Microsoft Drops Xbox 360 Pricing 169
Kawahee was one of several readers to tip news of a price cut for the Xbox 360. This comes after Sony dropped PS3 prices and unveiled the Slim model last week. The 360 Elite will now retail for $299, but will no longer ship with HD cables. The 360 Pro has been reduced to $249, but Microsoft is phasing it out. Analysts don't expect this new price point to be a huge boon for sales because the Elite doesn't match the PS3's hardware capabilities and is still more expensive than the Wii. Microsoft has "no plans" for a smaller version of the 360.
MS needs to be thinking about the 720 (Score:3, Insightful)
The 360 is nearing the end of the typical console lifespan (which has always been about 5 years, give or take) and is getting a bit long in the tooth anyway. A DVD drive and 4-year-old CPU are already starting to hold it back (several new games are coming out for it that will have to span across several DVD's, versus one bluray for the PS3). They really should be looking at a new generation console soon (for 2010 or, at least, 2011). If they wait too long, Sony is going to start trouncing them with the stronger hardware of the PS3.
And this time MS, for the love of God, please put some effort into making a hardware design that doesn't cause another RROD fiasco, or take a step BACKWARDS with no standard hard drive. That was just shameful.
On a personal note, how about making your online architecture a little more friendly to MMO's? The PS3 has several in the pipeline, and you don't have any. There are only so many FPS's and racing games I can put up with before I want some innovation. Backwards compatibility probably wouldn't hurt either. Just my opinion.
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Oh, wow. Somehow, this just gave me a really strong feeling of deja vu.
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They probably are. . . (Score:3, Interesting)
It's been my experience that, when the 'new, smaller, cheaper' version of a console comes out, the next-gen console is probably only a year or two away. I think it's pretty clear they're not coming out with a next gen console this year (too late in the year with no hype; if you plan to release a new console, you target a Sept-Oct release timeframe, so that hopefully people buy them for Christmas, and you begin the hype 6 months or a year beforehand), but they could be planning a 2010 or 2011 release of a ne
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FYI, microsoft has already well discussed the next gen coming in 2012. I gotta get to class, but if you need a reference i betcha google can do it quick.
Ciao.
Re:MS needs to be thinking about the 720 (Score:5, Informative)
First of all, they have previously stated that they wanted to be profitable this go around. Even though Windows and Word are still a large cash cow for Microsoft, they can't afford to continue to bleed money in other divisions. They probably would reach profitability on this current generation and have started making up for the losses of the original Xbox if they hadn't run into the red ring problems. That probably set them back a year or so at least.
They're also in no real danger of being one-upped by Sony either. The PS3 may have technical superiority, but it's not by a large enough margin to cause people to move away from the Xbox 360. Sony also has a lot of costs to recoup as well and it doesn't appear as though they're in a hurry to release a new console any time soon.
It also seems as though Nintendo has begun to hit market saturation with the Wii at its current price. The sales have been down over the last few months and there's still no word of a price cut. I'm expecting one around Christmas, but they may be running out of steam. If anyone needs to come out with a new piece of hardware it's Nintendo.
If they announce a new system in the near future, sales of their current generation will probably tank. At that point Sony will be able to catch them in sales and they'll end up as the also ran of the current generation. It's likely that they're discussing hardware options for a future console at this point and possibly sharing some of that information with third parties that they'd like to keep close. It's also unlikely that they'll rush in attempt to be the first out of the door as it cost them a lot this time around.
They're also between a rock and a hard place in terms of making a decision of whether they'll move heavily towards digital distribution. They probably don't want to put a Blu-ray drive in their next machine as it increases the cost and justifies Sony's position. A DVD drive likely won't cut it for the next generation of games and the hard drives being included in consoles aren't there in terms of size yet. They'll need at least 500 GB drives if they want to move towards digital distribution and given the drives consoles are currently shipping with it will probably be another 2 years before 500 GB drives come standard. I don't foresee Microsoft using a PPC chip in their next console either which will probably kill backwards compatibility or add to the cost of the machine if they decide to support it.
They likely have plans, but I don't expect them to make any moves until either Sony or Nintendo does something first. My bet is on Nintendo just because they're flush with cash and really lagging behind in terms of hardware, especially with both Sony and Microsoft releasing motion control features in the near future.
