Official XBOX 360 Information!

[Albert]

I think the specs for Xbox360 are very high considering the price point and the fact that it is a games console only. Compare them to the current Xbox and it blows it away. I am very impressed with the spec and its much higher than I expected.

855549[/snapback]

I agree, given that the Xbox 360 has three 3.2Ghz PowerPC processors (with the Altivec, which suggests it's at least a G4 class), it's pretty remarkable that they can get the price down to $300, especially with all the other hardware packed into the box. Apple doesn't even have 3.2Ghz G5 processors out the door yet.

 

..Al

[keilbaca]

I agree with everyone here. It does take years before games that can push the system can come out. HL2 took over 3 years, over half the time was the new engine. Hell, Atari has stopped the yearly releases of UT and is making one for 2007 instead. The graphics look insane, but by that time comes, there would be a new line of video cards (hell there's a new line coming out this year for nvidia that will smoke the 6800), they'll look about right. Trust me when I say this. Technology is going faster than the developers can keep up. Its happening with the xbox now. They are still trying to get Half-Life 2 to work on the xbox, and the 360 is coming out. By time games that can push the system comes out, a new console will be around the horizon. Its a neverending cycle of developers not winning lol.

[Clock]

But isn't Xenon supposed to speed up developement massively?

 

The Xbox360 isn't only designed to make our life better, but also that of the developer - which can only be a very good thing.

[moycon]

There's a very good article in the latest issue on TIME on the Xbox 360.

Check it out.

Some good information on Microsoft's very ambitious plans to get a foot hold in the household so they can take advantage of the upcoming IP driven media war thats supposed to happen shortly. Microsoft is taken a beating now in the hopes that it'll all pay off in the future. The gaming aspect really is just a way to get in there. It's about way more than games though to Bill Gates. In fact Microsoft is in a way tricking people into getting a product in the family room that they will be able to exploit it to it's fullest over time.

 

One has to wonder if Microsofts plans will be realized after the Xbox 360 has run it's course. They are betting that people will see it as an essential family room component. This remains to be seen and I'm wondering how long Bill Gates will be willing to take a loss to see if his gamble pays off. In other words, if they don't get a substantial share of the market with the Xbox 360, will they be willing to try again with the Xbox 720 ?

 

In any case, I'm sure to pick up an Xbox 360.

The screen shots shown in that issue of TIME are outstanding.

Individual blades of grass with individual shadows blowing in the wind.

Huge explorable landscapes with no barriers.

Simply stunning.

[Gregory DG]

Xbox 360 to run old games! Take that Sony!

[Red 5]

Xbox 360 to run old games! Take that Sony! 

856764[/snapback]

 

"Although the Xbox 360 will be backward-compatible, Bach said that it won't necessarily run all of the older Xbox titles but instead run the top-selling games."

 

That's a little weird, no?

 

I don't really care if a system is backward compatible or not. I have yet to put a PS1 game in my PS2.

 

The only thing this will do, is get people to trade in their old Xbox for the 360 at rip off prices from Funcoland, EB, and Gamestop.

 

I still can't wait to get my hands on a 360 though. I love when new systems come out, and the original Xbox blew me away.

[Flojomojo]

Xbox 360 to run old games! Take that Sony! 

856764[/snapback]

 

"Although the Xbox 360 will be backward-compatible, Bach said that it won't necessarily run all of the older Xbox titles but instead run the top-selling games."

 

That's a little weird, no?

 

I don't really care if a system is backward compatible or not. I have yet to put a PS1 game in my PS2.

 

The only thing this will do, is get people to trade in their old Xbox for the 360 at rip off prices from Funcoland, EB, and Gamestop.

 

I still can't wait to get my hands on a 360 though. I love when new systems come out, and the original Xbox blew me away.

856771[/snapback]

That's extremely weird. Seems it would be all or nothing ... to split things up like that and to make it difficult for the consumer is NOT something I would do if I were in charge.

 

Top-selling games? Does that mean Microsoft-published games only?

[Nobody?]

The game Nobody? is REALLY looking forward to is Tony Hawk's American Wasteland! End of story.

[CPUWIZ]

The game Nobody? is REALLY looking forward to is Tony Hawk's American Wasteland! End of story.

