Microsoft India says slim 360 is 'speculation or rumor' [update]

by Ross Miller { Sep 28th 2008 at 7:30PM }

We've received numerous tips (and noticed a rather popular digg) about an Xbox 360 event in Dehli, India that "confirmed" a slim Xbox 360 console was to be announced in December for release sometime in 2009. The information emanates from two English-language Indian gaming blogs, Split-Screen and Game Guru (a WHOIS search on both sites revealed nothing noteworthy).

Both blogs also mention that the region will be getting hands-on time with Fable 2, Gears of War 2 and Fallout 3 a week earlier than anyone else (we're guessing some special event, but neither article specifies) and a new 20GB package with Viva Piñata and Forza 2 for Rs.14,990 (approx. US $350).

While a slim Xbox 360 seems like a no-brainer for the future (we know there are smaller chipsets being made), here's why we're skeptical about this: logic dictates that Microsoft would not announce it in December, given that such news would likely hurt sales during the holiday season. Furthermore, no utterance of such an event can be found on Xbox India's official forums or major India newspaper the Times of India.

A final drop of skepticism can be added from Major Nelson himself, who told X3F, "I have no knowledge of an event in India and therefore anything related to one. I think we all know that if we had something to say, we'd be saying it." A similar rumor showed up in May, which Microsoft then denied.

Update: Microsoft India has shot down this alleged "announcement," labeling it as no more than "market rumor or speculation."

[Note: Slim Xbox 360 in image is fan-made mockup.]

Tags: india, rumor, xbox-360-slim

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Brett from Atlanta @ Sep 28th 2008 7:36PM

Wonder if they announce this at TGS to try and steal some of the other camps thunder. That would at least make all of these crazy price drops make sense. If you look at it that way, they are trying to clear out all of their old inventory before the introduction of a new SKU.

john paul @ Sep 28th 2008 8:33PM

Isn't the 60 gig a new SKU?
Why would they discontinue a SKU that just got released?

anonim1979 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:51PM

They need NEW motherboard first with new GPU+CPU in one - those two integrated into one circut(65nm or 40nm).

And we STILL waiting for long in coming Jasper motherboard with 65nm GPU and CPU. (Falcon in now sold X360 is 90nm GPU and 65nm CPU)

So SLIM X360 - fall/winter 2009 AT THE EARLIEST.

giantenemycrab @ Sep 28th 2008 7:43PM

Hey, MS, how about you worry about the RRoD first.. k?

Slayer @ Sep 28th 2008 7:50PM

I don't know about you but, I haven't really heard about systems getting the rrod lately.

SuperGayParade @ Sep 28th 2008 7:51PM

Because it isn't news. Everyone knows its happening. Posting "More RRoDs!" is just junk news.

Slayer @ Sep 28th 2008 7:54PM

@SuperGayParade

Now that you mentioned it, you could be right about that.

Moorio - XBL: peacebyanymeans @ Sep 28th 2008 8:10PM

Yeah, making a broad range of updated motherboards, shrinking CPU and GPU sizes and spending $1,000,000,000 on extending their warranty really seems like they're not worrying about the RRoD.

Now can people please stop posting, "Fix the Red rings first, M$!!1" every time there's a story relating to Xbox hardware or just Microsoft in general?

We get it. The hardware sucks. It's annoying to have to return your 360 to get it fixed. Trust me, I know, I had to do it twice already.

But what I find even more annoying is people coming in a posting comments that HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ARTICLE and perpetuating this inaccurate idea that Microsoft is doing nothing about the problem.

Okay... I feel better now... :)

giantenemycrab @ Sep 28th 2008 8:34PM

I know they've been trying to fix it.... BUT, they haven't. It just seems like they should completely iron out the issues with gen 1 before they move to gen 2 or there's going to be an even bigger mess. It seems like they are putting new rims on a car that's on fire. Perhaps they should extinguish the fire first, eh?

BigD145 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:38PM

It wouldn't be hard to slim the case and put the heatsink entirely on the outside. This wouldn't solve anything, but it would be slimmer. .... hahahaha

tcc3 @ Sep 29th 2008 8:25AM

How do you expect them to solve the overheating problem without a redesign?

Bigger and better heatsinks have only been bandaids. The redesigned box *is* the fix.

Vcize @ Sep 29th 2008 10:43AM

Moorio, why would you say that that has nothing to do with the article? A slimmer case means more heat build-up, and heat is the problem with the RROD in the first place.

I tend to agree that it doesn't seem to make sense to make a smaller, hotter case when the full-size case is already too hot. They'd have to fix the heat issues entirely before introducing more of them.

