Forbes: X360 to launch with 2 versions?

[scooby_dooby]

Ya it's completely counter productive and serves no purpose except to anger customers.

Nothing's worse than being punished for being an early adopter, MS know this, their most loyal fanbase are the ones that buy the system right away, they won't screw them over by offering an "improved" console only months later.

I think with the amount of peripherals this thing has we can expect an "package" that includes a game, an extra controller, the remote, the camera and other peripherals and maybe upgraded harddrive, that's normal, and with the number of peripherals the 360 has it only makes sense.

What I don't think you'll see is a version without superior hardware specs, that's just counter productive and punishes teh early adopters.

They'll all have a HDD, and they'll all have the same disc drive. If it's HD-DVD it will be so from the start, if not they'll offer an upgrade drive for movie playback a couple years down the road, if that's the case they'll sell it as a drive and a tech at the store will quickly pop in the new HD-DVD compatable drive into the 360 when you purchase it.

My 2 cents.

 

[Dave Glue]

Many people already have a >20 gig drive collecting dust. It would be smart if Microsoft would sell some versions without a HD.

No, it would be absolutely idiotic.

 

[Carl B]

Well when I was talking about a second version launching later, I was talking about a version without a hard drive - not an improved hard drive or optical drive. I'm a subscriber to the theory that this launch console *will* be the 'upgraded' console, and all further upgrades will be via add-ons. Then later they'll launch a 360-Lite, for easing the burden on hard drive inclusion costs and allowing for a lower price point - while still offering the full launch version as well..

Anyway that's just my theory and what I would do if I were them. I've heard this elsewhere before also among the various industrey rumors and it's what I subscribe to. The theory presented by the analysts here I do not subscribe to. Whatever the case, I am of the mind that there will be only one system available at launch.

I feel the 'bundle' model will work better for the PS3 as there is an obvious item missing from the base package and they set a precedent for themselves with the PSP. Still, if Microsoft (or likely retailers) decided to offer one with an extra controller, the camera, and a game... well I could understand that also.

 

[3roxor]

No, it would be absolutely idiotic.

cool..thanks for your input

 

[jvd]

xbox 360 comes standard with a hardrive. All versions will have it .

The more expensive unit will most likely just have a bigger hardrive like 60 gigs and come iwth some other stupid stuff like a second controller and camera. This way ms can offset losses a bit better

 

[Gubbi]

xbox 360 comes standard with a hardrive. All versions will have it .

The more expensive unit will most likely just have a bigger hardrive like 60 gigs and come iwth some other stupid stuff like a second controller and camera. This way ms can offset losses a bit better

Given the price differential between a 60GB and a, say, 200GB, it would be idiotic to put anything smaller than a 200GB (or 160) in there. If they (MS) are serious about downloadable content, 20GB isn't alot, nor is 60GB (once you start to fill it up with game demos, trailers, what have you).

Cheers
Gubbi

 

[Carl B]

Given the price differential between a 60GB and a, say, 200GB, it would be idiotic to put anything smaller than a 200GB (or 160) in there. If they (MS) are serious about downloadable content, 20GB isn't alot, nor is 60GB (once you start to fill it up with game demos, trailers, what have you).

Cheers
Gubbi

Remember we're talking about 2.5" drives, not 3.5"; the price differences between the storage sizes are much more exagerated.

 

[seismologist]

Given the option I'd go for the non HDD version since I wont be using Xbox Live.

(was kind of expecting the basic package to sell for around $200 though not $300)

 

[scooby_dooby]

Given the price differential between a 60GB and a, say, 200GB, it would be idiotic to put anything smaller than a 200GB (or 160) in there. If they (MS) are serious about downloadable content, 20GB isn't alot, nor is 60GB (once you start to fill it up with game demos, trailers, what have you).

Cheers
Gubbi

20gb is plenty of space, anything downloaded from the internet will have to be relatively small, you won't be downloading gigabyte's of data, the bandwidth and time required just makes it impractical.

How are most people going to fill up 20 GB? Videos will be compressed for internet transfer, the 720p HD trailers on teamxbox are ~100-200mb/each, so we're talking 100-200 trailers to fill up 20 gb. And i really don't see people downloading entire game demo's at 2+ GB each, it just won't happen.

The only need for a bigger HD I can see is to load it up with your own personal A/V, that's really the only way you're gonna use the whole 20gb.

 

[seismologist]

The way Xbox is set up you dont even need to use it for storing personal A/V. You're supposed to stream that from a media center PC.

The Xbox HD is only needed for online gaming/

 

[Tap In]

Given the option I'd go for the non HDD version since I wont be using Xbox Live.

(was kind of expecting the basic package to sell for around $200 though not $300)

There will be no version without a HDD.
the base unit (speculated at $299) includes a 20 gig HDD.

