News & Rumors: Xbox One (codename Durango)

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I'd look at that and say the most obvious thing is that they are using few layers on the PCB, judging by the spacing of the memory to the chip. Increasing the layer count can significantly reduce the memory spacing.
That makes a lot of sense, logically would it mean the smaller number of layers was saving more money despite the board size?
 
Nobody said MS didn't have any good engineers. They were fine with the SoC, the software, and Kinect2. I think they did an amazing job on Kinect2 and I expressed as much in the Kinect2 thread.

But... XB1 have a huge motherboard, a big mess of glue logic, insane brute force array of caps under the SoC (is it because the VRM layout didn't go as planned? Just add caps until it works), simplistic airflow with a top exhaust which is exactly what a PC enthusiast would do, the external PS didn't even help the form factor. It's like each design decision was made by a different person, with different goals. The picture showing hundreds of enclosure "ideas" hints they had no coherence between design, engineering, and integration.

G5vZjKy.jpg

Back on topic, just looking at the motherboards (wiiu, ps4, xb1): It's obvious they need a significant amount of redesign if they want to make it smaller, they have no room to make it significantly smaller than the PS4 even if the PS4 keeps it's internal PS and it's ODD. So the ODD is the last of their problem. Width and Depth are limited by the motherboard. Height is limited by the PC-style heat management.

How much effort do you think they should put into a product with a limited production life? And where do you think they should concentrate on that effort. The original sku may be on retail shelves for 2-3 years but are meant to have a lifetime that spans beyond their generation.

My thought is MS studied the sales and usage data of the 360 and realized there is a significant impact on sales and user retention when consoles die early on consumers. No company wants to lose loyal consumers because their products don't last. And having loyal consumers spend hundreds of dollars to replace defective or broken consoles is a waste. Because those customers are spending hundreds of dollars on a low margin product instead of high margin and more lucrative products like games, services or accessories.

I think they also accounted for the workload of the Xbox one. Its voice control and HDMI in means that a portion of its hardware may be always active when the TV is in use. Plus there isn't any historical usage data on MS approach for the Xb1. So, designing its new gen console to be quieter as well more reliable and longer lasting while possibly enduring more use over that time probably spurred a more conservative approach where size is less of a priority.

In the hey day of Nintendo where the bulk of product sales were seen with the original form factor, producing a robust initial small design made sense. Today where Slim version are expected 2-3 years after launch and the potential of most of sales coming after that change in the form factor, there is no point in highly prioritizing size anymore.
 
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So, more 399 bundles.

I'm wondering if MS is setting it up where they can cut to 299 for the holiday, but still hope to sell lots of 349 (formerly 399 in this scenario) bundles (like this one) to soften the blow. Just an idea. That way the average selling price could be $325 or something, perhaps.

No idea their plan is but they did announce another $399 bundle today...

xboxone_1tbconsole_gowultimateedition_rarereplay_ori_us_can_groupshot_rgb.png


With the Xbox One 1TB Holiday Bundle, fans can look forward to:
  • Experiencing the original Gears of War rebuilt from the ground up in 1080p, including 60FPS competitive multiplayer with 19 maps and six game modes and five campaign chapters never released on console.
  • Accessing the entire Xbox 360 Gears or War collection to play on Xbox One through Backward Compatibility at no additional cost when you play Gears of War: Ultimate Edition on Xbox Live by Dec. 31, 2015.
  • Playing a jaw-dropping collection of 30 iconic games with Rare Replay, fromBattletoads and Banjo-Kazooie to Perfect Dark and more.
  • And immersing themselves in the critically acclaimed action-platformer, Ori and the Blind Forest.

http://news.xbox.com/2015/09/xbox-one-1tb-holiday-bundle

That's one huge bundle & 1TB hard drive to boot.

Tommy McClain
 
No idea their plan is but they did announce another $399 bundle today...

http://news.xbox.com/2015/09/xbox-one-1tb-holiday-bundle

That's one huge bundle & 1TB hard drive to boot.

Tommy McClain

But an odd one, isn't it? Didn't we all get Ori for free? I'm pretty sure I played some game where you've got a cute little light pixie that flies around with you? Wasn't it this game? It was a beautiful and fun game, I need to get back and finish it at some point. But calling it a free game is kinda eeeehhhhh to me.
Why don't they just make a bundle that includes all the previous GWG for free and advertise that it includes 24 free games or whatever?
 
But an odd one, isn't it? Didn't we all get Ori for free? I'm pretty sure I played some game where you've got a cute little light pixie that flies around with you? Wasn't it this game? It was a beautiful and fun game, I need to get back and finish it at some point.

You're thinking of the other solid game Child of Light. As far as I know, Ori was never on the Games with Gold list. I'd be very pleased if it was.
 
You're thinking of the other solid game Child of Light. As far as I know, Ori was never on the Games with Gold list. I'd be very pleased if it was.

Brit is right. Making a bundle of previous GWG titles would be interesting. I wonder if they would require a Gold subscription in order to keep playing them though?

Tommy McClain
 
Mini-rant: If you do a search of each of the respective console threads it's amazing at how many times the Xbox thread has been littered with references to Playstation & PS4. Whereas the PS4 thread has almost no references to Xbox. I'd like see some temp bans or at least warnings handed out. I never go into a PS4 thread much less post about the Xbox there. Just common courtesy. </RANT> Sorry I'm home with pneumonia & don't really feel that great. :(

Tommy McClain
 
Weird timing given the age of the game. I wonder why they didn't bundle with LEGO Dimensions.

Being the cheap bundle they probably want them to actually buy the newer game. Gotta make some money back somehow.

Tommy McClain
 
Mini-rant: If you do a search of each of the respective console threads it's amazing at how many times the Xbox thread has been littered with references to Playstation & PS4. Whereas the PS4 thread has almost no references to Xbox. I'd like see some temp bans or at least warnings handed out. I never go into a PS4 thread much less post about the Xbox there. Just common courtesy. </RANT> Sorry I'm home with pneumonia & don't really feel that great. :(
The PSU discussion was IMO a legitimate evolution of the discussion, though in the wrong thread (should have started in the MS future discussion) and the correct response was to move it. I don't see a particular fanboy origin to it. If you do see any particular OT derailment, please report it as it's easy to be lost on the mods in the general reading of the forums where it's not always apparent what thread you're looking at - I posted a PSU reply before checking the thread title and realising it was XB news and rumours!
 
I don't really know how valid this is, but this comparison chart was posted by a user on the Xbox subreddit to show the speed gains of the new UI. I think it qualifies as a rumor at this point, so I'm sharing.

And to clarify, I don't find the PS4 comparison of any value whatsoever, shared entirely for the Xbox VS new Xbox comparison.

http://i.imgur.com/xDHxCIk.png
 
I saw that too. Anybody here get the new dash & can attest to these speed improvements? I finally opted in but haven't made the cut yet.

Tommy McClain
 
A much needed improvement! Excited about the speed there, I wish he also showed achievements because that seems to be the hot button for people.
 
I don't really know how valid this is, but this comparison chart was posted by a user on the Xbox subreddit to show the speed gains of the new UI. I think it qualifies as a rumor at this point, so I'm sharing.

And to clarify, I don't find the PS4 comparison of any value whatsoever, shared entirely for the Xbox VS new Xbox comparison.

http://i.imgur.com/xDHxCIk.png
And cold boot comparison? Game install?
 
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