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According to Reuters and Gamespot, Microsoft has announced that that the Xbox 360 will be backwards-compatible with many, but not all, of the Xbox 1's games.
Additionally, the 360 will launch with as many as 40 titles on release date. Most consoles to date have launched with around a dozen. With a variety like that, there should be a game directed to every type of gamer on the date of launch ... another smart move my Microsoft.
But in one of the biggest wins, M$ announced that Square Enix has signed on to develop Final Fantasy XI for the 360. One of the issues that plagued the Xbox 1 was the lack of support from the biggest Japanese gamemakers, it looks like that is not going to be a problem for the Xbox 360.
Purchase Xbox Bestsellers in our online store at great prices!
Additionally, the 360 will launch with as many as 40 titles on release date. Most consoles to date have launched with around a dozen. With a variety like that, there should be a game directed to every type of gamer on the date of launch ... another smart move my Microsoft.
But in one of the biggest wins, M$ announced that Square Enix has signed on to develop Final Fantasy XI for the 360. One of the issues that plagued the Xbox 1 was the lack of support from the biggest Japanese gamemakers, it looks like that is not going to be a problem for the Xbox 360.
Purchase Xbox Bestsellers in our online store at great prices!
In continuing what appears to be a week of mini-E3 coverage on Animation Unlimited, here are some links to articles on the new PS3. First, the Gamespy PS3 Article, and then the CNN PS3 Article.
As for the good, bad and ugly here are my thoughts.
Good
- PS3 will be fully backwards compatible with current PSOne and PS2 games.
- Uses PowerPC core processing, 35 times more powerful than the PS2.
- Has Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-FI b/g built-in.
- Has support for up to 7 Blutooth Controller and 2 HDTV monitors
- Blu-Ray DVD Drive built in. (What could shape up to be the winner in the next-gen DVD wars)
Bad
- May 2006 release date. Better than it was, but Xbox will get a full X-mas season (and it will be an Xbox X-mas, I promise that ... Microsoft, I want royalties if you use that!) before the PS3 release. It will hurt the market in the US for them.
- Not as Sexy as the Xbox 360, IMHO.
Ugly
- That horrible "Batarang" Controller! It looks like two bananas stuck together, I can't imagine it will be comfortable!
So there you have it, more gaming news from your Animation HQ, Animation Unlimited.
As for the good, bad and ugly here are my thoughts.
Good- PS3 will be fully backwards compatible with current PSOne and PS2 games.
- Uses PowerPC core processing, 35 times more powerful than the PS2.
- Has Gigabit Ethernet and Wi-FI b/g built-in.
- Has support for up to 7 Blutooth Controller and 2 HDTV monitors
- Blu-Ray DVD Drive built in. (What could shape up to be the winner in the next-gen DVD wars)
Bad
- May 2006 release date. Better than it was, but Xbox will get a full X-mas season (and it will be an Xbox X-mas, I promise that ... Microsoft, I want royalties if you use that!) before the PS3 release. It will hurt the market in the US for them.
- Not as Sexy as the Xbox 360, IMHO.
Ugly
- That horrible "Batarang" Controller! It looks like two bananas stuck together, I can't imagine it will be comfortable!
So there you have it, more gaming news from your Animation HQ, Animation Unlimited.
Don't Microsoft fool you, you can change your Gamertag despite what they say in the Xbox Live FAQ. As it turns out, M$ will let you change your Gamertag if you "persuade" them in the correct way.
I really could not stand my old Gamertag. When I got Xbox Live 2 years ago, I tried to come up with something interesting as my old CounterStrike handle just did not do it for me anymore. I thought for a while on it, tried a few choices that were all taken, and then went with an alternate. I regretted it soon after, the name just did not flow right and was not that great for online gaming.
My subscription for Xbox Live was up for renewal today so I called Xbox to cancel my account. I did not want to be stuck with that name for another year and I figured I'd come back with a new one at some point down the line. I told the representative exactly that: hate name, may re-up account later. To my surprise, he decided to pull out all the stops so I would not cancel. The rep asked if they allowed me to change my name, and if they sent me a free game for my trouble, would I keep my account? Let's see, new name to replace my crap one, and a free game ... and I just pay for the subscription I was going to redo anyway in a few weeks?
Sounded like a win-win to me.
The rep invalidated my old Gamertag so that on my next Live session I would be told to choose a new one (and also said this was a one-shot deal, no more changes after this). I had a list of games I could get as a free one, and I chose CounterStrike (ironic given my story above).
Now I doubt they would have offered to allow me to change the name had I not been ready to cancel, and they may call your bluff on this if all you are trying to do is get the free game; but the point is, they are more customer-service oriented at Xbox than I expected ... and I am a happy camper with my new handle. Thumbs up!
Purchase Xbox Bestsellers in our online store at great prices!
I really could not stand my old Gamertag. When I got Xbox Live 2 years ago, I tried to come up with something interesting as my old CounterStrike handle just did not do it for me anymore. I thought for a while on it, tried a few choices that were all taken, and then went with an alternate. I regretted it soon after, the name just did not flow right and was not that great for online gaming.
My subscription for Xbox Live was up for renewal today so I called Xbox to cancel my account. I did not want to be stuck with that name for another year and I figured I'd come back with a new one at some point down the line. I told the representative exactly that: hate name, may re-up account later. To my surprise, he decided to pull out all the stops so I would not cancel. The rep asked if they allowed me to change my name, and if they sent me a free game for my trouble, would I keep my account? Let's see, new name to replace my crap one, and a free game ... and I just pay for the subscription I was going to redo anyway in a few weeks?
Sounded like a win-win to me.
The rep invalidated my old Gamertag so that on my next Live session I would be told to choose a new one (and also said this was a one-shot deal, no more changes after this). I had a list of games I could get as a free one, and I chose CounterStrike (ironic given my story above).
Now I doubt they would have offered to allow me to change the name had I not been ready to cancel, and they may call your bluff on this if all you are trying to do is get the free game; but the point is, they are more customer-service oriented at Xbox than I expected ... and I am a happy camper with my new handle. Thumbs up!
Purchase Xbox Bestsellers in our online store at great prices!
Well, here they are, the specs on the Xbox 360 ripped from the pages of RPGDot and MTV. Got to give credit where credit is due!
I'm still blown away by the tri-PowerPC core. My company has a few of these running big chunks of the datacenter for all of our North American offices. That is a ton of power for one little gaming box. The Xbox 360 has positioned itself to not only be a gen-2 console killer, but also a PC-gaming killer.
Wireless controlers, wi-fi ready, DVD-everything... I was going to wait a while, but I keep wondering if I'll need to pre-order the Xbox 360. But, of course, I want to know how much this puppy is going to cost.
Another thing I am waiting to see, but have not found an answer yet, is if this going to backwards compatible with Xbox 1. Hopefully we will know more after E3.
Until then, drool over these stats!
I'm still blown away by the tri-PowerPC core. My company has a few of these running big chunks of the datacenter for all of our North American offices. That is a ton of power for one little gaming box. The Xbox 360 has positioned itself to not only be a gen-2 console killer, but also a PC-gaming killer.
Wireless controlers, wi-fi ready, DVD-everything... I was going to wait a while, but I keep wondering if I'll need to pre-order the Xbox 360. But, of course, I want to know how much this puppy is going to cost.
Another thing I am waiting to see, but have not found an answer yet, is if this going to backwards compatible with Xbox 1. Hopefully we will know more after E3.
Until then, drool over these stats!
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
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
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