Slashdot Mirror
Xbox 360 & Next-Gen Live Specifications Leaked
Tim Grube writes "Gaming Horizon is reporting that the Xbox Live 360 specifications and console specifications have been leaked. Xbox Live on the next generation is said to have two version, a free one and a subscriber one. The Xbox 360 iself will have a DVD-RW, be Wi-Fi Ready, contain 3 USB ports, and have 512 GDDR3 RAM."
pfft. when have we ever been able to upgrade a console using off-the-shelf stuff?
Well it is a console game system. If you're concerned about upgrading your game system then this might not be your system. A PC gaming rig might be more appropriate.
Myself I'm curious to compare this to the PS3 specs when we see them. I love my PS2. I'm not really a fan of MS software, but am open to the possibility of them producing a good console system.
Paul Lenhart writes words!
does it run Linux? No seriously this time; if this thing can be modded to run like the last one, this would be a SERIOUS desktop replacement... for a fraction of the cost.
The Tech Terminal
I somehow doubt it'll have a DVD-RW drive, seems a bit odd for a console. It mroe looks like a list of formats the DVD drive can read, and DVD-RW isn't that odd, newer PS2s can read them as well.
The new Xbox Live features sound a bit interesting, I hope they have it so you can have one Live account for Xbox 1 and 2, I don't want to pay twice for Live (not that I'll be getting an Xbox 2 that soon anyway)
Otherwise, looks kinda like what everyones been saying anyway.
[1] I really think Xbox 360 sounds silly. I'm not calling it until Microsoft call it that themselves.
10 PRINT "LOOK AROUND YOU ";
20 GOTO 10
I highly doubt that MS would be including a writeable CD with this. That would only make piracy easier, which MS has been fighting from day one of the XBOX. In fact, with all the hardware changes to mod chips, and booting people from xbox live, I'd say they've been putting up a bigger fight than any other video game hardware company. No, I really don't believe that there's a CD-RW. Frankly, this sounds like just more stupid fud that slashdot is tossing around. Why don't you stop posting random guesses and lies that anyone sees on the web?
Dear diary: Today I stuffed some dolls full of dead rats I put in the blender.
Some people are so naive.
Does this put the rumors of "multiple versions of XBox 360" to rest? This spec sheet says the hard drive is "removable," not "optional"......
The console market these days works on selling the hardware at a loss, and the software at a huge profit.
MS had a problem with the original Xbox launch in that their hardware was going to cost a fortune compared to the PS2 (which had been out for some time already and I think had come down in price), and it would still lose them money. So they had the idea that they would bundle the console with a load of games and get customers to leave Wal-Mart some $400-500 lighter. That's why around the launch time they kicked up a fuss about their 'attach rate', their marketing term for this tactic.
The problem I see with them trying the same stunt this time is that this tactic relies on high quality launch titles, and since developers would have only had their dev kits for about a year come November when the 360 launches, they might not have anything to launch with.
If it's not backwards compatible, then maybe they'll launch with an updated Halo 2 and some EA Sports titles. People have been buying HDTVs to watch football, so maybe NFL 2006 would be a good title to launch with and show off the HD prowess of the console.
This comment was formatted for readability, but I forgot the line break tags
Interactive screen savers
WTF?
Microsoft does have a lot of latitude because of the economies of scale that the XBox 360 will offer. If Microsoft knows for a fact that they will sell 20 million consoles (or 30 million, or whatever), then it gives them pricing power.
Not only power, it gives them the ability to practically dictate prices for parts. Everyone seems awestruck that MS might use DDR3 or a 3core PPC or toss in a DVD burner. Why? Because they are expenseive at frys?
Once past a certain volume, manufacturing DDR3 won't be any more expensive than any other ram. Same with a new processor or even a DVD burner.
This is where economies of scale can be used to crush competitors. MS may have figured out that it can leapfrog the current state-of-the-art by guaranteeing volume to manufacturers of new technology. If so, watch out - they might use this to springboard a play out of Apple's book.
