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Two Versions of XBox360 Confirmed?
63N1U5 writes "Sources close to Microsoft tell GamesIndustry.biz that the company plans to ship two versions of the new XBox console. The premium version of the console will include a hard drive, and could possibly ship with a version of Microsoft's WebTV installed." We've been reporting on this since the end of last year but it's nice to have some firmer details.
While the non-premium version is a downgrade, hardware-wise, from the current XBox?
Doesn't this strike anyone as a bit confusing and such? The current XBox has a hard drive in it, why wouldn't every XBox 360?
Sure, I can see the WebTV being a "premium version" perk, but a hard drive? Give me a break.
I have also heard that have a hard drive will enable backwards compatibilty with Xbox 1 games. I don't know if it is true, but I have heard it mentioned at a couple sites.
I'm very responsible, when ever something goes wrong they always say I'm responsible.
I hate how the article mentions the the low end XBOX 360 will not have backwards compatability, but the premium version will have Microsoft Web TV. WTF, why didn't you mention wheter or not the premium XBOX will be backwards compatible. The reason why the XBOX 360 is not going to use a hard drive is because hard drives are expensive compared to most of the other components of an XBOX. Check out Newegg, you cannot find a 3.5 in hard drive for under $50, no matter how small the capacity. Most current games do not take advantage of the hard drive very well. Only a handful of games have released downloadable content which gets stored on the drive. Also, if you are constantly swapping games in and out of the XBOX, you won't be taking advantage of the XBOX caching files on the hard drive, and therefore you would'nt notice a decrease in the load times. Seriously, most of the people who take advantage of a hard drive in the XBOX, are the modders who use a larger hard drive to store the games. The XBOX 360 will come with enough flash RAM to store game saves, and for those who really want the downloadable content and improved load times for one game can purchase the premium version.
It's a shame to see this happen, It reminds me of the N64 expansion pak, where you NEEDED to upgrade to play certain games (like Perfect Dark)
Hopefully there won't be any "HD model only" type games which can only be used on the higher model. It would annoy a lot of customers
Business Voyeur
There will be THREE versions of the Xbox 360. The base unit, the base unit with a hard drive and an enhanced unit with a larger hard drive and a TiVo like video recording utility.
NONE of the three versions will offer backwards compatability.
I saw this posted on Evil Avatar and you know those guys are hooked in with Microsoft big time.
If they build the Xbox 360 like the current Xbox they might just not install a hard drive on the cheap version but it will still have a place for an IDE connection. This could work out good for those that are interested in modding one (if it becomes possible). You buy the cheap one, mod it and install your own hard drive, the size you want. I know I immediately replaced my 8gig Xbox hard drive with a 120gig. Now the 8gig just sits around collecting dust.
My Xbox Live Gamer Card
Backwards compatibility is a given for most who follow this. Specifying that the economy model likely will not included it also goes to this assumption.
Both are foolish assumptions.
1. You do not need a hard drive for backwards compatability. A flash memory card can spoof a hard drive just fine. (In fact, there are several on the market which do exactly that on the current X-Box in order to offer game portability.)
2. The current X-Box is an Intel x86 chip and an nVidia graphics card which most X-Box games were specifically optimized for. The new one will use a PowerPC chip with an ATI graphics card. Not just different chipsets and motherboards, but different instruction sets, different endian orders, and completely different video card. All of these are far greater obstacles to backwards compatability than the presence or lack of a specific type of media drive. If there are two versions of the X-Box 360, it seems extremely unlikely they will be able to pull it off for either of them.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Does anyone remember how before the XBOX was released people commented on how it was just a ploy by microsoft to make a PC that was connected to your TV (for web-tv and other mostly-usless crap)?
...
And does anyone remember how the XBOX fanboys of the time were saying that "Microsoft is only interested in making a games machine" and that there were no intentions to make it a scaled down PC?
I wonder whether they'll admit they're wrong, or if they'll just tell us how great it will be to surf the net on their TV at a crappy resolution
Oh, by the way, does anyone ever use their gaming machines for anything except for games? Seriously, how many people watch DVD's on their PS2 or XBOX? How many people listened to CD's on their PS1, Dreamcast, Saturn or Sega-CD? How many people use their PSP as a movie device or a MP3 player? How many people use their N-Gauge as a Phone? (oh wait, bad example; does anyone actually own an N-Gauge?)
Not that I care about WebTV or will ever use it. But WebTV means that the Xbox will support a native keyboard and mouse(hoping for standard usb here). That means Halo2/Halo3 with a keyboard and mouse option! Consoles will now be a viable FPS platform. (Yes, I know about KB/Mouse adapters for the Xbox, I have one, it sucks)