Xbox 360 Features Touted
Software download, no backwards compatibility and another Halo? Welcome to the future!
A bit like this, maybe?
More rumours are doing the rounds today regarding the specifications and software delivery methods of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console. Hard disk size is currently being touted as around the 40 gig mark – which seems fairly large but not staggering, though this will be subject to change as costs are juggled before the device goes into production late this summer. The machine is said to feature two video outs, one of which can be connected to a monitor, and will not, allegedly, be backwards compatible. It’s also being suggested that purchase via download is going to be offered, with games bought in this way sold earlier and cheaper to sweeten the deal.
And speaking of games on the HDD, the new console with be sold with Halo 2 pre-installed on the console, obviously beautified to make the most of the system’s power. To accompany this, there are rumours that features cut from Halo 2 such as online co-operative play and the Ark level are being held back for inclusion in a new Halo game, though whether this is as part of the Halo 2 rehash or an all-new Halo 3 is unclear.
This isn’t all, though. There’s also talk of a 120 gig add-on hard drive for the new Xbox which comes pre-loaded with software. Gamers will be able to use this to take saved data around their friends’ houses, or if we don’t go round to each others’ houses in the future, we can just use it to customise the online experience. There have already been suggestions that this hard drive, promised to be sleek and fashionable, will in fact be a pre-requisite for online play.
Speaking recently about the recently-named next-gen console, MS guru J Allard hinted that there would be something for Halo fans on the 360, but declined to comment on backwards compatibility. We’d like to stress that all of the above is nothing but rumour at the moment. Check back here at SPOnG for more news confirming or denying this intriguing information.
And speaking of games on the HDD, the new console with be sold with Halo 2 pre-installed on the console, obviously beautified to make the most of the system’s power. To accompany this, there are rumours that features cut from Halo 2 such as online co-operative play and the Ark level are being held back for inclusion in a new Halo game, though whether this is as part of the Halo 2 rehash or an all-new Halo 3 is unclear.
This isn’t all, though. There’s also talk of a 120 gig add-on hard drive for the new Xbox which comes pre-loaded with software. Gamers will be able to use this to take saved data around their friends’ houses, or if we don’t go round to each others’ houses in the future, we can just use it to customise the online experience. There have already been suggestions that this hard drive, promised to be sleek and fashionable, will in fact be a pre-requisite for online play.
Speaking recently about the recently-named next-gen console, MS guru J Allard hinted that there would be something for Halo fans on the 360, but declined to comment on backwards compatibility. We’d like to stress that all of the above is nothing but rumour at the moment. Check back here at SPOnG for more news confirming or denying this intriguing information.
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Comments
Showing the 20 most recent comments. Read all 36.
neocarrillo 8 Apr 2005 23:48
17/36
Pilot13 wrote:
erm, your kinda wrong there neo. Halo sold the system initially, but I think it's because of live that it's still holding up so well. I only bought it because of live, dunno about everyone else.
Do you really believe xbox live kept xbox alive. Halo 2 single handedly raised both xbox and xbox live sales.
Pilot13 9 Apr 2005 00:14
18/36
Oh sure, Im not saying they didnt. Just saying Live sweetened the deal inbetween both games and without it Halo 2 would be gathering dust by now. Easy. Besides, here in Europe, it is basically the only decent console online service. I know you yanks got resi online, but my friend bought it totally believing the name when he realised it was all solo because Capcom just didnt think the infrastructure was there. So yeah, Live sold a lot of xboxes.
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neocarrillo 9 Apr 2005 00:21
19/36
Pilot13 wrote:
Oh sure, Im not saying they didnt. Just saying Live sweetened the deal inbetween both games and without it Halo 2 would be gathering dust by now. Easy. Besides, here in Europe, it is basically the only decent console online service. I know you yanks got resi online, but my friend bought it totally believing the name when he realised it was all solo because Capcom just didnt think the infrastructure was there. So yeah, Live sold a lot of xboxes.
