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New Xbox Titles Through 2007
Despite the fact that the next generation of the Xbox console is expected out before the end of the year, via Evil Avatar a story stating that Microsoft is committed to the original Xbox through 2007. From the article: "A Microsoft spokeswoman told Reuters that 2007 is not a hard stop, but rather a guideline for the last releases of new games developed for the Xbox. Microsoft has not said whether its next console will be compatible with the current Xbox."
No backward comptibilty in the Xbox (2/Next), as this seems kind of early to state this, makes me think that high profile titles for Xbox may even come out after Xbox NExt comes out.
Maybe they will even cross release games?
Nothing for you to see here, Please move along.
And on top of that I'd also suspect this means the Xbox 360 hardware is going to cost a lot for quite a while... I'm thinking it'll take well over a year to go below $300.
Go here for teh [sic] funny.
This was just posted on Xbox-Scene.com too: Xbox 360 rumors.
Since I'm pressed for time, I'll keep the list of interesting advancements brief:
- XBox Media Center, already one of the most popular SF.net projects, will be by far the sweetest media suite for any platform.
- Someone may port the Blackdown Java VM to the Xbox, allowing for any presently developed Java program to be ran on the exotic Xbox.
- The OpenXDK may be just as functional as its official counterpart, allowing for LEGAL xbox homebrew development.
- Add about a few dozen more fun homebrew games to the current selection.
Granted, these are all ifs and maybes, but Xbox hacking will be here to stay, with or without Microsoft's support.Consider: Nintendo announced at the Game Developer's Conference in SF last month that the Nintendo Revolution (codename) will be backwards compatible with the GameCube...
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Consider: It has been previously confirmed that the PS3 will be backwards compatible: http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/02
Consider: development of XBOX software through at least 2007 provides opportunity for gateway games (like the new Zelda game that is coming out for the GameCube shortly before Revolution comes out; those that see the new Zelda on friend's GameCube may run out and purchase a Revolution to play it)...
Consider: all of the hard drives in the original XBOXes will eventually fail, in a few short years -- guaranteed (moving parts and all). Which is easier to imagine: backwards compatibility, or repairing millions of old XBOXes?
Imagine: the marketing nightmare that lack of XBOX backwards compatibility would generate, in face of the competition...
The lack of a hard-drive is not a significant problem for backwards compatibility, but the lack of the white/black buttons on the new controller may be. While few games use them well, some games depend on them, including Bioware's Knights of the Old Republic. Perhaps backwards compatibility will require software updates/patches for the games?
well.. if you install linux on the baby.. why wouldn't you have java on the spot already _now_?(and without a real os at the back of things.. why would you want java anyways?)
the big problem with legal xbox development is that you can't get it to run on the xbox without modding it.
but looking on the bright side.. the current xboxes will be able to play nes games and other such emulators conviently to the foreseeable future way past the official lifespan of the xbox.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
As a well-trainer xbox hacker, Gentoo Linux PC user, GentooX (Gentoo on Xbox) user, and Java developer, I believe I can speak with some merit here... :)
.Jar by booting a very minimalistic linux system with only the kernel, X server, alsa, network daemons, and JVM in memory.
"the big problem with legal xbox development is that you can't get it to run on the xbox without modding it."
Actually, there are many "soft-mod" exploits in games such as MechAssault and 007: Agent Under Fire which allow you to boot unsigned code and ultimately flash your TSOP and EEPROM with a third party BIOS.
Running GentooX for only interpreted code is really not worth it since an Xbox only has 64MB of RAM and a 733mhz Intel processor out of the box. A GentooX system would not only have to maintain the overhead of the interpreted language's runtime application, but also the WindowManager, its widget set, and any system services running such as apache, proftpd, smbd, webmin, and the system logging mechanism.
Also, if you launch an Xbox distro from your dashboard, the linux kernel will need to use a virtual loopback device to mount the root partition. Because this is a loopback and not a physical extended partition, this also will cause a performance hit.
If it were up to me to port a JRE to the Xbox, I'd probably write a menu launcher with a Xromwell backend that would execute a
"It would seem that Microsoft thinks they can get people on the ole upgrade cycle just like they do for their other products.
Whats next?
XBOX 2006, XBOX.net 2007, XBOX.sp2 2008?"
WTH are you talking about? There's at least 4 years between the XBOX and XBOX 2. In the mean time, they're saying "We'll continue to support the original XBOX for 6 years". This isn't good news for current XBOX users?
Maybe I'm just really tired here, but the only reason I can figure that this was modded up is that there's some expectation that the XBOX will follow the Windows business model. Never mind that it hasn't done that in all the years it has been around. Never mind that it's a game console firmly established in a market with a 5 year life cycle. Never mind that game consoles are not OS's and that Microsoft would actually be smart enough to not try to market them the same. No no no, let's assume MS is greedy and incompetent. Afterall, that's how they became a 20+ billion dollar company.
"Derp de derp."
I think it's not a bad idea, I mean yeah who wants to play old school xbox when you can play the brand new super cool xbox 2! but they're some people who like to play old games on their new system. This may cause them not to 'mod' their xbox 2 or whatever, it's like "oh damn! I can't play halo/halo2 on my xbox 2...this sucks!"
I'd presume someone with the intent to install linux on their Xbox might also be capable of making their own (as simple as matching coloured wires and joining them together for a quick bodge job).
You'd be surprised at how many competent Linux system administrators and homebrew game developers can't solder worth a.
Bare the wires, stick em together with electrical tape :P A true bodge job.
Nice weather for penguins...
On December 10, 1994, most kids were playing second and third generation SNES games, but also on this day, the final NES game was released: Wario's Woods and Nintendo finally retired the system, several years AFTER the SNES took center stage. More recently, third-party developers developed games for the PS1, albeit for a younger audience. Microsoft is just getting this information out in the open before release trying to keep the sales of the Xbox going even though a newer system is nigh.
PS1 titles were still coming out several years or more after PS2 came out. Why all the fuss? I bet MS even gives a royaly break for those developing Xbox1 titles after XBox2's release.