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It also seems as though Nintendo has begun to hit market saturation with the Wii at its current price. The sales have been down over the last few months and there's still no word of a price cut. I'm expecting one around Christmas, but they may be running out of steam. If anyone needs to come out with a new piece of hardware it's Nintendo.
No, they just went without a killer app for too long. Their strategy does not allow for pricedrops that quickly, especially when it's known what needs to be done to restore
Re:MS needs to be thinking about the 720 (Score:4, Insightful)
It also seems as though Nintendo has begun to hit market saturation with the Wii at its current price. The sales have been down over the last few months and there's still no word of a price cut. I'm expecting one around Christmas, but they may be running out of steam. If anyone needs to come out with a new piece of hardware it's Nintendo.
Nintendo is blue ocean. They are not trying to compete in the red ocean that is Xbox and PS3. MS and Sony have to price cut because they are fighting over the same pie.
The Wii is finally getting some interesting third party games. The MotionPlus is awesome and makes a huge difference in certain types of games. Less "waggle" and more precision. Nintendo really doesn't need to do anything right now. Sure, they'll have an HD console someday, but for now, the Wii is doing just fine.
A lot of people think that New Super Mario Wii is going to be HUGE (especially in Japan).
They likely have plans, but I don't expect them to make any moves until either Sony or Nintendo does something first. My bet is on Nintendo just because they're flush with cash and really lagging behind in terms of hardware, especially with both Sony and Microsoft releasing motion control features in the near future.
This is exactly why hardware performance doesn't matter. Nintendo *is* flush with cash and has moved many, many more units and they did it with lesser hardware! They weren't fighting over the current "hardcore" market. They were going after expanded market.
For the "hardcore" crowd, the PS3 is the way to go and MS could end up loosing some share to Sony.
Re:MS needs to be thinking about the 720 (Score:5, Interesting)
You can argue until you're blue in the face about how Nintendo's going in a different direction, but I bought a Wii early on and have felt the burn everytime I walk past that useless piece of crap in the living room. It does nothing better than the Gamecube and has only garnered the same old same old only Nintendo could get away with rereleasing over and over again. While the "expanded market" has already purchased, played and probably moved on from their Wii's (I know my circle of friends have, especially the non gamers), Nintendo's busy developing and tinkering as if people still care.
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Then it sounds like you bought the wrong system. Most of the people enjoying the Wii aren't exactly slashdot readers. So you don't hear about them but I assure you there are people that exist who love their Wii. Even my Mom enjoys the console.
And I agree with the poster above. MotionPlus has added a great deal of possibilities to the Wii. Even the launch titles have made excellent use of it and I'm sure there's more to come.
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Sorry, but the statistics bear out the contrary position. My own analysis (based on "nongamer" relatives/friends/etc that bought a Wii) is the same. Generally, they buy the Wii, they buy 2-3 other games tops, and then they don't buy another game for at least a year.
If they love the games they are playing? Great. I wish more games were like that. I have a VERY short list (perhaps 20-30 titles) of games I deemed worthy to hold on to and re-play, over a 15-year gaming history.
Unfortunately, that spending model
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The problem with the wii is similar to the problem with the ps2 towards the end of it's life, yes there are plenty of awesome games, but they are drowned out in a sea of crap.
As per usual the only games people can trust tend to be nintendo first party games, with others being hit and miss (usually missing).
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I don't know what type of games you like to play, but you might want to take a look at recent releases and coming soon listings for the Wii. You might be surprised to find that things are starting to broaden a bit. I think that third party game companies were caught a bit off guard. They didn't know what to do with the Wii, so they ignored it. Now that over 50 million units have sold, Nintendo has their attention again. Deep Space Extraction, The Conduit, Cursed Mountain, and The Grudge are all targete
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The expanded market that bought a Wii, and Wii Fit, and Wii Sports Resort, and...oh. Nothing else.
