will have a very strong and diverse holiday lineup that will be well represented across all gaming systems." The company plans to launch 17 PlayStation 2 titles, 14 GameCube titles and 18 Xbox titles, along with 13 GameBoy Advance offerings. This strong support for Microsoft's fledgling console is thought to be primarily because of its uptake in the United States, where Acclaim's sports franchises are warmly received. Aggressive Inline, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 3, Turok: Evolution and Vexx will also be playable during the Electronics Entertainment Expo (E3) next month in Los Angeles. Related Feature - Vexx preview

Late last week, Future Publishing backed website Games Radar reported that Activision - the world's second biggest publisher - had purchased Rare, developer of such titles as GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, and arguably the company responsible for single-handedly sustaining the Nintendo 64. Around Christmas time, Games Radar reported, Rare sent out a greetings card hinting a multi-platform future for the developer. Innocuous, you might well think, but this detail led C&VG to revive rumours of a Star Fox game on PlayStation 2, although as Nintendo owns the IP this seems an unlikely eventuality. Nintendo also owns a stake in Rare. Although nobody was available to make official comment on the rumours - probably realising that even acknowledging their existence would just fuel the flames of speculation - sources close to Activision flatly denied that any such deal was happening. Given how unlikely this has all seemed from the outset, we're inclined to believe this denial - although of course, final confirmation can only come from the notoriously press-shy Rare. So on past form, we might be waiting quite some time before we know the truth.

One of 3DO's leading development studios has apparently been decimated by the publisher. Despite strong sales of their latest release, Heroes Of Might & Magic IV, New World Computing lost more than half of their staff last week. According to a report on fan site Celestial Heavens, those departing included general manager Jeff Blattner, Heroes IV assistant designer Jennifer Bullard, several other senior staff, and a large number of artists and level designers. Most of the team behind the recently released Might & Magic IX were also apparently laid off, which perhaps isn't a bad thing given the awfully tacky looking artwork that graces the game. Despite the drastic cutbacks, New World are still planning to develop an expansion pack for Heroes IV (quelle surprise), with another full sequel also on the horizon in the long term. Related Feature - Heroes IV screenshots

With a pedigree as prestigious as SSX Tricky, Sled Storm had my expectations understandably high, but after a few moments with EA Canada's latest snow-capped release it became obvious that the two games share more than just a mutual developer. At the heart of Sled Storm are the same underlying mechanics that made Tricky so enjoyable, but unfortunately basing Sled Storm squarely on its predecessor has diluted its impact. Elements could quite easily be transplanted between the two, and the underlying sensation of déjà vu is striking. Your options from the start are extremely thin on the ground, save the requisites that you'd expect from what is essentially an arcade racer. Championship. Quick race. Time Trial. Multiplayer. However, the latter options are practically pointless without first unlocking extra characters, sleds and tracks in the championship, tasks familiar to anybody who spent more than a day with either of BIG's previous releases. To begin with, you can pick from three of the game's eight riders, each with varying agility and a handful of tricks available to them, before mounting their least impressive sled. Making your decision really isn't particularly tough at this stage, as each of the riders are of similar talent and are bottom-of-the-barrel material. It's actually the sled you should be more interested in, in terms of performance...

Anarchy Online might have had a rocky first few months, with poor framerates and bugs causing a mass exodus of players in the early days, but developers Funcom aren't giving up on it. Yesterday they announced a partnership with Gamigo AG which will see the addition of a new dimension for German speaking players, with native in-game and e-mail support as well as a new German language version of the game's official website. Funcom president André Backen was said to be "very happy" with the deal, before rambling on about synergies and community building. The German Anarchy Online servers should be launching some time in May, with a beta test kicking off soon. Keep an eye on the Anarchy Online website for more details. Related Feature - Midgard put on hold

Due for release through Bam next month, Star X looks set to be the GameBoy Advance's first truly 3D game, replacing the traditional sprites with flat shaded polygons. But what about the gameplay behind those graphics? We took a preview version of the game for a spin to find out more...

