XB2 Simultaneous US and European launch this Xmas?

[Pozer]

But on the other hand the PS3 is going to be at least 3 times as powerful as the Xbox2

Your basing this statement on what, marketing hype? leaked docs? or fanboyism? Lets wait and see what the Xenon has under the hood. There's still very little credible info on the Xenon GPU.

I think its ,most likely the Ps3 will be more powerful system but I can think of instance where it wont be (if Ps3 ships with 256mg rambus and Xenon ships with 512mg Gddr)

But atleast 3 times as powerful. Thats something that will only exist inside the pages of PSExtreme.

 

[jvd]

What is the configuration of the most current Xbox2 Dev kit and how telling is that WRT how close it is to being production ready?

I believe they are starting to get r500s for the kits . Thats about all i know , who knows though ,

 

[Teasy]

think its ,most likely the Ps3 will be more powerful system but I can think of instance where it wont be (if Ps3 ships with 256mg rambus and Xenon ships with 512mg Gddr)

If PS3 is coming out a whole year after XBox 2 then Sony won't let that happen. They will see 512MB of ram in XBox 2 and put at least 512MB in PS3.

 

[Nick Laslett]

But on the other hand the PS3 is going to be at least 3 times as powerful as the Xbox2

Your basing this statement on what, marketing hype? leaked docs? or fanboyism? Lets wait and see what the Xenon has under the hood. There's still very little credible info on the Xenon GPU.

I think its ,most likely the Ps3 will be more powerful system but I can think of instance where it wont be (if Ps3 ships with 256mg rambus and Xenon ships with 512mg Gddr)

But atleast 3 times as powerful. Thats something that will only exist inside the pages of PSExtreme.

In the same way the Xbox is 3 times as powerful as the PS2 according to the official documentation Microsoft provided at the time.

i.e. not 3 times as powerful in real world use, but 3 times as powerful in marketing speak.

You can imagine the factsheet now, from polygons, to gflops, to bandwidth, to memory, to HD media - point by point the PS3 will have a higher number - the revenge of Ken

Anyway, one Cell PE can perform 256 Gflops, if the rumours of dual-core Xenon processor at 60-80 Gflops are true, then my simple grasp of maths told be that 80x3 = 240

 

[a688]

But on the other hand the PS3 is going to be at least 3 times as powerful as the Xbox2

Your basing this statement on what, marketing hype? leaked docs? or fanboyism? Lets wait and see what the Xenon has under the hood. There's still very little credible info on the Xenon GPU.

I think its ,most likely the Ps3 will be more powerful system but I can think of instance where it wont be (if Ps3 ships with 256mg rambus and Xenon ships with 512mg Gddr)

But atleast 3 times as powerful. Thats something that will only exist inside the pages of PSExtreme.

In the same way the Xbox is 3 times as powerful as the PS2 according to the official documentation Microsoft provided at the time.

i.e. not 3 times as powerful in real world use, but 3 times as powerful in marketing speak.

You can imagine the factsheet now, from polygons, to gflops, to bandwidth, to memory, to HD media - point by point the PS3 will have a higher number - the revenge of Ken

Anyway, one Cell PE can perform 256 Gflops, if the rumours of dual-core Xenon processor at 60-80 Gflops are true, then my simple grasp of maths told be that 80x3 = 240

It's a good thing that peak numbers are all that matters!

 

[Sonic]

Listen Nick, we already know Sony will have the most powerful hardware next generation so there's no sense in going off about how much more powerful it will be. What needs to be focused upon now in this thread is when the Xbox 2 will be released

I think MS has the ability to do it in October and/or November provided they start production by June. If they have a capacity for 1 million units per month starting in June then that is a good two million units in the US and one million units in Europe. I really don't think MS will need to allocate that many units for Europe considering the current Xbox userbase there. I could be wrong and everyone now wants a next gen system and then MS will up poopoo creek without another million units. I think an October launch would be best if MS is able to pump out at least 1.5 million units per month and just stockpile all the consoles on until it is time for the launch.

If they have to cut production back if the thing doesn't sell then that is ashame. Nintendo did it once before and it really didn't seem to hurt them as they still had heavy profits during that year.

 

[jvd]

Listen Nick, we already know Sony will have the most powerful hardware next generation so there's no sense in going off about how much more powerful it will be. What needs to be focused upon now in this thread is when the Xbox 2 will be released

Do we ?

How do we know that while cell has the higher peak flops the xenon cpus don't have the higher sustained flops raiting ? i think we can both agree that in that case the xenon would have the faster cpu

What happens if the xenon gpu is more feature rich than the ps3 gpus ?

We only know so far about the ps3s cpu , lets wait for more announcements before we say we already know

Besides nintendo will have the most powerfull hardware under the hood

 

[Ty]

Besides nintendo will have the most powerfull hardware under the hood

They will? Coming out later does not necessarily mean it will be more powerful.

 

[jvd]

Besides nintendo will have the most powerfull hardware under the hood

They will? Coming out later does not necessarily mean it will be more powerful.

who said they were coming out later haha

 

[Sonic]

Talking to people who've long gone from SEGA and onto other dev teams/pubs I get a sense that the PS3 will be the most powerful. We know about the GPU in Xenon, only thing that is left is the CPU.