You can argue until you're blue in the face about how Nintendo's going in a different direction, but I bought a Wii early on and have felt the burn everytime I walk past that useless piece of crap in the living room. It does nothing better than the Gamecube and has only garnered the same old same old only Nintendo could get away with rereleasing over and over again. While the "expanded market" has already purchased, played and probably moved on from their Wii's (I know my circle of friends have, especially the non gamers), Nintendo's busy developing and tinkering as if people still care.
So much anger and rage that it becomes nonsense. : ...
Nothing else eh ? Let's see
Mario Kart Wii : 17+ millions sold
Super Mario Galaxy : 8+ millions sold
Super Smash Bros Brawl : 8+ millions sold
Mario Party 8 : 6+ millions sold
Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess : 5+ millions sold on Wii alone
The list of huge million sellers is going on.
Well, but that's nothing (LOL!).
Some people like to live in their fairy tale world.
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If anyone needs to come out with a new piece of hardware it's Nintendo.
I'm not sure this is true. Isn't the console market sort of a "not much profit on the razor but huge profit on the razor blades" sort of market? In other words, given that the Wii has been a huge smash success, aren't they cleaning up on game licensing revenues? Given how many units they have out in the market, do they really care if sales slow down a bit?
[Microsoft may] move heavily towards digital distribution.
Yes, everyone will. A
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Agreed: Nintendo really needs to drop the Wii price, probably in tiers up through Christmas. It's been the same price since the Christmas before last Christmas, which is kinda nuts considering (as the other guy said) there've been no 'killer apps' for a while.
Regardless of whether they targeted the Wii at kids or not, there is only so much that can be done with cinematic-brandings using LEGO concepts. They haven't even bothered to release (and improve upon) that many Nintendo classics, for that matter. If t
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I think that they're going to stick with the Xbox 360 for a while longer.
I think if they do that they will continue to crash and burn.
Seems like they think Natal is their next console, their console rebirth.
I bet this will crash and burn badly, and finish destroying their hopes of breaking even.
First of all, they have previously stated that they wanted to be profitable this go around. [...] They probably would reach profitability on this current generation and have started making up for the losses of the original Xbox if they hadn't run into the red ring problems. That probably set them back a year or so at least.
No!
Their only profitable fiscal year, they made less than $500 M (million) profit, and this was the Halo 3 fiscal year. They already lost $3 B (billion) dollars this generation on XB360, and lost $4 B on XBox (that's $7 billions in the hole for XBox brand at the very least). So the RRoD s
Re:MS needs to be thinking about the 720 (Score:5, Insightful)
On a personal note, how about making your online architecture a little more friendly to MMO's? The PS3 has several in the pipeline, and you don't have any.
Wrong. [teamxbox.com]
If they wait too long, Sony is going to start trouncing them with the stronger hardware of the PS3.
Sony has had over 3 years to "trounce" them. This hasn't happened yet. Why would the stronger hardware aspect of the PS3 all of the sudden start attracting gamers away from the 360?
Re:MS needs to be thinking about the 720 (Score:5, Insightful)
The PS3 no longer costs $200 more? It also plays Bluray movies? People already have 360s and it seems like an upgrade?
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Exclusives are a fair split these days, IMHO, a PS3 exclusive tends to look better than an Xbox exclusive. [Note: I OWN AN XBOX, AND LOVE IT. Quick plug... my PSN and XBL name is Malcorin
I think a lot of hardcore gamers wou
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Sony has had over 3 years to "trounce" them. This hasn't happened yet. Why would the stronger hardware aspect of the PS3 all of the sudden start attracting gamers away from the 360?
I agree with your general sentiment, but this concept still seems valid. It's not that the stronger hardware will kick in "all of a sudden", but rather than over 3 years, gaming companies have been producing games for each platform, and every game release faces the pressure to be better than the last. If the big video game studios start to find themselves more limited by 360 hardware than PS3 hardware through their own natural process of bigger, more impressive games, then Sony could possibly gain advantage
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Sony has had over 3 years to "trounce" them. This hasn't happened yet. Why would the stronger hardware aspect of the PS3 all of the sudden start attracting gamers away from the 360?
The PS3 is not even 3 years old yet, and not even 2.5 years old in Europe!
Hyperbole?
The XB360 has one entire year of sales without competition of headstart too.
And the PS3 is now far less expensive.