NHL 2002 is ostensibly the same as the PlayStation 2 version of the game. Boasting marginally improved visuals and other less obvious changes the game is effectively just a port. Fortunately for Xbox owners it is a game of unfathomable depth, featuring amongst others things an involved franchise mode which can be played for ten consecutive seasons, and a system of skill levels which award points for performing specific tasks during a game. Parading your skills up and down the rink buys you cards, of which 189 are available, and many of these unlock new features from the sensible to the outright obscure. The ubiquitous Play Now mode lets you get straight onto the ice, but if you delve slightly deeper you can go for the exhibition mode with its four player support, or a 16 player tournament mode, or you could focus on your breakaway skills using the Shootout mode. Before you begin though, you can adjust all manner of settings both in gameplay and technical areas (and the difficulty level, which could do with adjusting given I won my first match eleven goals to three), not to mention creating a profile to record your achievements and rack up your points and card totals. During the game, tasks flash up in gold letters upon completion. Graphically NHL 2002 is a mixed bag. Although the players are nicely modelled they have that tell-tale EA look and almost judder at times. That said, 700 of them have their real faces, and animation is very good in general thanks to some wonderful superfluous detail. Facial expressions are varied and usually relevant, and players all act realistically, making adjustments to their stick and collecting stray passes with their feet, although the players' sharp edges dampen the impact of the close-ups and opening sequences, and the relatively sober fight sequences are nowhere near as involved or varied as those witnessed in NHL Hitz 20-02.

Konami has announced that it plans to release Silent Hill 2: Restless Dreams for the PlayStation 2 in Japan on 4th July, and in Europe during September. Restless Dreams contains the extra scenario, "Born from a Wish", which was included in the Xbox version of the game and lets players take up the mantle of a lass called Maria. Hopefully this new trick of porting games to one format, adding bits, then porting them back again won't prove habit-forming. Related Feature - Silent Hill 2 review

JoWooD have signed arguably the world's greatest motor racing driver, Michael Schumacher, to headline a new PC game which is due out in June. It's not yet another Formula 1 sim though (like we need any more of those), but instead a karting game, going back to where Schumi and many other top drivers began their careers. Imaginatively titled Michael Schumacher Racing World Kart 2002, the game will apparently feature an "incredible combination of addictive and exhilarating gameplay and endorsement from .. a famous and successful driver". Or at least that's what JoWooD UK boss Vip Patel told us. We should know soon whether the game can live up to the billing or if it's destined for a transfer to Minardi next season.

Konami have announced that their new European R&D team is working on PC and Xbox ports of the PlayStation 2 adventure game Shadow Of Memories. Both versions are due out in September and will offer enhanced graphics, as demonstrated by a batch of early screenshots that came with the press release. For those of you who (like us) missed the original release of Shadow Of Memories, the game follows a man called Eike as he seeks to avert his murder by travelling back in time to the middle ages, 1902 and 1980. Depending on your actions in each time period, future events may play out differently, and the game has no less than four different endings. "Shadow of Memories has been the perfect start for us and we expect the title to go down well", the development team's manager Tony Bickley enthused. "We're currently investigating a wide selection of projects, across both traditional gaming platforms and new areas of business. It's an exciting time for the studio." Related Features - Shadow Of Memories screenshots

As previously reported, after months of tension the Dreamcast is finally to be laid to rest later this month in Europe with the release of its final five games. However, GameSpot is reporting that NeoGeo publisher Playmore Corporation (nothing to do with Microsoft's Xbox advertising, by the by) is planning to port The King of Fighters 2000 to the system. Ignore the '2000' moniker, because SNK's fighters are timeless classics. KoF 2000 was one of the company's last arcade releases before its unfortunate demise, and Playmore's port of the game will be available in Japan shortly. So, if you're a Dreamcast owner there may be one last game to look forward to from the late, great Granddaddies of the beat 'em up genre themselves. That sounds like a better swansong than Free Style Scooter, anyway. Related Feature - The Last Days of Dreamcast

