Crack new studio to help Xbox 360 graphics?

[Rangers]

Well, lord knows the 360 needs some first party pushing, but

This seems a little thin. Not sure where the website is coming up with this stuff, wishful thinking or inside info?

Roughly a year ago Microsoft crafted “343 Industries,” a dedicated studio which handled the burgeoning Halo franchise. Now we have stumbled upon another division that resides within Microsoft Game Studios that has been crafted to handle the visual department on the Xbox 360.

We believe this division has been set aside to look after the visual development of all Xbox 360 titles to ensure that each game pushes the boundaries of the console.

 

[obonicus]

It's so vague that it's not really anything. Is it more like ICE Team, MS ninjas? The implication being that up until now, more than 4 years into the console's lifespan MS didn't have their own ninja team? Seems a bit far-fetched.

 

[czekon]

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Isn't Corinne Yu working for Microsoft assisting other dev teams with regards to graphics rendering? I don't think the department is so much secret as just not hyped in any way, shape or form.

Regards,
SB

 

[obonicus]

Corinne's in 343, last I heard.

 

[Neb]

It's so vague that it's not really anything. Is it more like ICE Team, MS ninjas? The implication being that up until now, more than 4 years into the console's lifespan MS didn't have their own ninja team? Seems a bit far-fetched.

It never says the "ninja-team" was created recently, just that that site discovered it recently so yes. Logically it probably has existed sicne years back. Chalk copy of the PS untapped potentials hype.

Now we have stumbled upon another division that resides within Microsoft Game Studios that has been crafted to handle the visual department on the Xbox 360.

 

[obonicus]

So it's not even news.

 

[makattack]

Isn't Corinne Yu working for Microsoft assisting other dev teams with regards to graphics rendering? I don't think the department is so much secret as just not hyped in any way, shape or form.

Regards,
SB

Yah, not so secret, and I'm only adding to this thread because you mentioned my future wife: http://twitter.com/Corrinne

 

[NRP]

Heh, Corrine says "Fermi is powerful!"

 

[MfA]

More evidence that NVIDIA is going into the next XBOX

 

[Squilliam]

More evidence that NVIDIA is going into the next XBOX

Evidence? More of it? Whats the earlier evidence because this is the first time I've heard of it?

 

[MfA]

Evidence? More of it? Whats the earlier evidence because this is the first time I've heard of it?

My conspiracy theory about Microsoft keeping DX11 HLSL instructions hidden until Fermi shipped (Instructions were hidden, whether it was oversight or not ... who knows, still damn curious.)

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Might be a bit early to say Fermi (or another Nvidia designed chip) would be the next, but it's certainly impressive if Nvidia can execute well on its launch.

One factor that will be important for the next Xbox chip is going to be size and power consumption with respect to features and performance, neither of which Nvidia are executing particularly well on at the moment. It's either larger and power hungry with good perf. Or small-ish and not so power hungry but dismal performance.

AMD also making some noise about new arch. Will have to see what they come out with in response. But if Nvidia executes well on production of Fermi, then I think they may have a lead in certain areas for a while.

And with a speculated ~5 years left on the life of the X360, there's still time to see.

Regards,
SB

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Backward compatibility could be an important issue with the Nextbox, particularly because of Natal. Having an established library of titles that support it could help with the sales of the new platform.
Now I don't know what the chances are for Nvidia to pull it off, but it's certainly more complicated then it is to be with an ATI/AMD GPU.

 

[Squilliam]

My conspiracy theory about Microsoft keeping DX11 HLSL instructions hidden until Fermi shipped (Instructions were hidden, whether it was oversight or not ... who knows, still damn curious.)

I figured it was based around the fact that AMD had finalised their architecture sometime in early 2009, sampled in mid 2009 whereas Nivida finalised their hardware perhaps as late as October or November last year.

 

[Squilliam]

AMD also making some noise about new arch. Will have to see what they come out with in response. But if Nvidia executes well on production of Fermi, then I think they may have a lead in certain areas for a while.

Regards,
SB

I keep forgetting about the AMD next generation architecture. They are so up in the air in relation to how they are going to execute and even whom will fab their products that its hard to figure if even the usual rumour mill with give us wind of the architecture as far in advance as we're used to.

 

[scooby_dooby]

I'd be surprised if MS didn't go with ATI(amd) again, considering that ATI's engineering effort on Xenos is basically the shining jewel of the entire system, and allowed them to compete with what should've been a much more powerful system, coming 12 months later.

But who knows... you never know what the heck MS is gonna decide to do...they generally do what flies in the face of my own conventional logic, so maybe I should start expecting that

 

[liolio]

I would also be surprised if Ms went with Nvidia simply because ATI clearly (no matter what fan-boys think) has the upper hand in price, perfs per watt, perfs per mm². Fermi won't change the deal.
And it's likely that ATI will take the perfs crown to Nvidia before the later has finished to deploy all of the fermi derivative (for high to low end).