The Xbox 360 community is buzzing re: next week’s big announcement from Epic. For those who’ve missed out on the early buzz, Gears of War appears to be a true next-gen title with amazing visuals, and we hope for great gameplay.
screenshots here
videos here
Mark Rein set things off by posting on Monday:
“BIG announcement coming next week! “
Gamespot followed up with a lengthy post explaining the possibilities:
This week, a new theory began circulating that Microsoft will time the release of another top Xbox 360 game to trip up the PS3’s launch. …Since Microsoft launched the Xbox, Xbox 360, and both Halo games in mid-November, many assume that Gears of War will hit stores then, especially now that the PS3 is going on sale during the time frame….This, in turn, spawned a second theory–that the announcement will be for a Gears of War demo on Xbox Live.
My money is on an Xbox Live demo. If you have any tips please send our way :)
July 25th, 2006
Joystick has a post saying that:
IT Wire in Australia has spoken with Mark Whittard, general manager of Toshiba’s Information Systems Division in Australia, about the possibility of an internal HD-DVD drive making it into next generations of the Xbox 360 before the end of the year.
More speculation than reality at this point, but given all the cluter we have in our own living rooms, it makes perfect sense to move this HD-DVD USB add-on into the actual console itself.
Here is the quote from the Toshiba GM that has everyone excited:
“The Xbox [360] is coming out with an HD-DVD player towards the end of this year. … I would imagine that there are plans in place to put an HD-DVD drive internally in future revisions of the product. They’re not speaking about it publicly at the moment but I would expect them to do that and fairly soon.”
Could be a good PR move to have that ready before the PS3 ships.
7/7/06 Update: Microsoft is flat out denying this: Cesar Menendez of the Microsoft’s Global Games Marketing Team wrote in the team’s blog:
Saw a few stories online about an Xbox 360 with a built-in HD DVD drive: not true. We have no plans to release an Xbox 360 with an internal HD DVD. What we showcased at E3 was an external HD DVD drive, and we’re sticking with that.
source
July 3rd, 2006