Xbox 360: So ya want backwards compatability? It'll cost you

[Dimmona]

Today, both Kotaku and GameIndustry.biz mentioned that two price points is a definite for the next-gen Xbox. The difference being that the more pricier model comes with a hard drive, WebTV functionality, and backwards compatibility. According to Kotaku, "nVidia still owns patents on some of the original guts of the Xbox, so Msoft would have to pay royalties to the graphics company to use backwards compatibility. By moving this functionality to a $100 add-on, Msoft only has to pay royalties on that smaller amount of cash, instead of the full price of a new unit.

[Dimmona]

Oh, while on the same site I found this interesting tidbit on how the PSP is actually underclocked..  Apparently games like GT4 PSP will run at full bus speed in order to sacrifice battery life for graphic quality.

[th'FOOL]

If this is true (and I'm definitely taking an "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude here), for me it is a moot point anyway.  I will not own a next generation xbox unless it has a hard-drive anyway.  That was one of the selling points of my current xbox.  that and online play.

[DarkEL]

If this is true (and I'm definitely taking an "I'll believe it when I see it" attitude here), for me it is a moot point anyway.  I will not own a next generation xbox unless it has a hard-drive anyway.  That was one of the selling points of my current xbox.  that and online play.

ahh no big loss if we lose you as an xbox gamer - you sucked at Halo 2 anyways.



Want a re-match??

[Dimmona]

lol, that hurts.

Yeah, the hard disk + PVR functionality is enough to sell me on a higher end model, and even though it's not as important to me I will still gladly take backwards compatibility as a bonus.

[Kevin Grey]

That will be a tough decision that will likely be driven by my family's financial situation this Christmas.  My wife is already aware that the Xbox 2 will likely be my top Christmas gift and at $300 I think we can swing it.  At $400 it will be a much tougher sell, especially with a baby on the way right before that.  

I love backwards compatibility but I don't know if I love it for $100.  I don't need PVR- I already have 2 Tivos.

[infoghost]

I just want a videogame system that plays videogames.

Sort of like a cell phone, I just want to make a call, not control the world. I've got other stuff that can do the rest.

[warning]

I don't have an XBox but there are several XBox games I'd like to play.  I don't have a PVR.  I think I'm going to have to save my pennies for this.

But in the original post it said WebTV not PVR.  Are they the same thing?

[Hetz]

If Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or Madden 2006 is a launch title for the XBOX 360, it will be a day one purchase for me and I'll get the higher priced model with hard drive.

If not, then I can wait until next year, unless some of the launch games at E3 really wow me.

[AgtFox]

If Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion or Madden 2006 is a launch title for the XBOX 360, it will be a day one purchase for me and I'll get the higher priced model with hard drive.

I think chances are pretty high (like 99.9% high) that Madden 2006 will be a launch title along with many EA games for the new Xbox.  Oblivion...who knows.

[Devil]

IN!

Either way.

How is the PVR going to work, or will it even work with Direct TV?

[Eco-Logic]

I don't really care if it's backward compatible or not.  I plan on keeping my modded Xbox hooked up anyway.  It is entirely to valuable to put in a closet.   My wife and her friends enjoy playing the atari/nes/snes/genesis/mame/gameboy/colecovision games on it and would be upset if I put it away.

Can't wait for Xbox 2 though, and getting back on Live!  I won't be modding the next one, so I won't lose my Live privledge this time...

[ATB]

Didnt' read the article, but can you pick and choose?

For example: If I want the X2 with only the HD and not the PVR can I buy the components to build it?

PS. Putting all these features on one unit is a bad idea.  It's gonna break ALL the time...

[Beer Goggles]

I will wait until the cheaper version can be hacked so a hard drive can be installed.

[Zimix]

My wife and her friends enjoy playing the atari/nes/snes/genesis/mame/gameboy/colecovision games on it and would be upset if I put it away.

How do you put MAME on your XBOX?  My wife and I could have a blast with this.

