HD nerds and Xbox fanboys,
the moment you've been waiting for: the
Xbox 360 Elite we alerted you about way back when it was just called the
Zephyr has finally been announced. As we previously mentioned, it will be black, it will have HDMI, and it will have a 120GB drive (it'll also come bundled with a one month Xbox Live trial) for $479. Unfortunately, also as mentioned before, it's not going to have the new 65nm CPUs, it still doesn't have integrated WiFi (Xbox said it's because a study showed the majority of their customers use Ethernet to connect -- huh?), and it won't have an integrated HD DVD drive (not that we expected otherwise). Microsoft did make some marketing decisions since our sources spilled the beans on this thing though: it's not going to be limited edition, as we previously had. Instead, the Elite will be a permanent SKU, the third and top-tier Xbox device. On the solo 120GB drive side of things, that unit will cost $179, and will come with a
cable and software to migrate from your old 20GB drive. (MSFT wasn't yet sure if that kit would be sold separately for new Elite users -- sounds like it will be though, and will be priced very reasonably.) More info:
- The console will come with component and composite cables, as well as an HDMI cable. (Take that, Sony and Apple!)
- The console will come with a black wireless controller and black (wired) headset.
- Sorry, the new black controller still doesn't have backlit buttons -- don't let the pic fool you.
- The black controller, black rechargeable batteries, black headset, and black Play & Charge kit will all be available in retail for the same price as the white gear.
- The HD DVD drive will not be released in black.
- Xbox didn't know what HDMI version the Elite uses, nor whether it supports PCM 5.1, TrueHD, etc.; it will obviously support 1080p, though.
- Sorry, no price cuts on the Premium or Core packs.
- Xbox Live Marketplace will also begin vending content from New Line, Paramount, and Universal (and their properties).
It's out April 29th in the US and Canada, people. Ready for your second Xbox? No? Well, it's still cheaper than that other black game console.
Update: Added more pics; also, Major Nelson has
live hands-on pics, too.
posted March 28th 2007 12:00AM
It looks like while everybody was knocking the price of the PS3, Microsoft was getting everybody to bite on it's 20G system, then soak you again for the 120G Elite... If you're a first time buyer, get the Sony...it's setup for much better games and only needs a little time to get the games rolling. Just as XBox 360 did and the Box before that. So in the long run Sony is the better choice. Blue Ray is the future and the PS3 has it now. The total entertainment system.
Hey, don't get me wrong...The XBox is great, but the PS3 is better. Games will come..believe me.
Oh just to let you know Blu-Ray is not the future. Yes you can buy a PS3 for 700 bucks total and get a Blu-Ray player but what about people who either don't play console games(who prefer PC) or don't even game at all? Are they going to be forced to shell out 800-1k dollars for one? And somewhere like 30-50 bucks for the movies?
Why would you want to waste so much money on that when you can get a HD-DVD player for like 200 bucks and the movies are like 20 bucks? And if you can tell me one difference in the quality show me. There is none. HD is only available since you can fit more higher quality data per disc than standard DVD allows. Plus both are 1080p so there is no difference.
I myself think that HD-DVD will beat Blu-Ray unless Sony and the other makers drop the price and take a huge loss in profits. I do not see any reason to buy Blu-Ray until the price drops to near HD-DVD and by that time HD-DVD will be cheaper. Some ppl will say "What about when DVD came out? It cost a lot too!" Well DVD did not have a equal competitor to challenge it. There was Zip/Jazz drives but they were too unstable, bulky and lost data a lot.
So in the end I think HD-DVD will win and Blu-Ray will lose. If that happens it looks like ppl with a X360 will enjoy the best in HD until of course they make a 2160i/p. I don't see that until a few more years.
The clear winner here will be the format with the most support:
The best video format in the world is worth little if no one releases any movies for it. The key to the format war is getting the studios to back a particular brand. The two Hollywood studios in HD-DVD’s camp are Universal and The Weinstein Company. Blu-ray has five studios backing it: Columbia Pictures, MGM, Disney, Lionsgate, and 20th Century Fox. As Sony owns both Columbia and MGM it comes as no surprise that they would be behind Blu-ray.
A positive for HD-DVD are the four major studios that have committed to releasing their films on both formats: Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks, Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema. Even so, the number of titles released for HD-DVD has dropped off in recent months, and with the recent exclusive Blu-ray release of some big films, the sales numbers have swung in favor of Sony’s format.
Universal Studios may be stubbornly behind HD-DVD, but if more desired films are available on Blu-ray than HD-DVD, consumers may be willing to temporarily forego Universal films in order to invest in Blu-ray technology. If this becomes the case and Universal withdraws its “HD-DVD only” stance, that could quickly spell the end for that format.
