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Gates says Xbox 2 will crush Sony
by Derek Sooman on Tue 03 May 2005, 04:01 PM
Speaking at a meeting of business journalists, Bill Gates said that the new Xbox would crush Sony's console offerings once and for all. So excited is Microsoft about their new Xbox 2 that they believe it will come to quickly dominate the console market, providing a "digital entertainment hub" that will satisfy user's demands for a greater home entertainment service.

Microsoft's new Xbox (codenamed Xenon) will sport an interface that is similar to the Media Centre edition of Windows, and will contain tools that will "make multiplayer online gaming more sociable."

Xenon will be officially unveiled on MTV on 12 May, several days before the conference. Speculation about the Xenon's functions and design has been rife on internet sites. Some are reporting that the console will be backwards compatible - allowing users to play current Xbox games on it. Others have speculated that Microsoft may make a nod to Apple-inspired design, with a sleek white box.

Barring the Playstation's ENORMOUS fanbase and library of games, of course.

No matter how good it is, it'll never have Zelda. Thus the reason I'll always be a Nintendo Fanboy.

Rumor has it (could be completely wrong of course) that the XBox 360 has MSN TV integrated into it for browsing the web.

*shivers in pain*

That would explain what the MSN TV was for though. Testing ground.

I'm curious how these "tools that will make multiplayer online gaming more sociable" will stack up to the Revolution's online "community".

Even IF the Aries rumor isn't true on the Revolution, Reggie said that when Nintendo goes online they will do it in a different way so as to bring a community feel to it. Which does fit with the Aries rumor, actually (which among other things makes mention to message boards, buddy lists, etc).

Lets not get too excited: the next gen consoles aren't looking to ship with hard drives. Who knows what other sterling design decisions they'll be making.

Stark wrote:Lets not get too excited: the next gen consoles aren't looking to ship with hard drives. Who knows what other sterling design decisions they'll be making.

Whoa, whoa, whoa there, killer. Where did you hear THAT? That would be a monumental mistake, IMHO; the hard drive for me is one of the major "HA-HA-SUCK-MY-ASS-SONY" reasons I bought an xbrick.

Correction.


The next gen XBox is not shipping with a hard drive.

The Revolution is rumored to possibly have one (according to Aries Nintendo is still debating it but it looks likely with all the downloadable content they will have). The PS3 might possibly have one.


The XBox 360 photos clearly show a hard drive addon, the leaks all claimed no hard drive built in, and the specs Microsoft gave to developers at GDC agreed. No hard drive built in but it is an option. Thats what they said.

The XBox 360 does NOT have a hard drive built in, at least on the standard model, but there is a slot to stick one in. You have to buy it seperately however.


For the developer specs:
http://xbox.gamespy.com/xbox/microsoft- ... 331p1.html

Hard Drive - As many have speculated, Xenon's hard drive is optional. 2 GB of the drive will be used as game cache. The final drive size is still being determined.

(the leaked photos showed a 40 GB hard drive)

Son of a bitch.

Oh well. I'll be buying the Harddrive or the xenon XL or whatever name their slapping on the fancied up version. I like the idea of the machine using some hard drive space as game cache.

Okay, they're still going with DVD-9? Okay, yea, they're gonna get owned on so badly it's pathetic. When the other two consoles are waiting for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray to sort their positions out(And thus have dozens of Gigs of storage), the X-Brick will be clunking around with multiple disks.

Consider looking into the other consoles at E3 this year. If the others have a built in hard drive...

And since Microsoft is launching too early for next gen storage (normal DVD's vs 50 GB Blu-Ray disks in the PS3 and HD-DVD or whatever Nintendo chooses to use), and considerably earlier than the competition (resulting in the weakest graphics)...

Yeah, I'd seriously look into the others.

Praxis wrote:Consider looking into the other consoles at E3 this year. If the others have a built in hard drive...

And since Microsoft is launching too early for next gen storage (normal DVD's vs 50 GB Blu-Ray disks in the PS3 and HD-DVD or whatever Nintendo chooses to use), and considerably earlier than the competition (resulting in the weakest graphics)...

