Microsoft: No new Xbox coming next year
No matter what people thought they heard Steve Ballmer say in Chicago, Microsoft is not planning to introduce a successor to the Xbox 360 next year.
In a blog posting on Thursday night, Microsoft said that the Xbox 360 is "not even halfway" through its current lifecycle and will be here long into the next decade. The company is planning to introduce a new gesture-recognizing controller, code-named Project Natal, and that is expected next year, although Microsoft says it isn't talking timing with regards to Natal.
"As the Xbox team stated at E3 two weeks ago, we are not even halfway through the current console generation lifecycle and believe Xbox 360 will be the entertainment center in the home for long into the next decade," Microsoft's Major Nelson said in a blog post. "Project Natal will be an important part of this platform, but we have not confirmed a launch date at this time."
Of course, that is what has opened the door to all the speculation. In his posting, CNET colleague David Carnoy notes that Microsoft says it isn't planning an all-new Xbox 360 either.
That doesn't completely shut the door on new hardware for 2010. Although Microsoft has said it plans to offer Natal as an add-on to the Xbox 360, it seems reasonable that the company might well come out with some new bundle or set-up to accompany Natal's arrival as it looks to convert all of those Wii owners.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina. 
If they do in fact bring a new model out, can they be sued by the SEC or by a class action of '09-'10 buyers?
Buy gaming PC and save your headaches and money. Keep buy Xbox + Xbox 360 games for your PC. It will work! Microsoft will explain more in near future. Not too long to go! Be relax and happy! :-)
who cares!
Instead Xbox into PC and save people fuss and stress time without buy any xbox consoles. That is simple. No need to hurry. Microsoft will know about it.
Just buy PC!
I not fans of Xbox. I am PC and Nintendo fans. ;-) Be happy!
So Microsoft will release powerful tool for Windows user to allow you use Xbox and Xbox 360 games to able play on your computer to save time fuss for waste time. Don't get wrong! Microsoft will be promise release for Windows XP, Vista and 7 to play games on it. Require Dual Core with 3 GHz or above, Nvidia 6800 or ATI X850 and above, 1 or 2 GB of RAM require to run any Xbox + Xbox 360 games to save your headaches.
New Xbox will not come out, but must instead of PC! PC rules. See that? I told you! I dislike Xbox 360 because due to hardware problems, people report bad news on Xbox hardware. Better not buy any Xbox console. Any Xbox consoles are sucks. PC stay forever!!! You can change hard drive, motherboard, processors, ram, video cards, and much more without stress buy xbox console!!! Don't buy xbox consoles!!!
Just buy PC and play xbox + xbox 360 games on it! You are good to go! Be happy! Nobody complaint on PC hardwares. PC is best ever in the world!
This is one area where Microsoft have done "the right thing", the PC well isn't always where Microsoft's customer service shines. (In fact it is absolutely dreadful)
So do I want to see a move from XBox360 to PC? No, it's the last thing I want to see. I don't even see such a thing as realistic. The XBox360 is a very different beast to the PC - XBox360 games would be highly sub-optimal on a PC. I mean the PC would not be running at it's best when emulating an XBox360 (it's kind of the reverse of what happens when you run an "original XBox" game on an XBox360 - the game would be better rewritten for that hardware.
I don't see why Microsoft would want to do this (even if the technical difficulties could be overcome) as if it works well it would cannibalise the PC games market, if not it will just damage the XBox franchise). Instead what I think is more likely is that Microsoft will release games that can coexist on the "XBox Live" network so PC players can play XBox360 players within the "game world" but each would be running a game optimised for their platform.
However, even this strategy is "high risk" as the PC (being a "flexible" - or "hackable") platform might allow PC games an unfair advantage - hurting the XBox360 franchise. It remains to be seen if Microsoft will head this concern and if I'm right to worry.
No, M$ will not allow Xbox 360 games to play on Windows.
Why? Well, guest86, the Xbox 360's CPU is a G5. The same G5 CPUs that Apple was using in the Mac towers before the Intel switch. If you can show me decent G5, or even G4 and below, emulation that works on a x86/x64 CPUs, then you have something they'd want.
It's also not possible for proper emulation of the regular Xbox, due to the way the discs were written.
I recommend, for you, setting up a Windows computer with Windows 95 and installing Creative Labs' 3DO Blaster and Connectix's Virtual Game Station, then you'd be able to play the 250 games for 3DO and 600 games for regular, old PlayStation easily.
Somehow I seriously doubt those specs. There is no way any dual core processor from AMD or Intel at 3GHZ or 4GHZ will be able to emulate the PPC chips in the 360 at a rate where the games would be as playable as a 360. And 1-2 GB RAM? I call foul on that as well. I would image at least 4. We aren't talking about virtualization here... unless Microsoft has come out with a way to completely translate all commands into a format PPC based software will accept, with minimal impact or requirements (I doubt Microsoft has done this, or even has the capability to get it done.) Apple bought a technology that allowed them to translate things that way but, while it was really good, it was no where near efficient enough to run things at full speed.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.
- keyboard
- mouse
Thats it!
Helen P.
Pfff..
Apple's newest keyboards are all about looks -- not functionality. They've got *decent* tactile feedback considering their form factor - but no better than decent.
