While internet news sources today have reported that Microsoft is readying to launch its next generation Xbox hardware in America and Europe in the fourth quarter of this year, Eurogamer has learnt that the specific timing for the machine's roll-out is late October or early November, and merely weeks after the US launch. The exact date is yet to be solidified.
Speaking under conditions of strict anonymity, senior American and British development, publishing and retail sources have confirmed the launch window in the past weeks.
It is also now widely known among British sources that Microsoft UK is currently in the planning stages of a spectacular and unprecedented launch event in central London for the winter release.
While it has been accepted for some time that Xbox 2, currently codenamed Xenon, would be released in America before the end of the year, the news of a late October/early November launch in both the UK and Europe will send shockwaves through the industry and gaming community on this side of the Atlantic.
Many have expressed concern that Microsoft is forcing the next generation of console hardware too early, and that the current generation still has much to achieve. The most famous example of this came from then Nintendo of Europe MD David Gosen speaking at an ELSPA summit in London last October, where he lambasted Microsoft for pushing a next generation machine to market in 2005, and even went so far as to question Microsoft's motivation as profit.
News source: EuroGamer
Speaking under conditions of strict anonymity, senior American and British development, publishing and retail sources have confirmed the launch window in the past weeks.
It is also now widely known among British sources that Microsoft UK is currently in the planning stages of a spectacular and unprecedented launch event in central London for the winter release.
While it has been accepted for some time that Xbox 2, currently codenamed Xenon, would be released in America before the end of the year, the news of a late October/early November launch in both the UK and Europe will send shockwaves through the industry and gaming community on this side of the Atlantic.
Many have expressed concern that Microsoft is forcing the next generation of console hardware too early, and that the current generation still has much to achieve. The most famous example of this came from then Nintendo of Europe MD David Gosen speaking at an ELSPA summit in London last October, where he lambasted Microsoft for pushing a next generation machine to market in 2005, and even went so far as to question Microsoft's motivation as profit.
News source: EuroGamer
Neowin spoke to LokiTorrent's owner, Lowkee, a few weeks ago, as the legal battle was just getting underway. "I run a completely legal website that the MPAA or anyone else has no right to force me to close," he said. "In just the past few weeks, the MPAA has forced the shutdown of many other BitTorrent sites which were set up to do nothing more than allow people to share what they wished. It will be a dark day when we roll over to let organizations such as the RIAA and MPAA make our freedom of speech laws for us.
"Piracy is a byproduct of peer sharing," he added. When peer-to-peer software is being written, there aren't 10 developers wringing their hands together over how much software and music people can steal from those who make a living selling it. Peer sharing is used to allow people who don't have the financial funding of the MPAA and RIAA to share their works, for free, to a worldwide audience without the massive costs of bandwidth punishing them for being popular."
Remember, for all its faults (including the odd lawsuit against 12-year-olds, or dead people), the Recording Industry Association of America did do one thing differently. It waited until there was a mainstream, easily-available and legal alternative to the P2P networks before it launched its legal actions. Napster, iTunes and all have taken off - they may not yet have the same volume of downloads as services like Kazaa did in their hey-day, but it's growing all the time, and surely it won't be that much longer until legal music downloads actually do take over.
The movie business, however, is nowhere near this level. Napster has mentioned it plans to get into it at some point in the future, but no dates have been mentioned yet. There are a few services up and running now, but many of them are (once again) American-only - and others have a small selection of films that most of us have never heard of. Hardly that great of an incentive when a quick search will yield the latest blockbuster, watchable within just a few hours. Link up your computer to your TV and a decent surround sound system, and it's pretty much impossible to tell it apart from the real thing.
I have no doubt legal movie downloads - whether they're pay-per-view, download and keep, or a 24-hour "licence" to watch (pretty much like getting a movie out of Blockbuster or somewhere else at the moment) will come. However, it seems that it's still quite a long way off. More and more people have broadband, more and more people are wanting to use it to its full potential. More and more people are discovered the wonders of downloading films quickly and easily; until there are some viable, legal alternatives, the MPAA is facing an uphill struggle in shutting down BitTorrent trackers.
Neowin's Tom Graham contributed to this report
View: Neowin forums discussion View: BBC News coverageIt is important to note that Neowin does not endorse or support piracy of any kind; members posting links or detailed information will face severe action.
The DS actually sold well, and is not designed to be another Game Boy. Though handheld, have you EVER seen "Nintendo Game Boy DS"? Didn't think so. It's the "Nintendo DS", a whole new system. It's pretty innovative, coming up with new ways to play games rather than keeping to the old "SCREEN + CONTROLLER = NORMAL LOLO" way of consoles.
Graphics don't make a game a game, and if they do, it's called an animated movie. Nor do an MP3 & UMD player make a console. We all saw what happened to the poor N-Gage. If I wanted an MP3 player or to watch portable movies, I'd get an MP3 player and a portable DVD player. Sure it might cost more, but at least then it won't SUCK.
tbh, i don't see either the psp or ds having any real killer apps (other than the usual re-workings of zelda / pokémon combinations on the ds). however the psp, at least for the older market, does have more of a wow factor despite all the bad press / high price point, and not many great launch games, but despite that people WILL buy it.
