It's always good to see rumors coalescing into neat little bundles, which in Microsoft's case means that its
expected 360 hardware refresh and
Natal re-introduction will coincide at E3 this year. Surfer Girl, one of the gaming industry's more notorious rumor hounds, is telling us that Microsoft is about to unveil a slimmer Xbox 360 at the upcoming E3 in June, together with Natal hardware bundles. She describes the new system design as "pretty neat" and suggests there'll be a shift to black as the console's primary color, to go along with Natal's darker hue, which in turn was dictated by the fact it'd have to sit alongside dark and moody HDTV sets. Very
feng shui of Microsoft indeed. For the final, and most unbelievable of her predictions, she tells us -- while highlighting the initials M.G.S. -- that we'll be "very surprised and very pleased" by one of the Natal games revealed at the show. Seriously,
Metal Gear Natal?
[Thanks, Lander]
Update: Looks like this was all a
hilarious hoax perpetrated by someone pretending to be Surfer Girl. Yeah, we've heard plenty of "real" rumors about a slimmer Xbox and Natal bundles, but it looks like there's no weight to this one.
posted April 26th 2010 3:35AM
@(Unverified) just gimme a new xbox is all I am asking. Give it to me now!
Just hope someone hacks the natal device so that everyone that needs it can have some good motion capture and motion tracking at a reasonable price. Enough with the abusive gear prices on this sort of tech. In the form of a nice API like what they did with the Wii controls. Here's hoping.
@fast
Actually they'll probably be selling Natal seperately, and if it's indeed a USB peripheral for the Xbox I can't see why it wouldn't connect to PCs, and I wouldn't even be surprised (not a lot, at least) if Microsoft would support that.
@graey yep, seen the sold separate option commented around. It would be a great option for motion capture for independent 3d animation production. That sort of hardware runs in the thousands still.
xbox sucks in my opinion!
@apealer You suck, in my opinion.
@SewerShark
What does he suck, in my opinion.
I'd be well up for a Slim 360, day one for me... Natal? Hmmm.... Not so much...
about time they realized black is the color for the loungeroom
BLU-RAY!
The 360 is a serious media centre now - and this would just be perfect
@prowlmedia yea finally its a media server
Looks awesome, but it doesn't look like the HD will fit on this thing.
They'll call it Xbox 7
"Because not getting the RROD was my idea"
(Will this finally be a SKU that we can trust to not fail?)
@nntpgrip
"One day, I was sitting on my couch playing Gears of War when my Xbox red ringed on me, and suddenly it hit me:
[cue angelic chorus and actor playing more sexy version of me]
'My Xbox 360 shouldn't break down so goddamned much'!
[end chorus and sexy actor]
And then Microsoft comes out with this, Xbox 7, which breaks down a hell of a lot less! I mean, I don't want to take credit for it, but yeah, I totally thought it up! It needs replacing WAY less often, now!
My name is Mike, and Xbox 7 was my idea!"
Maybe this "Surfer Girl" is more notorious or well-known than I realize, but why is Engadget giving her her own post?
Not one of her predictions couldn't have been guessed by any idiot who has even a passing interest in gadget blogs:
- The possibility of an Xbox 360 slim has been well-known to the public for almost two months now.
- The idea of bundling Natal with the 360 isn't new, either; industry analysts have been suggesting that for awhile, too, and it's still not that much of a stretch, anyways.
- In almost every shot of Natal, it's been a black device. Guessing that the Xbox 360 will be primarily black from now on to match Natal isn't a huge leap, either.
As for the M.G.S. comment, if she means Metal Gear Solid, that's not a new idea, either. It's been the rumor that won't die (but I thought it finally had). If it means Microsoft Game Studio, it's the most generic teaser ever.
Wake me up when this so-called tipster shows us something new. She has absolutely nothing new to share.
@EatMoreBread
Actually "Surfer Girl" is probably some fat old bald dude sitting in his chair with his junk hanging out.
@Quackula
Who probably is laughing that he got his own Engadget article just by making vague and generalized predictions that anyone could come up with. "Wow! If I just make stuff up on the internet, I'll be famous!" As if there's not enough of that already.
@Quackula
And I just saw the "hoax" update. Seriously, Engadget, take a lesson from this. No respectable journalist would post this as news.
i really can't trust that company, is the r.r.o.d still around?? if so, it has been 5 years microsoft, how hard is it to fix it.
How slim can they make it? It's thinner than the ps3 slim.
Even if MS themselves dont announce a bundle, i'm pretty sure the retailers will bundle them to boosts sales.