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The Format Console Wars Have Truly Begun
Microsoft's Bill Gates is supposedly announcing, in January, 2008, the release of the next evolution of the Xbox 360 gaming experience to be available to fans late 2008. Xbox games meet hddvd Computer entertainment center rumored to be produced by Toshiba. It would be great news for many Xbox fans who have been pounded by Sony Playstation 3 fans who have said that the 360 lacks "High Tech" specs and that the "360 is only a half generation above the last gen systems". This would come as a relief for those fans as well, who had begun to worry that Microsoft would abandon the 360 console all together after it was reported that the console began to have serious widespread hardware failures. The new redesigned evolution is supposed to include Hddvd , HDTV tuner, DVR capability, and other multimedia options, as well as 360 gaming capability that could truly launch 360 games into this generation. Also reported is that this is a collaborative effort between Toshiba and Microsoft's Xbox division. It is speculated that the HDdvd entertainment redesign will include CPU and companion GPU to support true HiDef 360 gaming. Currently, all high end Toshiba laptops have had Hddvd drives as standard and Toshiba has been marketing them to many corporations at discounts for employees to use with the hope that this would close the gap in the widening Hd format wars and has yet to realize that outcome as far as actual movie titles sold. Blueray is still outselling Hddvd movies but if Microsoft finally committs to Toshiba's HDDVD technology and allows the full hd computer entertainment center to exclusively have xbox game play capability, it could give Hddvd some momentum as the Format Wars progress through their 3rd year. Although, Sony's BlueRay still has some cards up it's sleeve such as the Gaming Computer giant Alienware offering Blueray as the Hidef option on it's high end computers. Alienware's endorsement of BD boosts Blueray into being considered the Cadillac standard of the computer world. Many in the gaming community have long speculated that if Microsoft didn't make a huge redesign soon to include a Hddvd or better format for games they would loose a lot of fans as well as exclusives. It is not known officially when, if ever, games will begin to be produced on Hddvds. However, if Microsoft were to allow the Hddvd player to have 360 gaming capability and not allow games in the future to be produced on the larger capacity formats, Microsoft would be committing game support suicide. It is hoped that the whispers of collaboration with Toshiba goes further than just the 360 game playability of the full hddvd entertainment computer. Toshiba knows hardware. We have seen and experienced the engineering and design flaws that have troubled this current generation of Xbox 360 game consoles. If this hybred entertainment collaboration between Microsoft and Toshiba comes to pass, it could allow Microsoft to eventually sit back and concentrate on what they do best, fostering great gaming and network gaming solutions. This evolution could also help to close the widening gap between BlueRay movie sales and HDdvd movie sales. |
