| couchmonkey said: Are you suggesting this revision would theoretically carry Microsoft for another 5 years or whatever? I think it has some merit, but I believe there are a few challenges: 1. The hardware needs to be reliable, MS's reputation in this arena is already low and I think releasing another "rush job" console that breaks down could be suicide. 2. Pricing may need to be aggressive. I don't know if MS can develop new hardware that people will pay $400 for given the coming plateau in graphical fidelity. Depends on the accompanying software. I'm also still very skeptical about Natal. It sounds great, but I need to see real people playing real games on the hardware. |
1. They've been engineering their slim for a while now with the lesson of hindsight firmly in their mind. The board layout and testing is independent from the chip design and so long as the new chip is pin compatible they can easily drop it in.
2. Its not faster for more cost its faster for less cost. GDDR5 1024Mbit is cheaper than GDDR3 512Mbit and yields 2-3* the bandwidth and twice the capacity. Also once they shrink to 45nm they will be pad limited on the hardware before they get down to 32nm and they have 3 more revisions on the books, so my theory is the best fit to reconcile these two points.
3. Improved hardware gives people a reason outside of Natal to pick up the console. They said Natal is 'like' a hardware relaunch, but what if Natal is a hardware relaunch?
Tease.
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