I don't see how its rotting. Japan sales are higher than ever...Europe is holding somewhat steady and US is low due to a well known price cut.

Id love for ms to do something like this...but they really dont need to to keep the momentum going and make profit this year.

Sounds good, maybe plausible, all around it would be a great idea for MS to do that, and it would be great way to get their name out there for the Holiday season. Honestly it would be a better announcement that XBL would turn into a free service (but if that was tied into this rumor that would prove the rumor to be false cause MS loves those XBL fees)

That's it, I need to replace my HDD.
Great stuff - rumor or not.

are you willing to be destroyed if this turns out false? Just how credible is this stuff to you?

This relaunch thing seems like a brilliant marketing strategy. Assuming this is true, and despite how much I hate MS's gaming division, I'd have to hand it to them for their ability to generate hype.

hum, this is non-event outside the xbox360 owners ...

Also, I m waiting to see these supposed "news games"

Price cut will be a LOT bigger.

Firstly I do not believe well over ninety nine percent of rumors. I like some form of corroboration. That is why I said pretty explicitly in my first [post that I do not believe this. The only reason I paraphrased this rumor was that it was basically a very fun rumor. I am glad to see a lot of posters are having fun with this rumor.

You cannot fault the strategic sense that doing something like this would make. Your talking about the marketing equivalent of a surprise attack with rapid dominance. Your also talking about something very ubiquitous. Most any educated gamer would be caught up in the flurry. This would reach far more enthusiasts then any invite the critics to our studio, or look what we showed at a trade show. Your talking about five hours straight all about your product. Could you imagine what would happen to these forums alone it would be wall to wall Microsoft.

Strategically it would make sense for any manufacturer to do this given what has happened to E3 with no other convention being so recognized. However it is also a major reason not to believe the rumor. Do any of us believe that any manufacturer could not only do something so logical, but also so radical.

Another strangely logical part of this rumor is that it would also explain why Microsoft has been holding off on game announcements. Were Microsoft to do something logical like this it would explain why they have been holding back on to their announcements. Which would make sense if you were forming a major reserve for a purpose, and that purpose cannot possibly be the Tokyo Game Show. So what else is there this year to hype their machine beyond the Gears of War 2 unveiling, and Final Fantasy XIII coming to the console.

The final strangely logical thing is the code names given to these supposedly new games. The author said the five hours were already laid out what would be talked about and when, and they said that this all came from a presser that was released. So a game developer would know the code name for their particular game, and would be able to plan their advertising accordingly during the commercial breaks.

For example if the new Assassins Creed is Apricot. Then it would be logical for the developer to purchase advertising time for their company in the following commercial break to advertise their upcoming games, or for a developer to match genre. The author said they got this material as part of a presser sent out to developers.

Anyway I do not believe any of it. Strangely too logical, and it is incredibly detailed that usually makes things seem more believable. Finally it seems far too good to be in any way the truth. Like someone taking a huge rumor gamble to see what traction they can get. I have long learned to be suspicious of things that sound too good to be true. You have to hand it to the fabricator thought that is a shit load of originality, and they went way out on the limb with a rumor with less then one percent possibility of it coming true. Unlike those guys who say this former exclusive game is coming to the other console. Which is like a fifty/fifty chance these days.

Dodece, heres another one.

Rock Band 2 launch party: 6th of September at night.
Xbox 360 price cut: 7th of september.

I think they're going to advertise the pricecut at the launch party, it makes sense since the Xbox 360 is the console which will be getting Rock Band 2 first. Its one hell of a coincidence especially considering that a Microsoft exec now works at EA. Its collaboration I think, we'll find out soon enough anyway.

Though now I think about it more, it makes sense for them to try and capitalise on the events in the month of September to try and drive momentum through to the rest of the year, in the U.S at least anyway.

If its true I need to updgrade from my 20gig hd. This would be awesome

Much of this is in line with what I've heard through various grapevines.