857216[/snapback]

 

Do all people in Virginia act like you?

[Clock]

I think MS are taking a risky stratagy and basically trying to make the 360 the new PS2, so to speak.

 

They want a years head start which means the 360 has no competition to get sales in, this should ensure a huge success. This has always been predictable as MS had to take huge losses before they could make the Xbox a success, but this time it won't be their turn to work so hard.... iit's the otherws that need to follow.

 

I am not sure if Sony would be prepared to take those kind of losses (and it probably won't need to - hopefully) and I am very doubtfull about the Nintendo Revolution ever being successful.

 

Seriously if MS gets this right then its all over. My wish would be that all 3 get it right and have roughly equal share of the market, but if I'm honest I see at least 1 loser and possibly 2. A monopoly would not be good for the future of gaming.

 

Of course there is always the handhelds...

[cimerians]

I'm big on backwards compatability mainly because I have too many systems and I like old games so emulating certain Xbox1 games on the Xbox 360 is pretty lame (the "standard" DVD player on it doesn't make me happy either) but thats just me.

 

One thing to think of:

In the U.S I can see the 360 doing very well with its initial release and even onward but its going to be a struggle all over again for Microsoft everywhere else. Deja-Vu.

 

I just can't see them ever cracking the Japanese market which dominates the industry, not while Nintendo and Sony are still hanging around. Even if they do release it first, the other guys could easily tweek their systems for improvements. This might backfire like the Dreamcast did. Its a gamble they want to take though.

 

The key to victory for anyone is gaining the asian market.Tthen again, U.S gamers should be happy with the 360, I'm not sure Microsoft will be ever be satisfied though with 'only us".

 

If they do, I will seriously be impressed.

[128bytes]

Here's an interesting Seattle Times story on how the XBOX 360 was designed

 

Microsoft's Xbox team was sure of one thing when it set out to design a new console: If the system won the approval of Japanese consumers, then others would love it as well.

 

The goal sounded simple enough, but it was something Microsoft had failed at before. The company has sold only 1.7 million original Xbox consoles in Japan, where gamers deplored the system as too brash and bulky.

 

"You couldn't get it through the door of apartments in a lot of places," joked Peter Moore, a corporate vice president in the Xbox division.

 

Microsoft also wanted its new console, which it named the Xbox 360, to become a part of home-entertainment systems around the world.

 

To do that, it had to appeal to nongamers: the wives who rolled their eyes at their husbands' expensive toy, the mothers who had banished their child's Xbox to the basement TV.

 

That's actually the least interesting part of the article - click the link above to read the whole thing.

Edited May 18, 2005 by 128bytes

[cimerians]

I keep hearing things like "I don't know why Japan turns away from it."

 

Well here's the primary reasons why IMO, among others:

 

-- Its Micro$oft. Lots of people hate them and I'm not talking about Xbox

-- Its Bill Gates.

-- Its an american company (originated here) regardless of where their products are now used.

 

Lots of stupid and not so stupid things are the reasons why people don't want it. Its not rocket science.

Edited May 18, 2005 by cimerians

[christianscott27]

i predict the phantom will win the next generatin console battle... i mean really, like sony totally copied the phantoms look

 

 

the big dogs are running scared i tells ya!

[cimerians]

i predict the phantom will win the next generatin console battle... i mean really, like sony totally copied the phantoms look

 

 

the big dogs are running scared i tells ya!

857547[/snapback]

 

 

Whatever happened to that or that Apex system?

[vdub_bobby]

Source

Microsoft's Xbox 360 demo kiosks at the E3 gaming expo were not powered by actual console prototypes, but rather PowerMac G5 developer kits. Last week, we reported that the clips of video games supporting Microsoft's new Xbox 360 console were recorded from Apple test machines. According to a report by AnandTech, developers had to significantly reduce the image quality of their demos, resulting in "lackluster appearance" in some cases. "In Microsoft's own Xbox 360 booth, we saw tons of kiosks running upcoming 360 titles that were actually playable. Games like Top Spin 2 and Need for Speed were playable, but for some reason they didn't actually look all that great for a next-generation console." The demos apparently suffered from poor anti-aliasing, due to the PowerMacs' limited video cards (GeForce 6800 Ultra or an ATI Radeon X800 XT). The final Xbox 360 console will have 4X AA enabled on all titles. Still, "Apple should be quite happy."