I went to Target this morning with the hope of finding an Xbox 360 Elite in stock. I had a printout of many of the electronics stores in the area in case I had to drive from one to the other in search of a console. I got there at 8:10 AM and since the store opened at 8 so I figured I was too late. I didn't see any scruffy looking, geeky, 18 to 35 year olds so I figured there had been a mad rush already and I was too late. Still I hurried to the electronics section and found a line of about 10 people with 5 or so people milling around. I had gone to this particular store in Culver City the night before and I was told there were only 6 in stock so I figured even though they hadn't been sold out they would be before I had a chance to buy one. I asked the two people at the end of the line if this line was for the Xbox 360 Elite. One guy in his early 20's turned and said he was there for the Nintendo Wii. An older lady probably in her 40's turned and said she was waiting for whatever the new console was (huh?) I looked over the counter which had three people at the register (this was the camera/register section in the electronics area) and saw a bunch of Wii boxes. I was a little confused. There seemed to be a delay and soon someone walked up with more boxes of Wii's. A few minutes later one of the sales reps called out "Is anyone here for the Xbox 360?" I hesitated for a moment and then raised my hand. Out of the 15 or so people milling about I was the only person who raised my hand. On the release day of the XBOX 360 Elite, at 8 in the morning, with a gathering of about 15 people, it appeared I was the only person who wanted an XBOX 360 Elite instead of a Nintendo Wii. The sales rep waved me to his register (the other register was apparently devoted to Wii's). There was a young Asian couple also there and they purchased there Xbox first. I looked over the counter and saw all of the Xbox's Elites sitting there. The sales rep said he was surprised people were buying these. I explained to him the advantages of the Elite and he replied, "Oh, I don't know it had an HDMI connection". I purchased my Elite and walked out. I passed a few people with Wii's in their bag. There were 4 Elite's in the store when I left. I wonder how many Wii’s Target will sell today before all of the Elite’s are purchased.
ooops, typo in my previous comment.
The "Red Light of Death" NEVER happened once while it was running some 7 hours straight.
One more thing, the Elite does not sport the 65nm chip. That chip is currently in production and will be in boxes in the fall. In a well ventilated area, this one does not get hot.
You guys are missing the point. MS is not positioning the xbox against the PS3. That battle is already won. They are doing this to up the ante vs Apple's iTV box. Look at it as an iTV with a DVD player and game console built in. The fact that there is no hd-dvd is meaningless. MS isn't going to get involved in the LAST format war because ALL content will be downloaded in the very near future, so why bother?
I still have my PS1 and PS2 and both play like their still brand new. I bought a PS3 at launch and it's perfect.
I can kinda see why ppl are disappointed with this. I would be to. Why the didn't integrate the HD-DVD is beyond me. But then again this isn't really a revision. It is just a new package to sell to new ppl with a lot of newer items.
Now as for a revision on the X360, I would see one that will have a newer processor and the HD-DVD integrated and probably a newer graphics card.
Now as for the ones who suggest the PS3. No offense to you guys but personally the PS3 sucks. They jammed it with more features to make up for the one that it will be missing as they get into later games. And that is graphics. Now I know I will get hit for this but if you read what I put here you will understand.
The Cell processor that Sony uses is pretty amazing. Not as powerful in gaming as say a Intel Core 2 Duo QX6800 but still a nice processor. Now the delay on the release of the PS3 was due to issues with the core not being able to process graphics as they had wanted and heating up to the point of melting the system. So at the last minute they went to NVidia for a GPU. What they got was a revised version of the 7800gtx card. Faster but exactly the same in the features of the core. Which means it is a DX9 HD capable card. Now the RSX(as they call it) is nice but not the best they could have gotten.
What the X360 uses 3 3.2Ghz processor cores developed by IBM/Toshiba(what a surprise the PS3s core was developed by the same ppl!!!!) and requested ATI to make them a specific core just for their system. It is called the Xenos. It is also known as the R500 for tech savvy ppl. It is basically based on the same core as the Radeon X1950XTX but a bit more advanced. It uses the 256bit ring bus system with 64 shaders and a pretty fast core. For retrospect, a company that develops cards had a working version of the Xenos for the PC. It literally got a 11k score on 3DMark 2006 on its own, which only thing close was a NVidia 7800GTX in SLI (2 cards working together for those who don't know) or the X1950XTX in Crossfire. That shows the pure power of the Xenos. As for graphics quality, this means that it will be able to throw out more polygons per second and allow much better graphics than the PS3 can.
Now for some they are all about the Cell core the PS3 uses. It is completely useless in the case of graphics. Graphics are highly dependant on the GPU, as the processor only loads and processes information from the disc/hard drive. Now maybe they have been able to set one core for pure physics processing but is that is so that means that the X360 also has one core set purely for physics too which allows the GPU to process more detailed graphics. But even if this means that the Xenos will also perform better and faster, still beating the RSX by a long shot.
So sorry to say this but the X360 will have better graphics capabilities than the PS3. But yeah the PS3 will load faster if thats more important to you. I myself like to have killer graphics with a good story/game play.
Now add better graphics with a lot of "used to be" exclusive to Sony games and Games for Windows(which allows developers to create games that console and PC gamers can play together) and you have a grand slam. I think in the end X360 will win this round and the Wii will even beat the PS3 for the fun and different type of gaming it brings. I see the waters getting rough for Sony and the PS3.
Oh and by the way Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are the same thing. They both can hold up to 50gigs per disc and can support 1080p HD. So all those advertisements that you see saying how much Blu-Ray enhances the picture is nothing. Its only better because you can fit higher resolution images/videos per disc. Although they will never hit the 50gig mark. They don't even use the dual layer DVDs 8.4gigs for the actual movie. Just for extras and more features like both directors cut and theatrical version.
There ya have it. I myself did a lot of research for this info while both consoles were being developed and came to this conclusion. I'm sure some will see what I say, take it in and think but the fan boys will always stick with their brand name and never understand the difference. Well peace out and game on.