Xbox Next PC, a 'speculative' system that combines the delig

[hey69]

probably rumor ...
here it goes.:


XBOX 2 TO JOIN PC IN WEDDED BLISS?

Shock report points to Microsoft's Xbox Next PC, a 'speculative' system that combines the delights of PC and console gaming

17:34 Microsoft is currently researching the potential/consumer appeal of hardware that would combine Xbox and PC gaming capabilities, CNN Money is reporting.
The kit is reportedly being referred to as Xbox Next PC, with Californian market research company B/R/S Group gathering consumer feedback on the machine. The hardware is described as a console featuring a hard-drive and a "built-in fully functional PC."

According to the report, a PC monitor or HDTV would be the required VDU for the Xbox Next PC - backing up Xbox chief J Allard's comment to CVG that next-gen will be "all about high definition". It would be backwards compatible with current Xbox titles, play next-generation Xbox titles, play PC games, run a full version of Windows and come with a CD burner and DVD player.

Additionally, built-in Xbox Live access would feature, along with a remote control for the DVD player, a mouse and keyboard and a Xbox controller. For the purposes of the research, price point of the device was $599 (roughly £325).

Considering Microsoft's recent XNA showcase, part of which involved talk of plans to share technology between Xbox and PC, the Xbox Next PC isn't such a bolt of the blue as you might at first think.

But Xbox Next PC is far from set in stone, according to the Redmond giant itself. Instead it's one of many possible concepts that could see the light of day as Microsoft puts out feelers to gauge direction for the next generation scene.

"We would be remiss if we didn't look at consumer scenarios that take advantage of our strengths," corporate vice president of worldwide marketing and publishing for Microsoft's home and entertainment division Peter Moore told CNN Money.

"[But] this is one amongst many, many other consumer scenarios that we're looking at," Moore said.

He added: "If you put two and two together, there's no doubt there's a great opportunity to put the two platforms together. Obviously with a company like Microsoft this is something we have to look into and ask about. Is it actionable today? Probably not, but it's something we need to look at."

Interesting, but don't count your chickens just yet.



source : cvg (among other sites )

so they maybe plan to create their propre MEDIA PC (sort of Amiga style ) ? hmm

 

[GwymWeepa]

I think it would be an interesting higher end product, I know PC games progress at a far faster pace than consoles, but if XNA is adopted quickly, it would be nice if the Xbox2PC were the defacto low-end spec for all future PC games, once the monstrosity is released lol.

 

[Megadrive1988]

It's Microsoft's answer to the PSX. but better. I think an Xbox Next PC, as they call it, would be more sucessful than PSX for sure. Xbox PC Xbox 2 compatability. I guess they'd have both the Nvidia and ATI chips in there, as well as the Intel and IBM CPUs. unless the basic Xbox 2 has compatibility through emulation that is (unlikely).


Well, it'll be XBox Next PC vs PlayStation 3 Home Server.

If MS could get the price down to $500 or even $550, it would be one SWEET PC. the Xbox 2 is suppose to have a massive amount of conventional CPU power (not like Cell). no reason to not use that for non-gaming apps.

that's my take on it anyway. there's many angles to approach summing up an Xbox Next PC.

 

[aaaaa00]

Integrated xenon + XP Media Center + PC?



I agree that would be much more appealing than a PSXnext, assuming the price point is similar.

But I bet it's just a random rumor. Or at most some guys at MS batting around ideas.

 

[cthellis42]

Full article here.

 

[Guden Oden]

Nextbox can't be a PC, because it won't run x86 code at anything even approaching decent speed. The 9xx series PPC chips don't have little-endian compatibility in hardware, which will slow stuff down lots if emulation is attempted.

 

[MfA]

Next gen consoles will all be more than powerfull enough to run word, even with a bloated longhorn gui ... what would give microsoft the advantage would be their monopoly, if it doesnt run Office it aint a real PC, not the console's ability to run a given type of software.

 

[Megadrive1988]

Nextbox can't be a PC, because it won't run x86 code at anything even approaching decent speed. The 9xx series PPC chips don't have little-endian compatibility in hardware, which will slow stuff down lots if emulation is attempted.

Xbox 2 won't be a PC, but 'Xbox Next PC', the high-end Xbox 2, could be a PC, since it would have to have the Intel 733 Pentium/Celeron CPU in it to run Xbox1 games.

 

[PC-Engine]

 

[Guden Oden]

Xbox 2 won't be a PC, but 'Xbox Next PC', the high-end Xbox 2, could be a PC, since it would have to have the Intel 733 Pentium/Celeron CPU in it to run Xbox1 games.