Imagine if Longhorn is released at the same time as a PC that is built out of the same contracted parts (but perhaps more of them and higher clocked) as the XBox 360. MS getting into the hardware business with a system a generation ahead of everyone else?
Frankly, the idea terrifies me. But I wouldn't put it past Bill. He is watching Apple and doesn't want his old nemesis to stomp on his pride anymore.
Whatever the case, this should be interesting...
The reason that it can be true that 1+1 > 2 is that very peculiar nonzero value of the + operator
It's a game console. Software makers tune the software to the hardware itself. The only reason that I've ever needed to upgrade my PC is that it was running the software too slowly. I don't see this being a problem with a game console.
I still love how console memory cards are about the worst price on flash memory you can get these days. Sony's are occasionally on sale for $20 (from their normal retail price of $25), and have "8MB" emblazoned on them for all to see.
Meanwhile, a couple of aisles over at Wal-Mart, you can get a 512MB CompactFlash card for $30.
Honor Among Slackers. A veri
I'm sure that the PS3 will ultimately have the kind interesting games that made me glad I own a PS2 (ICO, Katamari Damacy, Twisted Metal Black, etc.) But most of my gaming is done over Xbox Live these days, and the first dollars I spend on a next generation console will go towards whoever has the best online gaming system. So far, it looks like Microsoft is doing everything right to build on the current generation of Live. I hope Sony is watching Live very carefully and learning something from it.
I'm sure they will. They don't have the experience that Sony does to create their own, proprietary format, and the units have to be built now, before the next-gen format is settled. Sometimes you have to go with the best you have, and right now that's standard DVD. And why not? Plays people's existing library of movies, probably with HD pull-up, and is still plenty for game content. Still "good enough" for playing other compressed HD video - WMV-HD, for example.
Besides, I highly doubt Microsoft wants you to use the gaming console for "content creation" or even movie playback. That's what Windows MCE is for.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
It will very likely be quite affordable... Microsoft will sell it at a huge loss hoping to make up the cash on xbox live, game licences, and so on.
It will be quite funny, really, the hardware will be faster than any desktop (And most servers) on the market now or then by a long shot (It will even blow away the fastest Apple G5s), and yet it will probably sell for well under $1000.
You can bet the xbox linux people are going to be scrambling to unlock this sucker. If the original xbox made for a nice cheap home server, the xbox 360 is probably faster than most quad-processor servers that cost ten times as much.
I say faster than quad servers because the CPUs the xbox ships with are each 500mhz faster than the fastest Apple ships now (2.7ghz). Combine that fact with the fact that there are diminishing returns for SMP, this means that you can probably get better performance out of 3x3.2 than 4x2.7
But hey, Apple doesn't make quad-processor systems or servers, and their servers top out at 2.3ghz.
So what am I trying and failing to say? The XBox 360 will pack an insane amount of punch, and yet be dirt cheap for what you get.
They expect to fill a 25+ GB Blu-Ray disc? With what, hours and hours of MPEG-2 HD cutscenes? Textures? Half-Life 2, with all of its better-than-HD textures, fit easily on a standard DVD. PC games have barely been released standard on DVD for a year or so, and you seriously think console games are going to need Blu-Ray? Time for a sanity check.
Anyways, if - IF - they needed more than the 8 or so GB available on a dual-layer DVD, you port it to Xbox by including >1 disc, and store some of the game data on the hard drive.
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
"How will this ever get ported to the XBox? Just cut everything out?"
Why would Rockstar bother with the next xbox?
Perhaps late in its life if the xbox 360 gets up to 10 to 15 million units they will start putting out ports. The 85 million PS2s and the 85 million PS3s that will be bought over the next five years are Rockstar's prime focus.
Rockstar isn't in the business of providing welfare for xbox owners.