Xbox 360 confirmed for 2005, again

"This year [will be year of high-definition]"

Didn't Steve Jobs already say that at a keynote a year or so ago?

In the engadget interview I think Bill made it very clear that xenon will NOT be a media 'hub'. It is much more likely that it will be an 'extender'. What exactly the difference is I don't know.

I think MS is doing an INCREDIBLE job of creating hype around the xenon. Where the hell are the PS3 rumors? My guess is the xenon is coming out sooner than PS3. Sony is letting MS have their fun now - They will bombard us with PS3 hype when we get closer to the launch of xenon.

John: Mid-January.

Well since according to the interview Microsoft isn't a hardware company there won't be an Xbox 360.

Year of Hi def my butt. Most games are going to be 720p probably. Most hi def sets out there don’t have the capability to display 720p only 1080i. So even though people have Hi def sets The majority is going to get screwed over again. Just like the last xbox, with 2 or 3 1080i games. After they said xbox will do hi-def gaming. 1080i and 720p in every game that will be the year of high definition.

How are they going to do Hi def with a regular dvd drive? Don't they need Sony's Blu Ray or the HD format?

Wackojacko your info is misleading (if not completely wrong).

Almost all of the newer HD displays have a built in scalar to display at their native resolution. If the native resolution happens to be 1080i the set will use its scalar to convert the 720p image to 1080i. If the tv does not have a scalar (most tv's do) then you can buy an external scalar. I wouldn't be surprised if the xbox itself will have a scalar (it certainly will scale the image down to 480i to work with most peoples non-hd sets).

From the game developers conference, J. Allard has stated that games will have at the minimum support for 720p (which is by definition HD). The majority of people, regardless of what resolution their monitor has, will seamlessly play games. I think the majority of them will be very happy with the resolution.

I am expecting at least one major price hack in current hd prices between now and Christmas. Christmas 2005 may very well be the beginning of the 'mass market' HD era. I'm sure there will be some great deals on HD at that time. The more patient consumers will of course get even better deals.

NEW hd displays. But what about all hd displays that are currently in homes from the last 4 years. Theres a huge amount of people that need to be supported. Im just saying most games and developers are going to go with 720p. Just like they did on xbox 1. They should mandate that all developers and espically AAA titles should be 1080i and 720p supported. Then they would have the HD era that they want.

No, NEW HD displays will have the built in scaler. Most old displays have it as well. But even if you don't have a scalar you can always get an external scalar. There is a chance that the xbox itself will scale for you.

ALL HD tvs will be able to play all xbox games at their native resolution. Don't worry about it. The worst case scenario is that you might need to buy a scalar - the vast majority of people will NOT need to do this.

don't matter to me ... i'll be getting an HD tv when the next price drop hits.

shouldn't this be titled "_Xenon_ confirmed for 2005, again"? I don't recall the interview with Gates ever saying the words Xbox 360, but he sure did throw _Xenon_ around alot.

So it's coming out this year? :D :D :D :D :D :D

Oh shoot, I live in the UK. Arg. Roll on Christmas 2006!

Re: the "Xbox 360" naming controversy.

Yesterday I saw a commercial on CTV (here in Canada) for that silly infomercial MTV is gonna be airing. It's called it the "Next-Generation Xbox Debut", and the "logo" at the end of the commercial had just the plain word "XBOX" in all-caps on a white screen using the exact same font/colour/lineweight that the logo up there uses.

So I'd say that the logo/name is pretty much dead-on.