M$ have is having to pay Nvidia $55 royalty for EVERY xbox they manufacture

Microsoft did not disappoint and has announced that its next-gen XBox 360 console will arrive before the Christmas holiday period and will be available in two versions.

Ending recent speculation about a possible delay in the launch of the console, Microsoft confirmed that it will be ready and retailing before the holiday season although the exact date is not yet official.

Microsoft also confirmed that its new console will be available in two versions, the budget version (wire-plus controller, no hard drive, no remote, no Ethernet cable and definitely no headset) will set gamers back USD 299 Euros 300 and GBP 210.
The premium version of x360 will set you back by USD 400 in the US, Euros 400 in the EU and GBP 280 in the UK but will include wireless controller a 2OGB hard drive, headset, Ethernet cable and multimedia remote.

Of course, if you have to get your hands on it at launch you can always buy the cheaper version and slowly add accessories to it as Microsoft will offer a huge range of them; including the over advertised and pretty dull faceplates. No details of any game bundles have been announced yet but expect crazy offers from MS since it would want to build as big a user base as it can in the time it will have alone at the top of mount next-gen.

The full list of pricing for the accessories is as follows:

- Xbox 360 Faceplate (SRP: USD 19.99/Euros 19.99/GBP 14.99)
- Xbox 360 Hard Drive (20 GB) (SRP: USD 99.99/Euros 99.99/GBP 69.99)
- Xbox 360 Memory Unit (64 MB) (SRP: USD 39.99/Euros 34.99/GBP 22.99)
- Xbox 360 Wireless Networking Adapter (SRP: USD 99.99/Euros 79.99 /GBP 59.99)
- Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (SRP: USD 49.99/Euros 44.99/GBP 32.99)
- Xbox 360 Play and Charge Kit (SRP: USD 19.99/Euros 19.99/GBP 14.99)
- Xbox 360 Rechargeable Battery Pack (SRP: USD 11.99/Euros 14.99/GBP 9.99)
- Xbox 360 Controller (SRP: USD 39.99/Euros 34.99/GBP 24.99)
- Xbox 360 Headset (SRP: USD 19.99/Euros 19.99/GBP 14.99)
- Xbox 360 Universal Media Remote (SRP: USD 29.99/Euros 29.99/GBP 19.99)
- Xbox 360 Component HD AV Cable (SRP: USD 39.99/Euros 29.99/GBP 19.99)
- Xbox 360 S-Video AV Cable SRP: USD 29.99 (US only) Xbox 360 SCART AV Cable SRP: Euros 24.99/GBP 17.99 (Europe only)
- Xbox 360 VGA HD AV Cable (SRP: USD 39.99/Euros 29.99/GBP 19.99)

A marketing brochure released by Microsoft appears to be putting an end to the debate about backwards compatibility for its next-generation, XBox 360 console.

The marketing material released attempts to describe the features of the two versions of the console that will become available on its launch in November, 2005. The brochure includes various diagrams and tables describing the console and one of them (image to your right) explains that backwards compatibility with original XBox games will only be available to those X360 owners who also have a hard drive.

Although details of the level of backwards compatibility of XBox 360 have been scarce, it was always assumed that some sort of extra requirement would be imposed on the console's owners. Microsoft had already mentioned that paying the relevant rights to publishers and developers might be an issue but support for past XBox games also had to depend on previous requirements for those games. There has been a suggestion that MS may be adding a fee to the hard drive that will take care of any charges which may become involved.

It would also seem likely that since games like Halo and Halo 2 require a hard drive on the original console, they would do the same for the new console. Some experts also claim that the hard drive may be necessary in order for certain game-specific files to be downloaded from Microsoft so that original XBox games can be played on the new console but the fact that the brochure does not mention that XBox Live is a requirement for backwards compatibility makes this possibility unlikely.

So gamers who wish to carry their current XBox library over to the new console may have to come to terms with the possibility that backwards compatibility comes at a price.

Although we reported yesterday on potential availability issues with ATIs R520 flagship boards, it seems that there will be no such problems with the company's Xenos chip for the XBox 360.

With a worldwide XBox 360 launch rumored to take place around Thanksgiving, plans for the console's components and their production are already well in place. ATI has made certain that it has done everything right on its side and it is expected to have plenty of boards ready for X360.

The latest news from the console wars front suggests that ATIs X360 chip may have an advantage on performance over its nVidia PS3 counterpart and 4X anti aliasing, for example, is something that it will be able to deliver smoothly while the PS3 component will not.

