Xbox 360 pictures leaked, peripherals and customization revealed

[Reverend]

Though the MTV special that shows off the Xbox 360 won't air until this Thursday, it was actually shot last Thursday in Los Angeles. And while the 200-odd attendees were asked not to reveal the secrets they were privy to at the event, naturally, a few couldn't help but spill the beans.

Unfortunately for Microsoft, those few were also armed with digital cameras, which they used to snap pictures of the Xbox 360 console. The photo of the console confirmed the authenticity of earlier pictures, showing a silver, slightly concave-shaped console that looks almost as though it's designed to sit atop the slightly convex current-generation Xbox. It also confirmed the so-called "ring of light" theory, which had said the device would sport an oversized power button surrounded by a ring of LEDs, as well as that it would sport two slots for 64MB memory cards and one for a 40GB hard drive on the console's side.

Besides the Xbox 360 itself, the leaked snapshot showed three peripherals, including its controller. The controller pictured was clearly the same as that shown in pictures "leaked" by the Microsoft-associated teaser site Ourcolony.net. That site also recently released another picture of the controller, which shows the controller in more detail, including what appears to be the new Xbox logo...the same globular insignia featured in a shot leaked months previous. It also shows what appears to be a charging port on the bottom of the console.

Besides the controller, the other Xbox 360 peripherals pictured in the leaked photo were an apparently wireless headset and an EyeToy-like camera. The latter recalls the add-on mentioned by Microsoft corporate vice president and chief XNA architect J Allard at last year's E3, one which, as evidenced by Allard's demonstrative chitchat with Jenny McCarthy, would let Xbox Live subscribers videoconference one another.

Another photo leaked from the event shows a DVD remote for the Xbox 360, which, besides reconfirming the globular Xbox logo, appears to have some sort of Windows functionality. Beneath the traditional X/Y/A/B button configuration is a button with the distinctive Windows logo. Given recent comments by Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, it's likely the insignia means that at least one version of the Xbox 360 will have Windows Media Center functionality.

Last but not least, a new image leaked on Ourcolony.net indicates the Xbox 360 will have customizable skins. The image shows five examples of the increasingly iconic power button--which is also featured as one of the rotating images on Ourcolony.net's home page--surrounded by multicolored patterns reminiscent of many currently available console skins. Such a feature would be in line with J Allard's keynote at this year's Game Developers Conference, during which he talked about the customization demanded by today's youth, which he deemed "Generation Remix."

While convincing, it must be emphasized that none of the images have been confirmed by Microsoft. As of press time, spokespersons for the company had still not officially commented on the pictures.

screenshots

Source: GameSpot

[Big Booger]

Seems the system specs for the new Xbox 360 have been leaked as well.

The controller, the camera, the headset, the camera, and even the console itself...there have been a lot of Xbox 360 leaks so far.

Now, it seems a full list of Xbox 360 specs and Xbox Live details has been leaked. This list comes from a thread on the Team Xbox forums (the thread has since been deleted), and the TXB poster originally got it from another un-named forum.


2 types of Xbox Live:
Xbox Live Silver (no subscription required)
Xbox Live Gold (subscription benefits)

Features for Gold service
(S) Also for Silver
(O) Also for Offline

- Seamless transition to Xbox Live account from Xbox to Xbox 360
- Access to MMOs (additional fees may apply) (S)
- Free Xbox Live weekends (S)
- Multiplayer online gameplay
- Avatar for gamer profile(S)(O)
- Motto for gamer profile (S)(O)
- Personalized look for Xbox System Guide (S)(O)
- Offline achievments (S)(O)
- Online achievements (S)
- Access to other players' Gamer cards via Live (S)
- Cumulative gamer score (S)(O)
- Location/language profile (S)(O)
- Reputation (S)
- Enahnced matchmaking using above
- Skill level matchmaking
- Gameplay style profile (casual, competitive, etc.)
- Recent players list (S)
- Free and premium download game content(S)
- Free and premium downloadable movies, music, tv (S)
- Downloadable demos/trailers (S)
- Microtransactions (S)
- Custom playlist in every game (S)(O)
- Play music from portable devices (S)(O)
- View images from digital camera (S)(O)
- Strem media from Windows XP (S)(O)
- Interactive screen savers (S)(O)
- Track info for CDs (S) (O)
- Communication with voice, video or text (S)

The Hardware:
1. Support for DVD-video, DVD-Rom, DVD-R/RW, CD-DA, CD-Rom, CD-R, CD-RW, WMA CD, MP3 cd, JPEG photo CD
2. All games supported at 16:9, 720p and 1080i, anti-aliasing
3. Customizable face plates to change appearance
4. 3 USB 2.0 ports
5. Support for 4 wireless controllers
6. Detachable 20GB drive
7. Wi-Fi ready

Custom IBM PowerPC-based CPU
- 3 symmetrical cores at 3.2 GHz each
- 2 hardware threads per core
- 1 VMX-128 vector unit per core
- 1 MB L2 cache

CPU Game Math Performance
- 9 billion dots per second

Custom ATI Graphics Processor
- 500 MNz
- 10 MB embedded DRAM
- 48-way parallel floating-point shader pipelines
- unified shader architecture