I don't think hardware will do anything though. These are videogame consoles, not technology items, but entertainment items. The games are what will count.
The thing is that the poor output of exclusive games on the PS3 will have some of its best ones soon: GT5 and FFXIII (well, not completely exclusive).
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It's a huge balance. The PS3 hardware may be superior (we don't know - Sony's apparently not lett
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The 360 is nearing the end of the typical console lifespan (which has always been about 5 years, give or take) and is getting a bit long in the tooth anyway.
I disagree. I'd rather not have to buy another console, the wii has, for better or worse, seems to have shifted console makers' focus off of cutting edge graphics to making it appealing to people who play fewer games. See project NATAL: that's not for people who play a lot of games, that's for the families, for parents, for party games, etc.
DVD player holding it back? Maybe there are some people who get irrationally angry and violent when they have to change discs, but I managed to play many games on the
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Sony's marketing team trumpets many things... but the fact is that Xbox 360 is more powerful then PS3 if you mean to use it for programing and rendering games, Google Valve or Activision and read their opinions regarding the matter.
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It has to do with Cell being bandwidth and memory constrained. You cannot even access the main memory directly with one of the Cell SPUs, all access must pass by the single CPU first, causing a bottleneck. The Cell SPUs are not full fledged general purpose units either. Even Sony could not program Cell for what their originally perceived uses and had to graft a NVIDIA GPU on it because
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Good point with mentioning CISC having nothing to do with it. It's 1999, and apple and sun want their (RISC vs CISC) marketing back. What's incredibly ironic, is that the original poster didn't realize that the 360 is using a PowerPC core. Even more ironic is that even apple gave up that battle and is using intel chips. Worse, as I would always mention to my apple fanboy friends, there is no such thing as CISC as it's described in marketing literature, as modern CISC CPU's break instructions down into m
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Even Sony could not program Cell for what their originally perceived uses
I seem to remember ibm touting cell as a multi-media chip? for those kind of fixed pipeline things with no branching or jumping around in memory too much the cell is perfect. Yes the SPU's are not full fledged general purpose units, but they are perfect for use as DSP's in media bits.
why not just upgrade the CPU and GPU? (Score:2)
That way the developers could hit the ground running with slightly modified dev tools and "A" rated titles could be available very early on in the consoles life which helps decide a "victor".
Like wise sony could do the same, I am under the impression that cell was designe
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Why does every console seem to be a complete , from scratch, design.
Because developers discovered that the old design had run into fundamental bottlenecks after three Moore density doublings. That's why the GameCube and Game Boy Advance were redesigns. But the Wii, DS, and DSi were evolutionary, just as you recommend.
That way the developers could hit the ground running with slightly modified dev tools
That worked for Wii developers (Wii is an overclocked GCN with more RAM and a USB controller). It worked in a different way for Xbox and Xbox 360 developers (they use a variant of DirectX).
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At that point, it's called a desktop computer and not a console.
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At that point, it's called a desktop computer and not a console.
It's a console as long as it uses cryptographic methods to shut out any development that is not part of a day job, such as development done by students and hobbyists. If it were a computer, I could load GCC onto it.
Fat PS3 is a desktop computer. (Score:3, Interesting)
You mean kinda like the same way I can load GCC onto my PS3?
You have a fat PS3, which is switchable [playstation.com] between a game console and a desktop computer at boot time. But I have a feeling Sony will discontinue it in the fourth quarter of this year, just as it discontinued the fat PS2 in favor of the slim PS2. And like the slim PS2, Xbox 360, and Wii, the slim PS3 is exclusively a game console.
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Microsoft made a mistake using a PowerPC chip, that's the problem. They should have stuck with x86 chips. Then they could load up a 32nm, 8 core CPU in late 2010 and have NVidia and ATI compete to pick the graphics chip, and developers would see more power, a new DirectX version, but otherwise a similar development experience.
PowerPC... Seriously, smart decision there Microsoft.
For that matter, Cell was a stupid choice too. Mainstream x86_64 chips are now the only logical choice for a high end console, b
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Microsoft made a mistake using a PowerPC chip, that's the problem. They should have stuck with x86 chips.
