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Harrison
18th May 2007, 13:03
Did you know that M$ are due to release a revised version of the 360 that will include an HD-DVD drive built in (rather than the current option requiring an external add-on HD-DVD unit) and it will also add an HDMI socket, which is a welcome connection type that many moaned was missing when the 360 was first released.

But I never think that releasing such big revisions in a fixed hardware platform is a good idea. Upgrading the system's media format to one the original revision of the platform cannot run out of the box is definitely not a good move as it could fragment the userbase.

Once 360's start to have an HD-DVD drive as standard games developers are going to want to take advantage of the extra storage space for their games. This will mean that those with existing 360's will need to shell out the £200 for the external HD-DVD drive so they can play games on their older version of the console. Not a good way to encourage people to continue supporting the platform, especially if Sony start to reduce the price of the PS3 this year. There may come a point where existing 360 owners will be able to purchase a PS3 at a price only slightly higher than the 360's external HD-DVD drive, making it an interesting alternative.

Saying that, I've held off buying a 360 due to a couple of reasons. It hasn't largely interested me as a gaming platform due to most of it's key releases also being on the PC and soon the PS3. But the revised version my interest me more. Having HD-DVD playback built in and an HDMI socket will mean it will be a very inexpensive HD-DVD player compared to standalone players. It is also currently one of the best media extenders on the market for anyone using a network primarily made up of Windows XP and Vista based systems, so that in itself makes it of interest to me. Especially as it does do a better job as a media extender than the PS3 currently does, and is better than any of the standalone media extenders I've seen on the market that cost at least half the price of a 360 for just those features alone.

Demon Cleaner
21st May 2007, 00:21
They already announced it 4-6 weeks ago. And it surely has a plus, the HDMI, and the built in HD DVD player. And I think the console will come in black.

Btw, they made statistics about consoles, and came to the conclusion that the PS3 will be the most selling console, and that probably Blu Ray will be the format that wins the race.

Submeg
21st May 2007, 00:29
Fingers crossed

Harrison
21st May 2007, 12:24
I think the PS3 definitely will end up being the best selling platform of this generation in the end, especially once it starts to drop in price. The Wii already seems to have lost momentum since the Christmas hype and although I would like to see it succeed alongside the PS3, due to it being a completely different market to the PS3, I have this feeling that the Wii was a new Christmas fad that everyone had to buy.

As for the 360, outside of dedicated computer and gaming stores it just doesn't have any marketing presence and I don't think many people outside of existing gamers even know what one is. Maybe that will change once it has HD-DVD playback built in though as M$ can then market it as a true entertainment system.

Although I still have the feeling that HD-DVD will win in the US as the video format of choice, and Blu-Ray everywhere else. Simply because HD-DVD was launched first in the US and was taken up quite quickly.

J T
21st May 2007, 15:31
Wii seems to be doing pretty well for itself right now, if nextgenwars.com (http://nexgenwars.com/) is anything to go by. 7.2 million sales despite limited stocks is pretty good I'd say, and weekly/monthly sales figures posted around show it still selling way ahead of everything else (apart from the DS, in fact).

The real 'war' will start though when the PS3 drops in price. I would be tempted to buy one but for no more than 200 quid (prefereably less, like i did for PS2 at around 170 ish) but as that is half RRP it may not be for quite a while yet. It does look and sound quite spiffy but there is no way I can justify that sort of outlay right now.

I heard about this special x-box on WoS, not sure if it is correct or not but I heard that it was to be a limited edition thing rather than an actual new model/spec. But in the storm of information, mis-information and fanboy-ism it's pretty hard to find the hard truth without digging around, and that I could not be bothered to do :dry:

Demon Cleaner
21st May 2007, 16:40
XBox codename Zephyr (http://www.gizmocafe.com/blogs/gizmo_cafe_blog/archive/2007/01/05/101903.aspx)

Toasty667
21st May 2007, 16:58
New consoles are just too expensive for me right now. I remember getting my PS1 with an extra pad and a copy of Mortal Kombat Trilogy for £180. Almost hit the floor when I saw the price of the PS3. Since I've got my wireless LAN set up at home now for deathmatches there's less cause for a new system anyway. Me and a mate were playing for six whole hours. Glorious!:lol:

Harrison
21st May 2007, 17:17
This was quite a surprise and shows classicamiga is gaining momentum with the search engines. I typed "revised 360" into Google and this topic appeared 6th in the results! :thumbs:

Submeg
21st May 2007, 23:25
Nice! Looks like we are gaining influence in high places....Yea I have to wait for the PS3 to drop, its $999 AUD over here...

AlexJ
22nd May 2007, 11:45
Nice! Looks like we are gaining influence in high places....Yea I have to wait for the PS3 to drop, its $999 AUD over here...

Which is still slightly cheaper then it is in the UK...

Demon Cleaner
22nd May 2007, 12:32
I don't even care about the price, if I really want to get one, I'll buy one, but I don't have any use for it at the moment, so I can still wait.

The Blu Ray drive is (for me) more interesting than the games, I want to compare a normal movie to a HD movie to see if the quality is really different.

As for games, I don't really care, I have a lot of games still to play on the PS2, and only a hand full of games yet released seem interesting, no real RPG so far.

Harrison
22nd May 2007, 13:10
And not forgetting that the PS2 outsold ever other console last month in the US! 280,000 systems compared to 251,000 for the Wii. Quite an amazing statistic. I've also noticed that many developers have the PS2 and the PS3 lists in future releases so they are still going to be supporting the PS2 alongside the PS3 as they know the userbase is still very active.