Ballmer teases new Xbox form factors
The Xbox 360 could be about to morph into different “form factors,” at least if you believe Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Then again, Ballmer has been known to blurt meaningless stuff out in the past which ended up coming to nothing. So it’s definitely pinch of salt time.
Steve Ballmer is an absolute legend. Not necessarily in a business sense – although he is turning Microsoft’s fortunes around very well at the moment – but more in the fact he just blurts stuff out and lets others deal with the aftermath.
He’s done it before, stating that Natal would be bundled with the Xbox 360 as standard, and that a Blu-ray drive for the Xbox 360 could be on the way. And now he’s done it again, with Kotaku reporting that during a Q&A session he said:
We actually have a TV implementation in some senses built into Windows. It works really well for small screen TVs that you might call a PC, but for that big screen device here’s a piece of hardware that we build, there’s no diversity. You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it’s going to [be] important.
The comments haven’t yet been clarified and could actually mean a number of different things: more Xbox SKUs; Xbox integrated with the Zune and likewise; an Xbox 360 set-top box. Either way, Ballmer knows how to start speculation and rumor-mongering.
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66 Responses to “Ballmer teases new Xbox form factors”
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March 7th, 2010
Please, please, please put a Blu-Ray Drive in the 360. Just so I don’t have to deal with any more shitty multi-plat downgrades, or the 9GB cap on all EA games (I wonder why that would be?)
March 7th, 2010
Different sku’s are ridiculous ….. They confuse consumers and just mean that they need to buy more accessories to get the “full” experience.
MS like doing this to 1. Make their console appear cheaper 2. Make money from selling over priced accessories (hard drives and wireless adaptors)
March 7th, 2010
Both Ps3 and xbox truly hurt the consumer with a barrage of SKUs. To many people got screwed with the 40gig ps3 and the xbox with no HDMI.
March 7th, 2010
RomasantaMC:
40GB PS3 is worth every penny it didn’t hurt anyone nor did the Xbox 360 without the HDMI, the Xbox 360 only hurts consumers by not incorporating Blu-ray Disc support or HD DVD for games.
Spideydog:
The only different on PS3 was the HDD capacity everyone has every thing they needed unlike Xbox 360 missing HDD and Charger. Microsoft is a money whore company with stupid customers.
March 7th, 2010
“Different sku’s are ridiculous ….. They confuse consumers and just mean that they need to buy more accessories to get the “full†experience.
MS like doing this to 1. Make their console appear cheaper 2. Make money from selling over priced accessories (hard drives and wireless adaptors)
Spidey
Come on Really. If you don`t plan to go online then an arcade is fine. You must be the only one confused. Try turning on your 360 got once you might learn something. Why does someone have to be forced to buy a PS3 if they don`t go online or use a Bluray. It becomes an extra cost for no reason. Just because Microsoft gives you choices that is a bad thing. Get real dude. `Lets see what happens when your Arc is released. For a complete package you need 8 Controllers and a Camera. Let also look at some of the accessories for the PS3
16 Inch controller cabel
Controller for when your controller dies
Bluray remote control
Component cables
Headset
Steering wheel
HDMI Cable
Optical Cable
March 7th, 2010
And here it is I thought it came with everything.
March 7th, 2010
PS3 is a piece of shit that in last place and deserves to be there because all Sony cares about is a Format war and not it`s customer. That`s why Harry can`t even get them to fix his PS3 and it`s still under warrenty. LOL
March 7th, 2010
No ivan there are differences in the Ps3 Skus other than harddrive size(they just don’t vary as drastically as the xbox Skus).
You truly prefer to use the composite cables over HDMI
March 7th, 2010
Fuck off CAD you troll.
We are now seeing what not having a suitable HD size and no BD is doing to the “Potential” quality of MS games. The arcade is quickly becoming obsolete, but you can believe it is great of you wish too. Idiot
You must really want to have MS’s babies CAD if you feel the need to defend it sooooo vehemently. You truly are a very sad little individual.
I am pretty sure there is NO company that will knowingly honour a “lightning” strike fault in warranty. You really are a brain dead f&*#k head.
“MY” Arc you say ….. since when did it become “MY” Arc.
I won’t even dignify a response to your absolutely ridiculous accessories argument. Get a grip buddy, the MS loveboat is about the leave ……. lol
March 7th, 2010
“Both Ps3 and xbox truly hurt the consumer with a barrage of SKUs. To many people got screwed with the 40gig ps3 and the xbox with no HDMI.”
