Microsoft Plans to Improve Xbox 360 Game Bundles for Holidays

[zippyjuan]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20070928192721.html

Microsoft Plans to Improve Xbox 360 Game Bundles for Holidays.
Free Games with Microsoft Xbox 360 Incoming

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 09/28/2007 | 07:28 PM ]


Microsoft Corp. plans to bundle free games with its Xbox 360 game consoles in the coming months, images found on a web-site Microsoft “uses to market its products” reveal. The intention, if it exists, will help Microsoft to grab numerous hardcore/standard gamers with the Xbox 360, however, there will still be hardly any rivals for Nintendo Wii from Microsoft.


The world’s largest maker of software will bundle Forza Motorsport 2 and Marvel Ultimate Alliance titles with its Xbox 360 premium and elite versions, providing more value at already lowered price, reports Kotaku web-site. Free games will also allow Microsoft to once again boost sales of its Xbox 360 among those interested in racing and action games.

Nevertheless, adding free games to the game consoles that are priced at $349 and $449 will only attract attention of those gamers, who are already very familiar with video games in general. Therefore, those games will hardly attract attention of casual gamers, who buy Nintendo Wii with free Wii Sports game for $249 and can enjoy it right out of the box.

Executives at Microsoft recently acknowledged that the company needs to attract casual gamers to the Xbox 360 platform to compete against Nintendo Wii. However, since then the company did not take any measures to realize this commitment.

Microsoft Xbox 360 console is based around microprocessor developed by IBM, high-definition visual processing unit designed by ATI Technologies, I/O controller engineered by SiS and some other key components. The gaming machine provides a broad set of multimedia capabilities in addition to games. The game console also features an HD DVD drive that should be acquired separately.

Officials for Microsoft did not comment on the news-story.

[Kevster]

So... when micro$haft says "improve", does it mean they'll fix the insanely high xBox 360 heat-related failures, or will they just throw in some more games, make some cosmetic changes and hope that nobody says anything about it? :banghead:

[zippyjuan]

They have started to ship newly built ones with their smaller chip sizes which are supposed to run cooler.
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20070930235840.html

Microsoft Quietly Starts to Sell Xbox 360 with 65nm Components.
Microsoft’s Xbox 360 with 65nm Components Is Here – Photos

Category: Multimedia

by Anton Shilov

[ 09/30/2007 | 11:58 PM ]


Microsoft Corp. has started to ship its latest Xbox 360 game consoles with more affordable central processing units made using 65nm process technology, suspect end-users among Xbox community members. If the information is correct, then it means that the company’s production costs for the Xbox 360 are now lower than previously.



According to pictures posted by gamers from Xbox community forums, there are Microsoft Xbox 360 game consoles on the market that employ code-named Falcon central processing units (CPUs) made using 65nm process technology. The new custom PowerPC-based chips feature the same three processing engines as the initial microprocessors for Xbox 360 which were produced using 90nm process technology, but are believed to be cooler and cheaper to produce.

The image of the new CPUs reveal that the chip itself is considerably smaller compared to the first version of the XCPU, which is sometimes called IBM Xenon. Given that thinner fabrication processes allow to make smaller chips, it is highly likely that the new processor is indeed made using 65nm process technology, this, is more affordable to Microsoft.


Xbox 360 microprocessor made using 65nm process technology.
Photo by an Xbox.com forum member JWSpeed

Potentially, cheaper components allow game console developers to reduce pricing of their products to end-users without having to suffer a massive loss on each console sold. Initially IBM’s triple-core microprocessor cost Microsoft about $106, but a year after it managed to reduce the pricing by 40% thanks to improved yields. The 65nm chip should cost even less to make.


Xbox 360 microprocessor made using 90nm process technology.
Photo by Xbox 360-Hacks web-site

Microsoft Xbox 360 console is based around microprocessor developed by IBM, high-definition visual processing unit designed by ATI Technologies, I/O controller engineered by SiS and some other key components. The gaming machine provides a broad set of multimedia capabilities in addition to games. The game console also features an HD DVD drive and other peripherals that should be acquired separately.

[redcolours]

hmmm... i just realized 2 things (maybe cuz i dont game): ATI/AMD may be staying afloat partly due to Xbox sales. and

funny - Apple shifted from PPC chips to Intel, and MS opted for the PPC chips instead. is it really a better fit for a gaming console than intel? or is it because PPC chips are cheaper?