Microsoft will release a new videogame console in Japan in 2006, CEO Steve Ballmer stated at a press conference in Redmond recently, reports the Nihon Keizai Shimbun. He mentioned that date as part of a general discussion of the Japanese games market, where Microsoft apparently remains committed to pushing the Xbox despite weak software support and consumer demand. Microsoft also plans to develop new, unspecified services to specifically appeal to the Japanese market.
A new Microsoft console in 2006 would likely arrive second or third in the next generation of game systems. Nintendo, which has stated that it will be the first to market, is reportedly aiming for 2005, while a 2005 or 2006 date has frequently arisen in discussions of Sony's next system.
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Microsoft, whose MSN is the No. 2 U.S. Internet service, is building its own programs for searching the Web to rival Google Inc., which runs the most popular Internet search service. Microsoft in the past week began using a prototype program that indexes Web pages on the Internet to help develop a future search program, MSN group product manager Lisa Gurry said yesterday. Google spokesman David Krane declined to comment.
MSN is seeking ways to fuel sales amid a decline in paying subscribers for basic Internet access as customers switch from MSN's traditional dial-up service to faster Internet connections sold by competitors.
Microsoft has doled out another change to its Software Assurance maintenance policy designed to ease the financial burden on those who wish to move from standard editions of Windows and application servers to enterprise servers.
At the Gartner Group's Software Asset Management conference here last week, Microsoft announced a "Step-Up License" promotion that allows licensed customers with Software Assurance or Enterprise Agreements to migrate from standard edition server software to enterprise server software at discount until September 2004.
The State of Connecticut intends to file an antitrust lawsuit against Oracle in a bid to thwart its hostile takeover of PeopleSoft. The lawsuit, which is expected to be filed in U.S. District Court in Hartford Wednesday, alleges that Oracle's planned takeover would violate state and federal antitrust laws and damage the state's economy.
"Oracle's hostile takeover bid has the potential to cost the state millions of dollars, and is a threat to the progress we have made in recent years in technology improvements," said Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland in a statement.
Microsoft on Wednesday ripped into Massachusetts, the lone hold-out state in the software giant's antitrust settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the state is pursuing sanctions that would benefit Microsoft competitors, not consumers.
Massachusetts continues to pursue "extreme" antitrust remedies, Microsoft lawyers wrote in a brief filed with the U.S. District Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. In the brief, Microsoft argues that Massachusetts has largely ignored a U.S. District Court's findings and instead repeats its own proposed remedies in a brief it filed in May.
The U.S. government on Wednesday urged an appeals court to uphold its landmark antitrust settlement with Microsoft against an attempted challenge of the pact by two computer trade groups. The Justice Department asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to uphold a lower court ruling that the Computer & Communications Industry Association and the Software and Information Industry Association lacked legal standing to challenge the settlement. "The Microsoft settlement is in the public interest and the Department remains committed to actively enforcing its terms," Assistant Attorney General Hewitt Pate said in a statement.
Microsoft on Wednesday said it had signed up 50,000 European customers to its Xbox Live Internet service in the first three months, a sign online gaming is slower out of the gates in Europe. Online gaming is seen as an important emerging market for video game publishers and console makers looking to charge players subscriptions for multi-player action. Microsoft and Sony have led the charge, signing up over one million subscribers between them in the U.S. since launching services in the second half of 2002.
Today Microsoft officially released the first public beta version of the Microsoft MSN Messenger 6.0 client. The free service currently has 100 million users, according to the Seattle company. The announcement may be somewhat anticlimactic, since approximately 2 million people have been using the beta for almost a week.
You can download the MSN Messenger 6.0 beta here starting at 11AM PST.
Larry Grothaus, MSN lead product manager, explained that some of the official beta testers had passed the software to others and the sharing expanded from there. Part of the testers' eagerness to spread the client among friends might have resulted from Microsoft's introduction of games for the platform. Version 6.0 lets users play against each other in games such as Solitaire Showdown, checkers, tic-tac-toe, and Decision Wheel-a limited number of offerings, to be sure, but the software giant says there will be more.
Oracle has raised its takeover bid for PeopleSoft to $19.50 per share, valuing the software company at $6.3 billion. Oracle also filed suit against PeopleSoft and J.D. Edwards, the application software maker that PeopleSoft has announced plans to acquire. The move is not unexpected; analysts and industry watchers have been saying that Oracle's initial hostile takeover offer of $16 per share, which valued PeopleSoft at $5.1 billion, was surprisingly low.
PeopleSoft's board has formally rejected Oracle's bid and PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway has sent a letter to PeopleSoft customers that called the Oracle offer "predatory." Earlier this week PeopleSoft sweetened its offer for J.D. Edwards in an attempt to stall the Oracle bid. Last week, J.D. Edwards filed suit against Oracle, saying the takeover bid "tortiously interfered" with its deal with PeopleSoft.
A committee established by Oracle to investigate stock sales by its CEO Larry Ellison and other members of the board was packed with people with close ties to the business software maker, according to a recent court opinion. In an opinion issued Friday, Delaware Chancery Court Vice Chancellor Leo Strine found that the special litigation committee had "failed to demonstrate that no material factual question exists regarding its independence."
The committee was set up in February 2002 to determine whether Oracle should settle insider-trading suits brought by investors. The lawsuits were filed after Ellison and three other board members sold stocks in 2001, just weeks before the company reported earnings that did not match expectations.