You mean resident evil online? Yeah it's not even a really good game anyway. I wish gamecube would have had resident evil 4 online but you know nintendo.
warbaby 9 Apr 2005 01:19
20/36
neocarrillo wrote:
F**k the rich white man. Gates may own the pc world but the console world is sony's. I don't know where you get sony's worried about xbox from. Your full of s**t about xbox live cause if it was a success the xbox would have much more console's sold than they do now. They are alive because of halo, you know and I know it. When halo 3 comes out xbox 360 will fall.
man, that sony fanboyism is really, really pissing me off. yu cant even accept a comepting company's success. can yu even admit that x-box may be one up on the PS2. i would choose live over ps2 online, any day. its more organized, i pay a flat fee for one game. all my friends are together. sony dropped the ball on their online, they left it up to the developers, M$ had control over all online games, a greedy decision, but it was a better service.
i can tell yu, every1 i know bot x-box, but not becuz of halo. no 1 i talk to bot x-box, becuz they wanted halo. they bought halo after they bought the x-box becuz it was recomended, but allot of them dint get it, they got halo 2, becuz they said, 'what the heck'.
your sony fanaticism is really annoying, yu talk like the 360 will fall rite on its ass. having like 4 systems sold.
and yu trash microsft saying ' oh they have the PC market but not the games'... last time i checked sony was 6 billion dollars in debt, and the only product that makes money (or used to before the PSP), was the playstation duo. gates is like what, 60 billion dollars in worth, donating 5 billion to charity.
dude, drop the sony s**t, we dont need you to point out all the faults, fabricated, or true, of microsoft. if i want to know if microsoft entered the games industry after sony, or if they released the heaviest console ever, ill look it up on the net, i dont need sum 1 cramming it down my throat, thank yu very much.
neocarrillo 9 Apr 2005 04:26
21/36
warbaby wrote:
neocarrillo wrote:
F**k the rich white man. Gates may own the pc world but the console world is sony's. I don't know where you get sony's worried about xbox from. Your full of s**t about xbox live cause if it was a success the xbox would have much more console's sold than they do now. They are alive because of halo, you know and I know it. When halo 3 comes out xbox 360 will fall.
man, that sony fanboyism is really, really pissing me off. yu cant even accept a comepting company's success. can yu even admit that x-box may be one up on the PS2. i would choose live over ps2 online, any day. its more organized, i pay a flat fee for one game. all my friends are together. sony dropped the ball on their online, they left it up to the developers, M$ had control over all online games, a greedy decision, but it was a better service.
i can tell yu, every1 i know bot x-box, but not becuz of halo. no 1 i talk to bot x-box, becuz they wanted halo. they bought halo after they bought the x-box becuz it was recomended, but allot of them dint get it, they got halo 2, becuz they said, 'what the heck'.
your sony fanaticism is really annoying, yu talk like the 360 will fall rite on its ass. having like 4 systems sold.
and yu trash microsft saying ' oh they have the PC market but not the games'... last time i checked sony was 6 billion dollars in debt, and the only product that makes money (or used to before the PSP), was the playstation duo. gates is like what, 60 billion dollars in worth, donating 5 billion to charity.
dude, drop the sony s**t, we dont need you to point out all the faults, fabricated, or true, of microsoft. if i want to know if microsoft entered the games industry after sony, or if they released the heaviest console ever, ill look it up on the net, i dont need sum 1 cramming it down my throat, thank yu very much.
Dude take a chill pill. I am past this xbox ps2 thing im done. I am the fanboy and yet you worship gates cause he gives 5 billion in charity so what, did he give you 1 million of that 5 no so stop thinking he's the s**t. I am a sony fan, so what so is millions of other people who play ps2.
