New Xbox Boasts 250GB HDD, Wireless and More

[amstech]

Very long overdue.

 

[belardo]

I do not own any modern console units, yet... but as PC gaming turns more into crap... a console is in my future.

With that said...

The new 360 is UGLY. VERY ugly. Looks like its not designed to be flat. The feature list is now a bit more aligned with the PS3... (quite drives and fan, internal wireless)you can bet MS would love to continue to sell their $100 wireless add-ons. Those help pay for all the dead 360s. The PS3 goes matte and the 360 goes glossy LOL!! THE PSU is smaller, but still external.

The PS3-Slim at $300 is still a better deal with BluRay over the 360-mini.
Great job MS... you took your rather odd looking 360 and made it uglier.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]renniz[/nom]Even with all the improvements, you would think after 5 years, they would upgrade the cpu, gpu and ram so it could specially coded games that can leverage the new specs.[/citation]
Making new games that can't be played on the earlier versions (or would run badly) would be a huge piss-off to their established customers. Upgrading the hardware so that games run/load faster is great, but don't develop games that won't work properly on the earlier versions. If they want to do that then release it as a new console, not just an iteration of the current model.

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]renniz[/nom]Even with all the improvements, you would think after 5 years, they would upgrade the cpu, gpu and ram so it could specially coded games that can leverage the new specs.[/citation]

They are CONSOLES for a reason. The best they can do is make the hardware smaller, cheaper and more reliable. They cannot make the system IMPROVED as it would break some games. The software on consoles are very close to the hardware. Look at the Amiga computers of the 80s~90s... the game developers had the software too close that the games worked best on the BOTTOM end A500... that we had to run EMULATION to degrade the OS & CPU speed to run properly.... otherwise, the games would crash, run too fast or copy-protection would kick in. Or Advanced games wouldn't work on the older hardware.

Even adding the Kinect Feature is a problem in this generation of the XBOX, game developers know that it will NEVER reach a high attachment rate. BUT the next Xbox will more likely have Kinect"2"(whatever) standard will have a bigger impact.

 

[zaznet]

[citation][nom]Belardo[/nom]Even adding the Kinect Feature is a problem in this generation of the XBOX, game developers know that it will NEVER reach a high attachment rate. BUT the next Xbox will more likely have Kinect"2"(whatever) standard will have a bigger impact.[/citation]

Kinect along with 3D and the push for all games to be 1080p are why I think they really need to jump to their next generation a couple years ahead of the 5 year old plans for a 10 year life cycle.

At the risk of thumbs down votes the Apple iPhone has maintained a 1 year upgrade plan for 4 generations now. As long as the apps I bought for my original iPhone still work then a hardware upgrade doesn't waste my prior software investment.

It's been a long time since the Amiga days and I remember 386 games that were very processor dependent too but as the PC market evolved games had to time themselves without using hardware clock cycles.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]zaznet[/nom]Kinect along with 3D and the push for all games to be 1080p are why I think they really need to jump to their next generation a couple years ahead of the 5 year old plans for a 10 year life cycle.[/citation]
If M$ was sticking to a 5 year cycle, their new console would have come out last month since the 360 came out May 2005. While I agree that its time for a new console generation, at the same time it would be good to wait for 3D to become a little more mature.

 

[zaznet]

[citation][nom]gm0n3y[/nom]the 360 came out May 2005.[/citation]

The 360 hit retail in November 2005 for the US but with E3 used as a stage to announce it who cares which month?

Sony and Microsoft will both be pushing 3D on the existing generation like Natal/Kinect. Expect game developers to need to sacrifice something to make these games a reality on the older hardware. 1080p 3D games using Kinect at 60+ fps IMHO is too much to ask from the existing Xbox 360.

 

[melvis72]

[citation][nom]soldier37[/nom]Really Microsoft?? How long you going to milk this outdated cow. My PC is laughing litterly how behind the crapbox is now. I believe I'm 4 generations ahead now and with 2560 x 1600 res,dx11,8gb ram, quad core at 4ghz.... I wouldn't let someone pay me to take a crapbox ..but I guess this is good news for the up and coming kiddies.[/citation]

Hey we all like to brag how great our pc is but really when are you going to stop your diarrhea of the mouth with the same old crap comments.

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]zaznet[/nom]The 360 hit retail in November 2005 for the US but with E3 used as a stage to announce it who cares which month?[/citation]
Crap, I read the wrong date off of Wikipedia. It was 'unveiled' in May but not released until November.

 

[alextheblue]

[citation][nom]CptTripps[/nom](regarding Wii)
And you had to purchase a dongle to do ethernet. I'd rather be cabled anyday for gaming.[/citation][citation][nom]tayb[/nom]I know people have been clamoring for wi-fi for years but I really don't know why. I have a PS3 with wi-fi but I much prefer having the ethernet than wi-fi. Of course having the option is better than not having the option but the addition of wi-fi won't make me want an Xbox 360 anymore than I did before.[/citation]Exactly, whether its for streaming HD movies or gaming, wired is just better. Although Wireless N is leaps and bounds better than G, it still isn't anywhere near as fast and reliable as wired.

 

[Guest]

Looks quite ugly, and still no regular HDD support.

 

[welshmousepk]

could be good timing. i will shortly be movinf back to the UK, and wont have the cash to build a new gaming PC for some time. one of these new xboxes may do the trick though. it certainly doesn't look much smaller than the original, but i do prefer the aesthetics.
would be very nice if the PSU is internal now.

 

[anonymousdude]

[citation][nom]CptTripps[/nom]=And you had to purchase a dongle to do ethernet. I'd rather be cabled anyday for gaming.[/citation]

[citation][nom]AlexTheBlue[/nom]Exactly, whether its for streaming HD movies or gaming, wired is just better. Although Wireless N is leaps and bounds better than G, it still isn't anywhere near as fast and reliable as wired.[/citation]

Totally agree. Wireless is nowhere near as good as wired is, but think about the people that buy a Wii. Chances are they put it in their living room and are too far from their modem, router, or switch to be able to run a cable to it. Really long cables exist, but are pretty expensive at a store except they are dirt cheap online. It comes down to convenience which wireless is much more convenient than wired is.

 

[hannibal]

The price is $299, The wireless is 802.11n and the hard drive is replaceable, These seems to be biggest "improvements" in here.
So guite normal console upgrade. Smaller, cheaper to produce etc. More profitable to MS to make.

http/videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/surprise-slimmed-down-quieter-black-xbox-360-launches-this-week/1402111

 

[gm0n3y]

[citation][nom]anonymousdude[/nom]Totally agree. Wireless is nowhere near as good as wired is, but think about the people that buy a Wii. Chances are they put it in their living room and are too far from their modem, router, or switch to be able to run a cable to it. Really long cables exist, but are pretty expensive at a store except they are dirt cheap online. It comes down to convenience which wireless is much more convenient than wired is.[/citation]
Not to mention that average Wii user is probably a lot less technically competent than the average xbox/ps owner. Wifi = easier setup (assuming the user already has wifi in their house).

 

[belardo]

There is still a good amount of life in these consoles. It takes quite a bit in R&D to get these out to market... So we always see the "losing money" at first. Normal and expected.

2012~2013 we'll start seeing new consoles hit the market. Based on MS history - when the next Xbox comes out, the 360 will end. While look at Sony - still SELLING the PS2... 4 years after the release of the PS3! So expect the PS3 to be on the market until around 2015~18.