Xbox 360 will feature 48-pipelines compared to PS3s rumored 24 and its graphics processor will have 10 MB of EDRAM so we are guessing that graphically it may be able to produce much more than MS has let on so far. One reservation regarding the X360 however is how well ATI will pull off the unified Shader Architecture that combines pixel and vertex pipelines. If that works, than nVidia's dedicated extra 6 vertex pipes will not cause X360 much concern. Microsoft is already urging developers to take advantage of Xenos' high-specs by asking them to create native FSAA 2X and 4X games.

Microsoft knows that it will have to make the most of its head start and the possible graphics advantages as quickly as possible since developers will slowly become more familiar with PS3s 7-processor architecture and will soon catch-up to, if not overtake, X360 performance wise. Initial plans for Microsoft call for a 50 per cent market share with X360 although a 35 per cent figure would seem more sensible. If Microsoft does make it with its console, it will owe a big thanks to ATI and its component which the company has produced in a responsible and timely fashion, unlike its current generation PC components.

Microsoft plans to make its next generation games console, the Xbox 360, as difficult as possible to hack.

The 360 will have security built directly into the hardware, said Xbox engineer Chris Satchell.

Fans have modified the first Xbox to turn it into a media centre, upgrade the hard drive or allow it to play imported games.

Modifying a console is illegal in the UK if this is intended to get around anti-piracy measures on the Xbox.

Consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation 2 can be modified by chips that are soldered to a console's main circuit board to bypass copyright controls.

The chips allow people to play games purchased legitimately in other countries, as well as running backup copies or bootleg discs.

Shortly after the first Xbox came out, computer scientists, smart amateur engineers and others started taking it apart and creating modification chips and software for the machine to make it do things Microsoft never intended it to.

Custom design

Such actions are frowned upon by the hardware manufacturers. In July last year, Sony won a court case to ban the selling of mod chips for its PlayStation 2 in the UK.

In July of this year, a 22-year-old man became the first person in the UK to be convicted for modifying a video games console.

With the 360, Microsoft is aiming to make it as hard as possible to hack.

"We've taken security to the hardware level and built it in from the ground up," said Chris Satchell from the Xbox Advanced Technology Group.

"One of the reasons we went with custom hardware design for all our silicon is that it allows us to build security at the silicon level," he told the BBC News website.

"There are going to be levels of security in this box that the hacker community has never seen before."

Part of the motivation behind this is to prevent people from using the 360 to watch pirated films or TV shows.

But Mr Satchell admitted no system was fool-proof and that, with enough time and dedication, the security on the Xbox 360 would be broken.

"There're some really bright people in the world with some really expensive hardware," he said.

"I'm sure sooner or later someone will work out how to circumvent security. But the way we have done the design doesn't mean that it will work on somebody else's machine."

Just a few weeks after its launch, hackers claim to have made the first significant step in cracking the XBox 360s protection and running copied games.

A Dutch group, under the mysterious name of PI, claims to be the first team to have created "dumps" of XBox 360 games. "Dumping" involves the transfer of the contents of a game disc onto "file" or another disc. In XBox 360s case it was not possible to read those discs on a computer DVD drive as there is some level of protection.

The same team has released details of how the file system of XBox 360 game discs works and an open source tool for other hackers to examine the contents of those discs. The tool works much like an ISO-extractor and reads the files held within the DVD image of the game.

There is no way of running these dumps for the time being and that is the reason many claim that the announcement is not as significant as it may seem at first. The file system used for X360 games is, in many ways, similar to that used on the original XBox with some, moderate, enhancements. XBox 360s real weapon, according to Microsoft, is the protection used to stop unauthorized code from running on the console. MS claims to have learnt from the mistakes made on the original console and its weak protection and has even hinted that it expects hackers will need a very long time to be able to bypass XBox 360s enhanced security features.

PI itself, suggests that the dumps were not made for pleasure but as a chance to open up the fight against X360s encryption to all hackers. The team claims that by releasing dumped games and its tool it expects that more people will tackle the problem, shortening the time it takes to crack the new console's protection.

For the time being Microsoft should not be too worried about what hackers are doing, the company has much more pressing matters at hand with its Japan launch not going as planned, shortages in the U.S. and the launch title lineup disappointing many gamers.

For a completely "hacked" 360 don't expect anything on the scale of the first Xbox - at least not for a long, long time, however you can expect to see a hack of some sort soon - not only from Xecuter(info) but from at least one other group of guys we have spoken to. Unsigned code is looking unlikely atm but booting of raw dumps maybe quite possible - but no where near as much fun or scope as Xbox1 mods. Kudos to M$ for their security on this one, however there is always a way.....

