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.

Comments

The Premium version ships with a HD...

[Flamora]

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.

Re:The Premium version ships with a HD...

[ElVaquero]

Not only the HD but the lite version is missing... backwards compatability? This seems a little ridiculous unless they can launch at an extremely competitive price point (say, $150). It's an interesting idea, and apparently Sony's planning to follow suit, but if they're only producing 20% of the base as Lite version, why bother? Also, isn't the system around WebTV dead yet, what's wrong with just a basic browser and email system?

Other Rumors

[nathanmace]

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.

The article is horribly written.

[Omni Magnus]

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.

shame

[Sv-Manowar]

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

A cheap version without a hard drive could be good

[pnice]

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.

Re:Again with 'confirmed'.

[Golias]

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.