Microsoft tried this with the original Xbox, but I seem to remember that Intel price-gouged Microsoft near the end of the Xbox's life cycle, and Microsoft couldn't keep up with Sony's price cuts on the PlayStation 2. The switch to an IBM CPU was to keep this from happening again.
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And now who will they turn to if IBM gouges them?
If I remember correctly, the difference is that Intel insisted on producing chips in its own fab. IBM, on the other hand, was willing to license the "Waternoose" 3-core, 6-thread PowerPC CPU design to Microsoft so that Microsoft could choose its own fab, and Microsoft chose Chartered Semi.
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Sega found this out with the 32x, mega-cd, etc.
Put out one half-decent hardware spec, pump out huge number
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The two aren't mutually exclusive. A console upgrade can still be a major event. They would still only do it every 5-7 years. But when they do it, the changes would be deterministic. I as a developer would know "OK, they'll have more cores, faster processors, more memory, and a much faster GPU but otherwise the way I do my work hasn't changed a whole lot".
I'm not saying they upgrade willy nilly or allow users to upgrade, I'm saying pick a mainstream architecture so that when they do update it with a new
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My XBox 360 has actually been more reliable than my PS3, which has died twice (one a failed HD that I replaced myself, once YLOD that required a $150 replacement from Sony). Of course, that may in part be because the 360 is so noisy that I never forget to turn it off when I"m done using it, while I leave the PS3 running continuously and donate time to the Folding@home project
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Re:MS needs to be thinking about the 720 (Score:5, Interesting)
A DVD drive and 4-year-old CPU are already starting to hold it back (several new games are coming out for it that will have to span across several DVD's, versus one bluray for the PS3).
DVD is still a perfectly capable medium for video games. If you think the increased cost of a blu-ray drive is justified by the handful of games that happen to be bigger than a single DVD, you're smoking crack.
and 4-year-old CPU... If they wait too long, Sony is going to start trouncing them with the stronger hardware of the PS3.
How do you figure? Microsoft's 4-year old processor has kept up with Sony's, wait for it.... 4 year old processor. The Cell, by the way, hasn't lived up to the hype, unless of course you like running folding@home. Otherwise, the PS3 architecture is not a good fit for game development. The reason the 360 is trouncing the PS3 is not only because of cost, but because it is far easier to develop for.
The PS3 has several in the pipeline, and you don't have any.
If by that you mean the XBox has Final Fantasy 11 and Phantasy Star Universe, and the PS3 has none, then sure, I agree with this statement wholeheartedly.
There are only so many FPS's and racing games I can put up with before I want some innovation.
Yup. This is Microsoft's fault.
Honestly... who modded this insightful??
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The 360 is nearing the end of the typical console lifespan (which has always been about 5 years
This is not true.
5 years is the typical lifespan of the losers home consoles.
The winner home console is defined by the one that sells the most, and the losers are the other ones.
The winner typically lasts 10 years or more.
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Yes, it is true. You can see the list for yourself [slashdot.org] from an old post of my (I'm too lazy to repost it). Five years has been the standard for console generations since the 70's.
It's wrong from the simple fact that the lifespan of a console is not defined by the fact that its successor is out. The PS2 has not finished selling, but the PS3 is out since 2006.
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If you want backwards compatibility, shouldn't you get an XBOX 180?
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If you want backwards compatibility, shouldn't you get an XBOX 180?
Isn't that the number of Kilos the original Xbox weighed in at? *badum-shh*
Yay, jokes from the turn of the century!
I'm very sorry... :(
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there's nothing stopping consoles from having MMOs hardware wise. the reason that no one's making one for XBOX is because MS doesn't like monthly subscriptions on XBOX Live.
Re:MS needs to be thinking about the 720 (Score:4, Interesting)
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I might finally buy one.... (Score:2, Redundant)
The price drop does make the unit a little more attractive, especially since it now does Netflix streaming as well. I was thinking about getting another Roku box, but this makes the Xbox 360 a more likely purchase. The fact that it can play games is a spiffy feature as well. :)
Although, "Left 4 Dead" might eat up what little free time that I have....
Low-end HDMI Cables (Score:4, Informative)
Component (Score:2)
If you have an older television that needs component cables though, you'll have to shell out $35-40 for the XBox specific ones.