You can't Telnet, phone and browse web with your portable DVD Player
I've got an original N-Gage, and I think it rocks. I don't give a damn about people who're saying "HA! Now that's a sucky phone!"... I love it. And nothing else matters
anyway i am all up for the fast release, all the better for me.
though i guess if it comes down to being Xbox 2 vs. PS 2 for a little while, theres an obvious winner
microsoft need to strengthen their brand.. release an "x1" (mini xbo
Correct me if im wrong, but isnt the pstwo just the same hardware as the ps2 in a smaller, better looking box? What does it matter what your console looks like?
That's my 2 cents.
Xbox 2 will have a IBM processor, probably POWER4 (the same used in the Apple's G5), and a ATI graphics processors, R500 or 520.
Anyways my hope its for revolution lets see what happen
I'd just like to add I own a Xbox and PS2 and I think they are BOTH great consoles....it's great games that make great console, not great graphics.
Thats my 2 cents.
Right now, I have a PS2, but I'm waiting for the current Xbox to really drop in price, because like jcvortex said there's only about 7 games for it I want to play, and that doesn't justify buying the system.
And how did you arrive at this conclusion? Did this fact just get plucked out of the air?
Remember unprofessional journalism hehe
If you want to get picky about grammar, note that your sentence, "UK or otherwise.", is a fragment.
Wow, I had a sentence fragment on a message board. Wonderful. My point was that if some stupid games site thinks they are breaking exclusive news, they could use proper words in it. I was not doing anything of the sort. My point was that the site is not credible, I didn't mean to get into a huge stupid fight over the comment.
New words are constantly being added all the time to the english language, does that make them incorrect? Are you stating that every word added to the language since it was first created is incorrect? Because if so, most of the words that me and you use everyday aren't words then. They are just in the dictionary for fun right? I might add, would the site be any more credible if it used shakespearean english? Because by your arguement, thats correct english since its been around so long. Get over it, you were proven wrong. Let's just hope you learnt something.
properly
real
use of them if your going to make arguments about the authenticity of a word used in common English
Can anyone decide on the name already.....
PS3, Xbox 2, Nintendo Revolution, and the next Game Boy (note to people that have no idea what they are talking about but think they do, the next Game Boy is what is competing with the PSP, not the DS.)
ds to compete spec wise because they could have if they wanted to, they simply made a system to by time..yes and the next gameboy will be better then psp but it will only be a matter of time before the psp 2 is out to compete with that.
Unless it's backward compatible with xbox1 game, I won't be getting it at launch to have it sit there hogging space, I still want to play my xbox1 games.
But depends what games they'll announce with the launch I guess.
It is a shrewd move by Microsoft releasing it a full year almost until the scheduled release of the PS3. The aim seems to be snare the console buyers & xbox 1 owners before the next gen of Sony equipment is released.
If this is true then Japan will also get the Xbox2 before the release of PS3, this could be just what XBox needs in Asia (a foothold in this large market by pre-empting the Sony).
Game developers prefer coding for the MS stable as they get the dev utils free and DO NOT pay a licencing levy to MS for releasing titles for it.
Thats the difference between MS & Sony (in consoles). For every Sony PS1&2 game sold a % of it goes to Sony. With Xbox this does not happen. (granted end users probably dont care about this).
Im not knocking Sony (although im not a fan of any of their electronics) and im not a MS fanboy either heheh.
Im just airing my opinion on this matter (and of my mates in the console dev world for various companies).
Ive seen some of the early graphic work involved with the new xbox (my mates senior gfx designer @Viz Interactive) and we are all gonna be gobsmacked with the increase in poly count alone.
Last edited by 11418 on 14 Feb 2005 - 09:33
This message concern no brainers fanboy
1) The xBox2 (xBox360) will be launch too early. So many games are still currently in dev for the xBox and it's still selling well (both games and consoles), then why would game devr's cared about another console? (Dreamcast anyone?)
2) The DS was in dev BEFORE we heard about the PSP.
3) The playstation generation youth need to die. Good gfx DOES NOT make a game better,... Megaman (Zero) too), Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania are proof, and I'm only talking about their respective GBA version. Look at all the hype about the CV currently in dev for the DS,... It's 2D!
4) Let's face it, even tho the DS wasn't launched to compete over the DS, it's obvious that there is war between the 2 handeld even if BigN saiys the opposite.
ABC and a half!
Microsoft will NEVER rule in asia, despite an early release, its not in the cards and Japan loves Sony and/or any of their own Japanese companies.
Sony wont win the handheld war because the handheld war is based SOLELY on kids with little money. Sure you could be over the age of 17 with a GBA, but honestly how old do you have to get before you start think "Multimedia device" like a pda or a laptop instead of the GBA.
Nintento will probably never be #1 in the console industry ever again. Its a sad day, but this is the era of the multi billion dollar corporation, and no matter how big the big N is, to me they will always be the mom and pop shop slowly being squeezed by big business.
2) N64 was a total failure and socked big time!,...
Don't try to be a smart asss, you will fail again.
ABC and a half!
Hope that it won't comprimise its specs
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