Rumored Technical Details For Next Xbox Rounded Up 158
Thanks to the San Jose Mercury News for its article summing up many of the rumored technical details for Microsoft's next Xbox console. The author argues: "The details suggest Microsoft is far more concerned about keeping the cost of its Xbox Next console low than it is with including dazzling technological features or driving its rivals out of the business", and goes on to discuss the possible chipset ("Three IBM-designed 64-bit microprocessors... [as] used in Apple Computer's high-end G5 PowerMac machines"), and alleged hard disc removal for Xbox's sequel ("[Microsoft] seems to have decided that saving the $50 the hard drive costs outweighs its benefits.") The piece ends with the claim that "Microsoft has begun developing game prototypes, and it is using [Apple] G5 systems to do so."
Hard drive removal (Score:3, Interesting)
Whee wild speculation! (Score:4, Interesting)
As for removing the HD? Well assuming of course it is true then the PC will once again be the ultimate platform. A large storage medium allows you to store stuff for later. Things like save games vs save points, patches, upgrades, extra content, user made content etc etc to your hearts content. It is why the pc with all its troubles is still so popular.
Remember Kotor? On the x-box a simple game. The moment it came out on the PC people were hacking it.
Of course only MS knows what is really going to be in the x-box2. If they are really removing the HD I hope for their suckers^H^H^H^H^H^H^users they got something to replace its function. Or it is back to "save points".
Oh and those thinking that this is to prevent linux from being run on it. Doesn't really matter that much. It would just have to be a thin client. IE boot over the network.
Re:Whee wild speculation! (Score:5, Interesting)
Wilder speculation: what if they replace it with Xbox Live? Send any save data across the network and store it on their machines. Obviously it'd be a lot slower, but it should be quick enough generally. No more caching stuff on the hard drive or downloading patches, and it'd make a broadband connection and Live needed instead of an optional extra, but it possibly could work. I think.
I want HDTV resolution games for my HDTV! (Score:4, Interesting)
Brien Voorhees
what i dont understand... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:$50 HD my foot! (Score:5, Interesting)
Ignoring the fact that the second link was to a batch of 2nd hard drives (The other 2% still look & function as if they were brand new BUT have a "Seagate Recertified" sticker on them.) you don't understand how hard drives are priced.
New harddrives come out and are expensive - the harddrive manufacturers make a profit on these. They have production lines setup to make these hard drives. The price for those hard drives drop and the manufacturers make less and less money. When they are no longer making money from selling those hard drives, they stop the production line, and reconfigure it to make a new design of hard drive.
This leave a small number (where small = tens of thousands) of the old hard drives in the sales channels. Because these hard drives are the end of a line and because they are limited in number (so no friggin use to pc manufacturers who need a large number of identical drives) they are sold off at what is effectively below cost, to people who only need a couple of hard drives.
So although you can find hard drives at below $50, it's much harder to find a continual guaranteed supply of hard drives below that price.
You have also ignored the fact that a company has to pay more when they want the products to be guaranteed to be delivered on time and to spec - Microsoft can't wait until there's a sale on, they need to know that X amount of hard drives are going to arrive week in week out.
The final thing that adds to the cost of the hard drive is that it adds to the manufacturing costs, including a few more power wires, a beefier power supply, an IDE cable (again you'd probably say 'hey I can get those from my mate for nothing' - Microsoft needs to have a regular supply), the hard drive needs to be formatted and pre-loaded with the Xbox software, they'll be a higher rate of failure amongst Xboxes for the ones that get dropped during transit.
Anyway - the reason that Microsoft are leaving it out is because there is almost rampant piracy on the Xbox. People are renting games, copying them to the hard drive and then taking the game back to Blockbuster. Understandably this has pissed off quite a few publishers, who were making little enough money on the Xbox anyway. Not having a hard drive is one way that Microsoft can convince them that it won't be possible on Xbox 2.
It will be interesting to see how MS spin this - although it shouldn't have done, having the hard drive in the Xbox did reinforce it's aura of 'power', (dude the Xbox is way more powerful than a GameCube, the Xbox has a hard drive). What's the marketing phrase going to be - Xbox 2, now with less stuff !
Re:Whee wild speculation! (Score:3, Interesting)
This sounds like something MS would be interested in, honestly...
Mac-lovers rejoice! (Score:2, Interesting)