Damn dude chill with this bullshit already the fact's are the fact's live already.
shediesinred 9 Apr 2005 04:43
22/36
Dude.. I'm not a fanboy, but where the hell do you get your info. Sony is NOT 6 billion dollars in debt.. the PS2 has always been and still is the top selling console in every single region that its sold in. They make quite a bit of money. And secondly, I like the PS2's online capabilitys MUCH better then X-box, and I'll tell you why. I bought my PS2, and a few games, after 5 minutes, I was online.. for FREE. I dont have to pay them $50 a year to get online and play games, they let the developers run their own servers so that the cost is incorperated into the product itself. Live is a much more organized system, I'll give you that, without a doubt, but what good is an organized online network when the only games you can play are s**tty half ass attempts? What else do you play online except for Halo? Not much. You've got more options with sony, you've got online first person shooters, racing games, MMORPGS (everquest), and much more, and to my knowledge all of these games are free to play online, (except everquest). Not only that, but if your unlucky enough to live in an area that doesnt offer cable modem, then your f**ked if you have an x-box, but PS2 users have the ability to use high speed broadband or dial up. I agree the Sony fanboy-ism is a bit much, but I disagree with some of what you've said. If x-box didnt have Halo then it would have absolutly no good software whatsoever with the execption of Fable and Knights of the old rebublic.. but thats it.. 3 amazing games out of a library of hundreds, I just dont think x-box is a great console.. but I do think x-box 360 will correct these mistakes and i intend to get one
neocarrillo 9 Apr 2005 07:46
23/36
shediesinred wrote:
Dude.. I'm not a fanboy, but where the hell do you get your info. Sony is NOT 6 billion dollars in debt.. the PS2 has always been and still is the top selling console in every single region that its sold in. They make quite a bit of money. And secondly, I like the PS2's online capabilitys MUCH better then X-box, and I'll tell you why. I bought my PS2, and a few games, after 5 minutes, I was online.. for FREE. I dont have to pay them $50 a year to get online and play games, they let the developers run their own servers so that the cost is incorperated into the product itself. Live is a much more organized system, I'll give you that, without a doubt, but what good is an organized online network when the only games you can play are s**tty half ass attempts? What else do you play online except for Halo? Not much. You've got more options with sony, you've got online first person shooters, racing games, MMORPGS (everquest), and much more, and to my knowledge all of these games are free to play online, (except everquest). Not only that, but if your unlucky enough to live in an area that doesnt offer cable modem, then your f**ked if you have an x-box, but PS2 users have the ability to use high speed broadband or dial up. I agree the Sony fanboy-ism is a bit much, but I disagree with some of what you've said. If x-box didnt have Halo then it would have absolutly no good software whatsoever with the execption of Fable and Knights of the old rebublic.. but thats it.. 3 amazing games out of a library of hundreds, I just dont think x-box is a great console.. but I do think x-box 360 will correct these mistakes and i intend to get one
I speak now as a gamer not a fanboy. Man shediesinred you got pissed off at warbaby. Now you know the s**t I go through with the xbox fans. I said the same thing in a previous forum about how even though xbox live is more organized than ps2's it's still 50 bucks for something ps2 owners get for free.
I like how you pointed out the fact that xbox don't have a phone line which sucks for the people who either don't have highspeed internet available or can't afford it.
Sony's online system may not be as good as xbox live's but at least EVERYONE can go in for free. It's insane what they have planned for the future, they want to charge 50 for live, 400 or more for xbox 360 and 60 to 70 bucks for the games.
I'd bet my ass sony will sell ps3 for $299.99 and still have free online gaming. Also since it's backwards compatible people can still play all their favorite online ps2 games for free out of the box.
The bottom line is xbox 360 will have no excuse for losing this generation coming up, they will come out first and have more titles than ps3 and revolution. The xbox 360 could be the biggest colapse since the dreamcast or the biggest surprise since the original playstation.
P.S. Another good xbox game to add to halo, kotor and fable is jade empire (9.9 score on ign.com), see I can look outside of the box.
Ditto 9 Apr 2005 15:23
24/36
neocarrillo wrote:
You mean resident evil online? Yeah it's not even a really good game anyway.
