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Xbox 2 Concept Designs Leaked?
An anonymous reader writes "Two new images of what are reported to be Xbox 2 concept designs and logos , have recently been found on the internet. The designs are said to have been released by an anonymous tipster who claims to be part of a focus group for the Xbox 2. The anonymous member reports that he has more concept designs ready to release in the near future." Doesn't look to me like there's much credibility here, but they still look pretty.
Okay, at the moment the webserver is spitting out 503s, but let's consider the nature of this content. It's what the game console's *case*, a bit of molded plastic, might be made to look like. To be blunt, why does this matter? What gamer is concerned whether or not his game console has a red stripe or a blue stripe on it?
Not only that, but even the technical specs (which haven't, AFAIK, been finalized yet) *still* wouldn't mean that much, even if they're a titch higher than the competitors (especially given the least-common-denominator nature of ports). I've played some awfully good games on low-spec systems (Heck, Tetris and Sobokan can be played on character-based systems, and the two still beat a ton of modern games in terms of fun and hours of enjoyable gameplay.)
Even the previews that you get of games rarely have useful data in terms of informational content. No, it isn't until this beast is out and reviews for games start coming in that there's going to be really useful data about the XB2.
May we never see th
If they want to continue to grow they must make the XBOX2 "moddable".
I think they're going to fight tooth and nail to make sure the XBOX2 is NOT moddable. They've traditionally sold the hardware at a loss, and made up for it in software. In their eyes, modchips are lost software revenue and only pirates use them.
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No, the reason the X-Box has been so successful is because of marketing - people think it's a good games console (and it is). Modding consoles is still a "minority sport", modders themselves accounting for a relatively small portion of total sales.
Obviously you don't get out much. Why do you think people buy BMWs when they could simply mod a Honda Civic and get the same performance? It's the experience of having a damn sexy car that feels damn good to drive. We, as a society, like pretty things (iPods, IKEA, Jaguar). Even *gasp* hardcore gamers love to make their PC pretty--in their own way--with neon lights and other mods.
If we didn't like pretty things so much, our economy would collapse pretty darn quickly. The presentation of the new X-Box is not necessarily a deciding factor, but it's definitely a persuasive one.
-- n
Situation for ya. Not even hypothetical:
I am an American citizen. Good ol' USA. Or something. I have a job that has me living in South Korea right now. So I either have to own 2 of every hardware that reads region-encoded media to deal with all of my perfectly legally purchased DVDs and games, both here and back in the states, or I can just buy one hardware and force it to read all regions. A nice byproduct being that I can get this one hardware to also read more types of media, but that's neither here nor there.
In the near future my job could easily have me working in Europe. That's another region. So I'd either have to buy more hardware to deal with that region, or just use my regionless hardware that I already had.
Doesn't sound plausible? Just ask any US Soldier.