X-Box 360

xbox 360 Release Date: November 2005

 

Not sure about that. Haven't read up on it that much honestly.

 

Holy crap. That is close.

There's so many questions I have.. I want to sell my xbox now while I can still get money for it.. will it be backwards compatible with games like Halo 2?

 

I believe XBOX 360 will be backwards compatible for sure. They would lose a lot of money if they didn't do that....

 

Not sure how much money you can get for your Xbox since the release is so close and I think they've stopped making Xbox's altogether.

M$ was on the fence about the backward compatibility issue. They were trying to do it all in software, and the 360 isn't powerful enough for it.

Recently nVIDIA and M$ came to an agreement that will enable the 360 to play orginal Xbox games.

 

Good deal.

I doubt the old memory units will work on the new controllers, right?

 

I have no idea on that one. Most people I know always used the hard drive for thier saves.

 

MS said it would be backwards compatible with their top selling games. So Halo would work but not everything will.

 

I sold my Xbox for the same reason (360 is coming out) and I was able to snag $124 for it off of eBay. Since they stop making them though you might consider holding on to it.

 

my xbox broke down on me about a month ago and i'm probably just going to wait and replace it with the new one when it comes out. i do miss halo 2 and mvp baseball though.

 

I was told the original X box games will stop production 12-18 months after launch of XBox 360. Also 360 is not backwards compatible. You can only play 360 games on it. Why would they do this - easy MSFT is greedy. They want people to shell out the $$ for the new systems. Fortunately, ps3 is backwards compatible.

However, until production is stopped for original Xbox, games will be produced on dual platforms (ie I believe Madden football will be on 2 platforms)

 

from what i heard about BC, only a certain amt of games will be compatible. MS and Nvidia did strike a deal to play xbox games on the 360 to avoil going to legal funds. from the rumors of the release date, it is expected to be in by turkey day with a price b/t 300 to 360 most likely

 

Between $300-$360 is not bad at all. I first around around $500.

 

Why get the November version when it won't even be able to use HD-DVD???

I'll just wait until Spring '06 to get the updated 360 or Blu-ray PS3.

 

I don't know if that was all guesswork or what, but I have a hard time believing your first statement after reading your second one. Plus, I don't see how NOT supporting BC will get Microsoft more money since people will probably be more willing to buy an XB360 and XB360 games if they know it will be BC with Halo, MVP Baseball, Ninja Gaiden, etc.

From what I understand, at least some games will be BC, although the Nvidia deal seems to help create a console with BC with most, if not all, Xbox games. Although even in a best case scenario, there may be a few games that don't work (kind of like the PS2). I'm glad Microsoft is seeing this as important though.

As for the whole issue of game support for the Xbox, that would be up to the developers. I thought I read that Microsoft would continue to develop games for the console for quite a while ('07 IIRC), but it seems like most of their studios are working on next-gen games. Conker may have been their last project for the Xbox. Other developers/publishers, such as EA, may and probably will support the Xbox for a little while, although I imagine only the big ones will, and probably mostly for multiplatform games.

FWIW, the PS1 made some nice profits even after the PS2 came out (30M console sales after PS2 debut, IIRC) thanks to support from Sony and other developers/publishers. That's one reason why I think Microsoft might be making a mistake by stopping production of the Xbox. With a little bit of support and a price drop, the Xbox could continue its "momentum," giving MS some nice profits as well as some competition for the PS2 (and Gamecube?) in the following years. Even at >$100 prices, both companies could be making a decent amount of money on these consoles due to the attractive price and the smaller manufacturing costs.

As for price, I'd guess somewhere around $300, maybe a little more. Certainly not ~$500 though, unless you live outside the US or something like that. That would be a disaster waiting to happen, IMO. The ~$300 price point has been a sweet spot for almost all the successful consoles in the past, and I don't think any of the newer consoles will really go too much over that. Unfortunately, it sounds like the games will cost more, which makes up for any high expectations for the price of the consoles.

 

Is this true? I haven't read anything about this?

 

Actually, Microsoft was very concerned about the backwards compatibility issue. Their theory is that if they can do backwards compatibility without sacrificing any technological advancement then they would do it. If they had to hold back at all on the advancement in order to preserve compatibility, then they would not do it.

 

Probably more of a rumor than a fact, IIRC, but it is a possibility for Microsoft. It sounded like they didn't want to go with either side early in the war, but might go with the "winner" later on. I imagine they could come out with a "upgraded" version of the Xbox 360, maybe a little similar to the PSX.

I'm not sure how much they'll push it though. It would probably be more for movies than anything, or else they'll end up angering the early adopters. Guess we'll have to wait and see.