Xbox 2 To Be Unveiled In May


DaveC

Internal Development
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I have heard that the new Xbox will be shown on MTV in the middle of may on the 12th. I wonder how much of it they will actually show. I still think they are making a HUGE mistake by not including a HDD with it (even Nintendo will have a HDD :blink: ). Also it will NOT use Blu-Ray OR the HD DVD format. Just a regular DVD with a bit more capacity. I think it will be released too soon. They will release it just before BLU-Ray and the other format are cost effective. Remember Dreamcast? Sega released it before DVD became cost effective, then Sony came out with PS2 WITH DVD movie playback and crushed Sega right out of the market? This means that Xbox will NOT play High def movies but the PS3 WILL. Looks like Sony will win again.
 
Considering that the average electronics consumer has never heard of HD-DVD or Blu-Ray (whereas the average consumer already knew about DVD in 1998), this shouldn't be much of a bother.
Not to mention the fact that theres still no proof that the Xbox2 won't have a hard drive. Theres been a lot of suggestion that it will have... alternate ways of including one. Essentially the whole thing is so mixed up in it's own speculation, theres no way of knowing what's true and what isn't.
 
Yeah they keep suggesting there'll be some form of large scale flash drive. All the systems are still pretty deeply shrouded in mystery. and the MTV reveal is only being used to pump up their image to the masses.

I still dont think it'll fly in japan, regardless of how much money they pay Tecmo to make titty games for them.
 
LOL @ the Techmo comment.


And I agree, I dont think the Japanese will warm up to it, consumers OR developers, and I think as long as this is the case it will have a hard time achieving the level of success that sony has. I also agree that not going with a higher capacity format might be a crutch later on but I dont think it will be that big of a deal.

About the rumors of there being different 'trim levels' of the Xbox 2, IF they are true, I think that is the BIGGEST mistake they can make. It's been proven in the past that having mulitple choices of the same system is usually, commercially, a bad thing. I guess it tends to 'confuse' consumers... 'Well which one should I get? Which one is better? what am I getting from the more expensive ones?'. It also makes it hard for developers to fully explore the potential of the system... if they make a game that takes full advantage of the 'top of the line' system, then obviously the people with the more basic systems will miss out somehow. If they make a lowest-common-denominator game, then the people with the high end system feel like they arent' getting their moneys worth. It's just better to only have one choice. And IF they don't ALL have harddrives they are shooting themselves in the foot, as stated above the Revolution and PS3 are supposed to have them, and the Xbox 1 showed that there was much good use to be had from a hard drive on a console... it was probably the best new feature seen on a console since analog control, for someone to decide NOT to put one on the Xbox 2 they would really have to be stupid to cripple the system like that.
 
I think the idea of using Blu Ray is for more than just video games. With the propgation od Hi-def and wide screen it's requireing more capacity to fit a movie on to a DVD that takes advantage of the quality Sony it of the mind that it's the next direction for home video and once again is trying to help push that agenda because they have a stake in it too.
 
i worry about the xbox 360, next what ever name they give it each week.

i hope its better than the PS, becuase i am a rather large xbox fanboy.
 
Yeah, me too I think,

I've currently got an XBOX and a Gaycube, but had a PS2 since about a year after it's launch (sold before Christmas).

The only reason I kept the PS2 was because of PES and Winning Eleven - literally no other reason, the disc was always in. When it came out on the XBOX I sold my PS2 immediately to fund my PSP purchase.

Out of all the next gen consoles, the one, to me, with the best features and games is the XBOX.

So, if I had to choose what console to get now - I'd choose the new XBOX. You cant go wrong with Microsoft.
 
I'm not.

I was referring to being an XBOX fanoy.

I understand the confusion, it's the perils of bastardisation of the English language on the internet.
 
sensible GP32 posted on Apr 12 2005 at 12:41 PM said:
i am a rather large xbox fanboy.


HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. you said Large and Xbox! aaahhh god, Large/Xbox. I swear that joke never gets old for me. :lol:
 
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there's no arguing that the Xbox is the far more capable and powerful system with the best features... they really put a lot of thought into the system with big details like built in network card and HD and even small features like the extra long controller cords (ARE YOU TAKING NOTES SONY!!!!!). When I saw it at E3, and learned what it was capable of, I was very excited and jumped right onto the "This system will kill EVERYTHING" bandwagon. Imagine my dissapointment 3 years later when I still have owned only about 10 games for the thing and use it mostly to play old 8- and 16-bit games. Not that I dont love it to death for it's ability to play perfect emu's like that... were I to be stranded on a desert island with one system to take it'd probably be the Xbox just for that reason.