If you're saying that the Resident Evil games aren't really that good, I would have to say that you're wrong on that one.
BaRTiMuS 9 Apr 2005 15:25
25/36
PS3 for 299? hahahaha thats a good one.. Sony is skilled at putting useless technology into their systems. And the consumers end up paying for it.
-Why did sony put a dvd drive into their system when 90% of their games fit onto a cd?
-Why did sony get ppl to buy a 40gb hd for ONE game?
-Why is the PS3 using Blu-Ray when their games will fit onto a DL DVD?
-With the useless crap they are putting into the PS3 trust me you wll be paying at least 400.
And about Xbox Live the only thing I have to say is. Why do people pay for cable when they can buy a big antenna at radio shack? Reliability, Choice, and Functionality. I dont care how many people can't get broadband if there were a bunch of kids on Live with dial-up and 209823028 pings Live would not be worth paying for. Because everyone on Live has broadband you dont suffer from lag nearly as much as on PS2.. everyone can use Headsets (not like gettin a headset just for that ps2 game i forget the name now) For ALL the games. Plus there are many free and legal alternatives to online gaming with Xbox too you just have to do some research. (www.teamxlink.co.uk)
-Why did sony put a dvd drive into their system when 90% of their games fit onto a cd?
-Why did sony get ppl to buy a 40gb hd for ONE game?
-Why is the PS3 using Blu-Ray when their games will fit onto a DL DVD?
-With the useless crap they are putting into the PS3 trust me you wll be paying at least 400.
And about Xbox Live the only thing I have to say is. Why do people pay for cable when they can buy a big antenna at radio shack? Reliability, Choice, and Functionality. I dont care how many people can't get broadband if there were a bunch of kids on Live with dial-up and 209823028 pings Live would not be worth paying for. Because everyone on Live has broadband you dont suffer from lag nearly as much as on PS2.. everyone can use Headsets (not like gettin a headset just for that ps2 game i forget the name now) For ALL the games. Plus there are many free and legal alternatives to online gaming with Xbox too you just have to do some research. (www.teamxlink.co.uk)
Ditto 9 Apr 2005 15:32
26/36
BaRTiMuS wrote:
-Why did sony put a dvd drive into their system when 90% of their games fit onto a cd?
Possibly because they predicted that game storage requirements would keep rising as they have been for the past 15 years.
-Why did sony get ppl to buy a 40gb hd for ONE game?
Sorry, I don't know anything about a PS2 HDD.
-Why is the PS3 using Blu-Ray when their games will fit onto a DL DVD?
Probably because they would be being hypercritical if they didn't include it. Blueray provides massive storage capacity. Game storage requirements will rise. Sony want to get their own technology supported and make money from it.
Besides, how do you know they won't use all the space on a Bluray disc?
-With the useless crap they are putting into the PS3 trust me you wll be paying at least 400.
The technology may be expensive now but none of it is mass-market and mass-produced yet. Sony will gain economies of scale and that will bring the price down. Sony will also subsidise the units to bring them into an affordable range.
In other words, they know what they're doing.
RE: The broadband.
Some people still can't get broadband and some people can't afford it. I should know.
Pilot13 9 Apr 2005 19:15
27/36
I could only get Broadband recently, and thus only got live recently. I'm happy that every other live user is on broadband as well because it would lag so much more otherwise. Sony's going to get some good online support next gen I think, seeing as it's got a proven MMO system, whereas Live is more 5 minute optimatches. Although I expect Sony will charge because they're going to sort the system out properly this time, at the moment it's a bit of a mess.
neocarrillo 9 Apr 2005 20:21
28/36
Pilot13 wrote:
I could only get Broadband recently, and thus only got live recently. I'm happy that every other live user is on broadband as well because it would lag so much more otherwise. Sony's going to get some good online support next gen I think, seeing as it's got a proven MMO system, whereas Live is more 5 minute optimatches. Although I expect Sony will charge because they're going to sort the system out properly this time, at the moment it's a bit of a mess.