There is growing confusion surrounding a recent announcement by the ICE mod chip team claiming that they have a working chip for X360 in production. The initial reaction to the announcement late last week was one of disbelief as it caught everyone off-guard, including the X360 community which has been very active in 'investigating' the new console.

Critics of the announcement claim that the image displayed on the relevant website is a fake and pictures a standard, widely available microcontroller board, claiming to be the I.C.E. v1.0. The image was promptly pulled from the U.S. ICE website and their statement reads: Previous pictures that were posted was due to a falling out between the team webmaster, and the team lead. Those pictures are confirmed fake, and not a prototype whatsoever, please delete them. Intriguingly, the U.K. version of the ICE website still features the controversial image.

Many gamers claim that the ICE team is trustworthy since it is not asking for any money for a pre-order, claiming that they need pre-orders in order to determine the quantities of the chip that they will order. The USD 70 they will be asking for the chip is not an extravagant price but the delay the announced today for security reasons did not do their credibility much good.

Meanwhile the well-known and respected, Team Xecuter, has also produced a comment on the ongoing debate which further confuses the issue by stating that something is about to happen but that it won't be on an XBox scale. The statement also suggests that what will be revealed will not be able to run unsigned code i.e. no XBMC but may be good for running backups. Their website states: For a completely "hacked" 360 don't expect anything on the scale of the first Xbox - at least not for a long, long time, however you can expect to see a hack of some sort soon - not only from Xecuter but from at least one other group of guys we have spoken to. Unsigned code is looking unlikely atm but booting of raw dumps maybe quite possible - but no where near as much fun or scope as Xbox1 mods. Kudos to M$ for their security on this one, however there is always a way.....

Details of how this may have been achieved vary but most things you will read about are mere speculation and range from comments on hacked DVD firmware to a special cable that confuses XBox 360 into thinking it is running an official DVD.

Stay with MG for further coverage and news regarding the first next-generation console.

News is beginning to surface regarding a CPU upgrade being prepped for XBox 360 while stories about emulation through Xbox Live Arcade and some pricing rumors for HD-DVD for Microsoft's console are getting people excited about E3 2006.

The Microsoft rumor mill had been quiet for some time but as E3 approaches the pace has once again picked up. The only confirmed story is probably the scariest one for current XBox 360 owners and has to do with a CPU upgrade being prepared for the console. The agreement between Microsoft and Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing mentions manufacturing of CPU products-using 65-nanometer (nm) Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) semiconductor technology -for Microsoft's Xbox 360 game consoles. Production is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2007 and the move to 65 nm will help keep power consumption and heat build-up within the X360 low. This leaves room for a performance improvement as well as a greater profit margin for Microsoft but there are some problems associated with such a move.

Console manufacturers rarely take advantage of the increased power offered by new CPUs as compatibility issues could arise while current XBox 360 owners would not be very happy to have paid a premium for a slower console.

Moving on to the newest XBox 360 rumors and the main ones have to do with pricing issues as reports from a Spanish forum suggest that Microsoft will reduce the price of the core X360 pack by USD 80 and the premium package by USD 100 in October 2006. The other important rumor, from the same source, claims that MS will release an HD-DVD add-on for X360 that will connect to the USB 2.0 port and will cost USD 100. It is important to note that the real war this time round is not a console war as much as a DVD format war and Microsoft would be eager to offer X360 owners a viable option to owning a next-gen DVD drive as well as a next-gen gaming console. The aim is to have a console - HD-DVD drive combo available in the fall that will still be cheaper than rival Sony's PS3 which will launch on November 2006 with a Blu-Ray drive included.

The final rumor for today has to do with Microsoft's plans to offer emulation for gamers through the XBox Live Arcade service. According to an unnamed MS source Microsoft plans to offer a legal version of MAME while SEGA seems to also be on-board with some of its classic titles. It seems that Microsoft was watching what hackers were up to with the original XBox and took notes.

That's it for today but stay with MegaGames as Microsoft is bound to up the ante as E3 2006 approaches.

HD-DVD is an addon, NOT a built in drive

Microsoft: 360 CPU Change Won't Affect Performance
>> With the report last week that Microsoft would manufacture the CPU using 65-nm SOI instead of the current 90nm some sites went on to say the CPU would run faster. Microsoft has now officially confirmed the CPU change won't improve the performance.
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