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Designing the Look of the 360
Gamasutra has a piece up where they talk to the folks that designed the look of the Xbox 360. From the article: "We are responsible for the whole look and feel, the outward aesthetic. This includes the features, how it looks as overall design language, how it works with the controller and peripherals - working on the camera, the charging systems for wireless remotes - and then the box itself, obviously."
This all means nothing to me. I want to see how the games play more than how the system looks. Others may feel different.
On the other hand, if I was interested in design, I would have liked to see it more rack compatable, fitting in with stereo equipment as for it would be the living room media hub.
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Good job!
You'd think they could spell check the title, at least.
Why did these guys think it necessary to make the Xbox360 white? It's pretty common knowledge that people perfer their electronics black. Silver would have been fine too...but white? Yuck... And the whole faceplate thing is a nice idea...but it's only the very front of the console...the rest of the machine is till while like a 10 year old PC :(
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
Lovelady: (what a name!) We talk about it in terms of the inhale - it's like the console is breathing in, pulling in all of this energy before you release it again.
... it sucks?
So basically
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
Hope this is true. I've heard that the original PS2 was first shipped with a lesser quality drive before they upgraded it in later models. I hope this is not the case with the XBox 360.
Personally I think that it's a pretty crap design. After all of the flack that Microsoft got over the look of the first Xbox (which I own) I really expected something cool. When I was fist shown screen shots of the new Xbox I was sure that they were fakes, or that it was a prototype that hadn't been painted yet.
The article is an interesting read, however I am a bit disappointed that she didn't answer the stackability question. That and the price are the major stumbling blocks for me actually getting this system. I don't know where I could fit the Xbox 360 in my entertainment unit.
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I checked out some of their other design work, its cool, but nothing I have ever noticed.
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From a shear industrial design standpoint (nevermind rackmounting or anything else, just how does it look...), MS made by far the ugliest console last time around and are dead set on making this round no different.
Sure it's better than the horrible eyesore that the original XBOX was, but not enough. The prototypes for the PS3 and Revolution blow this thing away.
If you look at the picture of the evolution of the design, I think they picked the wrong one. I like the 2 on the right the best.
i think they also design high priced dildos, don't they?
Just glad it does not look like a george forman grill like the PS3 does.
You apparantly have forgotten the NES, Original Gameboy, SNES, Playstation, and Dreamcast. Each time a system ruled a market segment without challengers, that system was white.
Folk may prefer electronics black, but they sure as heck prefer their video game systems white. Or colorful.
...why what would make a perfect sense as a trackball (and one good excuse for the name of the console - 360 degrees free rotation) is just a simple switch?
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
Personally, I like the design.
... cube. The N64 was also cubish in nature and took cartidges. The saturn was top loading. The ps1 was toploading. The PS3 has a curved top. Do I need to continue?
The stackable question is a dumb one, for two reasons:
1) I've never seen a game console ever made that was stackable. The PS2 was too small to stack components onto it. The gamecube is a
2) Game consoles are smaller than a/v equipment; if you're going to stick it in your entertainment center, it is going to be on the top. It'll sit in that position perfectly fine.
Yeah, ok, MS is coming out with another xbox. Whoop de fucking do.
It's wimpy.
It's a nightmare for developers to code for.
It's ugly.
It will be nothing more than something to play yet another version of Halo on. Yawn.
There are amazing things going on in the world of games and graphics. The Dreamcast 360 isn't one of them.
Sonny, the 360s were beautiful machines. Lots of blinking lights, switches, dials, even a large nameplate on top. The big emergency stop was always there in front, taunting you to pull it. When the new 370s came out with only a couple of lights on the front panel, I knew an era had passed.
Everytime I see one of these stories with "360" in the front, I flash back to my college days as an operator of an IBM 360/22 in a corporate data center. I'm officially old.
am I the only one wwho saw that title and thought about the ibm 360, from many years ago?
xbox? what's that? is that some kind of crossover patch box or something?
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Hmmm
1) Just because they've never done it before doesn't mean that it's not a good idea. If they want these things to be all around digital entertainment devices (or whatever) then why not play by the rules that other devices use?
2) I don't know was the Xbox (version 1) was smaller then most Av equipment?
Either way, it's just my opinion, and I really don't like the way that this new Xbox looks.
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When I inhale, my sides go out, not in (well, my front at least).
Unless they want it to look like you are inhaling from the Xbox, but then they might as well have just called it Xbox 420.
The problem with lack of stackability isn't that I can't stack a VHS Recorder on top of it or a TV, I don't expect from a console, most are simply to small to handle that. The problem is more that I can't stack simple stuff on it, like games, memory cards, the controller or simply another gaming console.
