With Thanksgiving day, followed by Black Friday, and inevitably, Christmas, the consumer electronics market will be abuzz with savings, as each vendor and retailer looks to attract additional custom at this most lucrative time of year.
It's that time of year again, and I presume many of you are already preparing yourselves for the annual consumer frenzy that is Black Friday. Companies in most product fields will be lowering their prices this weekend, but it's the tech we're most interested in, and Microsoft has today joined Apple and others in revealing some of the deals it'll be offering as of tomorrow.
Over the years, the want lists of children have gotten more and more gadgetry, and according to a recent study by Nielsen, it's those of the Apple variety kids looking to receive this year. It's not a new trend, either. Over the past few years, it's become increasingly clear the devices most sought by American youngsters between the ages of six and twelve are those Designed by Apple in California, with half of those studied pining for the larger Apple iPad.
A games console resembles different things to different individuals, and while some prefer to chow down on some serious tactical battles on Call of Duty, others prefer - often to the disdain of neighbors and housemates - to test their vocal ranges on the various singing / karaoke games available. With Sony having already adopted a freemium model to its SingStar karaoke range, Xbox 360 maker Microsoft plans to deploy a similar tactic with its own upcoming app, which is quite aptly named Karaoke.
Although it never looked in any doubt, it's now official; Call of Duty: Black Ops II has once again delivered the biggest entertainment launch of the year for Activision, and with sales in excess of half a billion dollars in the first 24 hours alone, it's safe to say the gaming sphere's most powerful franchise has not completely lost its touch.
Everybody likes free stuff, and if that particular item of "stuff" happens to relate to something you've been enjoying for a decade, well, even better. To commemorate ten years of Xbox LIVE, Microsoft has been really generous to some ardent users of its online gaming service, and has, it would appear, begun sending off free, limited edition versions of the Xbox 360 console to some of those who've been playing all along.
Now Halo 4 and Call Of Duty: Black Ops II are done and dusted, perhaps the next most anticipated title will be Rockstar Games' Grand Theft Auto V. Up until recently, the developer has been dropping bundles of screenshots and images intermittently, but with pre-orders having officially begun and a Spring release date now confirmed, the level of excitement for the next version of GTA is reaching fever pitch.
November is certainly a month for the major franchises. With gamers around the world having queued, currently queuing, or about to queue up for the special midnight release of Call of Duty: Black Ops II, the numbers are starting to trickle through with regards to last week's release of Halo 4. In selling a reported 3.1 million copies of Halo 4 in the first 24 hours, the title also earned $220 million on day one, and with Microsoft tipping the global $300 million to have been surpassed by tomorrow, we're looking at the biggest Halo launch in history.
With the holiday season fast approaching, those looking to make the market-leading games console a feature of theirs - or somebody else's - living room will have a decent array of bundles to choose from, and if you're looking to acquire an Xbox 360 this holiday season, please check out the details below.
Microsoft is certainly not shy about updating the software that powers its Xbox 360. They've even gone so far as to completely change the interface that gamers find themselves living in when using their game console, adding new features and changing how the whole experience works. They've even been known to add or alter features that are a little more obscure, too.
