Here’s a sneaky photo of the back of the rumored next version of the Xbox 360, codenamed: Zephyr. The most obvious addition is that of an HDMI port for true/easier 1080p output. It’s also rumored that Zephyr will feature a 120GB hard drive to compliment all the downloadable content available on Xbox Live and an upgraded 65nm CPU.
No idea when this will be available for the general public to pick up, but it makes me want to hold off on buying a 360.
Wii coming out with a 2.0 a few months after initial release, PS3 doing the same (albeit probably a year away) and now XBox… I remember when Nintendo would come out with new versions of it’s gameboy every 2-3 years, now we rarely go more then a year before a “new and improved” come out.
I don’t know if this is caused by a lack of foresight, greed or rushing a sub-par machine to be first to market “wisdom” but this is getting silly. Take a few months more, launch the product that has the features you want then concentrate on growing the games while keeping an eye on accessories and/or next version a few years away, not constant re-inventions of the wheel providing extremely limited enhancements that should have been there in the first place.
Jon
Good point Jon, but it’s not like they aren’t doing the same with software as well. Here you have one product, take Windows Vista for example, where at time of release they already know what bugs they will have to fix with patches and updates, when they will release Service Pack 1, or an even bigger R2 update etc.
Yes, it’s definitely all about the money. A lot of people bought the Xbox360 admidst heat and power supply problems/rumors, and a lot of people will buy any 2.0 or 3.0 or x.0 carnation of it. While that statement holds true, why change anything? Apple released the 2G Nano one year after the first one came out, is that really so different?
I think the thing that really bugs people is that while others do it openly (such as Apple) the gaming console updates are always very sneaky. Look at the original Xbox which went through six/seven incarnations up until v1.6b (not sure if there was another one after that), only that it was never really publicized and people had to figure the changes out themselves. And I think people are afraid that the same will happen with future versions of the Xbox360. While certain changes like HDMI or a bigger hard-drive might be obvious, other changes might only reveal themselves after taking a closer look under the hood. And who knows what kind of surprises they come up with then!
Thinking about it I could actually see a different way of selling upgraded Xbox360s by calling them Xbox360+ or Xbox360 Ultimate or whatever and to openly advertise that they come with more hdd space and better interfaces now. And I’m sure you could even squeeze a couple more bucks out of these enhancements. Considering this alternative don’t we all prefer the silent and hidden upgrades? :-)
120GB how about 1.2 TB!!!
This sounds like a reaction to the next PS that is suppose to be a media center. The hardware is only one part. You must have the great games to play on these systems. For example, the wii at launch had Zelda and a few others, but nothing major. The Xbox360 finally got a killer ap in Gears of War. And the PS3 is still waiting. Finally, I’m unsure if gamers are going to be as quick to jump to a new platform, because as Sascha said, “it’s about money”.
Though there was the PlayStation to PSOne switch, I think the PS2 to PS2 Slimline update was the real start of the trend. The original PlayStation 2 was a horrible piece of hardware–the fan made a noise like a hairdryer, and stories of CD-ROM drive failures were common. It was clearly inferior hardware design to the GameCube, speaking as someone with both consoles. It’s a pity Nintendo never managed to capitalize on their better hardware. *sigh*
When I moved, I took the opportunity to sell my old PS2 and get a new slimline one. It’s far better, it’s the machine the original PS2 should have been. I’m kinda hoping that there will be a smaller better PS3 by the time there are PS3 games worth playing.
I skipped on the DS and waited for the DS Lite. It looks as though the Wii is basically designed right the first time, though; can’t see much I’d change about it.
It is all about making money. Companies just want to release the product before anyone else does. They don’t care much about customer satisfaction. Then they come out with newer models. I don’t think that we would see this model so early if ps3 was never released. I understand that there is a lot of competition but the companies should not just compete, they should also look into themselves to improve.
Also the thought of upgrading a ps3 to a 1tb hard drive is eye popping. You would never need a disc. You could store all you games and movies on the hard drive.
The problem is, that the XBOX 360 is still at 1 teraflop in floating point performance, and the PS3 is at 1.8! This means that in the long run, the PS3 can put more objects on the screen than the XBOX360. THis is a huge difference and Microsoft needs to be thinking long term with its updates, not just about what is happenning now.
Once developers learn to use that extra PS3 power, and the cost of technology makes the PS3 cheaper, the XBOX360 is in trouble, and not even Microsoft can afford to make these expensive updates forever, its upsets old users, too.
Please, think long term Microsoft.
umm geninous thats a xbox360 halo3 specail edition 360 just like the rest of em!