Lack of stackability won't stop me from buying a console, but its certainly a thing that tends to get quite annoying in daily use and especially in times when you do not use the console for a while and just want to move it out of the way, being able to stack them, makes life quite a bit easier.
You apparantly have forgotten the NES, Original Gameboy, SNES, Playstation, and Dreamcast. Each time a system ruled a market segment without challengers, that system was white.
I have all of those system, and none of them are still white today. I'ld much prefer a black system (or even purple or whatever), though I don't really care what a system looks like. They could design it to look like a giant turd, and if it has good games, I'll buy it.
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http://www.joystiq.com/entry/1234000597050127/
There are also pictures around of the PS3 in white, silver, and black -- but where's the GameCube purple? Did that, like, not catch on or something?
It's too bad the designs don't seem to allow much customizing of the case. I'm sure legal/warranty issues could come into play, but I would feel much more inclined to buy a console if the case was easy to modify...perhaps not "recommended", but was manufactured in a way that makes it easy none the less.
Different colors are nice, but lose their luster when you go to a friend saying, "Hey, I got the blue one" and they reply "hey, me too." Many people like to customize and show what they can do. Let the users market the console and show what they can do with it.
Either way, mine are all going in the cabinet since wireless makes them that much easier to hide. The TV will continue to be the living room centerpiece of gaming regardless of console design.
Are you sure the SNES didn't have challengers?
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
Consoles before now have been non-stackable due to their own limitations (top-loading, carts, etc) EXCEPT the PS2, and sony has learned their lesson.
The reason the 360 and PS3 are so unstackable (especially the PS3):
THEY WANT TO BE ON TOP!
Sony and MS dont want anything to be on top of their console in your entertainment center. That would make it convenient to put a PS3 on top of the 360 or a 350 on top of a PS3.
Nintendo doesnt seem to mind, though. The revolution looks tiny and perfectly stackable, either on its side between components or lying down flat underneath/on top of components.
Maybe shove it up your ass with the rest of your non-insightful comments.
Well, yes.
The Genesis launched the 16-bit era of console gaming, although, in the end, it was outsold by rival Nintendo's SNES console worldwide.
The concave design doesn't prevent that in this case. That was definately a problem with the original xbox.
Umm...apparently you forgot what happened to the Dreamcast...it was a member of the current gen, whose ruling system is the PS2 which is black. The white rule doesn't happen anymore...no matter how much I loved my Dreamcast ;)
"A truly wise man realizes he knows nothing."
1) I'm not saying it isn't a good idea, but I think it is dumb that everyone is constantly ripping the xbox (and only the xbox) for not being rackable when no-one else has done it either.
:p
Making it rackable forces you to sacrafice a number of desirable features, the biggest being portability -- everyone complains about how large the xbox is; to be stackable in your entertainment center, it has to be even larger. If they do that, you can forget about it fitting in your backpack. Additionally, you HAVE to have space setup in your entertainment center to hold the box; it would be too large to store next to it. There are additional cooling considerations you have to account for. And it generally makes the unit more expensive.
2) Yes, it was smaller than most av equipment. The depth was about right, but the width was way off.
Its fine that you don't like it, but I get tired of seeing endless posts about how fugly it is compared to xyz, when xyz is so ugly it makes me want to barf.
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I think the reason these consoles don't sit nicely in AV equipment, and stick out (like a sore thumb) is so they can get some more free advertising off you in your house. I mean you go over to someone's house who has a gamecube or an xbox and you spot it right away.
Chances are you don't go into someone's living room and spot the make of their amp from across the room (audiophiles excluded).
Saying this I hate the looks of all the consoles... new and old... and would prefer something that say nicely even on top of my stereo.... doesn't have to be perfect, but a little more tact would be nice.
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Indeed, in fact, it helps keep the console cool should you decide to stack something on top of it, with the ends acting as rising contact points.
"Stackable" != "completely covers all surface area of a face"
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
It looks like a white optiplex Dell. Uck.
Anyone know where Microsoft's aversion to XBOX 360 + mouse and keyboard stems from?
If MS is willing to get in bed with Claria why not give into the dark side and add the mouse and keyboard?
A little Google research shows this is the single most important buy no buy point on pc gamer consumer minds.
I'm willing to bet most people couldn't give a rats ass about the Aesthetics, but you slap a mouse which is not an after thought hack on a kludge on a hack and the XBOX 360 will sell even IF its been beaten with the ugly stick a couple of times.
It's very disturbing, but the stats are there.
Playstation 2 and Sega Genesis are the only two consoles that were released black and won the market for an extended period of time. I too highly prefer my electronic components black, but every other system is truely white.
Refresh my memory: what color is the Xbox?
If you don't know where you are going, you will wind up somewhere else.