TDK Mediactive and Mattel have announced Robotech: Battlecry for the GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox, IGN is reporting. The game is being developed by Vicious Cycle, and will feature cel-shaded visuals in line with the television programme. Early Xbox screenshots demonstrate vast environments, particle effects and other minutiae, while the plot concerns saving the world from the clutches of the evil Zentraedi, by piloting the Veritech Fighter mech into battle. "Robotech is a phenomenal brand with great potential," Mattel's senior veepee of new media Amy Boylan told IGN, while TDK are said to be "extremely pleased" with the partnership and the product, which will be on display for the first time at E3 next month.

Mindscape's latest publishing deal will see the company distributing Cryo's PC titles in the UK for the remainder of 2002. Cryo abandoned the UK market a year ago, and apparently Acclaim haven't had much more luck distributing their games over here since then either. Now Mindscape will be trying their luck with no less than 15 titles due for release over the next eight months, including everything from Zidane Football Generation to adventure games like The Secret Of The Nautilus and kids' titles based on the Pink Panther and Garfield. "The Cryo products bring a great focus to our 2002 games line-up", according to Mindscape president Jean-Pierre Nordman. "We are delighted to be working with such a respected publisher with an impressive portfolio of titles. As an international publisher with over 10 years experience in the games industry we have a strong sales team, great knowledge of the local market and a solid relationship with the trade. We will be working closely with the team at Cryo to make sure these titles are a great success." Hopefully the games they get from them will be more impressive than the ones which Acclaim had the misfortune to end up publishing for Cryo, most of which were seriously flawed or downright abysmal. Terrifying memories of playing Dune and Shadow Of Zorro still give us nightmares... Related Feature - Cryo abandons UK market

It's been over a year since Sega's dramatic exit from the console business, but finally, after 12 months of waving its legs in the air and refusing to die, the Dreamcast really is about to die. Considered dead by virtually everybody anyway, the format has only five more titles to look forward to. Capcom's Heavy Metal Geomatrix and Cannon Spike, and Ubi Soft's Conflict Zone, Free Style Scooter and Evil Twin mark the closure of the Dreamcast annals, and all five games are now due out on 26th April. Reports from the States indicate that Capcom's Cannon Spike is definitely worth looking forward to, and that Heavy Metal Geomatrix isn't all that bad either, although it has been described by a number of reviewers as "annoying". Unfortunately, critically, Conflict Zone has fared less well and Evil Twin was never all that great anyway. The wildcard is Free Style Scooter, but we have a sneaking suspicion that this will also prove a bitter swansong for the console. We hope you will join us respectfully for a minute's silence at 11am on the morning of 26th April.

A while ago we reported that Nike was suing Sega and its advertising agency Leagas Delaney, after the latter allegedly copied Nike's Frozen Moment advert so closely when promoting NBA 2K2 that it infringed on the company's trademarks. According to a report on Spong.com, on its first day in court Sega apologized to Nike and by way of compensation agreed to inject $100,000 into Nike's Boys and Girls Clubs program for youth development. Related Feature - Nike sues Sega

Next time you have a kebab - make sure you check the wrapper. Today's offering from the kebab shop downstairs (small doner, extra chilli sauce and lashings of pickled chillies) came wrapped in paper advertising a certain games console. It read: "Dead or Alive 3. It can be hard to adjust to reality. Xbox. Play more. Play Dead or Alive 3." It also said: "Dispose of after use." We assume that means the paper wrapper - not the game or console.

Electronic Boutique UK shareholders yesterday approved the name change of the company to THE GAME GROUP PLC. The name change takes effect within three working days, and all EBUK stores will get a GAME makeover. Electronics Boutique announced its intention to change its name in January this year. It owns the Game name through acquisition - Game was a rival UK games software chain, acquired in 1999. Last week, EBUK announced its intention to see if it could legally terminate a services agreement with Electronics Boutique Inc., of America, which sees the company pay one per cent of turnover to its US namesake.