I agree with that statement. People who got the 40gig ps3 would be feeling a little ripped off, I would be …. Going down to 40gigs was a desperate attempt to lower costs by Sony I presume.
March 7th, 2010
“PS3 is a piece of shit that in last place and deserves to be there because all Sony cares about is a Format war and not it`s customer. That`s why Harry can`t even get them to fix his PS3 and it`s still under warrenty. LOL”
CAD, you’re becoming more like the Ivan of old, every day.
Can M$ really put a blueray drive into the 360?
I’m a sceptic.
I heard Greenburg is talking about the 360′s life span lasting 5 more years, so maybe this is a piece of the puzzle.
How would a bluray drive add on look though?
probably, pretty terrible.
March 7th, 2010
Balmer is a friggin hype machine. Seems like few people in the game industry can get people talking quite like him.
Xbox with a new form factor? This would mean what exactly? Who knows… Maybe a Slimline 360? lol
During the course of the original Xbox, MS barely changed anything about the design and it was all internal, so if they are changing the 360 design I would have to wonder what the motivation was.
March 7th, 2010
FahKinSuPah:
Bill Gate should had try to stay CEO i hate Steven Ballmer he’s obnoxious jackass ruining the company to hell. And where the fuck is XP aka Xbox Portable i want it see it one day i will be the first one to own it.
ViRuS:
Blu-ray Disc for Xbox 360 will only work for films since to make it for game is a little too late.
The Xbox 360 will remain looking the same until Microsoft gets outer the business or if they last this generation they are 2nd for now hopefully they won’t LoL.
“CAD, you’re becoming more like the Ivan of old, every day.”
Wow what a dis i just got damn it hurt being stretch that low.
March 7th, 2010
@CAD
” Why does someone have to be forced to buy a PS3 if they don`t go online or use a Bluray. It becomes an extra cost for no reason.”
Umm. to get better looking games. Something you xbots don’t know anything about. May as well stuck with the Xbox 1 with that attitude.
March 7th, 2010
“I agree with that statement. People who got the 40gig ps3 would be feeling a little ripped off, I would be …. Going down to 40gigs was a desperate attempt to lower costs by Sony I presume.”
I don’t agree. I have a 40gig and I have no problems changing the drive when I’m ready to. I saved $100 and it only cost $70 for a 260gig drive.
March 7th, 2010
Blu-ray Disc is a huge benefit even if you use SDTV because everything can be done in a single disc plus you can extra goodies free. My Stranglehold games bring the game and the movie. DVD9 is pain in the ass. That’s why every PS3 exclusive just keeps getting award and better graphics.
March 7th, 2010
Wait, will a 360 blu-ray drive be for everything, or only for movies? The only thing I’m interested in is developing ALL games on blu-ray, and seeing a significant leap in game quality for multi-plats and 360 exclusives.
March 7th, 2010
So microsoft is finally trying to jump off the sinking ship and is going to blu-ray.
March 7th, 2010
stopstopp:
Is too late for them already.
March 7th, 2010
I don’t see them going to blu-ray. It’s too late. It would be too difficult and expensive to support both DVD and BD game formats.
March 7th, 2010
personally i think they should incorporate blu ray, then it would be a win-win situation for all us gamers, except nintendrones.
im sure its a possibility seeing that Sony Vaio’s use microsoft windows. . .
March 7th, 2010
ncaissie (and others), are you really that dense? Blu-ray does not mean better looking games, it only guarantees better looking FMV. Microsoft do not need Bluray, or HDDVD or any other large format disc to improve game visuals, all they need is to allow mandatory installs. Simple. The problem we currently have is that everything has to be able to run off a single DVD, which greatly restricts some developers and often means having to duplicate loads of info on each disc. These complaints about the limitations of DVD capacity don’t occur on the PC platform for that very reason. Sure, FMV heavy games like FF or MGS will always suffer some quality issues from having to use DVD instead of Bluray, but that is hardly a major problem. MS are never going to use another, incompatible format for games in this gen. They would be alienating 40 million existing owners for no real reason, when there are plenty of viable alternatives.
March 7th, 2010
@ncaissie
Prob with me is i like usb ports and Backwards compatibility. As soon as i heard they were ditchn the 60gig i went and picked one up. Yeah upgrading HDD for ps3s should just be common sense (500gigs-$80).
