Xbox wasn't showing up to TGS empty-handed, nosiree. They've finally stepped up with a couple of interesting, albeit expected, announcements. First up: the Xbox 360 HD DVD drive finally has a price and date of launch -- for Japan. The land that forgot the Xbox are first to have their HD DVD add-on announced, due to hit overseas streets on November 17th for ¥19,800. That's about $170 US, which is not only an awesomely and unexepectedly low price for an HD DVD device (especially when bundled with a Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote), but it's also a good indication that the US version of the device should be around the $200 range when released in the US, as we've been predicting. Part two: a software update this year will enable 1080p output on the friggin' Xbox 360! Your rig will finally benefit by pushing the full 60 megapixels per second of visuals to your compatible HDTV. Sorry, no HDMI cable yet (or ever?), though, this is only over component and VGA. Users can expect 1080p upscaling immediately on current games and DVDs and native 1080p on compatible HD DVD titles, but Microsoft hasn't yet announced future games that will rock 1080p natively. Watch out Sony, that whole 1080p song and dance isn't such a marketing edge for you guys anymore.
P.S. -Just to sate your curiosity, we were chatting with Shane Kim about this stuff and asked specifically about 360s with an internal HD DVD. Microsoft's answer is and continues to be a staunch no. That whole thing about paying only for what you need, etc.
Update: It would appear there's some contradictory information already -- Reuters is reporting that it'll be November 22nd for ¥20,790 (about $180 US). Our press release and conversation with Shane Kim are both pretty straight up about November 17th for ¥19,800, so we'll see how it unfurls. Ultimately it shouldn't matter too much to those reading this post, we're still talking about the Japanese release of the device.
Youre paying for technology, and a lot of that technology is in the controller.
Further, given the Cube was capable of (nearly) matching XBox, and Wii has a few hardware improvements, I think its safe to say it will outdo XBox graphics quite easily. (Depending on titles of course).
Arn't there hundreds of quote from MS at every press event since the PS3 was announced saying 1080P is completely useless and not possible this generation?
When did they change their tune to 1080P being the new hotness.
I still see 1080p as useless for next gen games. I'd prefer developers focus on 720p and push the detail as much as they can.
But for movies and the hd-dvd addon, 1080p is a good benefit. Also for newer 1080p panels, using the 360 internal scaler to upscale games 720p->1080p will likely yield a better picture on native 1080p panels than feeding it raw 720p, that's based on the assumption the 360 scaler is better than the one in your panel, which of course may not be the case.
Isn't it funny how the 360 keeps getting upgrades, the ps3 keeps getting downgrades and in the end both of them are pretty much the now same fucking shit.
lestat wrote:Isn't it funny how the 360 keeps getting upgrades, the ps3 keeps getting downgrades and in the end both of them are pretty much the now same fucking shit.
Yeah. Just think. $399 + $170 + $99 and you're only short the 40 gigs of extra space and the HDMI port of a $599 PS3.
I'm confused, Talez. This 40GB... is this the 40GB of extra hard drive space in every 999 dollar PS3, or the 40GB of extra disc space available on every bluray disc?
