Microsoft trumps Kinect with 'sleek, silent, sexy' Xbox
Xbox this week, Kinect 'thereafter'
Microsoft has unveiled the latest and greatest Xbox 360, along with its new no-controller-required controller, Kinect (née Project Natal).
Earlier today The Reg — in our hardware incarnation — caught a rumor from the Italian website Console Tribe about a new Xbox. We doubted it, but we're now happy to say that we were overly cautious. Redmond announced both the new XBox and Kinect during a Cirque du Soleil–studded extravaganza at Monday's E3 gamefest in Los Angeles.
Surprise! A new Xbox 360, here seen hiding behind the new Kinect uncontroller-controller.
Tagged by Microsoft as "sleek, silent and sexy," the new Xbox 360 breaks console tradition by being released in mid-year rather than during the hardware-happy holiday season — meaning around late November for Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Yule shopping frenzy.
The Xbox box comes with 802.11n Wi-Fi and a 250GB hard drive, and Microsoft touts the fact that it's "whisper quiet" — a claim that we'll have to hear to verify after it ships to retailers on Tuesday. When it arrives at your local shop, you'll be able to pick one up for $299.99.
The new Xbox is, of course, "Kinect Ready," but that motion-only controller won't be available until November 4, and then only in North America. Microsoft didn't give any firm details on when the Kinect will be available to the rest of the world, saying only that its global expansion would come "thereafter," and it did not name a price.
It did, however, show a series of Kinectified games to the E3 audience — and from their retro look, it appears that Redmond has taken a page from the Nintendo Wii's design manual — where it decrees that motion-controlled games should be more playful than, say, Halo: Reach.
Don't expect to play Kinect football with Halo's Master Chief Petty Officer John-117
In another nod to Nintendo and its Wii Fit, Kinected Xboxers will be able to tone up with "Your Shape: Fitness Evolved." There will also be "Dance Central" from MTV Games, which Microsoft describes as "the first full-body, controller-free dance video game with fun choreography for beginners and experts," and which will come complete with tunes from Lady Gaga, No Doubt, M.I.A., Bell Biv Devoe, and others. ®
COMMENTS
@AC "still noisy, still unreliable, etc"
"If anyone things this is some RROD magic bullet, they are sorely mistaken"
- Are you stuck in 2007, Sir? What reports are these, as so far I've not read anything to back up your statements.
I have two elites, both post-Jasper update and they are fine. Never red-ringed. The re-designed internals and the move from two small (noisy) fans to one larger and quieter fan (less rpm's) means much more efficiency.
Lets look at your other gems shall we?
"Does this new model include Blu-Ray? -NO"
-Well of course not Bluray is a Sony standard and MS has been pushing towards digital distribution for some time. Add the delayed seek time on blue-ray disks and its easy to see why they stuck with the DVD. Not to mention the fact that it would render current 360's unable to use anything brought out exclusively to bluray.
"Does it offer ANYTHING aside from Wifi (which the PS3 has included since launch) - NO"
- Quieter, smaller, WiFi N, 5 USB points (up from three), new removable HDD enclosure, TOSlink output. Its a remodel, not a new generation, what did you expect?
"Does it still need the HUGE power brick -YES"
- Actually thats now smaller too. I'd personally take an external brick over an inbuilt one any day. Easier to replace.
"Worse still, it does not allow you to use your own storage devices, and you have to throw your old overpriced Microsoft devices away and buy new ones."
- Actually you can use FAT formatted USB devices. I use a corsair memory stick at the moment. Unless you mean the HDD. The MS memory card is now phased out but easily transferred to old Xbox HDD and moved to USB or swapped with the HDD transfer kit.
I realise you are a PS3 fanboy. I like my PS3, I watch blurays more than streamed movies from Zune. However I think a lot of your facts are in fact not actually facts. You rant about a problem that went away a long time ago wth the RROD, you claim unrealibility on a console that hasn't actually been released yet and quote numerous 'articles' wihtout any reference. I suggest you really think about what you write next time before pouring out-dated generalisms into a comments box.
Have a nice day.
wow
youve got quite a lot of hate in you, try some yoga.
Its a games console, the people who play with it will like it, eye toy was a kinda boring this is new and shiny. From my knowledge you can use seperate harddrives there was a patch released that enabled it.
I'll believe it when I don't hear it
They said the original Xbox was quiet. They lied. They said the first Xbox 360 was quiet. They lied. My assumption is that they're lying again.
USB
One of the missed features of the redesigned 360 is an increase in the number of USB ports. There's the regular two at the front (under a flap on the left, if you're looking at the promo picture) but there's now three at the rear, instead of the usual one.
Hardly a killer feature, but it does open up a little flexibility in the 360's expansion options. Personally, I'll be attaching at least one 16GB flash drive at the rear. All the better to run installed games from.
I'm looking forward to upgrading (or perhaps just accompanying) my current 360 with the new one.