March 7th, 2010
Rimmer are you really that F$#%ing dense …… by not having blu-ray it is restricting the amount of content a game can have. I do agree that it doesn’t have anything to do with graphics ability, but it severely restricts that amount of game data you can put into a game. Final Fantasy for example.
With that advance of gaming as it is, games are only going to get even more content hungry. Will this mean xbox will get left behind a little or produce more numbers of gimped games ??? I dunno, I hope not.
March 7th, 2010
If MS goes with HDDVD even that can be used for games only because HDDVD is downward compatible with DVD9. Existing xbox game will still work under HDDVD.
March 7th, 2010
seriously, did you really buy the bullshit that SE spouted about not being able to fit enough game data on, instead of giving them an excuse to flog you DLC? How can GTA4 manage to fit such extensive game data on a single disc, but SE can’t? The problem has always been FMV. I suspect if you ditched all the fmv, FF would fit on a single DVD9.
March 7th, 2010
*adds fuel to the 360 vs ps3 fire*
don’t you just love the xbox song?
you and i in a little toy shop
buy a bunch of games and a new xbox
play til the break of dawn
now suddenly is something wrong
microsoft stick to software
your not cut out to make hardware
now i sit and wonder why
i bought something that will just die
microsoft red ring of doom
don’t play for more than a day it’ll die
they keep telling the consumer
were getting this game oh great another rumor
now listen good
this is law
if you 360 happens to fall
it will sound like a chainsaw
it will kill the disk once and for all
yeah yeah
we’ve heard it before
microsoft gives you more
add more it will still be phony
they just wish they were like sony
come on and listen to all our lies
we’re just trying to avoid demise
your friends will laugh when your console dies
so when it does don’t be surprised
March 7th, 2010
nice take on 99 red balloons lol
March 7th, 2010
“Wow what a dis i just got damn it hurt being stretch that low”
ivan what the hell does that mean?
March 8th, 2010
PC gaming uses dvd so the blu ray argument is complete rubbish.
It’s down to installs. MS choose not to use them and choose multi disks instead.
March 8th, 2010
CON:
Wrong again Microsoft chose not to support the Blu-ray Disc format because of Sony. They are struggling with DVD9 now and we all know they did not expect games needing more then 1 disc.
Blu-ray Disc can only be added for movies is too late for games because that means any previous Xbox 360 owner would need to buy a Blu-ray thing and that ain’t ever going to happen is too late. If Microsoft makes new Xbox 360 model with Blu-ray for games it will big the worst thing to do it will cripple them.
March 8th, 2010
“How can GTA4 manage to fit such extensive game data on a single disc, but SE can’t?”
GTA4 is a sandbox game and it also looks horrible!
God of War 3, Uncharted 2, Killzone 2, Heavy Rain, Final Fantasy 13, Metal Gear Solid 4 are all 35GB+ games and for them to be on the 360 it will have to lose quality in graphics and sound just like FF13
March 8th, 2010
ivan can i get a lend of your crystal ball for this weeks lotto?
March 8th, 2010
@Roca
actually I think they could look as good but would take 4-5 discs which devs don’t want to shell out the extra cash and A large install. Pure guess though
March 8th, 2010
@Romasanta
for a full 35GB games like GOW3 (without losing quality in graphics or sound) it will take at least 5 discs on the 360 since the total amount of data DVD9 can hold is 7GB. and even then I dont think the graphics will be the same since the PS3 can actually rely on its CPU to take all the heavy load from the GPU
March 8th, 2010
“PC gaming uses dvd so the blu ray argument is complete rubbish.
It’s down to installs. MS choose not to use them and choose multi disks instead.”
I know the xbox is like a pc but EVERY PC has an HDD!
If ms made games that require an hdd they would be sued again.
Face it. They won’t do that.
March 8th, 2010
ncaissie
I don’t understand how MS would get sued, but they would have to increase the harddrive from 120 to something higher if they force installs.
March 8th, 2010
CON said: “PC gaming uses dvd so the blu ray argument is complete rubbish.
It’s down to installs. MS choose not to use them and choose multi disks instead.”
You fail to negate the fact that PC also has much larger HD’s and Mandatory installs for ALL games. Ps3 and 360 don’t.
March 8th, 2010
LOL what the fuck?
Isn’t that what I just said?