And my Black Dreamcasts rule them all.
big?
Is it just me, or is the original iteration on the far left of the shown iterations for the console (presumably from first to last, left to right) the coolest?
I don't know about the rest of you, but if they had released that, I would have been all over it. That, and if they had kept the name Xenon. Instead they pulled this crazy marketing crap, and now we have a console that looks like a coffee maker on crack, and with name that makes you wonder... "Xbox 360? What happened to the other 359?"
Not to mention the PS3. Honestly, you'd think they could have come up with a better name. I guess it makes sense, but come on now.
And then there's the Revolution, or Mini - PS2. Maybe it's an improvement in design, and certainly the least painful to gaze upon, but it really looks like a smaller PS2. Is Nintendo trying to confuse people into buying it?
Given statements to the effect that people wished the screenshots of the PS3 and Xbox 360 were fake, they may very well be.
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The X-Box is the colour of "distant second place in North America, distant third worldwide." The gamecube shows that Black and Purple are apparently the colours of losing in America, which seems appropriate.
The post you're replying to said only two black systems "won the market." This is true, unless you suspect Black is the most common GBA SP colour, or if you want to count the old wood-grain etc mostrosities from before the 80s crash. Since the console market then was tiny and wood-grain seems to be permanently out, I don't know if those matter.
Meanwhile, many black systems have lost. Jaguar, TurboGrafx 16, Saturn, Master System, Game Gear, Lynx, Nomad, N64, 3DO, X-Box, Gamecube. Probably more I'm forgetting.
Winning white systems include the original Gameboy, the NES, SNES, Playstation, original GBA... basically an unbroken line from recovery after the 80s crash until the Playstation 2. The Genesis "winning" is arguable. If a white X-Box suceeded, it would be perfectly normal.
Umm, well the iPod is like really popular and its white and plasticky. Thats the cool new edgy "extreeeme" color so we made this dog-bone shape.. and we were like totally stoked... then we made it white... oooh! and it had to have glowy bits so we did that too. Yeah us are great designers, and we're just interns! Rawk!
Puh-lease... the Xbox 360 "design" is as original as buttered toast. Next slashvertisement please.
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This sounds like a Woody Paige stat from Around the Horn.
Anyways, I think the white could work nicely. And if you want to rack it with your system, just buy a black or carbon style faceplate for it. The cool thing is that with the wireless controllers, you can finally leave your little glass cabinet shut if you have one. (assuming this thing doesn't throw off like 2000 BTUs)
NES = light grey, and dark grey
SNES = light grey with a purple tint, dark grey, purple
gameboy = grey
playstation = grey
dreamcast was white, and not successful.
not only are u color blind, but u seem to have ignored that fact that the sega genesis was a huge competetor to snes and it was black...
and the dreamcast didnt rule anything... in fact it was a failure, funny that there are so many parallels between the dreamcast and xbox360 (both white, both releasing about the same time ahead of sony's systems)
the psone was white though.. ya got me there.
The overall look is decent I guess but I have a feeling it would have looked much nicer if it wasn't for the little overhangy part on the right if you lay it down. I'd rather have a regular box than a funky one which tends to wiggle around on me because the base is smaller than the top.
I think overall I would rate the Gamecube #1, Xbox #2 (I still think it has a cool and powerful, no-nonsense consumer electronics feeling to it) and PS2 #3. It's just got this kind of "gimmicky" feeling to me, maybe because of all the extra jacks on the front and all the now-dirty and grimy vents. IMHO the Xbox and GC designs hold up better over time.
This generation's consoles are more stackable than what came before. Right now my television doesn't occupy the entire space alloted for it in my entertainment center.
The PS2 sits next to the television horizontally. My Gamecube sits on top of it on the left side with no problems. The rest of the space on top of the PS2 is where I keep memory cards.
I'm not sure what the big deal is. I don't think I'm in the minority here, but I don't play all of my past consoles all the time. If I want to fire up my SNES or DreamCast, I just set them on the floor in from of the television and hook them up through the front-side RCA jacks.
And although I don't have it set up this way. All my components could be stacked like this, from the bottom. Receiver, DVD player, cable box, VCR, PS2, GameCube.
e2 | LJ
mine is translucent green
... a big tampon from the front. Seriously, being white and curved, flaring at either end. All it needs now is a long white controller cord connected at the bottom and the image is complete.
But that's just me.
SNES and Dreamcast aren't valid points. The 16-bit generation ended with Sega and Nintendo neck and neck; the Dreamcast lasted 18 months before PS2 crushed it.
Both good systems, mind you, but you've gotta face facts.
i wounder has anybody looked at the xbox controler on slashdot dont the buttons on the right look like the windows sysmbol? maybe in the wrong order but still.
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