Rumor: Xbox 360 CES Announcements Leaked

[JardeL]

Sunday, January 07, 2007
Microsoft Crosses 10 million Xbox 360s Sold, Announces Xbox 360 Can Be IPTV Set-Top
Dean Takahashi, 06:30 PM in Dean Takahashi, Gaming

Bill Gates and Robbie Bach are expected to announce at the Consumer Electronics Show that Microsoft has sold more than 10.4 million Xbox 360s since the launch in November, 2005. That means Microsoft has also hit its targets for sales of consoles during the holidays.
Microsoft is also dropping something of a bomb at the show. Jim Brady, a spokesman for Microsoft, said Gates and Bach will say in the keynote speech Sunday night at the Venetian Hotel that the Xbox 360 will be able to serve as a set-top box for IPTV, or Internet protocol television. The details on this announcement are sketchy and Brady says only that it will appear later this year.
stBut that raises the specter of how much of a black box will the video game console become. If you can get your television, movies, music and other entertainment downloaded from the telephone companies such as AT&T -- a major IPTV provider that is using Microsoft's IPTV software -- and have it accessible through your Xbox 360, what else do you need? Maybe you don't need a PC.
For sure, there are a ton of unanswered questions here. But the prospects are interesting. Could AT&T give away Xbox 360s for free in exchange for users signing up for subscriptions to IPTV service, which gives high-definition programs, video on demand, and digital video recording? Will Microsoft have to come out with a larger hard disk drive for the Xbox 360 in order to allow it to fulfill the digital video recording function? Brady declined to comment. He did say that no consumers would be left behind, meaning that all of the 10 million plus Xbox 360s in the market would be able to participate in the IPTV services at some level.
Brady says gamers have shown that they like Xbox Live Marketplace and are downloading videos and music more than Microsoft anticipated already, even with the small 20-gigabyte hard disk on the Xbox 360.
In other details, Microsoft declined to say how many Zune music/video players it sold during the holidays. It will only say that it is targeting 1 million sold by June 30. There over 5 million Xbox Live members, though the paid portion is not borken out. Marketplace downloads, messages and other features are exceeding expectations.
Lastly, Nintendo hasn't yet disclosed how many Wiis it sold during the holidays. But Beth Lewellyn, a spokeswoman for Nintendo of America, said that sales in North America exceeded Nintendo's expectations. Nintendo predicted it would sell four million consoles worldwide by Dec. 31, but she could not confirm that number.

From Kotaku ...

 

[Platon]

We can now discuss if these "sold" are actually sold, shipped to retailers, shiped from the factory or how many variations of "sold" there now are.

I hope they bring that IPTV thing to Europe soon, that would be quite cool...

 

[Rangers]

We can now discuss if these "sold" are actually sold, shipped to retailers, shiped from the factory or how many variations of "sold" there now are.

I hope they bring that IPTV thing to Europe soon, that would be quite cool...

It's shipped. Shipped. Shipped. We've been through this. We'll go through it again. This very thread, in fact!

Note they actually say 10.4, though. Pretty sure someone called that they'd hit this target (couch, cough).

IPTV, is the future..

 

[patsu]

Cool ! If my memory still serve me, some of the US telcos released an IPTV RFP more than a year ago. They were planning to revamp their infrastructure for the next 50 years. Stuff proposed include pluggable MP3 player (into the Settop box) and assorted media download. Participants include vendors from all over the world. We should be seeing more such services within these 2-3 years.

 

[Fu3lFr3nzy]

Will Microsoft have to come out with a larger hard disk drive for the Xbox 360 in order to allow it to fulfill the digital video recording function?

This part caught my eye(especially after the rumors of 120GB HDD's from yesterday)

Then a couple mins back, I was reading this from GameSpot

While there's no word out of the Microsoft camp on an HDMI Xbox 360 or a larger hard drive, we still think they're both coming, but we're not sure now's the right time for it. Check back with GameSpot this Sunday night for news from the Microsoft CES keynote address; if an announcement is coming soon, that's probably where it would be made.

Cant wait for the address this Sunday :smile: . Im not expecting much from it, but im definately gonna keep an eye on it

 

[hey69]

It's shipped. Shipped. Shipped. We've been through this. We'll go through it again. This very thread, in fact!