But -$100 +$40 +40GB = still a better deal than before the price drop.
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Well, I was actually talking about the component video cables [xbox.com] for televisions that don't support HDMI at all, just component video.
The kit you are talking about [xbox.com] is something different and costs $45-50. If you don't care about optical audio, I think you can just use the RCA cables that come with the system for audio and your own HDMI cable.
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I have a 360. Hooked to my TV. With an HDMI cable. It most certainly transmits the audio to the TV via the HDMI cable and my TV then passes the audio right along to my receiver.
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Or you could just use the built-in netflix client on the 360....
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I am a netflix subscriber, and have recently begun watching Netflix on Mozilla! This makes me wonder, with the "Instal other OS" option of the PS3 would I be able to watch Netflix on a GUN/linux Mozilla browser? This certantly would not be a selling point for the average person, but a fun project for current owners. This would put the PS3 further up as the hardcore gaming council king over the 360, to include games. [wikipedia.org]
Do you mean Mozilla or Firefox? I have tried using FF to watch Netflix and it says my browser is not supported, and yes I refuse to install silverlight. Audi over HDMI works, there is just a bu preventing it from working across the board.
For one (Score:5, Interesting)
MS need to quit making gamers paid for Xbox Live; granted Sony PS3 network has its' issues but it is free to play. I never like the idea of paying full price for the game then have to pay a monthly/yearly fee to be able to play it online.
why live is worth it (Score:2)
Ever notice that there are far less free demos and dlc on Sony's network. In the past I wasted several times the cost of live in an average year buying games that I would have skipped had demo been available, in the long run Live has saved me money. Besides that I have averaged enough freebie's each year to make it worth while anyway.
Sony's business model is why its inferior...the developers have to foot the costs of hosting and bandwidth which causes many of them to just not bother. Add in a more refine
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Sony's business model is why its inferior...the developers have to foot the costs of hosting and bandwidth which causes many of them to just not bother. Add in a more refined interface, full chat, netflix, etc and I will gladly pay my paltry $40 a year for Live.
I thought Microsoft also charged the developers for demo/patch bandwidth?
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Paying For Access To Other'sContent (Re:For one) (Score:2)
This has been something that has perpetually annoyed me. For instance, subscribers are sending $50 a year to Microsoft to play Infinity Ward's online content. It would be one thing if people were sending that $50 to Infinity Ward but this is going to Microsoft. It always seemed weird gamers where eager to pay Microsoft when they aren't responsible for content or fixing games like Modern Warfare 2 and yet are getting payment for it.
This is compounded by the PC vs console experience where a lot of the feat
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PSN is totally fine. The 'issues' arguments are an artifact from launch-year era functionality that is since fixed/improved/expanded.
sales are gonna skyrocket (Score:2)
I predict at this new price point, sales will skyrocket once MS hits the kill switch on all the remaining XBox360s. With a 54% failure rate [slashdot.org], people will just figure it's business as usual from owning a 360 and 96% of those people will go out and purchase a new one.
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The price drop is interesting..... (Score:4, Interesting)
.... When they get the reliability improved so that they don't have a 54.2% failure rate [n4g.com], then I might consider buying one.
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If they fixed it, I may just buy one, but not until then.
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In one of the links I found this very intelligently written post, which kinda kills your buzz (I guess):
It's funny because people keep thinking these chip revisions are going to make the hardware more stable and they're not. Their sole purpose is to save Microsoft money in production costs. Smaller chipsets=fewer materials=more $$$ is MS's pocket.
The amount of heat the CPU and GPU produce are the least of your troubles folks, there many more issues with the 360's design and they're all far more severe. Let's start with the thermal paste. For those unfamiliar, thermal paste is what's used to transfer heat between the GPU and CPU to their respective heatsinks. The thermal paste that MS uses in the 360 is cheap crap that bakes into cement after a few hundred hours of use. This issue could be easily fixed if MS would just use a more effective paste like Arctic Silver 5 but that would drive production costs up ever so slightly and we can't have that.
Next problem: They mounted the disc drive on the GPU heatsink. Seriously MS? What the hell? That is the worst design idea ever, the heatsink's purpose is to pull heat off the GPU so a fan can blow air over it which will whisk it away out of the system. The worst thing you could do there is mount one of the hottest running components in the system directly on top of that. You're just asking to create a hotspot.
