Some "final" Xbox2/Xenon specs

[Prince Planet]

Anyone know of any sites having a feed of J. Allard's speech tonight?

Yes. http://www.majornelson.com/wp/index.php

A full 57 minutes of...I don't really know, other than fodder to keep fanboys of any and all persuasions clogging message boards all over the country. Enjoy.

[Wolffen]

Thanks PP. I'm hoping they'll show the interfaces for the Gamer Profiles and XBL. The Marketplace thing has me intrigued.

[Drewbacca]

Yoshi, I agree with your issues about game exclusives, but I think that with the current information we know the PS3 is a big unknown in that area versus the Xenon. Microsoft has been on the forefront of making life easier and cheaper for developers, which may be enough to coax them over to develop for their platform.

Right now graphics and eye candy are what sells games to the public, it isn't necessarily good gameplay. Good gameplay is what makes franchises, but games with amazing graphics usually sell well enough just because of this fact (Doom 3 anyone). With the advent of further technology and more intricate modelling, animation and texture work (maybe not, if we keep going) the cost of producing a game aren't going to be going anywhere but up, so giving developers tools that enhance and hasten the gestation cycle of games, and the XBN tools promised that, is a huge deal.

If PS3 is a pain in the ass to develop for, and the costs are astronomical, then developers could jump to the Xenon simply because of the ease factor, and then port the games over to the PS3 after.

I know it's all speculation, because we haven't heard a lick about the PS3's development costs, but weren't developers pissed off about the PS2's processors or something like that? And wasn't there a rumor that some devs were crying at the announcement of 100 processors being in the next Playstation model because of the sophistication needed to co-ordinate all of that? If so, then the Xbox could be in for the top spot next generation.

If they launch Halo 3 when the PS3 launches Sony will be in for some serious competition. It just seems like MS is doing a lot to secure more marketshare this generation, enough to give Sony a run for its money.

None of this is solid, and I'm speculating heavily because of the unknown factors, but it could plausably play out like this.

That gamebiz article posted above lends itself more to my scenario, citing the Xbox 2's focus on creating games.

[Wolffen]

There are a few screenshots of the "Guide" for Xenon (profile, Gamer Cred interface, etc) at Xbox.com

[Master]

To hit the point home that the new system is all about HD, J Allard gave out 1000 HDTVs to the people in the audience. That is pretty sweet.

[Wolffen]

Listening to the Keynote, I must say that Allard is a very good evangelizer (especially compared to Steve Balmer). Looking forward to see the video that goes with the audio.

[Diff-chan]

Listening to the Keynote, I must say that Allard is a very good evangelizer (especially compared to Steve Balmer). Looking forward to see the video that goes with the audio.

DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS DEVELOPERS

[mollipen]

and wresting control of key Xbox functions like voice chat, Friends lists and custom soundtracks out of their hands in order to ease the production process and let them "focus on creating games, not developing for technical certification requirements (TCRs).

Even though I still think they are screwing up on the hard drive front, this is a BIG plus in my book. I think any basic features like these should be system wide, and not left to developers to screw up, as many will. While they are at it, though, they so think bigger, and do things like system wide video controls (brightness, screen position, color balance, etc.), controls configuration, game save management, and anything else that can done system-wide.

Oh, and also, PLEEEEEASE do something like DOA did, where an Xbox Live account can have seperate user name and Xbox Live Tag name. It's nice to know who those people are who end up having to use a different name than their usual handle because it was already taken.

[Dyne]

im hoping with XNA and the fact that MS is making a studio solely devoted to it, that the devs take a serious look at the new MS machine and dont develope for the ps3 exclusively based on how much money SONY gives them. seems like MS has pretty much bent over backwards for the devs this round.

[mollipen]

After looking at the pics up on the official Xbox site, I'm not so impressed. Star ratings for players? That's going to go well, and be useful. No seperation of nickname and Gamer Tag. No real list of what games you own, to let others know what to challenge you in. (Unless the "Creds" list lists every game you own, even if you haven't earned any.) The "Gamer Zone" item seems useless if it's going to be great categories like "Pro." (Why not list actual game genres you like, such as FPS, Racing, etc.?) They also add details that I think are pointless - like "Games played" and "Total amount of time online" - when they could have put much more useful things there.

Oh, I can't wait to see some of the great avatars that people give themselves. (Not that I'm against the idea - they should absolutely be there. I'm just saying.)