Note they actually say 10.4, though. Pretty sure someone called that they'd hit this target (couch, cough).

IPTV, is the future..

why , cause you say so?

 

[Rangers]

why , cause you say so?

Because anybody who remotely knows the sales numbers knows 10 m is virtually impossible?

But 8-9m OTOH, is very credible. Which means 10m is shipped..

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What are the advantages of IPTV over other offerings? Is it basically cable without the subscription fees? Is the range, quality, and everything else there? Or does it offer Video On Demand, where you rent the programs you want to watch and nothing else?

 

[Rangers]

What are the advantages of IPTV over other offerings? Is it basically cable without the subscription fees? Is the range, quality, and everything else there? Or does it offer Video On Demand, where you rent the programs you want to watch and nothing else?

Think of it this way, things are converging where, you'll watch what you want when you want. You wont wait for a set time for your show, you'll just go watch it. Or have any sports game or highlights at your fingertips, or what movie you want to watch. Think of sites like youtube playing into this also.

The only real way to do this interactivity is basically over the internet. Hence internet protocol TV..Apple also has itv, which would basically stream video from itunes store.

Companies like ATT and Verizon are already offering packages a bit like this. You pretty much need fiber bandwidth to do it, but it's coming...available in a few million homes now..more later.

I think it'll take years to get there, but it's inevitable...

 

[PiNkY]

Because anybody who remotely knows the sales numbers knows 10 m is virtually impossible?

But 8-9m OTOH, is very credible. Which means 10m is shipped..

Not that I care too much, but didn't Bach (or whomever) already announce 10M shipped at the end of november?

 

[Shompola]

What are the advantages of IPTV over other offerings? Is it basically cable without the subscription fees? Is the range, quality, and everything else there? Or does it offer Video On Demand, where you rent the programs you want to watch and nothing else?

I have IPTV right now. And I have plugged the box into the ADSL modem built in switch. It also works with cable modems... I also have video on demand, but it is very limited, other than that there are a set of channels I can choose from and watch like any other ordinary tv service provider. Right now my IPTV is basically like digital satellite tv with all kinds of benefits and short comings that has. They do plan to update it with web browsing ability and other things that will incorporate it further with internet.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Because anybody who remotely knows the sales numbers knows 10 m is virtually impossible?

And how do you know the sales numbers, huh?

By the way, Microsoft has already stated that their sales number means these consoles have left their final distribution center.

 

[rabidrabbit]

i.e shipped to stores?

 

[phenix]

10.4 M - (# Xboxes sitting in the stores right now) = Xbox 360 end-users

Should be in the ballpark of 9 million I guess

 

[Dizzy]

Thanks to everyone for turning this thread into another stupid ship or sold discussion. God knows we don't have enough of those.

 

[Qroach]

i.e shipped to stores?

yes shipped to stores/retail. in other words counted as sold. Jeez why the heck does this stupid discussion keep coming up when we clearly know what they mean?


get back on topic please.

 

[ninzel]

So why won't MS allow the use of external USB HDD's? Hacking?

 

[Qroach]

So why won't MS allow the use of external USB HDD's? Hacking?

probably yes. They have also been using SATA notebook drives. I haven't seen a lot of those in stores. If MS do use bigger notebook drives I do hope these drives include 1 gig of cache flash memory for instant on and noiseless memory access for recently recorded shows. The only thing in the 360 that makes a lot of noise is the DVD drive.

Compared to my motorola PVR, the 360 doesn't get hot at all.

 

[ninzel]

probably yes. They have also been using SATA notebook drives. I haven't seen a lot of those in stores. If MS do use bigger notebook drives I do hope these drives include 1 gig of cache flash memory for instant on and noiseless memory access for recently recorded shows. The only thing in the 360 that makes a lot of noise is the DVD drive.

Compared to my motorola PVR, the 360 doesn't get hot at all.

I'm sure with MS's Windows experience it would be nothing for them to send out HDD drivers through an update.

 

[Qroach]

I'm sure with MS's Windows experience it would be nothing for them to send out HDD drivers through an update.

I'm not sure what you mean, i don't see this as being a driver issue.