Maybe sony will charge for the service but im gonna go with my gut instincts and say they wont.
Pilot13 9 Apr 2005 22:03
29/36
Well I'm going with my gut instincts and say they will. In fact I'm totally surprised the DS service is going to be free.
neocarrillo 9 Apr 2005 22:09
30/36
Pilot13 wrote:
Well I'm going with my gut instincts and say they will. In fact I'm totally surprised the DS service is going to be free.
Well im going with my gut instincts again and say we will know by E3 if it's free or not. I still say it's free cause the psp service is free.
kid_77 10 Apr 2005 11:22
31/36
Adam M wrote:
The technology may be expensive now but none of it is mass-market and mass-produced yet. Sony will gain economies of scale and that will bring the price down. Sony will also subsidise the units to bring them into an affordable range.
Yeah, I think the release RRP for the next gen machines will be in the region of the original Saturn/ PS price range (£300-400). And even then they'll probably be making a loss. But as soon as things get going, and a leader emerges, they'll need to drop to the £150-200 range as mass-market consumers have become accustomed to that price.
config 11 Apr 2005 11:48
32/36
BaRTiMuS wrote:
-Why did sony put a dvd drive into their system when 90% of their games fit onto a cd?
Duh! Because DVD video was still on the uptake, and many people didn't have a DVD player along side their VCR.
Sony speculated that people would buy a PS2 not only on the strength of its games, but also its DVD player capabilities.
You know what?
It was right. PS2 sold buckets loads because of DVD video support. When my DVD player died, I didn't bother with a new one - I just used the PS2, and still do to this day.
-Why did sony get ppl to buy a 40gb hd fo ONE game?
You got me there - but it was an add-on, so only those who wanted to gamble on it being supported chose to buy it.
-Why is the PS3 using Blu-Ray when their games will fit onto a DL DVD?
Same reason Sony chose to put a DVD player in the PS2.
Next you'll be asking why they included S/PDIF optical out when only a few games support DTS audio, or S-video instead of composite - because that's fine for everyone, isn't it?
-With the useless crap they are putting into the PS3 trust me you wll be paying at least 400.
What useless crap would that be, then? I've countered your blinkered BluRay argument. What other crap will Sony put in it?
kid_77 11 Apr 2005 12:14
33/36
config wrote:
BaRTiMuS wrote:
-Why did sony put a dvd drive into their system when 90% of their games fit onto a cd?
Duh! Because DVD video was still on the uptake, and many people didn't have a DVD player along side their VCR.
And by puting Blu-ray in PS3 they'll be driving that particular technology forward also.
Back to PS2 games fitting on a CD. I think it's more likely 90% wouldn't fit on a CD.
My XB is modded, and i play my games off the HD, from which I can see the size of games. Now I know XB isn't PS2, but surely the games are going to be roughly the same in size (at least the multi-platform ones will)? From my experience the average XB game is 1.5 to 2 Gb, which of course won't fit on a CD. Some games come with FMV, so you could strip that out and it might fit. But more and more games can rely on an engine running on the console (a la Gran Turismo replays, and Stranger's Wrath etc.), and still manage to weigh in at 2 Gb.
And aside from all this, you have the technical improvements DVD has over CD, and likewise Blu-ray over DVD: and that is data transfer rate.
neocarrillo 12 Apr 2005 19:49
34/36
Man BaRTiMuS you really hate sony. Well I loth xbox.
MichiyoYoshiku 13 Apr 2005 13:31
35/36
Look! IT'S MORE SPONG BULLshit
Mendez 13 Apr 2005 13:46
36/36
MichiyoYoshiku wrote:
Look! IT'S MORE SPONG BULLshit
Are you so profoundly stupid and illiterate that you're unable to comprehend the opening stement "More rumours are doing the rounds today...", and the closing comment "We’d like to stress that all of the above is nothing but rumour at the moment"?
Can somebody ban this f**king troll?
It's spoiling the ambiénce.