Important 360 news next week

[Isildur´s Heir]

Microsoft overlord Bill Gates is set to make an "important announcement" regarding the Xbox 360 at next week's CES show in Las Vegas, reports The Seattle Times.

No one know what the important announcement is, but rumours fly that it a new "Ultimate" Xbox 360, with built-in wi-fi, hi-def audio output, 1080p HDMI support, cooler 65nm hardware architecture and a near-silent fan.
Oh yeah, and a built-in HD-DVD drive and a massive 320GB Hard Drive.
And will arrive in Autumn 2008.

True or false, tune in next week, same time, same channel

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=178456

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=178311

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Epic has a huge showing at CES. They might have Gears of War 2 news, although it could just be a demo of their engine enhancements.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

But that doesn´t make it a big Xbox 360 announcement, even more when it´s Billy Gates saying that.
It has to do with the console not the games

 

[WhatsHisFace]

If it's a 360 hardware announcement, the only thing I'd really be excited for would be a revival of the original Xbox controller.

It's probably just that Microsoft is allowing other companies to make their own versions of the 360...

 

[Purple Prancer]

Ultimate 360 would make me happy and angry.

 

[Havok83]

320gb HDD is just ridiculous. . I wonder how much this "Ultimate" version would close

 

[El Santo]

It won't blow up anymore?

 

[WhatsHisFace]

 

[Joker]

they're finally fixing the problems live has been having since December?

 

[WhatsHisFace]

Yes. They're not saying what it was though.

 

[Soapy]

I think the "Ultimate" would be a safe bet.

Of course they could be going in a completely opposite direction, and introduce a much cheaper 360.

If the announcement is of the "Ultimate 360", however, I think you might see some price drops all around. Something to the tune of...

Arcade - $199
Premium - $299
Elite - $399
Ultimate - $499

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I hopes its Bill Gates announcement that he'll be taking the office of Supreme Allied Commander and Chief of the World.

 

[hippie_hunter]

I think the "Ultimate" would be a safe bet.

Of course they could be going in a completely opposite direction, and introduce a much cheaper 360.

If the announcement is of the "Ultimate 360", however, I think you might see some price drops all around. Something to the tune of...

Arcade - $199
Premium - $299
Elite - $399
Ultimate - $499

If the Ultimate rumor is true, there is no way it's going to be $499 when it has such a HUGE hard drive and an HD-DVD drive.

 

[XtromaniaK]

If they do this again, I'm going to be incredibly pissed. It'll be another case of "way to screw over your first generation adopters, again, Microsoft." If it wasn't the only console I actually used, I would probably throw it out the window.

 

[cookiva]

I dont think it will be. Will MS back HD DVD in such a big way when its nearing its death?

 

[Jerry!]

If they do this again, I'm going to be incredibly pissed. It'll be another case of "way to screw over your first generation adopters, again, Microsoft." If it wasn't the only console I actually used, I would probably throw it out the window.

This happens every generation with just about every console. You should know that by now.

 

[Texas Zombie]

Core $250
Premium $ 350
Elite $ 400
Ultimate $1. Billion

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

The thing is, if MS backs HD DVD, how can it die?
Even if there are no movies, there will always be games, and, because it´s Microsoft, there will always be studios to back HD DVD too.

One thing is for sure, to allie themselfs with Toshiba, could mean a huge step for the 360 in terms of hardware and penetrate the Japanese market.

 

[StrainedEyes]

The thing is, if MS backs HD DVD, how can it die?
Even if there are no movies, there will always be games, and, because it´s Microsoft, there will always be studios to back HD DVD too.

One thing is for sure, to allie themselfs with Toshiba, could mean a huge step for the 360 in terms of hardware and penetrate the Japanese market.

Yeah, but Warner going Blu came out of nowhere and surprised even Toshiba. Microsoft wouldn't have had any idea before planning to include HD in the xbox, so they might end up with egg on their face.

 

[Texas Zombie]

What about this X Box Pocket $150

Wow i was snooping through microsofts database and i found this

JK i mad it with paint

 

[hippie_hunter]

The thing is, if MS backs HD DVD, how can it die?

Because only Viacom and NBC Universal support HD-DVD, the rest support blu-ray exclusively. Plus Sony puts video games on blu-ray disks too. Microsoft is not a movie company and puts its video games on regular DVDs.

Even if there are no movies, there will always be games, and, because it´s Microsoft, there will always be studios to back HD DVD too.

1. Microsoft is not going to put games on HD-DVD at this stage. If they were going to, they would have done it right at the begining. If Microsoft made games on HD-DVD they're literally telling 16 million and growing userbase that they can't play a certain game.

2. Only two major studios support HD-DVD. They don't have enough content to compete with blu-ray which has the Warner Bros. film catalog, the largest one in the industry, exclusively now. And the catalogs of Columbia, Lion's Gate, MGM, Disney, and 20th Century Fox are far from shabby either.

3. Movies were always going to determine the format war, not video games and especially not pornography.

One thing is for sure, to allie themselfs with Toshiba, could mean a huge step for the 360 in terms of hardware and penetrate the Japanese market.

I doubt that too. Most Japanese still see the Xbox 360 as an American console due to its games. Halo 3, Bioshock, Mass Effect, etc. even though it has games like Blue Dragon and Lost Odyssey. It doesn't matter if Toshiba decides to make one or not.

Besides an Xbox 360 with a built in HD-DVD drive is completely pointless now. The Format War may still be going on, but the victor of it is very clear now. If you go to the Format War thread, even the biggest HD-DVD fanboys (imdaly) and HD-DVD supporters have admitted that.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

Newsflash (at least for me), there already a HD DVD drive to the 360 that was designed to fit in the footprint of the standard 360 DVD.
They also wonder if a "special" xbox 360 is in the making

the plot thickens...

http://www.llamma.com/xbox360/repair/toshiba-hd-disassembly.htm

 

[GoldenAgeHero]

hope its a game.

 

[Joker]

What about this X Box Pocket $150

Wow i was snooping through microsofts database and i found this

JK i mad it with paint

it would be funnier if Microsoft was the company who ripped everything off, and not Sony.

 

[Isildur´s Heir]

1. Microsoft is not going to put games on HD-DVD at this stage. If they were going to, they would have done it right at the begining. If Microsoft made games on HD-DVD they're literally telling 16 million and growing userbase that they can't play a certain game.

I know that blu-ray is winning, and frankly, i don´t give a f*** about it, about either format, i care about content.
I don´t know much about the diferences between both, except for capacity, but i know that HD DVD has triple layer, which makes it slightly bigger than blu-ray dual layer (51Gb vs 50Gb).

About the rumour at hand....
I don´t know if it´s true or not about the "ultimate", i´m just giving notions on why it can be true.
And for the record, MS can put games on HD DVD if they want to, all they have to do is reduce the price of the external HD drive even more, so that all can buy it.
And i can give you two more reasons....

1- Everyone was expecting the Elite to have a HD DVD drive back when it came out, meaning that people wanted it, even ifthey had a "original" console.

2- It´s the way the 360 can have Metal Gear Solid 4, the on and off rumour flying about.
Kojima said that the 360 couldn´t handle it because of the format, because of the capacity of the blu-ray vs DVD.
Well, if that is the only thing, by having a HD DVD drive, the 360 can have MGS4.