Yes.

It's almost a given at this point that a Slim 360 will be released. All of the known information we have, including the addition of USB memory support points in that direction.

I think so. They'll want to give Natal a strong start and a hardware refresh is definitely one way of doing that.

Plus you can't compare this generation to last as Microsoft had to cut the last one short while this one will probably be 7 years long for Microsoft.

Xen said: Alby_da_Wolf said: Xen said: Alby_da_Wolf said: A SlimmME2 is totally in MS "style", so yes. Sony wasn't the first to slim down their console - remember the NES v2, Genesis 2? I didn't remember those two, but the dig was at usual MS habit of reinventing the wheel, umbrella, hot water, etc  Sony wasn't original either, but up until now it was the most successful at marketing slim versions. Anyway, does XB360 need a slim version? It's not so huge, like PS3 phat was instead. Hugeness is not always the reason. A slim is way cheaper to produce. 'sides, Natal's launch is supposed to be the size of a console launch. Wouldn't it be nice if it had a new 360 to go along with it?

This is true, but to successfully market a slim version, it must be significantly slimmer than the previous version, much easier to do if that one was as bulky as the first PS3, but when the space is more crammed, and despite having a separate power brick the original unit had air flow and overheating problems it just recently solved, a noticeably slimmer version would require very low power consumption chips, cooler than the current ones that run fine in the current case. We'll see anyway, maybe they could just temporarily solve this with a copper heatsink (and spreader, as part of the problems were due to  huge temperature differences that warped too much the mobo) until a shrink of both CPU and GPU is feasible.

i would think so. i'm no manufacturing genius but it seems obvious to me that a slimer design would result in less materials and therefore less cost to manufacture. the only counter argument i can think of to not sliming down is that they are a bit pigeon-holed with the HD size. However, the support for 16 Gb flash seems (to me) like a work around of that issue.

I think alot of people tend to forget that most of MS's problems last gen including its early demise were because they didnt own the hardware design at all...this time they do. They had no way to lower production costs other than to beg manufacturers last time around...some like Nvidia didnt want to budge so once others were able to lower costs and still make a profit, MS had to just accept a bigger loss to match. Thats not an issue this time around so a slim is not only possible but probable.

Yes, it will happen all the evidence that's out their point to it that revised motherboard with the combined GPU/CPU would be to small for the 360 to keep its current shape and form once its implemented.

360 price cut + Natal + Halo: Reach is all MS needs to boost its sales towards the end of the year and sell over 10 million consoles in a year again. Will the 360 match the 2008 sales total of 11 million- maybe not.

360 Slim is just a rumour. The existing HDD's would be incompatible with 360 Slim.

Not necessarily it could be just a bit shorter and keep the compatibility with the old HDD also having a new HDD wouldn't be that bad either as long as their is an easy way to transfer data from your old HDD.

360 slim is coming because MS will be cutting cost just like Sony. The slim is not a response to Sony Slim but instead a tool for MS to reduce the cost of the 360, sell at a attractive price and still be able to bundle Natal and make a profit. A new form factor can also have increase in sales but that's a side effect.

The difference with MS doing a slim model and Sony is that Sony had to throw away all of their profit while MS is still in a nice position to make money on their revision. Forget that MS has stated that they see this Gen lasting a lot longer than the last. You can say that this is MS new console without having the steep development cost