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[GigaDrive]

The Xenon Controllers will vary only slighty fronm the current models with a noted migration of the Black and White buttons to Left and Right Flipper Positions.

- Kits for Xenon Developement have double the amount of memory that the final console will have.

- Developers have been told that Live Games under Xenon will not be able to assume that a hard disk is present (at this time a decision to include a native built in hard drive had not been made) SAme developers have been told that Launch Titles for Xenon should not presume a HD is present either. They've also been told that there will be persistant storage on the majority of units.

- Interestingly enough.. Dev kits will have 80Gb or larger HD's.

- People who love speed.. will be happy to know that geometry processing is approx. 100x faster for shader performance, while memory bandwidth has been improved by 4x over the original Xbox.

- Media for the games.. a DVD variant (UDF 2.0 or higher) dual layer with at last 7GB across 2 3.5GB layers and might include support for multi game disks.

- People playing on Live on an Xbox will be ablbe to message and communicate and do other community activities with their newer Xenon friends. Live will also host persistant data for games.

- Code is being added to allow better control for developers and publishers to limit where a game can be played via localizations strings. Expect multiple version of the same game.. for differnet regions.

- Expect Beta Hardware and Software to be in the devs hands in Q1 of 2005.

http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=155839&st=75#

 

[ravingloon]

"They've also been told that there will be persistant storage on the majority of units.:"

What the hell does that mean?

 

[GigaDrive]

I didnt actually catch that myself. wtf indeed.

 

[Ghost]

It means there will be an Xenon with a hard drive (or other persistant storage medium), and a Xenon without a hard drive built in.

The fact they are telling devs to assume there isnt one shows that the hard drive wont be a factor in game performance, it will probably just add certain extra functionality (soundtracks, Tivo maybe, etc).

 

[Nerevar]

- Code is being added to allow better control for developers and publishers to limit where a game can be played via localizations strings. Expect multiple version of the same game.. for differnet regions.

Wait, are they saying that there will be different versions of a game within the same "DVD region" (i.e. region 1 - US southwest for example)? Or are they just reiterating that it will be region-locked? This confuses me.

 

[Ghost]

they are almost certainly referring to Europe, after the troubles with Germany not wanting decapitation in Ninja Gaiden.

 

[Nerevar]

they are almost certainly referring to Europe, after the troubles with Germany not wanting decapitation in Ninja Gaiden.

ahh, I can see where regionalization would a problem in Europe. Wasn't thinking about that.

 

[ravingloon]

It means there will be an Xenon with a hard drive (or other persistant storage medium), and a Xenon without a hard drive built in.

The fact they are telling devs to assume there isnt one shows that the hard drive wont be a factor in game performance, it will probably just add certain extra functionality (soundtracks, Tivo maybe, etc).

Yes. But the whole majority statement is odd. If it's an add-on they're talking about, that's a bold statement to say the majority of users are gonna purchase it.

And if its some kind of persistent storage (Other than hard drive) that's built in (In addition to the larger, optional hard drive), wouldn't this be in all? To me it's an odd statement.

 

[Nerevar]

I thought it had to do with persistent storage via xbox live (already announced / confirmed), and that it looks like Microsoft expects the majority of xenon users to get xbox live too. I don't know, just my take on it.

 

[IgeL]

Code is being added to allow better control for developers and publishers to limit where a game can be played via localizations strings. Expect multiple version of the same game.. for differnet regions.

Uh. I wonder what kind of regions they will have... Like can I still import games from the UK and play them on my Scandinavian Xenon. If not, well uh.

 

[cja]

It means there will be an Xenon with a hard drive (or other persistant storage medium), and a Xenon without a hard drive built in.

I thought they were just talking about the memory card/Disk-on-key solution. Don't see the logic behind MS doing a cheaper HDD-less version of Xenon if they don't expect it to sell as much as the hypothetical premium product.

Uh. I wonder what kind of regions they will have... Like can I still import games from the UK and play them on my Scandinavian Xenon. If not, well uh.

More fines from the EU if they try to do that, its surely a restriction of trade.

 

[The Faceless Master]

sounds like they expect a majority of people to get a HD...
and i sure would, if i could just buy any old HD at the crazy prices thye seem to be going for nowadays... but if it's their overpriced proprietary BS, that may delay my purchase...
it should just come with one built in...

 

[The Faceless Master]

I thought they were just talking about the memory card/Disk-on-key solution. Don't see the logic behind MS doing a cheaper HDD-less version of Xenon if they don't expect it to sell as much as the hypothetical premium product.


More fines from the EU if they try to do that, its surely a restriction of trade.

it would be a restriction of trade when they try and help most of europe have an uncensored game and germany gets one that fits better with their laws?

 

[shpankey]

Cool.

 

[Akira]

shpankey: I hope your source is misinformed, cuz that would be stupid.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

- Media for the games.. a DVD variant (UDF 2.0 or higher) dual layer with at last 7GB across 2 3.5GB layers and might include support for multi game disks.

How would you not support multi game discs?

Unless that's supposed to mean multiple discs in the system at the same time, which would be a Good Thing.

 

[DopeyFish]

How would you not support multi game discs?

Unless that's supposed to mean multiple discs in the system at the same time, which would be a Good Thing.

Xbox doesn't support multiple discs. The system soft resets when you eject

 

[Deleted member 284]

"They've also been told that there will be persistant storage on the majority of units.:"

What the hell does that mean?

JAPAN

 

[Jesiatha]

Xbox doesn't support multiple discs. The system soft resets when you eject

So the machine would reset between discs, but you could still put half of a game on one disc and half on another.

 

[Miburou]

Xbox doesn't support multiple discs. The system soft resets when you eject

I think some games can disable that feature. I know some did on the Dreamcast.

 

[jedimike]

It sounds pretty obvious that MS is moving towards a budget Xenon and then a "loaded" Xenon. That is all fine with me, but they better have them both available at launch. I don't want to have to wait a year for Xenon "loaded".

Really, the reason I got Xbox at launch was for the added features it offered.