New Xbox Development Kit is cheaper, way cuter

by Griffin McElroy on Apr 5th 2011 1:00PM

Microsoft has begun offering developers great and small a new model of the Xbox 360 development kit, pictured above. The new hardware's got a lot to offer game studios -- it's got an undisclosed boost in RAM, larger hard drive, built-in flash memory and a less bulky frame than its predecessor. Its most appealing bonus? According to the kit's press release announcement, the new hardware will come at a "significantly reduced price from its predecessor."

Wait, no, that's not its most appealing bonus. We're pretty sure the aspect that's gonna lead companies to snatch up as many of these new kits as they can is how darn adorable it is. Look at him! He's so tiny. And he's got an equally adorable, optional Sidecar attachment, which enables debugging and emulation! Oh, just look! It's like he's giving it a piggy-back ride.

Source: Engadget

Tags: dev-kit, development-kit, microsoft, sidecar, xbox, xbox-360, xbox-360-slim

Reader Comments (48)

I like the matte black finish on there a lot better than the glossy finish on the retail models. Looks sweet.

@Softserve then boy do i have deal for you! you can buy one of these lovely matte black xbox 360's for the low price of $199, use you heard me right $199!!!! (the matte black is what the arcade models look like, i purposely bought the arcade model with a HDD on the side so I could get the matte)

@Softserve
It is a retail model, the 250GB is glossy, the 4GB is matte. I prefer the matte look from close up, but as long as you can't see the inevitable fingerprints I still love mine being shiny!

@redking315 "use you heard me right..." Wow, you really suffer from a serious case of Dysgraphia.

@Softserve
It's even nicer in person.

@Noksukow I went with the Halo: Reach Limited Edition...cuz that's how I roll bitches!

SO GOSH DARNED CUTE!

So when can we see a "significantly reduced price" of 360 HDDs for the consumer?

You do realize we're not living in 2001, right MS?

@PointlessPuppies You can build you're self a xbox 360 HDD is you have it in you.

Fast google search brings up this and many more sites.

http://www.pcdoctor-guide.com/wordpress/?p=4193

I have done this for a ton of friends and all has been well for years.

@PointlessPuppies Devkits also costs thousands, so a reduce in price for those does not mean the retail kits can be sold for less -_-

@jynxycat
HDDs most definitely CAN be sold for less and should. The prices on official HDDs from MS are completely outrageous and is the reason why I'm still sportin' a 20 GB one.

@PointlessPuppies
I think jynxy's trying to say that there is no reason to expect a correlation between a devkit price drop and a hard drive price drop.

@PointlessPuppies

The 250gb harddrive is 99 bucks. I'm guessing you forget a time when the 20gb drive was 99 bucks huh?

@Anticrawl
And yet, a regular 1TB drive is 99 bucks today. 250 GB for that price is laughable.

@darkinchworm
Oh I know that, I'm just saying if they're so "nice" in dropping the price of the dev kit, how about they stop gouging us with a freaking HDD?

daaaaaaw

@xboxdevkituser

A valid question.

@FentonAlpha

eh...?

@CaptainProtonX
lol
context: someone posted some condescending remark about your avatar, and it was removed (which I find somewhat surprising, but whatever)

So, instead of insanely expensive, the dev kits are marginally expensive?

Win.

Hopefully they're quieter, the things sound like jet engines.

@jynxycat

The old dev kits were fairly quiet friend, nothing like the retail models that sounded like a commercial jet taking off when you turned them on.

@jynxycat
I had an old, Xenon model that we used to call "the washing machine". Then it finally RROD'd and I bought a Jasper model. Silent as a kitty - the DVD unit MIGHT sound a bit noisy, but that's just before in-game sounds start playing.

And to think, they used to be Power Mac G5s.

@Epoque
still are in alot of cases :)

@Epoque

Hah, no the old 360 Dev Kits were massive grey consoles before.

@Anticrawl http://www.engadget.com/2005/04/21/is-this-mac-g5-the-xbox-360-dev-environment-box/

@Epoque

Well I work in development for multiple studios with EA and I've never seen such a thing. We use Windows OS for our work stations and test units are white and dev units are grey, both variations of what the retail kits look like. Engadget is a blog paid for by AOL and Apple.

@Anticrawl That's clearly just one of the very first prototype development kits they were using. Probably long before the 360's hardware was finalized.

@Anticrawl
Weird. I worked as a producer on a few early 360 games and yes, one of them studios used a G5. Or at least something in a G5-style case.

Good times.

@VeeDeeVee

Producers aren't involved in the development process hah, and if you had producer money what are you doing commenting on a blog.

@Anticrawl Are you for real?

"Producers not being part of the development process" is cockamamy bullspit. The role of producer is integral to the development process. Executive Producers on the other ... they just sign the checks mostly.

I don't know why you're playing the 'Engadget is Apple fanboiz' card, leave that carp for the cesspool that is the Engadget comment section (you'll get plenty of thumbs ups, I promise). The simple fact of the matter is, that the pre-alpha Xbox 360 development kits were based around, and housed inside of Apple Power Mac G5 hardware. 100% true fact, all in the form of a lighthearted sentimental comment.