Do you honestly think that the CELL chip capable of 256 GFLOPS isn't capable of sustaining at least 100 of those?

All I'm saying is that the general consensus is that the most powerful hardware will be Sony's machine. This isn't taken from rumors but from what actual developers have been told from each company.

 

[Phil]

I think you guys should step away from the "which is more powerful kind of arguments"...

In the end, platform a will be different to platform b, meaning that each will have some thing it does best and others it does worse. In the end, it'll be subjective which is more powerful - an opinion each developer will have individually, depending on what they want to push and which hardware meets their demands best. There's no such thing as a superiour platform when the software they're performing is different.

I think it's time to move on...

 

[Ty]

who said they were coming out later haha

Heh, so now you're saying the Nintendo 21 will come out before the Xenon or PS3 AND be more powerful than both?

Phil,

I absolutely agree wrt: the word "powerful" especially when those engaged in such discussions have ZERO experience actually working on the platforms they love. Armchair developers, gotta love 'em.

 

[jvd]

I don't know anything ty . Well i do know some things .

Just based on whats out and known at the moment i wouldn't say which is the more powerfull system or when they are going to be released .

 

[Sonic]

You are right Phil. We should focus more on the other things. One of the thigns I think will be crucial in this coming generation is the tools and libaries that each console manufacturers put out to tap into that power.

But, does anyone else think having 2 - 3 million units each for launch in Europe and North America is good for an October release?

 

[jvd]

depends sonic on how many they can introduce in both markets each month after that .


If they can launch in both markets with 3 million systems each and then put out another million or so in both markets a month they should be fine numbers

 

[Spidermate]

Good Source namely MCV.

http://www.mcvuk.com/html/news/story.jsp?newsId=1930051



Microsoft is on course for a dramatic end-of-year hardware roll-out in the West - with its next generation Xbox successor thought to be on track for launch in both the US and Europe by Christmas.
MCV believes that the Redmond giant is keen to seize the time advantage it currently appears to have over Sony and the PlayStation 3.

Senior US sources have revealed that third-party publishers are working towards a simultaneous launch for the new format in both key Western territories in time for the crucial holiday season.

The move will surely be warmly welcomed by the trade, with most undoubtedly expecting the launch to follow the pattern established by the current model – i.e. the Euro roll-out several months after North America.

However, Xbox 2 - which is codenamed Xenon - is expected to arrive this side of the Atlantic within weeks of the US launch, MCV can exclusively reveal.

A glance at software schedules highlights exclusive titles for the current Xbox format drying up beyond Q1. And, with hardware still in short supply at retail, the signs suggest that both Microsoft and its third-party publishing partners are increasingly channelling resources into preparing for the next-gen unit.

Microsoft is almost certain to remain silent on the matter until its E3 conference in May.
And Xbox, despite hardware shortages, does have strong momentum; the company’s refusal to speak about Xbox 2 at next month’s Game Developer Conference suggests it wants to maximise sales of the current machine while the last raft of blockbuster titles hits retail.

Xbox 2 has been widely predicted for a Q4 2005 release in the US for some time, with Electronic Arts having already announced that ‘Xenon’ skus of its biggest franchises will ship alongside the next current-generation versions.

PlayStation 2 had a huge lead on Xbox, but Microsoft execs have repeatedly stated that the company will not be beaten to market next time around.

With PS3 looking unlikely to launch in Europe before the autumn of 2006 at the earliest, Microsoft is powerfully placed to seize the initiative right across the West and finally offer a serious challenge to Sony’s next system.

I seen this coming a long time ago. In one of Microsoft's reports, they mentioned the first Xbox being the key to get them in the door. Then it was mentioned that their second console would be the one they would use to wrestle the market from Sony a little bit at a time. Most of my attention was payed to how they were planning to launch the next console. It was said that they would launch thier console in three of the main territories almost simultaneously to 1up the competition. Those territories were the US, Europe, and Japan. With a launch like this, I'm afraid Nintendo is going to have a problem.

Anyway, what they are trying to do is take advantage of the competition's continuous shortages every new generation.

 

[jvd]

I don't think nintendo has to worry , they are almost at the point where nintendo fans will just pic up a system. Thier games will continue to sell extremely well and thats that .

They will never get over 30million systems again unless they are ready to buy up good games (i.e pay to have gta on nintendo only , or gt5 or whatever) and buy enough of them to make a diffrence

 

[pahcman]

Good move. One is not allow Sony the luxury to sculp their next gen ps, keep them on their toes, breathe on their necks. The other is the begin the fight for the important one console buyer market.

 

[Sonic]

One console buyer market? I'm not sure Japan will ever come around to the idea of MS making a console. chap, what are you referring to?

 

[jvd]

One console buyer market? I'm not sure Japan will ever come around to the idea of MS making a console. chap, what are you referring to?

This is what i think he is saying sonic

There are 3 types of system owners

type 1) They buy all 3 systems

type 2 ) they buy 2 of the systems , the most popular most likely and the one with thier fav exclusives

type 3 ) they buy 1 system the most popular , they are the ones who start buying 2 or 3 years after launch and make up most of the market now


Right now alot of xbox owners fall into 1 and 2 with very few type 3s . They need to get many of the type 3s to expand thier market