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Real Xbox 360?A new, suspicious, and convincing image appears on the
Net.by Douglass C. PerryApril 22, 2005 - Late Friday afternoon, a
purportedly leaked image of thenew Xbox 360 appeared on the Net, giving
gamers their first potentially reallook at Microsoft's
soon-to-be-announced next-generation console.Multiple images have appeared
on the Web in the last month, all with claimsto be the next Xbox 360. The
last included a wild-looking console boxpartially surrounded by a
quarter-circle handle. That image was actually asneaked photograph from a
Microsoft office and the alleged console was heldby Microsoft's Vice
Corporate President J Allard. The image, while possiblyreal, looked more
like a prototype than a final console. This new imagelooks intriguingly
more like an actual final model for a number of reasons.Microsoft normally
doesn't comment on rumors or speculation, so while a fewphone calls were
placed, it was much too late in the day to reach arepresentative to
comment on the image. Real or fake?Leaked onto a forum Friday,
April 22, -- and not related to the Microsoft"ourcolony" viral campaign --
this image shows a Macintosh-esque, Tivo-likeconsole with a silver
metallic shell and luminiscent green outline. Thegeneral shape is that of
a PC with soft edges, and subtle concave lines.It's also quite small. Much
smaller, in fact, than the current,Cadillac-style Xbox. To get a feel for
how small it is, the DVD-tray looksmore than half the width of the entire
console compared to the currentconsole, containing a disc tray that's
smaller relative to its larger widthand depth.The face shows two Memory
Units A and B, plus a black I/O port,theoretically for the RF controllers.
Instead of the multiple green swirlsshown in previous Microsoft ads, a
large green circle appears on theright-hand side. And a round-edged
sliding disc tray appears above thememory units. And, in line with
information spread to us from developers,the unit appears as if it could
sit horizontally or vertically, like Sony'sPS2 unit.The leak is
interesting for a couple of reasons. Normally fake images areproduced in
RGB, and they have been, so far, low-res images. This image isin
high-resolution, plus it's formatted in CMYK, a printable
format,suggesting it could have come from an asset disc. Additionally, the
imagecorroborates the design ideas we've heard about, with the system
lookingmore similar to a PC or a Tivo than a console system. Even more so,
thereare RF slots for wireless controllers, memory slots not contained on
thecontroller, and the console lacks four controller ports, as we were
told.As with anything leaked on the Net, this image could also be a
completefake, and some sneaky online artist is drinking beer and laughing
his assoff at all the speculation. Or it could be the real thing and
Microsoft isagain trying to find the informant.We'll have more on Xbox 360
soon, whether it's speculation, fact, or purelyartistic
rendering.
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