@Anticrawl

"Producers aren't involved in the development process hah, and if you had producer money what are you doing commenting on a blog."

One, WRONG, two, certain jobs prohibit a person from having hobbies or socialization interests? Whoops, I guess I've never actually worked on any movies, I've been to imdb!

Well it looks like a new matte xbox slim with an extruding part while the former devkits looked like older pro models with an extruding part.

As far as the "more ram" goes, it probably is just to accommodate the new x360 disc standard which is 1G fatter so the "emulation system" may load the entire new format onto ram.

I'm curious to know "how much" they cost to devs.

@Major5 the matte isn't really "new" the arcade models are matte. I know because i have one

Not as cute as Patchy.

I wonder how many people remember the article my avatar came from.

@Red Runner

Easy

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/01/06/nykos-2011-ces-lineup-includes-360-s-intercooler/

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk19/Threddd/25qepz5.jpg

the way you talking about this thing makes you sound like a child molester, dude.

Later, our own Griffin McElroy managed to speak with a Microsoft representative on the design. The representative stated, "I like my video consoles the way I like my woman. Slender, soft, and rockin' an hourglass figure." To which Griffin replied, "And cheap, right?" "Oh yeah, that too."

@The Only Girl
Oh, you wiley minx!

"Xbox" and "cute" -- words not to be used together. More suitable: mean, tough, and ugly!

I'm not a game developer, so I apologize if my question is stupid: what is the point of an Xbox development kit which is basically a souped up Xbox? Shouldn't development be done on a standard consumer Xbox model so that the developers can see if the game will run fine? I mean, is that why a lot of games are so laggy and taxing on our systems? I hate the motion blur in Halo Reach and have heard that it's cuz the game has so many more calculations to do. In other games, during campaign you'll notice pausing or stuttering as well. I would prefer developers make their games work on a standard console. I prefer smooth gameplay over pushing technical limits any day.

@FlashJS

probably because by the summer microsoft will come out with their 3rd xbox model (much like the current one) with more ram so that people will have to buy to play the new games and to keep up with sony. sony is more marketed to hardcore enthusiasts then who MS is targeting. the new xbox's won't need a HDD upgrade because everything will be saved in MS's cloud.
i mean.. sorry guys. thats more then 600 dollars all together that you paid for a console already, considering you started out with the old, bought the new, and pay for live.

@FlashJS

First off Kadesh, shut up. FlashJS, If I am correct, and someone feel free to correct me. The Dev Kits has additional software and components that help in developing a game for the system, things that the retail models dont have. They are usually more powerful than the retail models, in most cases they tend to be quite larger (depending) than the retail models.

While the games are developed this way, they are usually tested on retail equivalent systems to make sure that they will run well on all other retail systems. So there isn't much of an issue with making a game that can only run on the beefed up Dev Kits.

@FlashJS

Oh also, in a lot of cases, the developers know about the lag and slow downs in a game, but as long as the game is playable and the lag is bearable, then they will just leave it in the game. They may patch it later, or not. Lag and slow downs aren't usually at the top of the list to fix unless it becomes unbearable.

Again, feel free to correct me if I am wrong. :-)

@FlashJS
Pretty much developers need the extra power to test their games.
There targets are to get it playing as best as they can with a standard xbox.
The extra power is used to runs other programs that you wont need in regular playing. This could be programs that debug, watch the game etc. Basically, check how the game runs at regular power and modify based on that.
So when the developer runs their game, the game uses all of the xboxs power, and the developers kit does all the behind the scenes stuff.

Nice...10-year lifecycle confirmed!

I wish they posted a pic of the old and new kits next to each other so I can really grasp the difference in size and adorability.

New Xbox Development Kit is cheaper, way cuter

Reader Comments (48)

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:01PM Softserve said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:17PM redking315 said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:20PM Dam0wned said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 2:21PM Monchis said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 3:06PM VeeDeeVee said

Posted: Apr 7th 2011 12:35AM MDizzy said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:05PM SMTDante said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:06PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:11PM AntiSniperSpy said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:13PM jynxycat said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:14PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:23PM darkinchworm said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:42PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:59PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:59PM PointlessPuppies said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:08PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:35PM FentonAlpha said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:41PM CaptainProtonX said

Posted: Apr 6th 2011 3:24AM darkinchworm said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:12PM jynxycat said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:52PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 3:17PM TheShaper said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:15PM Epoque said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:20PM Protege420 said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:44PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:52PM Epoque said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 2:27PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 2:59PM foldor said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 3:07PM VeeDeeVee said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 3:24PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 3:46PM Epoque said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 4:41PM ThePenIsMightier said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:16PM Major5 said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:18PM redking315 said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:18PM Red Runner said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 2:36PM Anticrawl said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 1:22PM Ezio Auditore da Firenze said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 2:24PM golobulus said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 3:01PM The Only Girl said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 3:23PM TheShaper said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 3:44PM SEGA Scream said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 5:08PM FlashJS said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 6:00PM Kedesh said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 7:18PM Saga286 said

Posted: Apr 5th 2011 7:23PM Saga286 said

Posted: Apr 6th 2011 2:31AM Veetzs said

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Posted: Apr 5th 2011 8:04PM whylekat said

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