Microsoft discontinues glossy Xbox 360, goes matte

[Shawn Knight]

Microsoft will be abandoning the glossy outer shell on select Xbox 360 consoles in favor of a black matte finish. The announcement was made official on the blog of Major Nelson, director of programming for Xbox Live. Microsoft’s gaming console is currently available in two flavors: a 250GB unit with a glossy finish and a 4GB model featuring a matte black surface.

Nelson used the opportunity to debunk a rumor that had been circulating leading up to the announcement. Microsoft will not continue to manufacture the glossy 360 alongside the new matte-finish system.

This doesn’t affect the development of special edition consoles, however. The limited edition Gears of War 3 console and the Star Wars console were cited as two examples of upcoming glossy console bundles.

The transition has already started and new consoles will be available in the coming weeks. If you have your heart set on a glossy system, now is the time to pull the trigger before they are permanently pulled from store shelves.

No official reason was given for the change, but one could speculate that it’s not cost-efficient to manufacture two different outer shells for what is otherwise an identical product. The hard drive capacity is the only difference between current 250GB and 4GB models.

Microsoft redesigned and announced a new Xbox 360 at E3 2010. The slim console uses a 45nm SoC called "Vejle" that crams a CPU and GPU onto one piece of silicon. It has 372m transistors, is 50% smaller and draws 60% less power than the original 360's 90nm CPU/GPU combo.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/45085-microsoft-discontinues-glossy-xbox-360-goes-matte.html

 

[Igneus the Bold]

As if that could hide the limited and archaic hardware inside. I don't care how pretty the wrapping paper is if the present reeks.

 

[lipe123]

Couldn't agree more, these dinosaurs are just hurting the gaming industry as a whole by forcing developers to code crappy 1996 graphics and then porting that dog.... to pc's.

 

[Guest]

Knowing M$oft ...It's just a matter of time before the entire Box is discontinued.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

lipe123 said:
Couldn't agree more, these dinosaurs are just hurting the gaming industry as a whole by forcing developers to code crappy 1996 graphics and then porting that dog.... to pc's.

They're hurting PC gaming because the games have 1996 graphics? I didn't think those $500 video cards were running all available games at 200FPS yet.

Guest said:
Knowing M$oft ...It's just a matter of time before the entire Box is discontinued.

I know... I can't believe they stopped supporting Windows ME either...

 

[Guest]

It's dead in Japan. They removing what's left off the shelves. People only buying PS3's

 

[pcnthuziast]

Consoles are to gaming what Schlitz malt liqor is to alcoholic beverages.

 

[Mindwraith]

i believe you mean that in Japan people are only buying Wii's lol

 

[yukka]

lol. There is no better system to play Fifa 2012 on in the breaks between kicking *** on my PC in BF3.

Nothing wrong with consoles and as an owner of a 360 I am happy I don't have to upgrade for the forseeable. Plus I watch sky sports and movies on it and its quiet. Haters will always hate tho.

 

[Igneus the Bold]

I'll bite. I just can't help myself.

They're hurting PC gaming because the games have 1996 graphics? I didn't think those $500 video cards were running all available games at 200FPS yet.

As if the XBox 360 could achieve even half of that on any game either. Yeah, we know it runs smooth, that's because it is a close-ended, static system. In its stagnation it brings with it leagues of unwitting consumers, bound to its ancient and redundant tenets; and let us not forget the smorgasbord of developing companies which produce games specifically for it, which more than explains why those games are fairly stable.

lol. There is no better system to play Fifa 2012 on in the breaks between kicking *** on my PC in BF3.

Nothing wrong with consoles and as an owner of a 360 I am happy I don't have to upgrade for the forseeable. Plus I watch sky sports and movies on it and its quiet. Haters will always hate tho.

I like older consoles, but the XBox 360 is more of a fascist stage than a gaming platform. Microsoft rules that thing with an iron fist from Hell, effectively bullying any corporation that longs to get its product through the door and into the hands of gamers. I understand they own it, but they are so heavily restrictive that it does damage to the progress of the gaming community by forbidding it to move forward at a natural pace; And do NOT get me started on the Microsoft Point scam they are running. I've seen how they manipulate prices so as to leave spare room for their private investments with customers' money.

I understand the limited hardware, and I can see how it brings initial prices down, but the freedom of computer gaming is something worth having.

 

[Tekkaraiden]

I was expecting a lot of pc elitism and I was not disappointed. Personally I like the matte finish, it fits in better with my AV gear.

 

[parasit3]

how bout choose a glossy computer case of ur own to go with ur gaming PC

 

[Guest]

Never undrstood why they were glossy in the first place. Probably one of psychological marketing strategies that these pinheads thought of. BUY SHINY THINGS.

 

[Emin3nce]

Can they discontinue the ones that keep getting a red ring around the power button?

OH BOOM - SUCK IT BILL!

 

[RH00D]

I don't hate consoles. I just hate when developers that release PC games, don't take advantage of the PCs capabilities.

Example, DICE is taking full advantage of the PC with BF3 while still making Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Every platform is getting the best experience it can offer. That is what I like to see. I hate seeing a direct port of a console experience on my PC.

 

[Igneus the Bold]

I don't hate consoles. I just hate when developers that release PC games, don't take advantage of the PCs capabilities.

