If the folks at Microsoft believed that they could hold a launch party for XBox 360 and avoid leaked images of the console flooding the web they were horribly mistaken.The Los Angeles held event gave visitors an excellent opportunity to put their camera phones to good use.
The latest set of images includes the console setup on a display center-piece, (including an XBox Live headset) while close ups of the media center remote and controller are also available by following the screens tab above.
One common feature of the remote and controller is a large centrally located silver ball sporting the XBox logo. A lot of speculation has surrounded that ball and its function but this secret MS has managed to keep quite.
The image of XBox 360 on a stand reveals the hard drive attachment (which seems to accompany the console everywhere), an eye-toy like camera device, an XBox Live headset and the ever present white controller.
Find out who Microsoft suspects of having leaked the XBox 2/360 images, view the leaked images and read about the future of storage on the new XBox.
It now seems that Microsoft is involved in a frantic search for the origin of the leaked XBox 360 images. Although the Redmond giant first targeted European partners as possible sources of the leaked images, it now seems to be investigating MTV itself. According to the latest reports, MTV has been convinced to launch an investigation as it is now believed that the images were released by members of the production team working on the exclusive May 12 XBox 2/360 preview. MTV is claiming that it will do a thorough job in its quest to discover the leak and claims that the preview will only showcase the console's design, name and some launch titles. MTV was not going to have an actual next-generation XBox console to display but would rely on rendered images, suggesting that the music channel may be the source of the leak. Both Microsoft and MTV are not offering any official comments and are using the weekend to try and work out the reasons for this leak.
The main course of the images released consists of a front view image which is very clear and seems to be a render rather than a photograph and a side view of the console which, judging by the 40 GB print, may be the console with an added hard drive.
Although this flurry of activity may seem to be a problem for MS, since unauthorized images of the console are doing the rounds, it all begun from Microsoft's ourcolony.net campaign. The release of one of the images from the ourcolony.net website gave credibility to the claims that this is the real XBox 2/360.
The front view image has been confirmed by many insiders as a realistic representation of a finalised design of the new XBox. What this really means is that although this is the most likely appearance of Microsoft's new console nothing is final yet and it could change. The side view gives us a good look at how the hard-drive add-on may attach to the console and is confirmed by the image released on ourcolony.net.
Overall we can see a big design shift for Microsoft and the hardware seems a lot more refined than its predecessor. Judging by the size of the disc tray we can tell that the new XBox will be much smaller than the Jolly Green Giant. Other design implementations include an arch-like handle, a big silver X on the side of the console and a large silver power button, as suggested by the front view image, which will serve quite a few functions and may be the circle behind the 360 hype.
The more important news however come from the image displaying the attached hard-drive since we have found out that except for the removable media, XBox 2/360 owners will also will be able to save games onto their home computers via LAN networks. It is not clear if these save games will be available for swapping or if they will be associated to individual Gamertags. This comes as good news especially when considering that the latest stories regarding the next-generation console's removable media suggest it may come with an incorporated mp3 player. Such removable storage media, dubbed XPod by fans, would almost certainly carry a steep price tag and would make backwards compatibility a distant dream for many XBox owners. Although details of how exactly the whole issue will be handled are scarce it is well-known that MS would have to pay for license fees should it want to support original XBox games on its new console. The most likely way of passing that cost to the consumer is through the price of the removable storage media, so expect the relevant adjustments to the prices of such add-ons.
