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Xbox 360 To Have IPTV, 10 Million Sold
The news from CES, from Bill Gates' keynote, is that the 360 will have IPTV rolled out in an update later this year. They've also now crossed the 10 Million units sold mark, spurred on by Gears of War in the U.S. and Blue Dragon in Japan. The implications of IPTV for the 360 (DVR on a 20 gig HD, essentially) are interesting, but are hardly the only news to come out of the event. Robbie Bach gave Gamespot an overview of Vista and 360-related announcements for the near future, and there's some great stuff in there. Likewise, Mr. Gates sat down for an interview with several journalists, including Dean Takahashi from the Mercury News and Brian Crecente from Kotaku. He gives some additional insight into the company's announcements at the CES event.
Okay, which press office submitted this? No body on Slashdot would address Bill Gates as "Mr. Gates", it's just not in our style at all.
I like muppets.
It's a little frustrating to live in Canada sometimes. I understand that 360 owners in the US can already download movies and TV shows. Whether or not that service is great (or about to be replaced by this new thing or something) I'd like to try it. Canada is full of "early adopters" - I wish we merited a little more attention in terms of new features. I'm sure those in Europe/elsewhere have it worse. At very least, they could make this stuff a little clearer. Looking over the official sites (for the 360) it's hard to tell which features are actually available in your area.
(MS is hardly the only offender here - when will I be able to get TV shows off iTunes?)
Let's not stir that bag of worms...
Units shipped are units sold to retailers.
Future ruler of a small Asian-Pacific island
I'll put $10 down on Microsoft releasing a "media center" edition of the 360, similar to their operating system version of Windows.
It will include a larger hard drive, universal remote, and possibly the HD-DVD player. The 65nm chips could be included also, but it should not have performance implications.
Whatever Microsoft does, they will be very careful not to alienate the 10+ million current 360 owners.
OK. So I have a 360, and I've used xbox live to try some of the iptv content available. Content is split between 480p EDTV and 720p HDTV. An HD movie is about 6GB large and cannot be streamed real time. Further, there are access restrictions for viewing, plus a one time fee paid in Microsoft Points (thanks for creating your own private currency, Microsoft... that helps).
Anyway, the difference in available content between OTA, Cable, or Satellite vs. Xbox live is so large as to be laughable. Right now, iptv on the 360 is a toy. And I doubt that will change over the course of this console's lifespan, due to licensing and distribution agreements the media conglomerates have made with television networks.
If the Xbox was so hot, then why was it being offered with a $100 rebate during the Xmas buying season?
So I'm considering waiting for a PS3. The Blu-Ray aspect is semi-enticing, as I have an HDTV widescreen TV, and I'm mildly interested in Gran Turismo HD. I'm not a fanboy of either variety.
Then along comes Gears of War, and I'm suddenly reconsidering my decision. And then, boxing day, I discover I can get an XBOX360 for $100 less than before, with 'Ghost Recon', 'Live Arcade' and 'The Outfit' included.
The result? I now own an XBOX360, two additional controllers, and the following titles:
Madden '07
Gears of War
Burnout Revenge
PGR2
Ghost Recon
The Outfit
Tiger Woods '07
Live Arcade
Need For Speed Carbon
Test Drive Unlimited
So what did they gain from dropping the price for Christmas? Clearly my business.
Why in heavens name would I buy the PS3? Certainly not for the lousy launch lineup.
And what makes it even funnier is that the above story uses "shipped" when refering to Sony's PS3.
Nope, no agenda or biases here on slashdot what so ever.... Considering the number "games" Microsoft has played as well, you can't really trust either of them.