Now I understand this topic draws a lot of emotional responses. So imagine this scenario, Microsoft releases an updated Xbox 360 at the current price, the Xbox 360+ which has some updated hardware in the box. It doesn't effect people who just want to play games as all games would still be designed to run excellently on the current Xbox 360 hardware. Retail support for the Xbox 360 is still maintained to the usual and expected 2012/2013/2014 timeframe. They also don't release any games which cannot work on the current hardware that people have. Also the Xbox 360+ would cost no more than whatever the current prices for the Xbox 360 are.

With the new PSP Go and the Xbox 360 direct downloads of games and Natal, its got me thinking. What if they could allow people who wanted faster hardware to download games for an Xbox 360+ which are identical to Xbox 360 games, but are optimised to run on better hardware? Lets say both consoles can run GTAIV (next city) well, but if you download it for the Xbox 360+ you can have 2-4 player local multiplayer. So it could be excellent for the hardcore people who want more, but doesn't effect the current experience people get with their console in any negative way. It could mean that they help ease the transition into a newer generation by following the handheld route of mini hardware generations. DS -> DS Lite -> DSi or Gameboy -> Gameboy Colour, rather than having the harsh transitions which are normal and costly with home consoles.

Lets say the hardware in the new box goes something like this:

• 4/6 core Xenon running at 3.2 with small architecture tweaks.
• Xenos replaced by an ATI Directx 11 GPU with 2-3* the performance with say 22MB of ED-Ram (too lazy to perform the calculation to work out how much they need haha sorry) to natively support 1920/1080 games or 720P games with full HDR.
• 1024MB GDDR5 running on a 64bit bus (save money) with say 40% more bandwidth (Again too lazy to calculate)
• 500GB of HDD space to download games to which gives far higher throughput than optical media.
• Xenon/Xenos/ED-Ram combined into one single die to improve latency and lower cost on the 45nm Global Foundries process.

How would you feel about it? Its not a hard generational change and it shouldn't effect you personally if you don't choose to upgrade but it also gives people who want extra performance the option and it slowly increases the level of performance available to developers so that they can transition to a new generation without incurring the same cost they did this generation.

Costs no more...

I'd jump in again... finally.

(oasn: Squill! How long have I been saying I'm gonna buy a 360? 1Year? 2 Years?)

I think you've hit the nail on the head - it's long been speculated/rumoured that MS was going to introduce 'forward compatibility' to their next console.

I think it works great for everybody - MS will benefit because they don't lose their subscription fees, the developers will like it because there's a big market to sell games to and the consumers should like it because there's already a huge back catalogue of games and if it debuts close to the same price of the current systems then why should they care?

Well, it would fail, most people would not buy it if they already have a 360, especially if the new games worked on the old console. It's just bad business.

I'd probably just build a new desktop and ignore the new 360 duo console exists.

Didn't MS file a patent for "game" upgrades when run on a new console?

Just like how PC games have low, med, and high settings. Games could run at a better frame rate or at a higher resolution on the new Xbox.

They won't even put a browser in the console because they don't want to confuse with the their PC market. It nice idea in theory but if cost them or be another loss leader, then the answer is simply no. Especially after the Project Natal announcement which will be a there new loss leader.

Face it, it anything, the only new console you will see in the next two years is maybe Wii HD, which will be something you described, and possiblely to often rumored Apple's IConsole.

Sony and MS are going laterally with the iterations of their consoles with peripherals, storage add-on, and controllers to extend their product's life. R&D won't be cheaper but it won't big loss leaders as new consoles (in Sony's case, still is) Don't expect any console hardware until 2012 from either of them.

To effectively use Natal for current generation games, every game should run at 60FPS. The controller interface would expose a slower framerate which is hidden currently by the analogue sticks, its not a problem for most casual/core gamers who would be fine with the current hardware. Its the same Nintendo Wii vs Gamecube effect. Whilst the Wii is an efficient piece of hardware, and its definately much faster than the Gamecube by a significant degree, it needs to run games at 60FPS and deal with the processor overhead of the new interface as well which is why the games don't look significantly different from the Gamecube. This is a similar situation, to minimise lag and make the whole interface work more effectively they would have to update the hardware to run current games faster to give people the best experience when playing core games. You should note that they have only demoed games which run at 60FPS like Burnout for the media who would notice the latency.

So an Xbox 360+ running all games from the HDD would effectively have over 10* the throughput from the storage medium, more memory bandwidth, more shader performance, more processing power. Everything it would need to run current generation games at 60FPS and even for people here not sold on the Natal interface having every game running at twice the frame rate or a higher resolution would be appreciated by many people. It would also give people much more incentive to use their new game download service for the NXE as they could actually get something positive as a tradeoff for not having physical media.

So how many Wii games can be played on Gamecube ?

Zelda Twilight Princess. All of the Nintendo games actually run on the Wii at 60FPS. Had the Gamecube remained on the market, probably all of them.