Short post pulling together some bit & peices surrounding the new Xbox…
Offical GDC Coverage
Xbox.com are providing video and audio (MP3, WMA) feeds of J Allard’s keynote address. They’ve also got a demo video and screenshots of the Xbox Guide – what appears to be a common interface to Live, media and other content which will be available regardless of the game you are currently playing.
Unofficial GDC Coverage and Speculation
Gamespy have been gleaning information from GDC attendees & developers, and have posted (purely speculative, but interesting nonetheless) information about the hardware and Live integration and Gamer Profiles.
Gamer Profiles sound cool from a configuration point of view – it’s frustrating to have to set your name and control preferences for each game. I also like the idea of the gamer achievements as it proves you’ve done what you claim to.
Is This What The Hardware Will Look Like?
Joystiq have a photo of what they reckon the new hardware will look like. Engadget refute this, citing a trusted source that this is a prototype. Seeing as the photo corresponds with an earlier Engadget posting, it certainly looks legitimate even if it’s not the final hardware.
Not sure about the handle, but it’s certainly not as ugly as the original PS2 or even the original Xbox.
Personally, based on the comments coming from Microsoft about how they see the next Xbox as being part of the whole home media experience, I’d expect it to be more DVD player looking than this design, but seeing as there’s some weird and wonderful looking DVD players out there who knows…
My (and others) Thoughts
Tycho from Penny Arcade says:
More interesting even than the raw numbers are the policies they plan to implement for developers, which they suggest are things like compulsory live functionality, custom soundtracks, widescreen, and 720p.
…and he’s got it dead right. I’ve commented in the past how much I like Xbox Live, but since then I’ve grown frustrated with the way that each game implements it slightly (sometimes completely) differently. Don’t get me wrong – the service is still great, it’s just not consistant depending on the game you are playing. The same was true for custom soundtracks – great idea but too few games implemented it. If they can enforce these policies successfully, then it will be great for gamers.