March 8th, 2010
you didnt say that, you were saying 360 doesnt need bluray just like PC doesnt need it for games!
but most PC games has mandatory install (some over 10GB) and they all come with HDD while the 360 cannot have games with mandatory install because not every 360 have a harddrive! ncaissie made a fool out of you!
March 8th, 2010
Roca.:
He was already a fool before LoL. Blu-ray Disc is needed fuck old dated 90s tech. The Xbox 360 screams dated.
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=349267214020
March 8th, 2010
If anyone was waiting on a price drop before picking up ME2, Amazon has it as their Deal of the Day for 39.99 today.
March 8th, 2010
“He was already a fool before LoL. Blu-ray Disc is needed fuck old dated 90s tech. The Xbox 360 screams dated”
translation= he was already a fool before he said that. lol. blu-ray disc would be needed to hold more data, fuck old 90′s technology. the xbox 360 screams dated technology.
March 8th, 2010
phranctoast:
Mass Effect II just did good for the first month LoL. The game is so whack the way you handle your character feels awkward not very fun. Wow already $40 and still not even close to top ten UNCHARTED 2 was in the top a bunch days plus months.
Everything selling is basically from Sony for PS3 or just on PS3. Some for others.
Liquid:
So true.
March 8th, 2010
All new games go on sale in these deal of the Day…deals. It has noting to do with quality.
March 8th, 2010
phranctoast:
Actually that game(ME2)was lower in price for good.
March 8th, 2010
Exactly Roca. We still appear to have to spell out EVERYTHING in “simple” terms for for CON to understand. Would you like some proof and some internet links to go with that CON ??
March 8th, 2010
“ncaissie
I don’t understand how MS would get sued, but they would have to increase the harddrive from 120 to something higher if they force installs.”
Because anyone that was told they could play xbox 360 games by buying an arcade version would be forced to purchase and HDD to play new games. The 360 sold well in the US and we all know how they love to sue companies. Even when they burn THEMSELVES with a hot coffee.
March 8th, 2010
Good come back Spidy. You can`t even address my comment properly so you jump to calling names and bringing up HD when were talking about SKU`s and accessories. LOL And I thought you were an adult.
March 8th, 2010
“If anyone was waiting on a price drop before picking up ME2, Amazon has it as their Deal of the Day for 39.99 today.” Very tempting.
March 8th, 2010
LOL
March 8th, 2010
ncaissie:
That price drop is not new i saw it a long time ago. Too bad i already had the game free so not tempting for me not even free.
March 8th, 2010
I’m no adult.
Just ask my wife. She calls me a big kid all the time. I say there is plenty of time to be an adult when I retire. Even then I’ll be flying around the world in my plane or Helli.
March 8th, 2010
I was kidding Ivan. I don’t have a 360.
March 8th, 2010
CAD, you’re becoming more like the Ivan of old, every day.
Virus I know. Isn`t it great!! But honestly if dialouge could exist and people could communicate without letting their Fanboy get in the way all the time then I would not carry on like this but these PS3 Fanboys have pissed me off so much that it is beyond obvious that that will never happen so I carry on like a dick now because that is how they want to be treated. So basically I`m giving the audience what they ask for.
March 8th, 2010
.
March 8th, 2010
@CAD
dont turn out to be like CarlB, nobody pays attention to him anymore.
March 8th, 2010
“these PS3 Fanboys have pissed me off so much that it is beyond obvious that that will never happen so I carry on like a dick”
LOL Job well done.
March 8th, 2010
Oh, and I watch cartoons like Batman, Iron man, Spiderman and Superman.
Try it some time.
March 8th, 2010
CAD
awh boo hoo, u were a massive 360 anyway
March 8th, 2010
CAD
awh boo hoo, u were a massive 360 anyway
March 8th, 2010
360 fagboy*
March 8th, 2010
“LOL Job well done.”
That made we ROFL!
March 8th, 2010
I’m only doing it to piss them off.
They say they can bait us and I proved they are the real fish here.
March 8th, 2010
LOL I just realized my job well done statement goes two ways. One that I pissed him off and two he admits he is a dick.
March 8th, 2010
“Good come back Spidy. You can`t even address my comment properly so you jump to calling names and bringing up HD when were talking about SKU`s and accessories. LOL And I thought you were an adult.”
HD means HARD DISK you fuckwit. Why the hell would I “address your comment” when it has been dealt with adequately by Roca. Sometimes you can talk sense, but other times ….. sheesh. Count to ten and re-read the post you are replying too, before posting. May stop you looking like a tool