Emphasis added.

 

[Beer Monkey]

Regarding the whole 'Macs are running the Xbox demos' thing:

 

I guess it could be considered ironic to uninformed outsiders, but there's really nothing unusual about it. It would be ironic if a PC hardware vendor like Dell were releasing a game system and using Macs to develop it. It would be ironic if Microsoft were using the Macs for the OS, instead of the hardware. But is this ironic? Not really.

 

Trade show demos for new systems virtually always use dev systems, not console hardware, and certainly not final silicon. To stay on the bleeding edge, you aren't going to have final silicon or even a functional equivalent prototype (of which you'd need to produce hundreds for a show like E3...way too expensive) six months out from release.

 

Dev systems are chosen based on hardware. Though comparatively primitive in many respects, these Macs are the best choice out there right now. Why? The Dual Core PPC from IBM and the X800 GPU from ATI, that's why. It's common knowledge that they are using these Mac dev systems; no big secret.

 

These games will run a lot faster and smoother on the real 360 hardware. Add another CPU core, more GPU functionality, and the all-critical unified memory architecture, and that puppy will fly! Pretty exciting.

[vdub_bobby]

Regarding the whole 'Macs are running the Xbox demos' thing:

 

I guess it could be considered ironic to uninformed outsiders, but there's really nothing unusual about it. It would be ironic if a PC hardware vendor like Dell were releasing a game system and using Macs to develop it. It would be ironic if Microsoft were using the Macs for the OS, instead of the hardware. But is this ironic? Not really.

I didn't really think it was ironic, though I did think it a bit interesting because of the MS/Apple angle. Mostly I thought it was interesting because there have been some people here (AA) talking about how much better the PS3 demos looked compared to the Xbox360 demos when it turns out that the Xbox demos look worse than they will in reality, while the PS3 demos perhaps look better than they will in reality (see my post in the PS3 thread). I don't know enough of the technical stuff to really know what I'm talking about, so I dunno which will look better, or if there will really be a noticeable difference between the two at all. And, actually, I don't really care, since it will probably be at least 5 years before I even consider buying any one of them.

 

But, like I said, I thought it interesting.

[Bakasama]

Xbox using Mac G5s to demo the games is NOTHING new. Nintendo actually used SGI machines to demo the N64.

 

It should be noted Macs are the computers of choice for Pixar. Of course, it's possible that Jobs being the owner of Pixar may have something to do with it.

[Bakasama]

I keep hearing things like "I don't know why Japan turns away from it."

 

Well here's the primary reasons why IMO, among others:

 

-- Its Micro$oft. Lots of people hate them and I'm not talking about Xbox

-- Its Bill Gates.

-- Its an american company (originated here) regardless of where their products are now used.

 

Lots of stupid and not so stupid things are the reasons why people don't want it. Its not rocket science.

857540[/snapback]

 

Actually, it was more like. "The Xbox is too big". Why is that problem for the Japanese? A typical Japanese home is alot smaller than an American. So space is a premium.

 

The other problem was Microsoft was never able to sign up enough Japanese third parties to make titles for the Xbox.

 

Yet another problem was, the gaming culture of Japan. Games like first person shooters are not popular in Japan. A game like Halo is very here in the states but its not very popular in Japan. What would be the Xbox strength here is a weakness in Japan.

[Clint Thompson]

Sweetness... they updated the site with a lot of more goodies!

 

www.xbox360.com

 

 

Even the website is in "360"

[Bryan]

Actually, it was more like.  "The Xbox is too big".  Why is that problem for the Japanese?  A typical Japanese home is alot smaller than an American.  So space is a premium.

 

Well, maybe if the Xbox had come with a tablecloth, they could have sold it as "dual purpose furniture."

 

-Bry

[ATARIeric]

i predict the phantom will win the next generatin console battle... i mean really, like sony totally copied the phantoms look

 

 

the big dogs are running scared i tells ya!

857547[/snapback]

 

The phantom box by infinum labs is already online here in florida! Sarasota to be exact! Not sure if they are 24/7, but sony and microsoft will have their hands full come this fall when phantom is on fulltime!

Edited May 21, 2005 by ATARIeric