Topic: Xbox 360 v2?

[Pugnate]

Saw this at a few places so must be legit:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/05/the-second-xbox-360-revealed-codename-zephyr/

A lot of sites reporting the new one will be 120 GB and cost the same. How can that be?

[Cobra951]

The wonderful world of rumors.  First I hear of this.  Having just gotten a 360, it wouldn't surprise me at all if an updated box hits the market soon at the same price.  That's just exactly my luck.  Then again, does M$ really need to do this?  What does alienating their userbase buy them?  Silent upgrades (like more compact silicon) are fine, but stuff like a much bigger drive that doesn't mate to the current box (will it?) will earn more scorn than profits.

[Jedi]

This makes me sad 

[iPPi]

I just heard about this today as well.  I'm kinda pissed off.

[Ghandi]

I'm never going to get one, so it doesn't affect me, but it does such for everyone who already got one. I'm not surprised, though. Typical MS.

[scottws]

Weird.  I wonder what made them decide to do this.

[Quemaqua]

I second everything that Cobra said.  If it's true, I may well go find Peter Moore and cram my system up his ass.

[gpw11]

Well, this is more like two or three different bits of information merged into one.  There's been rumors of a 120 GB HDD for a while now (maybe even an announcement that it will be coming in the future), and there's been the announcement that MS is ready for a die shrink in the very near future. 

The only real new bit of info here is the pic of the HDMI port.  Then whoever wrote this just started wildly speculating that this must be the new revision of the 360 and it must have the 120 GB HDD standard.  None of that has been announced, and none of that is fact at all. Bigger hard drives will work with all units, and you can bet that they'll get some way to make HDMI work with the original versions...they're not idiots. 

[sirean_syan]

I wouldn't be upset over a bigger hard drive. That's nothing new and it's not like a 60GB (or whatever they have in there) wouldn't be enough. The HDD isn't even standard, so it's more just like a bigger memory card coming out which happens all the time. The smaller processor is just under the hood work that won't change what the system actually does.

The only real problem could be the HDMI port, but I know that's something that'll actually make a difference for a lot of people out there considering how expensive TVs that can do that are and how few people own them. In a couple years, that's a bigger deal, but for  now most people who probably have a X360 and hook it up to an HD monitor the addition of 1080p isn't going to do much. Like GP said, they might figure out a way to make that work for normal owner anyways.

The end result is seems just like an upgraded system that doesn't change much but manufacturing cost or might be a little more efficent energy-wise like all the upgrades we've seen on other consoles.

[idolminds]

Its probably for the people buying movies and lots of games off Live Arcade, if anything.

[Pugnate]

I am looking to buy a 360 for my bro but may just wait. I think it has a 20GB. Also I think everyone is right, this is a lot of different stuff meshed into one.

[scottws]

I wouldn't be upset over a bigger hard drive. That's nothing new and it's not like a 60GB (or whatever they have in there) wouldn't be enough. The HDD isn't even standard, so it's more just like a bigger memory card coming out which happens all the time. The smaller processor is just under the hood work that won't change what the system actually does.

The only real problem could be the HDMI port, but I know that's something that'll actually make a difference for a lot of people out there considering how expensive TVs that can do that are and how few people own them. In a couple years, that's a bigger deal, but for  now most people who probably have a X360 and hook it up to an HD monitor the addition of 1080p isn't going to do much. Like GP said, they might figure out a way to make that work for normal owner anyways.

The end result is seems just like an upgraded system that doesn't change much but manufacturing cost or might be a little more efficent energy-wise like all the upgrades we've seen on other consoles.

Don't even get me started on HDMI...  I just don't understand why the technology world just took it in the ass for the content providers.  The technology world has been moving to HD for years now, and just now the content providers are like "Wait, wait, wait right there..."  The content providers have nothing to lose while the tech companies have everything to use.  I don't understand why they just weren't like, "Fuck you."  So they content providers say they won't allow content on technology that doesn't encrypt the audio and videostream through every port.  So the fuck what?

The tech companies could have all banded together and said "This is really bad for our customers.  If you want us to add content control to our devices, you'll have to wait until the next generation of all the technologies arrive.  You guys can fucking shove that shit right back up your ass where it originally came from."

The content providers I'm sure would rather have their content sold for and watched on devices that don't encrypt the video output all the way to the monitor than not have anything to sell at all.

[Cobra951]

I'm sure there are economic incentives all over the place here.  Plus some content providers own the hardware that plays it.  (The hated-of-late Sony comes to mind.)  Personally, I'm ignoring all digital streaming to display devices and audio amplifiers/speakers.  I never used that before, and I won't miss it now.

The 360's HDD is said to be 20 GB, but shows 12 GB free before you save, download or rip anything.  There's some content already there (music, videos, Hexic game . . .), but I have not tried to total up the space it eats.  If you get the HD rental of Superman Returns, that's 7 GB all by itself.  Yeah, they really need to up the size of the HDD in the future.  It's not as if they couldn't market it for the exact same price either.  Who the hell would pay $100 for a 20GB drive, except for a proprietary console.