Example, DICE is taking full advantage of the PC with BF3 while still making Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Every platform is getting the best experience it can offer. That is what I like to see. I hate seeing a direct port of a console experience on my PC.

^THIS. You said it better than I could.

 

[Burty117]

RH00D said:
I don't hate consoles. I just hate when developers that release PC games, don't take advantage of the PCs capabilities.

Example, DICE is taking full advantage of the PC with BF3 while still making Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Every platform is getting the best experience it can offer. That is what I like to see. I hate seeing a direct port of a console experience on my PC.

+1

No excuse from the devs, Wish they could explain there actions to us if anything.

 

[Guest]

I have a 360 for almost 2 years and there are many times I seriously think of throwing it away.. it's annoying because there is almost zero support for it in my country. (But I get all the annoying emails from Microsoft to upgrade to gold and **** like that even if they don't let me upgrade. Also most of the services from the Xbox suffer from the same problem(not available for my country). So it's kind of useless in this case, and annoying when I get all those emails from Ms. All I can do is play games offline.. and adding that to old hardware it's boring.. there are few good games.. but the lack of support for it has manage to destroy even those games.

 

[Guest]

What a waste of two excellent games to run on older hardware at 720P only. If Microsoft was smart they would of released an XBOX1080 at the time Modern Warefare3 and BF3 were released to showcase the new support for 1080P games running 30+ fps. I love pc and consoles but hate the fact I can only run at 720P on my shiny new Sony Bravia 47". I dream of First Person Shooters at the 1080P glory. Why dont they sneak in a AMD chip on a XBOX360 ver2.0? hehe

 

[example1013]

Guest said:
What a waste of two excellent games to run on older hardware at 720P only. If Microsoft was smart they would of released an XBOX1080 at the time Modern Warefare3 and BF3 were released to showcase the new support for 1080P games running 30+ fps. I love pc and consoles but hate the fact I can only run at 720P on my shiny new Sony Bravia 47". I dream of First Person Shooters at the 1080P glory. Why dont they sneak in a AMD chip on a XBOX360 ver2.0? hehe

Actually with both chips on the same die the new one already has an extra 40% power over the original. MS artificially bottlenecked it to "keep things even".

Personally I like the matte finish. Glossy finishes always always always end up covered in fingerprints and oils. No doubt a matte finish does as well, but you can't see it glistening like on a glossy finish. The PS3 slims switched from the glossy smooth top, and it looks a lot nicer. The big ones are always greasy-looking.

 

[Guest]

I have pc, PS3 and Xbox360. I personally love my PS3 more but most of my family own Xbox's due to the cheap price.

Why I like PS3.

Blu-Ray, DVD-upconvert to 1080P, Free online, Wireless

Great games: Uncharted 2, Killzone 3, Resistance 2, God of War 3, Infamous 2, SOCOM 4, Little Big Planet 2, Gran Turismo 5, Heavy Rain, and Valkyrie.

 

[stewi0001]

hmmm I can hook my PC up to my TV and play games, why do I need a console?

 

[captaincranky]

Hm, on gloss black, fingerprints show up as matte blotches. On matte black, fingerprints show up as shiny blotches.

So what, move on.

 

[Eddo22]

Igneus the Bold said:
As if that could hide the limited and archaic hardware inside. I don't care how pretty the wrapping paper is if the present reeks.

Agreed. It's all about the $$. MS needs to discontinue the Xbox period and focos on PC gaming instead of being hypocritical liars.

 

[Guest]

Having just played through Alan Wake, I'll admit the Xbox 360 still has some use. I bought a Xbox 360 Slim for the sole purpose of playing Alan Wake. I wish I could have that game on the PC of course, but no such luck. Anyways, the graphics of Alan Wake impressed me somewhat, even with the poor resolution. I guess it's all in the game engine. I haven't seen a lot of games where the trees and grass move with the wind like in Alan Wake. Super Street Fighter IV and Resident Evil 5 also looks very good on the Xbox 360. I have those games on Steam for the PC as well and, of course, they look even better on the PC. Transformers: War For Cybertron is one of those games that really looks bad on the Xbox 360. It looks a little bit better on PC with 1920x1080 resolution, but it won't let me use Anti-Aliasing. That really ticks me off, because I have a GTX 580 and that's just wasted on these types of console ports. Borderlands (one of the most fun games I've ever played) was a horrible port, but at least that could be fixed via .cfg files. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II on the other hand, is damaged goods! As much as I hate the consoles for retarding the PC gaming industry, there are still some games that make these consoles look good. Game developers seem to know what they're doing now. Compare the lighting effects of Silent Hill 5: Homecoming with Alan Wake and you'll see what I'm talking about. And also this stuff with real time enviroments (trees/grass/etc. moving in the wind). I guess this is what Microsoft is talking about when they say there's still some life left in the old consoles. I haven't actually seen L.A. Noir yet, other than youtube videos, but that's another good example of how graphics elements (the facial animations in that particular title) are still improving even on the consoles. Then again, all these games would look better in DX11 with 8xAA/16xAF without having frame rates drop below 60. And just one more thing about the Xbox 360. Arcade! I'm having a lot of fun playing these old Monkey Island and TMNT: Turtles In Time type games, remade with HD graphics. As sad as it is, I've probably spent more hours playing Peggle than I've played Transformers: War for Cybertron!