Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

The Xbox 360 Unveiled

Posted by Zonk on from the i-have-to-write-xbox-360-for-the-next-five-years dept.

You may or may not have caught the Xbox 360 unveiling on MTV Thursday night, but the internet will provide. A plethora of sites have photos, videos, commentary, specifications, and interviews about the new system. Your fellow readers have pulled together to provide links to: 1up.com, Joystiq, Gamespot, The BBC, CNN, NYT, Gamespy, Team Xbox, Voodoo Extreme, Anandtech, and eToyChest. The official Xbox 360 site opened last night as well for word straight from the source. For more official images Ourcolony.net has been 'solved', and now features an OurColony specific video preview. Finally, for commentary on the event, the Video Game Ombudsman provides an alternative to the press releases. From the post: "Kyle Orland (9:28:42 PM): The future of gaming is a girl in a blue dress? Dan Dormer (9:28:47 PM): The future of gaming is a girl with a bag? Kyle Orland (9:28:57 PM): She's the Xbox! OMG!"

11 of 675 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet! by republican+gourd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nothing like 6 months to a year of lead-time to make yourself the next Dreamcast.

  2. Why this strategy from MS? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The specs look amazing but I have to ask:

    Why is Microsoft making it difficult to write games that run on both PC (Windows XP) and XBox 360?

    One of the primary reasons I use Windows is for games. If game developers stop writing for Windows because they move to XBox 360, then it'll make it even easier for me to go all FreeBSD or Linux or Mac OSX.

    Wouldn't it have been easier for XBox 360 to have a Windows XP or Windows Mobile 2005 foundation with just a custom explorer interface to make it look less-PC?

  3. Does it run old X-Box games? by DrXym · · Score: 4, Insightful
    It had better, or it's going to have serious problems convincing people to use it.


    Aside from that, if the BBC site is correct, it seems that device is not a digital media hub at all. It seems rather stupid (to say the least) that they didn't think to make the thing a PVR. The last generation of boxes had the excuse, but a PVR / media station is almost an expectation of something which expects to occupy a permenant space by the TV.


    Still, it'll be interesting to see what Sony produce. If they have sense, they will make it a PVR, and a media jukebox, and a kickass console with backwards compatibility. If it can do all those things when the XBox can't then I don't see they have much to worry about. Better yet if they make it hackable - not so hackable that people can easily pirate games but just enough that people can play around with the box and produce cool things for it.

    1. Re:Does it run old X-Box games? by jason_hutchens · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Backwards compatibility just ain't worth the trouble. I mean, seriously, what percentage of people playes PS1 games on their PS2? If you upgrade from your existing console, why not keep your old console around? And if you're new to the console, why would you buy old games? Playing PS1 games on a PS2 is a gimmick. Nothing more.

      And the reason the 360 doesn't function as a PVR is that there's no way to make money from it. Sure, you sell another 360, but you're probably losing money on that in the first place. Instead, Gates will announce a video-on-demand service at E3, you mark my words. Steal Jobs' thunder AND one-up Sony in one fell move.

      Microsoft need one more big announcement to trump Sony at E3. They can't have revealed their hand yet. Likewise, Sony need to out-do Microsoft. And what do they have? Seriously, it feels that Microsoft might win this one.

      Of course, Apple and Sony could band together. Jobs could announce video-on-demand for the iTMS (which is widely predicted) and Sony could announce that PS3 will be able to access the iTMS. Furthermore, Apple could license iPod production to Sony, so they can get out of that market as it plateaus to focus on turning iTMS into their primary revenue stream.

      Idle speculation, nothing more.

    2. Re:Does it run old X-Box games? by DrXym · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Ask Sony if backwards compatibility is worth the trouble. It's not important how many people play PS1 games now but how many played them around launch time when there is a dearth of titles for the new box but plenty for the old one. It's about continuity - reassuring Mum & Dad that the new console doesn't render Johnny's old games obsolete.


      It's interesting that you mention iTMS. Imagine that Apple produced iPod2 which dumped AAC for something else which is supposedly superior. Would that be a dumb thing or a smart thing to do considering how much people had invested already in AAC?


      As for the PVR, yes there is a way to make money from it. A shitload of money. You sell listings. You bundle them with your XBox Live Platinum subscriptions and make even more money. You sell video & music on demand. You bundle everything into an MSN sub and make even more money.

  4. Re:Backward compat by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft is not guaranteeing backwards compatibility so that nobody can hold them to that promise. If they happen to get it to work, they can trumpet it. If they can't, no one can say that they promised it.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  5. Re:PowerPC CPU? by Breakfast+Pants · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Microsoft can garuntee that it will buy x amount of these processors for this thing over the course of its life. Apple can garuntee that it can buy y amount of these processors and constantly stop buying as much as they move up to higher and higher specs as time passes. Now the kicker, Microsoft's x is bigger than Apple's y. Much bigger.

    --

    --

    WHO ATE MY BREAKFAST PANTS?
  6. Re:PowerPC CPU? by Astatine · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That would still be a lot of heat to dissipate from such a small box if the Xbox360's CPU really was equivalent to three G5s as seen in the high end Power Macs. Remember, liquid cooling isn't a "magic wand", connecting a radiator with an 80mm fan (say) to a liquid cooling circuit with the CPU on doesn't give you any benefit if you can attach the same size radiator directly to the CPU, the benefit comes from taking the heat away from the CPU and dissipating it through a much bigger radiator elsewhere (of which there is no sign on the Xbox360 enclosure).

    No, these are stripped-down CPU cores.

  7. Re:Backward compat by ffejie · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also, even if they know it's not backwards compatible, they don't want to announce it now. That would hurt current sales of games for the current XBox, because a lot of people see them as an investment. By keeping quiet on it, they can announce no backwards compatibility when it comes out so as to not hurt sales of old games.

    --
    Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
  8. Re:Backward compat by Troed · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Software emulation for compatibility has never been attempted professionally in the console arena

    Nintendo has NES, SNES and N64 emulators written and used as bonuses in Gamecube games.

    --
    it's in my head
  9. Re:PowerPC CPU? by aero6dof · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The really funny part is that the XBox PowerPC buy goes to further the research and manufacturing of the core chip technology driving Apple Hardware.