And the mighty mouse is an example of a company being so stubborn for so long on such a silly point (their refusal to include a right-button) that when they finally did it, they had to cover up their stubbonness with some sort of retarded design. For example:
1. You can't click the left and right buttons together in a mighty mouse (useful for gaming or for simulating a third button)
2. The scroll bar is ridiculously tiny and can get clogged with dirt easily
3. You can't open the mouse to clean it if it does get clogged with dirt
4. If your right-click is anywhere near the center of the mouse it gets confused for a left click
"You're not far off the mark, according to internal memos. "
I'd love to see these internal memos you refer to. They sure aren't being sent through Microsoft email. They aren't on any DL list dealing with Xbox at all- and I monitor them for support issues.
What's your source?
Not that I hadn't seen plans or anything...
BD-Rom is possible, but I doubt it, as actually making games for it would mean dropping compatibility with current systems.
Stop posting here -- you're embarrassing yourself.
I've seen you post that G5 rubbish three times now. The Xenon processor in an Xbox 360 *does have* a Power PC core (three of them in fact) but that's definitely not the same as saying it uses a G5 processor.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenon_(processor)
Further, you're suggesting they're going to go from a triple-core design in the current xbox 360 to a dual-core design in the next one? Are you out of your mind?
Lastly, with the overheating issues they've had (and the reliability problems associated with that) you don't think they'd at least think once about going back to Intel processors? And if not Intel perhaps even an ARM-based processor running in a higher power-envelope or something like that?
This means that Smaller nimble groups that can get got backing and perhaps share compatible support for at least some games with other platform might well stand a better chance in entering the console market.
The truth is that the longer the major players hold back on bringing in a new generation the more lightly others eye up the possibility of them entering.
I would predict that the next generation console wars will be more like early 90's Japan where many companies had a good crack at the consumer wip.
If a company can break past the dominance of the race leaders then although quite a gamble to try could earn them a good customer base and good revenues especially with so many good cheap hardware option around.
All the last generations of consoles were based on Power PC specs but much work now in terms of code has been done on GPU processing so in the console wars their will be room for all X64 manufactures and space perhaps for the likes of freescale or ARM chips too as these chips could be mass produced well and could be integrated with GPU processing units. Never the less there will still be that need to get a strong developer and user based for what ever consoles Emerge. I Think It would be fair the say that the time line will lightly be a little here and there hit and miss and not a foucused period for the next gen race with all sorts having a crack at all times one'ce one goes in aiming to get the gold first that is.
Wii which is great but Mr. Balmer had better be careful about what and how says things in reguards to ne Microsoft products. Project Natal is great but I really do believe that the XBOX 360 is overdue for a major upgrade.
I'll get project Natal when it gets released while in the meantime wait for the supposed XBOX 720 whenever it comes out 2011...2012..2013 ect.
Xbox 360 was launched in 2006, so 2011 is the earliest anyone should expect a brand new platform. Small hardware improvements, yes, but not a new platform until at least then.
- by Heebee Jeebies June 19, 2009 2:45 PM PDT
- As an owner of a PS3, Xbox 360 and a Wii of the three the Xbox is by far the best. It has the best interface, it works better for streaming video, music and photos from your computer to your TV and it has a better selection of games.
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- by bbake516 June 24, 2009 1:51 PM PDT
- So you are saying that a console that breaks down every 14 or 15 months is the best console? I have or have had all 3. After going through 4 xbox 360 consoles, I decided that MS obviously has no clue when it comes to designing hardware and I got rid of it. Best move I ever made. While they knocked the software portion of the xbox360 out of the park, what's the point of having it if the hardware won't work? It's useless. The only thing lacking on the PS3 is the private chat function. Everything else is far more advanced then this version of the xbox could even dream of being. Too bad for xbox 360 owners because I see more people doing exactly what I did, trade in your broken xbox's for a PS3.
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(35 Comments)The PS3 is a very nice blu-ray player, the games available while not as extensive as the Xbox or Wii has the big problem that none of them make use of the powerful processor and graphics chips in the PS3. Sony over did the PS3 and that caused it to be far too expensive. Then they felt that a way to cut the cost was to remove PS2 compatibility which was a mistake, a big one. As a Blu-Ray player it is tops. For everything else including gaming, a media streaming it isn't all that hot. Games might be if there were any that really made use of the hardware.
The Wii is cute, the controllers are amusing but in the end it comes off as a toy. Everything on it costs money, you have to pay for a web browser (opera, which is free for everyone but Wii users.) It doesn't stream worth beans and requires a third party for cost application to do that and even with that it doesn't work with a darn. The games are too cutesy and childish and have far too much Japanese influence in the graphics and game style and characters. It is almost more like a brain washing tool to convert the rest of the world to Japanese. My 65 year old mother likes, but then it is simple for her to understand. For me it is a toy and is basically a reboxed Gamecube with controllers that are interesting for the first few minutes but then get on your nerves after that.
The Xbox 360 is the clear winner, though far from perfect. Microsoft needs to build in better media streaming functions. Game systems are going to continue to grow to be the entertainment hub in peoples homes. I can say have 1,000 DVDs on a PC hard drive ready at a couple of presses of button is glorious.
Robert