[Dimmona]

My wife and her friends enjoy playing the atari/nes/snes/genesis/mame/gameboy/colecovision games on it and would be upset if I put it away.

How do you put MAME on your XBOX?  My wife and I could have a blast with this.

xboxscene.net has all of the info you need...

[Andrew Mallon]

Did they add PVR functionality to WebTV? My mother had it for a while and it was just web access displayed on TV.

[adamsappel]

WebTV is Microsoft's disastrous foray into Internet-lite browsing through your television. UltimateTV was Microsoft's disastrous foray into digital video recording.

[ChrisGwinn]

WebTV is Microsoft's disastrous foray into Internet-lite browsing through your television. UltimateTV was Microsoft's disastrous foray into digital video recording.

I've heard good things about UltimateTV from some of the people who used it.  Nobody's ever said anything good about WebTV.

[malichai11]

WebTV is Microsoft's disastrous foray into Internet-lite browsing through your television. UltimateTV was Microsoft's disastrous foray into digital video recording.

I've heard good things about UltimateTV from some of the people who used it.  Nobody's ever said anything good about WebTV.

UlimateTV was awesome. I was quite sad when our unit died and I was stuck with TIVO. Much easier to handle, much faster channel browsing, just a much more efficient system than TIVO.

[corruptrelic]

I just want a videogame system that plays videogames.

Sort of like a cell phone, I just want to make a call, not control the world. I've got other stuff that can do the rest.

There are far too many people who think the "all-in-one" is better, including me.
I don't have a dvd player and really enjoy being able to play dvds on my ps2.

My cell phone is an n-gage and being on the road so much, I admit it's really great having a system that you can use as a phone, go on the internet, play games online, and among other things, use as an alarm clock, video player, calculator, etc.
I have to admit I use my mobile internet/email and the alarm clock at the hotel rooms I stay at all the time.

Sure you can get other things to do these things but why have all the clutter? Why bring an alarm clock, a calculator, a gameboy/psp (which you can't play online on the road anyway) and say my laptop for online access.. when the N-gage can do it all in ONE little piece? Saves a lot of money not to mention space.

I'm not going to have an xbox for the original xbox games, xbox 2 for the newer games, a dvd player, all hooked up to my tv at once. I just want ONE system that can do it all.

Backwards compatiblity was one of the main reasons why I sold my xbox and got a ps2 (since sony confirmed backwards compatiblity long ago) so whenever I pay $40 or $50 for a game, I know I can still play it come next generation.
I plan on selling my ps2 (for whatever it's worth) as soon as the p3 comes out and put that $ towards it.

On the subject of backwards compatiblity, I think it sucks we have to pay $100 extra for it but with the extra features it might be worth it. Since I dont have an xbox anymore I guess it doesn't really matter much though.
I just hope microsoft doesn't make the same mistake again and took precautions this time around for the next generation of xbox after xbox 360. Classics like halo are games worth holding on to next generation and it's always a plus if you can still play that old game on the new system.

[ravenvii]

Ugh, imagine the fuckaroo this would cause - game developers will shy away from making games for the harddrive, because of the limited market, and those people who got a HD would complain that they wasted the money.

Sega 32X anyone?

And I think it's not modular - some XBox games require the harddrive, so I would assume the backwards compatibility components goes with the HD. And I don't want to pay for a stupid PVR/WebTV/whatever it is, I have no need for them. I don't watch TV. And that leaves me the base model, and I won't buy it either, unless Microsoft miraculously pulls a rabbit out of their hat and beats out Sony with must-have games (bloody unlikely).

[Kevin Grey]

Ugh, imagine the fuckaroo this would cause - game developers will shy away from making games for the harddrive, because of the limited market, and those people who got a HD would complain that they wasted the money.

I think the idea is that the harddrive won't be supported in any Xbox 2 applications as far as game performance goes.  It would be there for backwards compatibility, music and live downloads, and any other downloadable content in Xbox 2's future.