Yeah, I'd seriously look into the others.

Just a note. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have entered negotiation to team up for the next gen disks. Saw it on /., and it would make the Rev and PS far better.

SirNitram wrote:Okay, they're still going with DVD-9? Okay, yea, they're gonna get owned on so badly it's pathetic. When the other two consoles are waiting for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray to sort their positions out(And thus have dozens of Gigs of storage), the X-Brick will be clunking around with multiple disks.

Yeah, MS is insisting on launching earlier than everyone else because they believe Sony won the last round due to launching earlier.

So they'll launch before Christmas this year even if that means launching too early for next gen storage.

There is such a thing as 'too early'...

EDIT: Posted at the same time, lol

Just a note. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have entered negotiation to team up for the next gen disks. Saw it on /., and it would make the Rev and PS far better.

Yeah, though so far nothing has been decided, they just started talks. Might not happen.

From Blu-ray.com:

Sony and Toshiba are reportedly in talks about the possibility of unifying their next-generation optical disc formats into a single unified standard. After reaching a basic agreement that a unified standard would be desirable, they are now trying to agree on a hybrid format that takes advantage of each standard's strengths. Toshiba has acknowledged that they are in talks with the rival camp and related parties, but deny that any deal is in the works. The company recognizes a single format is best for consumers, but that doesn't necessarily mean that executives are prepared to agree on a hybrid format. Sony also denied anything had been decided, stating that the talks are part of the company's efforts to bring the "best experience" to the consumer, and any deal, if it happens, is likely to result in technological cooperation in future developments for Blu-ray. While a final deal is still far from certain, both camps are well aware that a single unified format would be in their best interest as a drawn-out fight would likely confuse consumers and hinder the industry's development.

Not certain yet...

Heh, they really think they're going to 'crush' Sony with a vastly weaker system? The only reason that worked for the PS2 is because it's had a nearly constant stream of best sellers....and I'm sorry, but MS tossing out a Halo every couple of years or so just ain't gonna cut it.

Oh well, at least they have plenty of money to throw down the drain...that's probably what keeps the N-Gage afloat.

Some are reporting that the console will be backwards compatible - allowing users to play current Xbox games on it.

Not including a hard drive could be considered shooting yourself in the foot. Not backwards compatable is shooting yourself in the head.

Duken wrote:

Some are reporting that the console will be backwards compatible - allowing users to play current Xbox games on it.

Not including a hard drive could be considered shooting yourself in the foot. Not backwards compatable is shooting yourself in the head.

In the xbox's case not including a hard drive would be like putting your foot up against your head then shooting through it into your head then. This is because the current xbox uses a hard drive for caching on games and without one backwards compatibility would be either impossible or very expensive.

Chardok wrote:From here

Gates says Xbox 2 will crush Sony
by Derek Sooman on Tue 03 May 2005, 04:01 PM
Speaking at a meeting of business journalists, Bill Gates said that the new Xbox would crush Sony's console offerings once and for all. So excited is Microsoft about their new Xbox 2 that they believe it will come to quickly dominate the console market, providing a "digital entertainment hub" that will satisfy user's demands for a greater home entertainment service.

Microsoft's new Xbox (codenamed Xenon) will sport an interface that is similar to the Media Centre edition of Windows, and will contain tools that will "make multiplayer online gaming more sociable."

Yeah yeah yeah ... this from the guy who said that consumers really *wanted* the OS tightly integrated with the web browser ...... everything related to the Internet that MS has touched has mostly been a steaming pile that only survived because of the massive marketing clout in Redmond.

They'd have to crack the Japanese market in order to "crush" sony. I just don't think that's going to happen.

darthdavid wrote:

Duken wrote:

Some are reporting that the console will be backwards compatible - allowing users to play current Xbox games on it.

Not including a hard drive could be considered shooting yourself in the foot. Not backwards compatable is shooting yourself in the head.