Why would it have the CPU in it - which is both dead slow and emulateable - when the critical component is the Nvidia chipset, which will both be expensive as hell to include and NOT be very easily emulateable if not included?

 

[rabidrabbit]

:? What's that Philips DVD590MT home DVD player got to do with xbox next ???

 

[London Geezer]

^ ^ That's what i was wondering...

 

[hey69]

xbox2 licenced by Philips

 

[Teasy]

It would be backwards compatible with current Xbox titles, play next-generation Xbox titles, play PC games, run a full version of Windows and come with a CD burner and DVD player.

Can you imagine if the original XBox had this feature? It would have effectively killed XBox game sales. Since 95% of all XBox 'exclusives' are also on PC, and they're cheaper on PC and have free online play! I hope, for MS's sake, that this system is seperate from there next gen console and significantly more expensive.

 

[Deadmeat4]

...

You can shoot his rumor down since Xbox Next doesn't have two things required; an X86 CPU and a HD. MS didn't make Xbox PC compatible, and they have no reason to burn $$$ to make it compatible now...

 

[Phil]

Re: ...

You can shoot his rumor down since Xbox Next doesn't have two things required; an X86 CPU and a HD. MS didn't make Xbox PC compatible, and they have no reason to burn $$$ to make it compatible now...

isn't that why they [ MS ] want to push XNA as 'the' platform

 

[cthellis42]

It sounds mainly like they want to experiment with their own version of the PSX at some point--though mainly the result I could see from that is every PC OEM getting pissed off for Microsoft pushing the Media Center PC endeavor, as that's what such a device would be targetting. (Replacing, at that price.) Unless they crippled it in some ways (like enable "PC gaming" but not "computing," which would be goof-tastic, and belie a "run a full version of Windows" comment), it would challenge every PC maker out there--and probably be something they're not too happy with. They're perfectly contect to bow to many of Microsoft's whims so long as they're not playing their game...

At any rate, from a design stantpoint, unless the thing had two totally different sets of hardware inside, wouldn't the architecture built for consoles be rather lacking (if not infeasable) in the PC world, or vice-versa?

Frankly, it sounds like a nice soundbyte to attract attention, but not an idea they would remotely be pursuing until they were extremely confident. And no, it wouldn't be "what Xbox 2" is either, but "a next generation device."

Frankly, looking for consumer appeal is pretty silly in that area, because most people's jaws would drop and they'd say "hell's yes!" to a device described like that. It's ultimately the design and market realities that will prevail.

 

[hey69]

Re: ...

You can shoot his rumor down since Xbox Next doesn't have two things required; an X86 CPU and a HD. MS didn't make Xbox PC compatible, and they have no reason to burn $$$ to make it compatible now...

NO ? didn't they claim that they are wiling to loose 4billion on this next gen ? but then again, i think this is bogus.

what could be is maybe a PCIexpres card or some sort with the console hardware on it . (remember the 3do pc card back in the days-)

 

[AzBat]

Re: ...

You can shoot his rumor down since Xbox Next doesn't have two things required; an X86 CPU and a HD. MS didn't make Xbox PC compatible, and they have no reason to burn $$$ to make it compatible now...

First of all, we're not completely sure what CPU architecture the Xbox Next has. The slide did mention the Xbox Next PC(XNPC) would be backward compatible with current Xbox games. That would mean it has either 1) a x86 processor 2) a PPC-type processor using software emulation. If the former, then this concept would be very easy to do. I believe it's unlikely though. If it's the latter, then they could run Windows in emulation as well. This would allow it to play PC games, or anything else they would want(ex. Media Center Edition features).

Either way, Microsoft has to do a lot of this already in order for stand-alone versions of Xbox Next to run on the NT kernel. It wouldn't requiring much money, if any, in order for the software portion to support the PC functions named in the slide. That just means the most expensive part would be adding the extra hardware. We're still not sure if the standard model will include a hard drive, but adding one if it doesn't wouldn't be a big deal. Therefore at $600 that would allow for about $300 worth of hardware. Do you think a mouse, keyboard, hard drive and CD burner could be had for $300 by the time this thing would ship? I do.

BTW, I just had an idea. This thing sounds a lot like a developer station. Wouldn't that be funny if they just took the dev station and sold it to retail? LOL

Tommy McClain

 

[Crazyace]

Would it be so difficult?

In my humble opinion - if Msoft wanted cross compatibility they could just put 2 copies of the game code on the disc - One x86, and one PPC. The libraries would be the same, so the data could be shared, and they would get royalties even if the game was played on a PC. ( Im sure that Apple had something similar when they switched from 68k to PPC )