New Version of Xbox 360 Rumoured 102
Carlo Becchi writes "According to Engadget a new version of the Xbox 360 is on the way. The next version of the console is codenamed 'Zephyr', and sports a bigger disk (120 Gb), better manufacturing process (65nm) and HDMI digital out up to 1080p. From the article: 'The 120GB drive may or may not come bundled with the kit, we don't yet know, just as we also don't yet know how much a Zephyr 360 is going to run (we imagine it'll go for the same price as currently so they can keep up a little on their expanding margin).'" It should be pointed out at this point the whole story is a fairly convincing photo and leaks from 'a source'. Take with a grain of salt.
HD-DVD?? (Score:4, Interesting)
And a price drop (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:And a price drop (Score:2, Interesting)
new drive please (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Games will come on HD-DVD (Score:2, Interesting)
That "number of game developers" was really just one. Bethesda (the guys who made Oblivion) voiced concerns about fitting Oblivion onto a DVD-9 disc well before the 360 ever shipped. Sure enough, they were able to make it fit. Anyway, it's too late to make a change now. If Microsoft were to allow games to ship on HD-DVD, they'd be alienating their already existing user base (which is at somewhere above 6-7 million now, if not even higher). Microsoft does listen to developers (Epic and Gears of War was the reason Microsoft put 512MB of RAM into the box instead of the initially-planned 256MB), but when the console is already out there's not a whole lot you can do anymore until the next generation.
To which Microsoft can reply, "Just use your Wii graphic assets, since you're still going to ship there on a DVD-9. People will still buy it anyway, because you have a lock on the NFL license."
Re:HD-DVD?? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have to agree, not only are they tying their users to a format that may or may not be a success, I'd rather have the drive as an addon, because on all of these consoles the most likely things to go are the optical drives. Less stress on the main one, the better.
MS isn't as interested in the success of HD-DVD as sony is about BD either. Sony has always wanted to have full control of a storage format... So much so they were willing to sacrifice their space in portable music players to try and push mini discs. Apple wouldn't have stood a chance if Sony had been paying attention.
I'd go as far to say that MS supports HD-DVD mainly because they want to give Sony some hassle with this format war. MS really stands to benefit most if neither format really wins and VoD takes over.
Re:Wii is not getting the same games (Score:3, Interesting)
Actually, I think it's the other way around. Microsoft's head start in the market (or its lesser specs in comparison to PS3, take your pick) has made the 360 the platform of choice for multi-platform developers. EA will never come to Microsoft and say, "We're not going to do Madden unless you give us HD-DVD." They're going to go to Sony and say, "Too bad we can't take full advantage of all that Blu-Ray space, but we have to work on the 360 as well and you two are close enough (unlike the Wii) that you get to be the Xbox of this generation and have all the crappy ports."
Because it's not "needless". Microsoft made the decision to go with DVD-9 for the 360, so that's what the developers get to use. Microsoft can't make the switch to HD-DVD unless they're willing to replace the drives of 7+ million 360 customers for free. That's never going to happen, so you suck it up and live with it. The 360 may end up with multi-disk games, or lower texture resolutions, or more compression artifacts, or what have you, but switching to HD-DVD is simply not a viable solution for the 360.