New. Xbox. Experience.
 

Very informative :)

oo pretty cool.
looks neat too

sigh i wont be buying a bigger hard drive unless games dont need teh discs (i realize the piracy issue)

I agree with Pballer325, that would be great to put my top games on the HD but to require a disk is retarded. As for the "new experience" I am not so sure on. Seems to me they are going for the Wii audience which I am not so cool on. I want my 360 to stick to a more mature audience, not a family experience...grrr.

This is Microsoft's attempt at reaching out to a wider audience. This might get a good reception some places, but the "hardcore" 360 gamers are gonna feel pissed, left out, and neglected just so MS can try to compete with Wii sales.(Yeah, right...)

I don't know if they are trying to reach the younger audience, or the older audience. Perhaps both. But at the moment the majority of 360 users are very hardcore gamers and teenagers. I deliberately play PSN more often than XBL purely because of the fact that people are more mature and willing to co-operate. Try calling different Gamestop's, etc, and tell them that you are buying a birthday present for your son who just turned 20/25, but you have no idea which console to go for AT ALL. Most will say PS3 ( Or wii, some might ask questions like "Does he have children?" etc). HOWEVER, change that number to 15, and almost everyone will say 360.

Point is, the 360 is a hardcore gaming console/one for teens meant for mature games. (Yes, I know I just said that it's for teens and mature games in one sentence - but lets face it, who DIDN'T play GTA before they were 18? Or any other game for that sake. ) Microsoft is trying to shake that reputation off, something which might possibly harm them more than i helps them.

And to that last bit - wtf!? Deliberate attempt to make people purchase bigger hard drives (by MS).
Besides, if they do implement it's use without a disk, it will not be useful for very long. Games like MGS4 for PS3 filled a whole blu-ray disc (50gb), and the 360 will have to follow up with something else than DVD's soon. Bye bye disk space.

You got the Mii thing right about the Avatars. Just an attempt to appeal to the Wii's market, and they honestly don't have a chance of outdoing the Wii on sales. Wii is just too damn popular.

If they had some way of making it so you DIDN'T need the disks once it was on the drive it would be awesome, but as it is it's pretty much pointless.

That said, though, at least they're trying to bring out some new stuff. The Xbox.com Marketplace is good, at any rate.

This is pretty cool. Although the avatars are a ripoff of Miis... :) As previously stated.

I'll like the NetFlix deal, since I currently use the cable DVR system of paying for new movies.. but those are usually at least a few weeks after DVD release. Netflix is very quick, as quick as say.. blockbuster.

That reputation - while it might be something unintentional - often dictate the sales. Consider yourself a Gamestop (or any other gaming store) employee. If a father in his 30's asked you what console he should get for his 8 year old boy, what would you say? The Wii, of course! While I believe the motion controls are somewhat of a gimmick, there's no denying the fun a child can have with it.

Compare the interfaces of the 3 consoles, the Wii has the most user-friendly interface by far. Of course the PS3's/360's are extremely usable once you get to know them, but it's just an example of how the Wii aims more for the casual gamer.

Loose the flag on XBL, and you'll be called a fag the rest of the game. Loose the flag on Wii-fi and... Well, let's not talk about the Wii's online support... (If you could even call it that)

Microsoft hasn't been trying very hard to reach out the the casual gamer this far, there's no denying the fact.
It's not only about which gamers are on what console, it's more about the core of the console. No "casual" gamers wants to pay for online play. And when the Wii is advertised with Wii Sports, and the 360 is advertised with FPS' such as Halo 3, there's no question which console reaches out to the casual gamer's heart.


To be quite honest, I don't think this will help MS very much. They might get a few casual gamers, but the lump of the "old" fans will fell somewhat left out.

Maybe in the 90s. But now the generation that had video games all their life understand video games and consoles (for the most part) and would know what to get their 8 year old son. I am going on 20 in a few months and I know if in ten years I had a son, and a similar system to the wii came out and a similar system to the 360 came out, I would allow my 8 year old son to test out both consoles before purchasing on of them (or both of them). It's up to the child if he or she finds it fun.. not an employee.

And I KNOW gamestop employees... they're too bias... only fanboys work at gamestops.. and non-fanboys that work at gamestop (eb games etc...) usually quite right away.

Too further this... There is a specific gamestop located in Edgewater, New Jersey. It is FULL of sony fan boys. In fact, they try to push only sony sales. So if a father walks in (and I've seen this before) they will push the sony psp or sony ps3 on the child and his/her father! This isn't the only case. I travel a LOT, and I've seen this everywhere with different video game and electronic stores. Don't trust an employee because they will push what they like, especially if they are young.

My original posts were deleted because I think we have a fanboy mod ;-]>!