[Fuzzballx]

Thats the way it was with the xbox 1 right?  The HD wasn't used at all for game performance if i remember right, only music, dl content, and savegames.  Frankly, i believe the hard drive will definitely be modular assuming those pics that have been posted are real and it has memory unit slots.  You'll basically want to pick, memory unit or hard drive addon?

[Knightshade Dragon]

Thats the way it was with the xbox 1 right? The HD wasn't used at all for game performance if i remember right, only music, dl content, and savegames.

Depends on the title.  For instance, if you let Pirates of the Carribean run for ~ 30 minutes the performance was better as it streamed the disc to the HDD as you played.

[Rob_Merritt]

Remember when the Xbox was first being hyped they mentioned a game were you could drive Germany. Not drive in Germany, but drive ALL of Germany. All thanks to the hard drive

Never came out, did it?

[AgtFox]

Actually, if I remember correctly the Xbox stores in the hard drive a cache (I'm sure not very big) of the last 3 games you played on your Xbox.  This allows things to load quicker for those games.  Once a new game is put in that takes up the newest of the 3 spots.

[Kevin Grey]

Thats the way it was with the xbox 1 right?  The HD wasn't used at all for game performance if i remember right, only music, dl content, and savegames.  Frankly, i believe the hard drive will definitely be modular assuming those pics that have been posted are real and it has memory unit slots.  You'll basically want to pick, memory unit or hard drive addon?

Many Xbox games use the hard-drive as a cache.  

Memory Cards aren't new either- the Xbox uses them too but they plug into the controller, not the console itself.

[Roguetad]

My thompson drive xbox is on the verge of dying after 2 years.  I've been hoping that the drive will make it to December, but based on how Jade Empire played, I'm guessing it's days are numbered.  With that said, I need backwards compatability, since my original xbox will be dead by then.  I'm willing to pay extra, although I think they're crazy not to include backwards compatability with the main baseline unit.

I loved having my xbox serve as my dvd player, which helped motivate my wife to jump on board with purchasing it at launch.  If the PVR comments are true, I'll use that to get her on board again

[morlac]

I play alot of sports game on my xbox so I am interested in how the saved games will do on the new system.  Will it be like PS1&2 where one season of Madden will pretty much take up a whole $20 memory card.  Thats why i loved my HD  soo much.  I usually have 2 franchises going in Madden and a couple Dynastys in NCAA at ALL times.  Throw in some MVP baseball, the new winning eleven game, and various other titles and I would be looking at $100 in memory cards right there.  If they have made improvements in that regard I can live without it.

[Kevin Grey]

I play alot of sports game on my xbox so I am interested in how the saved games will do on the new system.  Will it be like PS1&2 where one season of Madden will pretty much take up a whole $20 memory card.  Thats why i loved my HD  soo much.  I usually have 2 franchises going in Madden and a couple Dynastys in NCAA at ALL times.  Throw in some MVP baseball, the new winning eleven game, and various other titles and I would be looking at $100 in memory cards right there.  If they have made improvements in that regard I can live without it.

There is a picture from Our Colony net floating around that looks like it shows a 64 MB memory card so unless the data demands for Madden go way up it shouldn't take up the whole card.

And its possible that the Xbox 2 may have some internal memory.  There are rumors of a scratch drive internally and its possible MS may open up some of that space for memory saves.

[AgtFox]

The picture is in that Deathticles! sticky in this forum.  It's the ourcolony.net group for CG.  I've been answering puzzles lately, but only with help from other forums.

[ingrin]

I loved having my xbox serve as my dvd player, which helped motivate my wife to jump on board with purchasing it at launch.  If the PVR comments are true, I'll use that to get her on board again

Ditto.  I've already broached the subject with her in fact and she seemed receptive to the idea.

[CeeKay]

I'm so in for the more expensive version.  $100 more?  no prob!  Give me my HD or give me someone else's death!