Xbox 360 Officially Revealed, Press Embargos Lifted, Baby Seals Clubbed
Wow I didn't see that coming! The next Xbox is going to be called....Xbox 360! What a huge surprise! Wait...oh we knew it was going to be called that 3 months ago and what it was going to look like 3 weeks ago! It's amazing how this was probably the worst kept secret ever classified as an actual secret. Best part of the MTV special? Wilmer Valderama fulfilling the prophecy of becoming the next-gen Scott Baio. What a tool! Missed the MTV special? Don't worry. You'll probably want to watch this video instead. Here is a roundup of all the relevant stories from the usual suspects of gaming media juggernauts.
- TeamXbox
- Taking a Spin with the Xbox 360 - Overview of the Xbox 360 launch.
- Xbox 360: Pulling Back the Curtain – the story behind Microsoft’s upcoming console.
- Xbox 360 Dissected – all the official specifications and other techno-speak.
- Xbox 360 System Specifications – a quick reference table of the Xbox 360’s specs.
- The Xbox 360 Software and Services Features – a quick reference table of Xbox Live and more.
- GameSpot
- Xbox 360: Inside & Out
- Microsoft announces the Xbox 360, confirms worldwide 2005 launch
- Spot On: The road to the 360 - Interview with Microsoft Executives about Xbox 360.
- Xbox 360 MTV Special: Behind the Scenes - A behind the scenes account of the taping of the MTV special.
- Quake 4 and Call of Duty 2 storming Xbox 360
- Ghost Recon 3 is 360 bound
- IGN.com
- Xbox 360 The Moore Effect - VP Peter Moore delivers.
- Xbox 360 The Marketing - Riding market trends to the head of the pack.
- Xbox 360 The Design - The design, concepts, and cool factor.
- Xbox 360 FAQ - Everything we know.
- Xbox 360 The Hype - Drunk 20-somethings.
- The Connection - Xbox Live, streaming MP3s, and video chat.
- Test Drive Unlimited - First hands-on.
- GameSpy
- The Creation of a Console - Details from inside the mind of J Allard.
- Xbox 360 Revealed! - GameSpy finally gets to see the next-gen system in the flesh.
- Design Decisions - A look at the new Xbox, inside and out, and how it came to be so.
- The Tech Specs
- Live and Online with Xbox 360
- Coming to 360 @ E3 2005 - A look at five Xbox 360 games at next week's E3 extravaganza.
- Game Informer
- [H]ard|OCP
- Tom's Hardware Guide
Xbox 360 Scans from a Danish Gaming Mag Escape
Several scans of pages from a Danish gaming magazine are floating around on the internet, which includes more pics of the new Xbox 360 and some screenshots from the new Ghost Recon game. In a few of the scans the controller is presented in angles not seen before, and the box itself has a definite Dell pizza-box style to it.
'The Next Generation Xbox Revealed' Debuts Tonight
Tonight at 9:30pm Eastern, MTV and Microsoft pull off the cellophane wraps on the next-generation Xbox, consensusly dubbed the Xbox 360. Most of the details of the new console has already leaked to the Internet, thanks to a brilliant marketing idea to hold a B+ list celebrity-laden coming out party in Los Angeles a week before the show airs. If you have not already heard, the console will feature a white/silver color scheme, with the ability to be stored horizontally or vertically. Also featured on the console is an expansion bay for either a 20 or 40 GB hard drive and memory card slots for game saves. The Xbox 360 controllers will feature wireless connectivity and connectors for headsets and power charge cables. Details have also leaked out on the new classification of Xbox Live accounts, where Gold accounts are similar to the current Xbox Live accounts, and Silver accounts are free and limited to online play on the weekends.
Story: WashingtonPost.com via Yahoo!
Developers Cringe at Costs of Next-Gen Titles
News.com is running a story on the rising costs associated with the development of new games on the next generation of gaming platforms. With any new platform transition, development costs reach a much higher level than the previous generation. The hardware becomes more capable, and the developers become more ambitious to make sure that their games look better than the competition. Costs are skyrocketing to the high end of $30-$50 Million dollars, which is squeezing smaller development shops out of the marketplace. Industry insiders say that the game industry will eventually follow the Hollywood movie-style of funding programs, where blockbusters typically run $100-$150 Million to create.
Story: http://news.com.com/2100-1043_3-5704069.html
Leaked Xbox 360 Spy Photo
Electronic gadgetry-enthusiast site, Engadget, received a mega-exclusive photo taken with someone's cameraphone at Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Revealed launch party in Los Angeles last night. Check out the hard drive attachment up top, the white controller, the Xbox Live headset, and what looks like a EyeToy-like camera peripheral. Expect more to be revealed during Microsoft's MTV Xbox 360 Revealed show on May 12th and during their pre-show E3 keynote on Tuesday, May 16th.
Nintendo Revolution to Debut Mid-2006
MoSys, the same memory supplier who provided chips for the GameCube, has let slip that Nintendo's next-generation console, the 'Revolution,' is to ship in "mid-2006." That should put it right on schedule to match the Playstation 3, which is also expected to launch in that time frame.
Chinese website, Unika.com, has quoted the specs of the 'Revolution' console to be:
... four 2.5Ghz IBM G5 Custom cores, with 128KB of level 1 cache and a 512KB shared level 2 cache, while the graphics will be powered by a dual core ATI RN520 chipset, with 1MB of on-board eDRAM for the frame buffer.
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