SuperGayParade @ Sep 28th 2008 7:50PM

GG 2 overheating then

WiiFTW @ Sep 28th 2008 7:51PM

But there's no room for red rings in a slim 360. Where are they going to put them?

If only Microsoft made the 360 correctly instead of rushing it with bad heatsinks...Otherwise many others and I would have bought a 360 without the fear of RRoDing.

Averna @ Sep 28th 2008 8:23PM

I thnk the money they made during the lead they had over the ps3 and wii MIGHT have made up for the loss in replacing units, with all of the software sold and 3rd parties jumping exclusivity left right and center.

I could be wrong though. I just hope this doesnt become a trend for Microsoft *hides Windows under the bed*

Slim Pickinz96 @ Sep 29th 2008 10:25AM

@ you, and Pokemon guy

1.RRoD is not a "common occurance"....

2. The current & upcoming releases, as well as XBL is worth 10 RRoD's compared the multiplatform & shovel-ware the other consoles have been getting.

pkpk523 @ Sep 29th 2008 2:03PM

@slim:
worth 10RRoDs? No. just no.
this is from a microsoft supporter. strongest lineup? yes. but you can't justify to me hardware this faulty. and it is a common occurance. 3 times to me before they sent me a refurb elite which has had little playtime, but so far so good. they're trying to correct their issues, (finally) so i'm not totally off the 360 bandwagon just yet, but you can't just let microsoft off the hook like you are trying to. companies need to be held accountable for shortcomings, and praised for their accomplishments. you can't just pick one or the other.

TheAzureKnight @ Sep 28th 2008 7:53PM

RRoD still happens?

Tough luck...the 360 is still the best system hands down when it comes to games and RRoD doesn't seem to be happen as much and even if it does happen it's not like it takes your 360 away forever...

BIGFAT @ Sep 28th 2008 7:59PM

True, and they fix it free of charge.

Hala Madrid!! (PSWii60 Defense Force) @ Sep 28th 2008 8:19PM

I really don't care about the RROD, I still play my 360 more than my PS3 and Wii.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:28PM

Oh Please.

If Sony had a high console failure rate you would be the first person bashing them to hell and back at every chance.

However, I agree that there is no reason to even mention the RROD in this thread. So, we do agree that it was pointless to bring it up and just seems childish.

Don't be silly and apologize for Microsoft. Obviously they know there was a big time problem and thats why they extended the warranty. But, I do feel that it is wrong the only hardware issue they will fix free of charge is the RROD when there are other known hardware defects from overheating. Again, thats neither here nor there.

On Topic:

It's probably time for a 360 redesign and a smaller & more sleek redesign would be the best choice. Maybe they can also find a way to get rid off the giant power brick & include the Wi-Fi adapter in the console's casing as opposed to an extra $100 part. I would also hope they go away from the slot loading tray to a more sleek design with less moving parts like the Wii & PS3.

I remember the rumors around E3 that a new 360 SKU would emerge with built in Blu-Ray for movie playback. Maybe the redesign will include Blu-Ray?

Kspraydad @ Sep 28th 2008 8:43PM

I thought the PS2 had the best system due to games...huh.

tmacairjordan87 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:53PM

First off, you're completely right john. If ps3's were crappin out at the rate 360's were a year ago he would be the first to make sure we all knew about it.

Second, you are also right Kspraydad the ps2 still has the best lineup ever. This generation has been so-so, as I find myself disappointed with a lot of big games that were hyped to hell.

But on topic, even though I'm on 360 number 6 I gotta say it has stayed alive and kickin for almost a year now so I think they finally hammered that RRoD situation out.

cranium @ Sep 29th 2008 12:07AM

@immortaltechniquepsn:johnnynumber5 (..cool name)

IF sony had a high console failure rate, eh? you mean like 'disk read error'?
if i recall correctly they charged you to have that fixed too..

tmmoore_nc @ Sep 28th 2008 7:56PM

Aesthetically, it's hard to imagine a smaller version of the 360 because of the hard drive being an add-on instead of being built in. If you make it thinner, you can't put the current hard drives on the side, but you could put it on the top, but it would look ugly as sin.

Adam @ Sep 28th 2008 7:57PM

I love how you guys think that their doing absoloutly nothing to fix the RRoD. If they ever came out with a new Slim Xbox 360 I'm 100% sure that they will have fixed it

Superstar90 @ Sep 28th 2008 7:59PM

The ratio of normal comments to "OMG RROD LOLZZ" comments here is disturbing. RROD has been practically fixed.

hnbeanz @ Sep 28th 2008 8:19PM

But of course it has... Keep telling yourself that.

Drew @ Sep 28th 2008 8:39PM

I'm assuming you get your news solely from Joystiq.

