Microsoft's slim Xbox

[brawndolicious]

http://gizmodo.com/5569822/xbox-live-launching-100-gold-family-plan
 

Update: We just heard from Microsoft that you could split these four accounts across consoles, so long as they were all in the same country. To do so, first the second, third and fourth accounts need to be added to the same console as the primary account holder. After they are activated onto the Family Pack, they can recover that account onto a different console.

Problem with sharing these among friends instead of just family members is that the primary account holder is still responsible for purchases, meaning, people who add points on the other three accounts will just bill the primary account holder. Which would be great, if you weren't the guy paying for your three chumps' DLCs.

[chronovore]

99USD/year is too much.

For four accounts??? Goddamn everybody wants everything for free.

It's actually "up to four accounts," and it's not clear how they'll be limited. If it's just a four-pack of yearly codes, super. I suspect it will be implemented in a way which prevents people from using it across disparate locations and saving money by dividing the 99USD four ways. (I just read am nintenho's post.)

As for "free," I actually think that a single, logged-in Gold account should enable access for any other currently-logged-in Silver or Non-Live accounts on a single machine, limited only by any game's features and any other DRM in play. So if a game supports splitscreen multiplayer and online simultaneously, and one player is Gold but the other Silver, they should still be able to play an online match against others. However, if the Silver account initiates a download, it would still be limited by the parameters of his account.

This actually came up for me when trying to use Video Chat, where I logged in and was talking to my sister in the USA. My wife wanted to talk at the same time, so I pulled out an extra controller and headset, and turned them on. It wouldn't recognize the other controller's mic, so I logged in my wife's Silver account. The 360 ended the Video Chat without warning or explanation. It wouldn't allow me to restart the video chat until I'd logged out her account. It pissed me off.

[Cormacaroni]

and then you used Skype like a normal person?

[Bildi]

This actually came up for me when trying to use Video Chat, where I logged in and was talking to my sister in the USA. My wife wanted to talk at the same time, so I pulled out an extra controller and headset, and turned them on. It wouldn't recognize the other controller's mic, so I logged in my wife's Silver account. The 360 ended the Video Chat without warning or explanation. It wouldn't allow me to restart the video chat until I'd logged out her account. It pissed me off.

That DOES suck.

[Saint Cornelius]

So wait, can I have multiple Live accounts on one fucking Xboxen or not? I think that's what they're getting at, yes?

See this is so that the whole family can play 1 vs 100 or Bomberman or whatever and not be "Cornelius 1973" followed by "Cornelius 1973(1)", "Cornelius 1973(2)", "Cornelius 1973(3)" etc

I'm just stating the obvious now aren't I? 

[brawndolicious]

yeah, I think that's what they're doing.

Plus that way you can have people with two different game saves playing online together.  It makes it much cheaper to play ranked games of Halo or whatever in split-screen.

[maxy]

For the interested,Japan tech site has done what no Western did...heat spreader removed,cpu+gpu combo and edram revealed



http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/column/kaigai/20100630_377488.html

Japan

[chronovore]

Saw one of these unboxed at a Nipponbashi shop. Not very good looking, actually. It's smaller though.

[maxy]

As expected,you can use your old hard drive...

Last but not least, as we just discovered, you can simply rip open your old Xbox 360 hard drive and slot it into the case, at which point it will be immediately recognized. Needless to say, we don't recommend this route for a variety of reasons... we hear Microsoft's warranty support service doesn't take kindly to freely bouncing hard drives.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/07/02/new-xbox-360-slim-250gb-review/

[brawndolicious]

Everywhere has run out.  It seems the gamespot deal is basically void since it expires before they get their new shipments.

[maxy]

And overpriced hdd is here

$129.99

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=83934

[Brehvolution]

Considering that they want $100 for a 60gb, that isn't a bad deal and it comes with a transfer cable.

[demi]

a whopping 3 demos. you'd think by this point they would throw in some other freebie beside Hexic...

[MCD]

arcade + this hdd.

matte all the way.

[chronovore]

I'm enjoying mine. It's shiny, which isn't matching anything else. Hell, I bought the first matte PS3. 

But the touchless power and eject buttons with sound effects are nice. BING! BONG! 

[cool breeze]

apparently the cheaper slim xbox is matte.  If I ever get one, I'd get that, then be stuck needing an expensive hard drive 

[chronovore]

That's funny. It's like people buying the Arcade, because it doesn't have the plastic-crappy silver tray and eject button.

[cool breeze]

My launch 360 broke down last year and picked up an arcade to replace it.  I didn't notice the drive cover was different until a few weeks ago.

In general I think shiny plastic for electronics end up looking and feeling cheaper.  Ideally everything would be brushed metal.

[chronovore]

As a joke, I'd like an eco-xbox, done up in cardboard like those Muji speakers that are just unfolding cardboard box-mounted. Someone has probably already done the cardboard ghetto mod.

[recursivelyenumerable]

What advantage would electronics bring over a regular physical coxbox?

[chronovore]

What advantage would electronics bring over a regular physical coxbox?

I cannot parse this.

[Saint Cornelius]

Nutjuice, that's cuz you're only using it for Netflix. 

I beat Mass Effect 2! And I've played MW2 for a few days total!

.

Beat all my fuckin GW2 scores too

[maxy]

[youtube=560,345][/youtube]

[MCD]

That makes it a bit unportable, don't like it.