Problem 3: Air flow. Worst designed system for airflow ever. There are two primary intake fans on the 360. One is covered up by the harddrive. The other can't pull air in if the system is standing vertically. If you don't lay the system flat it has to rely on the incredibly tiny vents on the side of the system to pull all the air into the system. Beyond that the interior of the system does not allow for optimal airflow. It's awful. Compare the guts of a PS3 and a 360 if you ever get the chance (Google). The PS3's innards look like they were well planned out and intelligently placed. The 360 is a clusterfuck that looks like MS just schlepped all the components in and called it good.
Final problem, and by far the worst: The X-Clamps. Why these are still present I don't know. Essentially for those who don't know the X-Clamps are two X shaped clamps on the bottom of the motherboard that hold the heatsinks in place. Their fatal flaw? They warp under intense heat. That warping bends the motherboard. That bending breaks solder connections. The breaking produces the RRoD. These clamps could easily be replaced with screws, washers, and nuts. In fact many console modders have done just that and found in combination with an application of Artic Silver 5 to the CPU and GPU it fixed a red ringed console. So why these are still in use I don't know. What I do know is they are the 360's main problem
Price increase for the UK (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.edge-online.com/news/xbox-360-elites-price-cut-arcades-raised [edge-online.com]
I'm sure the reason they haven't done this all over Europe is because they're only popular in the UK so they feel they can get away with this.
it's a good move, deal with it. (Score:2, Interesting)
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they are the only system with a flagship online game of magnitude.
True, World of Warcraft runs on a Microsoft platform, but you might have forgotten that it also runs on Macs.
Have been waiting for this (Score:2, Interesting)
I originally held out buying a 360 until the 65nm processor came out (Falcon version). But then due to the RROD problems, I opted to wait for the 65nm GPU as well (Jasper version). Those have been out for a while now, but it's still somewhat hit or miss as to whether the Elite version you get has a Jasper board (65nm CPU + 64nm GPU) or an older version. However, it appears now that most of the new elites and nearly all arcade versions have Jasper. My only reason for holding out longer is that I suspecte
What, you're not going to keep waiting? (Score:2)
what about the peripherials ripoff...... (Score:5, Insightful)
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The most required price cuts are for the outrageously expensive wifi adapter and the absurdly overpriced 120 gb hard drive.
Wait a minute... is that correct? The 360 doesn't even have wireless networking built in? You've got to be kidding!
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A friend of mine got one, and I've heard no complaints.
skip the wifi adapter (Score:3, Informative)
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I know how you feel. Not because I've experienced it, but because I've seen how cheaply PC stuff has become.
First off, I'm in Canada - where prices are more expensive than the US. I picked up a brand new 1TB HDD for $70, and a Saitek P3200 for $6. That includes shipping. Great quality PCI wireless cards can be found for under $25, and I got my SennHeiser PC161 headset for just over $40. :)
So when I see the prices you have to pay for console peripherals, I shudder. And then when I see the prices in other cou
This is not even really a price drop. (Score:3, Insightful)
They are phasing out the Pro model at $250 and dropping the Elite model to $300. However, once the Pro models are gone it's still going to cost you $300 to get a Xbox 360 (the Arcade model doesn't count). So, how exactly is this a price drop? I suppose you could argue that it is a value increase (as you are getting 120 GB instead of 60 GB), but I certainly wouldn't call it a price drop.
I bought a Xbox 360 Pro a year ago for $300. I've had no problems with it and enjoyed it a lot. However, if I were to do it all over again today I would go with a PS3. Back then a PS3 was $500. Today, however, for the same price as a Xbox 360 you get built-in Blu-ray, WiFi, and a standard hard drive interface. On the hardware front it's not even a contest. Xbox 360 has some great exclusive games, but so does PS3 (I hate exclusive games, but that's the world we live in). On top of that, Xbox Live is $50 a year. Xbox 360 was killing PS3 from the start (and rightly so; who pays $600 for a console?), but now the PS3 is in position to reverse that trend. Meanwhile, half of all Xbox 360s are failing. The future doesn't look so bright for the Xbox 360...