But the rumors of the new Xbox and the features it will, and more importantly, the features it may NOT have, has me worried as well. But most importantly I worry for them because of the trend that has already made itself clear, that we keep talking about... the utter lack of support by Japanese game developers. I grew up on Japanese games, Nintendo, Sega, and now Sony, and all the Japanese third parties like Konami and Capcom. Conversely, I never really got into PC gaming and have found very few American or European developed games that I really liked... so I worry... because if the next Xbox still lacks the Japanese support like this than I know it's going to be critically short on the games that *I* like to play, so no matter how good of a system it is (and I have little doubt that it will be awesome) it's just not going to appeal to me or to a lot of other people just like me...
 
The Xbox is the king of current consoles when it comes to power. If it weren't for the fact that many lazy devs do cheap PoS2 or Lamecube ports without enhancing the graphics the difference would show even more. I recently got Doom3 and played the new Splinter cell and the graphics are like WOW. The dynamic lighting, shadowing, bump mapping and normal mapping (a kind of "3D texture map"), specular highlights, surface attribute algorythms, per pixel shaders still have me amazed by the system. Look at the Splinter cell demo on the Xbox magazine demo disc. Everything looks wet from the rain ,the textures are so clear, shadows and lighting are realistic, it looks pre-rendered. No other current console can do these effects so well. I was even thinking that they don't even need a new Xbox if they take full advantage of the current hardware (no dodgy PoS2 ports).

It is hard to believe they are going the opposite way and will actually have the WEAKEST system in the next generation. I also find it weird that Microsoft is boasting about high-def. They are making devs support HD in ALL games. HD this, HD that, that is all they are talking about now high-def. One problem though, they will be the ONLY next gen console that will NOT play High Def DVD movies! They will be using their modern day DVD equivalent of the Dreamcast "gig disk CD" a plain DVD with a slightly higher capacity. The irony, so strange.
 
you know I just saw Doom 3 in the store today... Took me totally by surprise I wasn't expecting to see it out yet. Been looking forward to this one forever but couldn't pick it up.... at the same time, having played it a bit on PC, yeah it looks awesome, but the gamplay isn't anything so special... maybe not worth a $50 purchase I dunno.


But I played the Xbox version at E3 last year and yeah there's no denying it's a spectacular looking game, and definatelys shows a good example of just how much more powerful the Xbox is than the PS2 (sorry Dave but believe it or not the GC and Xbox are actually VERY close in their graphical abilities, though you don't see it get put to the test as much). I agree that this is even more of a puzzler that they would be the first to rush out a new system when there is still quite a bit of potential left in the current one. A LOT of potential, just getting thrown away in the name of being the first guys with a new system out... stupid. I think another year or two could have seen some really amazing games come out of the Xbox yet.....
 
I've said it before:
They arnt making enough money off the current system, the biggest games for the system are selling for 20 bucks a pop now, they need a new product to spur sales. The PS2 is in a similar spot but they have the luxery of waiting because they have the money from being the #1 console.

M$ is pulling the "Sega", they're trying to get their system out first, prey on the early adopters, try to build a larger installed base and get in the lead early. It originally worked for the NES vs the MasterSystem but then Nintendo decided they could wait and then it worked (barely) for Sega with the Genesis/Megadrive vs the SNES (which caught up quickly due to it's advanced design and cooler looking games), but proceeded to try and fail with it every generation after them because the system they were up against was always better. Sony has to pull a hattrick on this and be better, grab the public eye and be more interesting media wise to get people to say "you know what I'm going to wait for the PS3 rather than buy the Nextbox" the same way it happened with Saturn and DC.
 
You guys seen the supposed leaked pics of the new controllers? Not really different than the old controllers, biggest difference is that the black and white buttons have been removed, and a set of true shoulder buttons have been added to replace them (there will still be the shoulder triggers as well).

Looks cool but again, not all that different... IF that's the real controller... sure looks like it might be. I'm all for moving the black and white buttons to the shoulders though!
 
As of this post, saying 'Gaycube', 'PoS2', 'Lamecube' and similar unfunny word replacements will be a bannable offence! ;)

Xbox gets it right technically but MS were too inexperienced to get decent developers on board making original games. Er, maybe Halo excepted, but I wasn't impressed by that. Maybe this time...
 
Rico posted on Apr 13 2005 at 09:54 AM said:
As of this post, saying 'Gaycube', 'PoS2', 'Lamecube' and similar unfunny word replacements will be a bannable offence! ;)


How about permanetly banished to a group aptly named 'playground fanboi' under ther avatar ;)
 
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oh and now the rumor is that it will use a removable hard drive, like a memory card on crack, but not necessarily flash technology, real harddrive technology. And not just removable the way the PS2's optional hard drive is removable, but meant to be removed and carried around.... can't see the harm in that, if it's true than this is good news IMO.
 
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