Second Generation XBOX 360 to HD-DVD

[MrHat]

It didn’t take long for the first effects of the partnership between Microsoft and Toshiba announced yesterday to appear.

According
to the statements made by Bill Gates in Japan, Xbox 360, the new gaming console will include HD-DVD drives.

Considering that such a decision would postpone the launching date, Microsoft will equip the initial models with classic DVD drives, and only after the new HD-DVD are ready, the Xbox will incorporate them.

Xbox 360 going into the HD-DVD side is an important advantage for Toshiba and in the same time a response to Sony’s announcement that the new Play Station 3 will incorporate the Blu-Ray standard.

Up until now, the Play Station sales exceed Xbox’s, but the fact that Microsoft will be launched before PlayStation 3 makes some analysts say this situation will change.

Gates also said that the Microsoft-Toshiba alliance is not a unilateral partnership and that many of the equipments manufactured by the Japanese company, such as the Tablet PCs will be based on Longhorn, Microsoft’s future operating system.

This makes me lean towards waiting till price comes down + new dvd standard for my tv.

EDIT: Because I'm fucking special.

[Trippy]

Edit: move along, nothing to see here...

[Murgos]

Blu-Ray be Sony.  PS3's are supposed ot have blu-ray.

Anyway, I was on the fence before but now I certainly won't be buying a first-gen 360.

[MrHat]

Fixed.  Thanks, I'm special this morning.

Edit: 

Xbox 360 Keyboard?

Thanks www.xbox365.com:

[schild]

Hi, that's not a keyboard.

Edit: I mean technically, it's a keyboard. But really, it's not a keyboard.

[MrHat]

Hi, that's not a keyboard.

Edit: I mean technically, it's a keyboard. But really, it's not a keyboard.

Like a blackberry or nokia communicator.  thumb-board I guess.

[Fabricated]

Awesome, so early adopters will be screwed when games start being released on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/Whatever?

[schild]

Fuck no. Get a service plan and break your Xbox. This is not a game we should be new at. I've been doing it since day 1 of the PS2.

[ahoythematey]

We shouldn't have to resort to something like that.  You deserve every awful cent they are charging you upon release for a substandard box and shitly extended warranty.

Not that this really affects me.  Only system I plan to buy at launch, possibly at all, is Revolution.  I only mention so because I suspect schild is ripe for aggravation.

[schild]

I'm not aggravated at all. I love abusing service plans. It's a the great american commercial pasttime.

[Margalis]

If the first systems are only normal DVD I suspect very few people will release HD-DVD versions of games. What a terrible, terrible idea.

Look at the history of console upgrades and how many game makers make use of them. PS2 HD? Saturn RAM cart?

[Shockeye]

Sega Genesis 32X and Sega CD.

[schild]

The Nintendo Jumppack. A required upgrade. Now worth more than an N64. You need it to play Perfect Dark. All Microsoft has to do is get the big names to guarantee HD-DVD. Of course, with Team Ninja on board and their continued complaints about standard DVD and it's 9.8 gigs, I'm pretty confident Ninja Gaiden 2 will be one of the first HD-DVDs out there. Also, Halo 3. Just make Halo 3 an HD-DVD.

[Margalis]

Um...are you guys agreeing or disagreeing?

32X and the Sega CD were a bomb. How many games require the Nintendo Jumppack? 3 maybe?

Let's think: I can create a game that everyone can play, or I can create a game that a significant subset of the population can't play. Hard choice. My guess would be that the games will be DVD and maybe HD-DVD versions will have more costumes or some stupid shit like that. The whole point of consoles is they provide a common base platform.

And buying an entire new system is a lot different than buying a RAM cart. "Timmy, we bought you an XBox last year, what the fuck? We have to buy the same system again?"

How much the Nintendo Jumppack is worth is irrelevant. What matters is nobody made games for it, for a good reason. The reason it's worth so much now is not many were made, because no games used it.

[Aenovae]

In other news, I think MrHat's new avatar has a weiner.

[raydeen]

In other news, I think MrHat's new avatar has a weiner.

Yep. The Crazy Frog is anatomically accurate. I never noticed it until I read a story about the character and it's origins. It's genitalia is actually blurred out in the music video. I guess if Janet Jackson's booby is verbotten, then CGI frog dick is as well.

[Pococurante]

I assumed it was some bizarre offspring of PA's Fruit F<edited>r.

[MrHat]

Some more info:

Computer And Video

A second interesting nugget to slip out the Spanish event focuses on a slide titled "XNA Technology Map" (see second image top-right). Look closely in the centre of the image and there's a box labelled 'Game Engines". In that box there's a list of developers and associated technology and you may notice that roughly in the middle of that list there's mention of Valve and Half-Life 3.

Half-Life 3 confirmed for Xbox 360! Well, we wouldn't actually go shouting it from the rooftops just yet but we'd bet our prize collection of videogame kitsch that Valve will deliver such a sequel, and 360 would be an extremely likely platform destination.

And finally. Anyone curious about cable connectivity from Xbox 360 to TV should have a gander at the third picture on this page, which is a snap of a slide showing, erm, cable connectivity from Xbox 360 to TV and, among other things, reveals that there's support for up to 1920x1080 resolution.

There we go, a little something to chew over on this Monday morning of dreary weather.

P.S. We've sneaked in a fourth photo from the presentation that shows publisher and developer support for Xbox 360. You'll notice that the Rockstar logo is among those present. Grand Theft 360? Well we wouldn't bet against it.

[Strazos]

id Software is also on there. Also NCsoft.

Oddly, BioWare and Obsidian are missing.

[OcellotJenkins]

Maybe I missed it, but there doesn't appear to be a digital coaxial audio hookup.  Surely it won't have just RCA stereo sound, will it?

[Strazos]

Probably not out of the box.

They need to maintain their count of Money Hats, remember?

[HaemishM]

Awesome, so early adopters will be screwed when games start being released on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray/Whatever?

Absolutely fucking retarded, and sure-fire way to keep me from buying it until they release the HD-DVD version. Fuck them in their money hats.

[schild]

In other news, Bill Gates was misquoted from Japan. He commented on incorporating an HDDVD DVD player. Not game player DVD PLAYER. They left out one of the "DVDs." In other news

Walmart slaps an unsurprising price-tag on the 360...

Unconfirmed reports stemming from Walmart employees have today suggested a North American retail price for the Xbox 360 and its launch titles, allegedly set to arrive in shop stores on November 4th.

Naturally a smidgeon of sceptism should be maintained until Microsoft makes an official announcement, however the $299.99 price point hardly appears to be out of the bounds of possibility and suggests a pound/dollar equation when Microsoft's next-gen format is launched upon UK shores later in the month. As widely believed games appear to be slightly more expensive then many would hope with the likes of Perfect Dark Zero and Project Gotham Racing 3 marked at $59.99.

Have fun. November 4th sounds like a perfect day to quit whatever job I.....got.

[stray]

I should be working by then.....Which is when I'll really need the entertainment.

Freedom is so overrated.

[Yegolev]

Freedom is so overrated.

/cockpunch