DWells55 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:53PM

One red light appears to be the trend now. Happened to my 65nm Halo 360 as well as a couple of my friend's premium consoles. And, conveniently enough, they refuse to cover the systems with only one red light instead of all three.

Then of course there's the other problems, like the DVD drives cutting out. My second Halo 360 was sent to Microsoft two weeks ago because it sporadically gave me "disc is unreadable" messages.

Oh, and my friend's year-old Elite became a victim of the three red lights about a month or so ago. So I'd say MS still has some work cut out for them when it comes to QC.

WRE @ Sep 28th 2008 9:54PM

Yeah, but at least the people citing RROD cases are using facts and figures instead of just resorting to anecdotal evidence. Oh wait...

DWells55 @ Sep 29th 2008 3:16PM

Of course it's anecdotal evidence, I'm not exactly about to go invest a ton of money in a scientific research study so I can properly back up my post on the comments section of a video game blog.

Matt @ Sep 29th 2008 3:58PM

i had 360 issues 2 weeks ago on my elite 360 console that is well ventilated, dusted, and taken care of.

no RROD, however i was 1 month before the 1 year, so MS accepted the return.. they were giving me crap at first saying the console was made more than 1 year ago, however with my receipt they would fix it anyway (oh thanks like you were going out of your way to fix my console)
i think my video card went out because the graphics became all colorful and messed up and then console would not put any image on the tv.

gamestop told me to throw a blanket over the 360 and run it for hours and hours and then maybe the RROD lights would appear, if i was past the 1 year warranty and within the 3 year RROD warranty.

1 thing though my console ( or refurb ) is already done and being delivered back.. should be within 3 weeks total.. thats not bad considering the ground shipping was about 1 - 2 of the weeks.

TheAzureKnight @ Sep 28th 2008 8:08PM

Uhh just noticed the picture...

Let me just say that if MS does does do a 360 slim (which I highly doubt will be the case) they better not make it as fuck ugly as the ps2 slim.

I like the design of the current 360 and if they want to shrink that in scale that's cool.

Ignatius @ Sep 28th 2008 8:14PM

I didn't mind the PS2 slim, it was actually stunning to see how tiny they've made the console, considering the behemoth that arrived back when it launched.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:32PM

Say what you want but the slim redesign was more functional. They got rid of the slot loading drive for the pop up drive. Microsoft could learn from this. The less moving parts - the better.

Kspraydad @ Sep 28th 2008 8:33PM

That image is a modified PS3 slim image from T3 magazine.

http://www.t3.com/news-gallery?articleId=5165

indigit4l @ Oct 3rd 2008 3:47PM

@immortal: The original PS2 wasn't slot-loading, it had a tray.

Noxat @ Sep 28th 2008 8:20PM

I'm sure a smaller, redesigned 360 will come about eventually but I think this particular announcement is bunk.

Arnon @ Sep 28th 2008 8:23PM

Well, it's def. possible.. with the Valhalla motherboard there's no reason why they couldn't..

65nm single CPU/GPU super-chip..

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:34PM

A redesign will happen eventually. But, I don't give any credence to this particular rumor.

Immortal Technique PSN: johnnynumber5 @ Sep 28th 2008 8:45PM

much like I don't give any credence to your rumor that the Fable 2 issues were completely the fault of MS servers.

Arnon @ Sep 28th 2008 9:11PM

Then you fail =/ Because.. no.. this is the wrong article to post that.. Why are you here exactly? D:

Arnon @ Sep 28th 2008 9:18PM

Then again, you hate anything 360 it seems and want to contradict anything anyone says positive towards it. BEEEEE HAPPY.

Massmass @ Sep 28th 2008 8:34PM

I want this more than an "updated" DS. It'd make up for my massive PS3 AKA Blu-Ray Player.

Drew @ Sep 28th 2008 8:43PM

Why did you have to go and call your PS3 a standalone Blu-ray player? Nobody says "360 AKA Space heater," so I'm gonna go ahead and file this one under "Flamebait that I really shouldn't have replied to, so that in the same comment I would have redeem myself for looking like a dick."

Massmass @ Sep 29th 2008 5:55AM

How is it flamebait? I didn't say it was a stand-alone Blu-Ray player. It's your own fault for inferring that.

When you have a 360 AND a PS3, please, tell me Mr. Defensive, what exclusive games are on the PS3? What non-exclusive games play better on the PS3 (that is to say, surpasses average equality)? Yeah, not too many.

Get over yourself. If you ONLY own a PS3 it gets an equal share of gaming and video, but if you own a 360 as well, most games will go towards that system when there's little to no difference if you enjoy its controller more. What, you want me to buy a game for both systems so the PS3 won't feel left out?