The price drop... (Score:2)
...won't even compensate for the DVDs that it will destroy during the Xbox 360's lifetime.
Microsoft desperately slashes Xbox 360 price (Score:5, Funny)
Illustration: The new accurate Xbox 360 logo [today.com]
Microsoft has discounted the entry-level Doesn't-Do-Much Xbox 360 to $200 from Friday, $50 cheaper than the Nintendo Wii. (This will translate to a GBP250 price point in the UK.)
"We are thrilled to be the first next-generation console on the market with a big 'Microsoft' logo on it to reach $199, a price that invites everyone to enjoy Xbox 360," said Aaron Greenberg, marketing marketer for Xbox. He says this will cause a "smash and grab" mentality amongst consumers. "And not 'grab and smash' as they throw it out the window when it gets a red ring of death again."
The models that actually play anything worth playing will, of course, stay at $300 and $400. "But history shows that more than 75 percent of all console sales happen after the price falls below the $200 mark. Which would be the PS2, PSP and DS ... uh, forget I said that."
Greenberg assures consumers that the new cheap Xbox 360s will not be refurbished red ring of death casualties. "Not all of them. Honest. However, twenty Xbox lifts every morning will be much better exercise than Wii Fit."
Microsoft Japan is already actually paying people to take the machines, with little success. "We hope more people will be able to enjoy Xbox 360," said marketing marketer Takashi Sensui, "and we can stop enjoying quite so many of them. We also have this fine pile of HD-DVD drives ... Wait! Come back!"
Greenberg further assured consumers that "the Xbox 360 will kick the PS3's ass every way from Friday, you wait and see." Nintendo were unable to comment in time for this story as they were still too busy trying to make Wiis fast enough to keep them in the shops.
Is this really a drop, though? (Score:2)
In the UK, at least, Microsoft's dropping the 360 Elite price but it's discontinuing the Pro. Combined with the changes to the Elite box contents post-price-drop it means we're basically paying £30 more if we want the system with a hard drive, and in exchange we only get a measly 60GB extra HDD space. It's not like HDDs are expensive on their end.
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I'm impressed with the PS3's media capabilities. I really like the PS3's pseudo-3D menu system. Understated, very easy to navigate, and you always know where you are in a menu hierarchy. The Microsoft interface is typically Microsoft--lots of flashy graphics, but hard to find your way around, and stuffed with advertising. The PS3's prowess as an upscaling DVD player is impressive, comparable to expensive standalone players, and of course it does bluray too. The XBox 360 DVD player, on the other hand, is abo
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1: media capability's are poor
Unless you're talking about blu-ray (points 3-5), I'd love to hear what you mean. I've been ripping my DVD collection and streaming them from my Windows Home Server. It works equally well on both my PS3 and my Xbox, but I sort of prefer the Xbox's interface, so I typically use that system. Yeah, I wish it supported more video and audio formats, but both systems seem to be fairly limited in that respect.
2: dvd plaback is worse than a PS2
What was your experience with this? The few times I've played DVDs on the 360, it worked just fine. H
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Essentially, when playing with my friends, xbox live is the place to be.
Then how do you play when your friends are in your house?
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How lame! I opened up my new PS3 Slim, and found no cables. How the HELL can you play games designed to be played in HD, on an HD TV, if you don't have HD, or HDMI Cables?!?!
Er, all of these systems can be played on non-HD TVs as well, and indeed, maybe it's a good bet that many people that have waited this long to buy the system are exactly the sort of people would are least likely to have an HD TV (they're not enthusiastics / early adopters).
Example: me. I don't own an xbox or a PS3, and I have a relatively crappy old SD TV. But now that the PS3's price has dropped to something non-insane, I'm thinking of picking up a slim to play stuff like RE5. Since I don't have an H
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That's the point isn't it?
The cables cost $3 retail, but they don't include one. Which means people get the thing home and find they don't have the cable and probably end up paying $70 at best buy to make it work.
Since that's $70 that wasn't spent on a game, sony might even lose out on the deal.
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But the parity is back now that the Elite has no good cables, but MS's component cables are a tad pricier than the equivalen