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.
Re:HD-DVD?? (Score:4, Insightful)
what? my guess is as good as that of anyone else.
Re:Not unsurprising really (Score:3, Insightful)
2) Blu-Ray support is equivilent to HD-DVD support. The 360 wins here since you have the option of buying it or not.
3) HD by default is also advantage-360. Many people buy consoles without the need of downloading large amounts of movies/music/demos.
4) PS3 games over Wifi are horrible. There is a noticable lag difference vs ethernet.
5) Dual layer DVD's can hold near 10 gigs. PC games have been outputting at "1080p" like resolutions for years without requiring 10 gigs. If Gears of War can fit on a 10 gig disc, then any game in this generation of consoles can.
Re:And a price drop (Score:3, Insightful)
Having a SKU without a HD lets them advertise a unit price that Sony will never be able to match*.
It also lets them remain price-competitive with Nintendo.
*Sure, Sony could match the price by taking horrible losses on hardware for the life of their console, as Microsoft did last go-round trying to keep up with the PS2. But I don't see Sony being in a position to do that.
Re:Not unsurprising really (Score:5, Insightful)
While Nintendo did just the opposite by not including many of those features. Despite that, the Wii is doing extremely well, for a number of reasons, including:
a) Price. Wii is less than half the price of the PS3. A Dodge Neon is devoid of features compared to a Cadillac, yet the Neon sells extremely well. (Well, sold, I believe the Neon has now been replaced by the Caliber? I haven't looked at their offerings recently.) Not everyone wants a Cadillac, and so a manufacturer doesn't necessarily need to make Cadillacs.
b) Focus on gameplay rather than whiz-bang oooh-shiny features that don't necessarily improve gameplay at all.
How well compared to PS3 or 360 is currently impossible to tell, since the Wii is the only of the three systems still limited in sales by availability. (which, in and of itself, is a good sign for the Wii).
PS3 didn't raise the bar in any way with those features, since the Wii has proven that those features are not necessary in any way for a given console to succeed.
The Core will most likely always remain available, because it is always good to have an entry level system to offer those who don't have $12938921704123 to spend on their consoles or have the money but are not willing to spend it on such purchases. (Such as myself, I have yet to buy a console that cost more than $150 for the system, and yes, that means I'm usually playing the previous generation but I have no problem with that. Used games are cheap, and I have better things to spend my money on.)
Re:Not unsurprising really (Score:3, Insightful)
HDMI=DRM! Sony has got to love it. DVI would be a better choice. Still I will give you that having HDMI is a nice option as long as long as it is just an option.
blue-ray=DRM! So does HD-DVD but I don't want to pay for them in a console. They are not yet needed for games and one or the other is going to fail in the market place. If not we will all end up with dual format players or both will fail.
I think Sony hasn't so much raised the bar as much as dug a hole.
Standard hard drive and wi-fi are both nice but not exactly mandatory for a game console. I still expect to see a 360 that is also a PVR and support for the Zune.
Of course part of me has a feeling that some people at Microsoft have looked long and hard at bit torrent and are going to include a secure P2P client in the 360 so that they can use them as a low cost file distribution network.
Re:Not unsurprising really (Score:2, Insightful)
No, that just makes sense with the 360's current approach to media. It's an endpoint, not a provider. If you want to fill your Zune, do it from the PC where the Xbox is getting its info as well (you're not ripping CDs or vids directly to your 360, are you? That'd be dumb!). While it would be neat to be able to move Xbox Marketplace bits directly over to a Zune, that's a rather small scenario since the marketplace is more about games (XBLA), downloads for games, and demos. In fact the only thing I could see you moving to your Zune from Xbox Marketplace would be trailers (full TV shows and videos I'd expect to be DRMed to prevent that). Then again, trailers are in 480p or 720p format which means you'd either have to transcode them to put them on the Zune or Microsoft would have to offer lower resolution trailers.
Maybe future updates to 360 and Zune will make them work better. In the meantime, the 360's "normal" mode of connectivity with any media player (iPod, PlaysForSure devices, and I assume Zune) is read-only, which makes since given the lack of storage capacity on the 360.