Memory
-512 MB GDDR3 RAM
- 700 MNz DDR

Memory Bandwidth
- 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth
- 256 GB/s memory bandwidth to EDRAM
- 21.6 GB/s frontside bus

Audio
- Mulitchannel surround sond output
- Supports 48khz 16-bit audio
- 320 independent decompression channels
- 32 bit processing
- 256+ audio channels


To sum up the important stuff regarding XBL:

There will be two versions of Xbox Live. Silver is free (everyone gets it), and Gold is a paid subscription, like the current XBL. It looks like Xbox Live will be free on the weekends for everyone; Gold members will get it all the time, obviously. Current Xbox Live accounts will carry over to the 360 and become Gold Xbox Live accounts. Both Gold and Silver members will be able to download demos, trailers, and other content through XBL.

This info seems pretty legit, and some insiders have confirmed that this is indeed a real leak. At this rate, you have to wonder if Microsoft will have anything left to reveal at the MTV unveiling on May 12.

GAF

Quite interesting. Looks to be a beast of a machine and out well before Nintendo and Playstation... I think Xbox might be able to out play Sony and Nintendo in the long run. Time will tell.

[Reverend]

threads merged

[cash_site]

That was good info BB, hopefully it matches it in end result... I like the idea for XBL Silver and weekend access... I think a lot of people will jump on the bandwagon which M$ is planning on, to reduce sales of PS3 or Nintendo

[GimieGimieGimie]

Nice specs as always, and the software database available is pretty good compared to the likes of game cube,

It's just a bloody shame they can't make the console ALOT smaller, i really hate the size of the current console, and the new one looks just as big as the old one, i'm quite disappointed with this, i really don't something the size of an old VCR under my t.v damn it.

It's a console, not a pc

[Zak8022]

Originally Posted by GimieGimieGimie

It's a console, not a pc

haha.. there are so many people who would likely argue that point.

i'm not one of them.. so i agree with you... it is quite large.

[cash_site]

Because it is larger, and acts as a media hub/centre for entertainment, they want to compete agaisnt dvd/vcr players and charge hifi rates

Similar deal with windows MCE computers... cost 2-3x more than same spec computer with only XP Pro!!

[GimieGimieGimie]

I'll accept Xbox 360 as a "console" if it intergrates it's impressive pc like specs seemlessly into the gaming experience.

The only thing that ever made "console" gaming, different to "pc gaming", was the whole simplicity of the task.

Compared to a PC, you simply place the game in the drive and switch on, wallah, no driver installations, no updates, and best of all, the games are optimized so much, no crashs!

When was the last time your PS1 crashed on you?

I bet you it was hard ever.

Only if the games were scratched, "then" the game starts acting abnormally, and sometimes crashed, and most of the time, the scratchs are user made!

(At least in the case of a console non-ps2 related )

The problem with todays and indeed, i believe future consoles, is that so much advanced technology is going into these "consoles", that the technology isn't being 100% intergrated properly, and the games are not being 100% optimized to the technology installed.

A great example of this is the GameCube, the GameCube usings an ATI RADEON graphics card as it's main graphics engine, a pc related card i'm sure everyone is aware, now if you play a graphically demanding game such as "Metroid Prime".

Every so often during game play, the game will crash and give you an error message very similar to what you would see on your pc, informing you, the graphics card has bacially crashed, i mean, cmon, what a joke, this is suppose to be a games console here, not a pc!

GTA Vice City for PS2 is another great example, "but is more related to the mechanics of CD spinning", i've gone through 2 discs of that game, simply because the PS2 by default, LOVES to scratch up cds to the point that the game skips and crashs out with a lovely "error message".

My point is, if the next generation "consoles" do their job with complete simplicity and complete stability that matchs the stability and simplicity of the older first generation consoles, then no matter the specs, i will welcome them to the "console" world, but if it comes to the point that game play is effected on a regular basis due to the fact that there's too much technology, not enough optimization, then there's a problem, if that becomes the case, these so called "consoles" ain't "consoles", they are now "PCS".

[biker666_05]

is xbox 360 backward compatible???

[Reverend]

Originally Posted by biker666_05

is xbox 360 backward compatible???

Seems no one is sure yet.

From Gaming Horizon:

Xbox 360 Backwards Compatible?
With the Xbox 360 MTV unveiling and the initial press release send outs last night, Microsoft did not once mention if the system would be backwards compatible. Everybody has been wondering about this because it would be a big thing to the community---The PlayStation 2 has backwards compatibility with PSone.
In the last OurColony.net video, the games being played on several of the shots were Xbox 1 titles. There is even one shot that detailed “Xbox 1 Zone”. Could this mean there IS backward integration?

We contacted Microsoft to get an answer but were unable to comment about the issue. Maybe we will hear something this Monday at the Xbox conference.

[cash_site]

Quick qn... does anyone know what connectors are on the video/audio output dongle?? Optical/co-axial HD audio... svideo or component for video etc hard to tell from pics etc...

[Stripe]

I might have to pick up one of these...

I heard a rumor that the guy who created the best FF games at Square Enix left and made his own company and Microsoft gobbled him up.