In the xbox's case not including a hard drive would be like putting your foot up against your head then shooting through it into your head then. This is because the current xbox uses a hard drive for caching on games and without one backwards compatibility would be either impossible or very expensive.

1) No hard drive makes backwards compatability impossible since ALL games use it for caching
2) Different processor architecture makes backwards compatability nearly impossible
3) Different graphics card brand (ATi instead of NVidia) means that all the XBox 1 NVidia-optimized games may have some trouble.


When you consider all three together its about equivilant to using an assault rifle on your foot against your head


---

Spong has an article with a bit more info...http://news.spong.com/detail/news.asp?prid=8641

The Good: You can store videos and photos and apparently watch TV. PVR, anyone?

The Bad: The base model doesn't ship with a hard drive, so you obviously can't use any of these features without spending extra money.

The Worse: While it isn't mentioned, I highly doubt they're going to spend extra money integrating a TV tuner into the base model, so you'll probably have to buy a more expensive Media Center edition to get these capabilities.



---


I will admit Microsoft had a good strategy.
Sell the XBox 1 while pioneering new features that make it much more expensive than the competition. To make up for this extra cost, sell it at a loss instead of at a profit. Also, cram every feature you can into online play but charge for it, since the opponents don't support it very well.

Microsoft gets a reputation for best online support, best graphics, and having a hard drive.

Now, Microsoft succeeded in making a huge loss but gaining a reputation.
With the second generation...
Sell for a profit, and sell early, using your reputation for "best graphics" to get people to buy it before the other consoles come out (like Sony did with the PS2). At the same time, continue charging for online play despite the fact that the opposition has promised the same features for free. And finally, remove the hard drive; now that people are hooked on it, they will spend even more money to buy it.

Voila. On the second generation you capitalize on the reputation to get suckers to buy it immediately, thus gaining a big market share AND big profit to make up for last generation.


Hopefully customers get informed before they buy...

I don't like the ExLax360 controller. It looks like 4 face buttons + 2 triggers. Someone probably fucked a farm animal, contracted a nasty disease, and that inspired the design.

Really, since they're not going to do anything "new" with controllers like Nintendo is doing, at least offer 6 face buttons in a curved arcade alignment. If such a layout is too complicated for some people, then they should drink a glass of milk and shut up. MS thinks they're catering to hardcore gamers, after all. gabora

For those that haven't seen it...






Just looking at those grips give me carpal tunnel...

SirNitram wrote:

Praxis wrote:Consider looking into the other consoles at E3 this year. If the others have a built in hard drive...

And since Microsoft is launching too early for next gen storage (normal DVD's vs 50 GB Blu-Ray disks in the PS3 and HD-DVD or whatever Nintendo chooses to use), and considerably earlier than the competition (resulting in the weakest graphics)...

Yeah, I'd seriously look into the others.

Just a note. HD-DVD and Blu-Ray have entered negotiation to team up for the next gen disks. Saw it on /., and it would make the Rev and PS far better.

I think that's only for video and recording, though. I have a feeling that even if a compromise is made to produce a unified HD DVD format, Sony will more than likely still use Blu-Ray for the PS3.

Shipping with no drive is a great way to get fuck-all support for it in games. Look at all the nifty shit for 16bit consoles that noone ever used, because like 5% of people owned one. Your average dumbass player probably wouldn't buy a HDD for the sexbox, since most Xbox owners I know don't use it as anything other than a huge memory card (thats good and all, don't get me wrong). I think it's a cynical attempt to keep launch price down, then force everyone to buy the HDD later. I hope it fails.

It's been a loooong time since the last time I played console, but IIRC one minus point of the original X-Box compared to PS2 is its awkward controller. Now, if M$ is going to carry over such tradition to the new Xbox....

Hey, some people LIKE the Xbox controller. Some people never admit that the original version was horrible, and renaming it 'Duke' doesn't stop it being shit.

I actually like and PREFER the original larger size X-box controller. The smaller one ok, but I prefer the original.