The way Xbox is set up you dont even need to use it for storing personal A/V. You're supposed to stream that from a media center PC.

The Xbox HD is only needed for online gaming/

Not necessarily true.

You want your music on the hard drive to use in games in place of the content provided by devs. Most (if not all) X360 games will allow you to play your own music (from the HDD) in place of the normal in game music. You can even edit songs (snip them on the xbox) and insert them in custom game situations.

I know this because you can do it now with many current Xbox games and AFAIK MS has included support for custom soundtracks as part of their list of required features (as well as LIVE enabled and 720p with AA) for ALL X360 games.

 

[jvd]

all our info at the stores (including materials from ms ) say the standard unit comes with the 20 gig standard and it lists the price

 

[Bjorn]

The more expensive unit will most likely just have a bigger hardrive like 60 gigs and come iwth some other stupid stuff like a second controller and camera. This way ms can offset losses a bit better

How about smart stuff instead, like a HDDVD drive and DVI/HDMI out ?

 

[SanGreal]

From Engadget's interview with Steve Ballmer

So just one configuration is targeted for the Holiday release?

Yeah, given that we know we’re going to have to hustle to produce all that people are going to want, that kind of keeps life a lot simpler for the retailers. If you said, “Look we’re coming to market with three configurations, and we were in short supply, and we got the wrong mix of configurations,â€￾ it would just compound all the problems. We’re really quite excited about the proposition for having just the one configuration in market particularly for this holiday.

I think that about settles that.

You want your music on the hard drive to use in games in place of the content provided by devs. Most (if not all) X360 games will allow you to play your own music (from the HDD) in place of the normal in game music.

You dont need the hard drive to do this actually. You can stream custom soundtracks from external devices via usb or ethernet.

 

[Platon]

Oh, yes 1.6M worldwide isn't much in 3/4 months. That leaves X360 with a very small userbase and only another 4-5 months to sell a lot more before PS3 comes out. Though i'm quite sure Sony will have just as many problems getting enough PS3s ready for launch.

Yep, but the from what we now know the PS3 will be comming only to Japan in spring, who knows when it comes to the US, not to mention Europe which would give MS quite some time to built up their marketshare in those regions before the PS3 arrives. I mean for MS Japan is more or less totaly out of reach, so the markets they have chance at they will be out for quite a while...

 

[Tap In]

How about smart stuff instead, like a HDDVD drive and DVI/HDMI out ?

2006 or 2007.


I hope

 

[Tap In]

snip

You dont need the hard drive to do this actually. You can stream custom soundtracks from external devices via usb or ethernet.

I realize you can stream music.

I don't know if you can stream in game music.

some games (like sports games) you have to customize the game (and certain songs) to assign the snipped song to play at certain times (after a Touchdown for example).

Pretty sure that stuff stays in the HDD for the game to pull only when it needs it.

 

[SanGreal]

I realize you can stream music.

I don't know if you can stream in game music.

I know what you meant

You can stream in game music, they talk about it here...

Paul: So you've customized this game to play your own music.

Jeff: Exactly. And that can be music that I've ripped onto my Xbox, or it can be music that I'm streaming from a PC or a Media Center [elsewhere on your home network]. Any music source can be piped in to your custom music that plays instead of the game's built-in music.

http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/xbox360_inside.asp

I love games that support custom soundtracks on xbox, but having to store everything on the box was a pain. This is one of my most anticipated features.

 

[Tap In]

I know what you meant

You can stream in game music, they talk about it here...


http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/xbox360_inside.asp

I love games that support custom soundtracks on xbox, but having to store everything on the box was a pain. This is one of my most anticipated features.

ahh very cool thanks.

but what about those situations that I described where you edit parts of songs to play that are only triggered by in game situations? will the game save the edited version to the streamed source and draw them from there as well on demand? I would think in those situations it would retain the edited version on the HDD in a custom game list that that particular game would identify with.

I agree that Xbox1 was a pain to transfer music via CD but with the PC connection it should be a piece of cake to rip to the the X360 and then allow the games to do as they please right off the HDD as needed.

but streaming is always good too.

 

[scooby_dooby]

There's lots of reasons to want to copy files over rather than streaming, I prefer streaming since it's much quicker and easier, but there are a few reasons it would be nice to fill up the HD.

#1. Portability. you can take your xbox to a friends house and have all your music, or watch some movies, etc etc, the 360 wouldn't be bound to the PC.

#2. Travel. What's better than unpacking in your hotel room, firing up the xbox and watching your favourite TV shows/movies which you have backed up onto the HD. It's also a portable jukebox, so you can plug it into any TV and have all your favouritte music ready to go.

#3. PC does not have to be on. Some people like to ruen their PC's off, on a regular basis (gasp!) so for these people, being able tpo turn pff the PC but still have your a/v content would be a cool thing.