Microsoft could allow 3rd party Xbox 360 Consoles?

[Fireblade]

Word on the street has it that Microsoft could allow third parties to come up with their own Xbox 360 consoles?Source: UberGizmo (http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2008/06/microsoft_could_allow_3rd_party_xbox_360_consoles. html)

[jesush++]

That would make sense actually, think of the amount they could generate in licencing money, and then, when something goes wrong, its not Microsofts problem, its the 3rd party hardware.

Also, in this current climate, unless you have all your manufacturing plants in india or china, then the cost to run them must be huge.

[brumster]

This sounds a real bad idea :( unless it's maybe out of context a little, like maybe just different cases or something?

[NickB]

This sounds a real bad idea :( unless it's maybe out of context a little, like maybe just different cases or something?

I'd assume there'd be a minimum requirement for the 3rd party versions, though beyond optical and hard drives, would there be much that could be improved which could actually be used by games developers.

For games, this won't make any real difference. However, if someone started cranking out PVRs with 360s built in, that's something I'd be very interested in getting. Also, from Microsoft's point of view, not being responsible for failed hardware would save them a huge amount of cash.
Nick

[[M]uuhh]

I think this may be out of context. The idea behind this was one major Blue Ray player manufacturer wanted to build a Blue ray DVD player home entertainment system with a built in Xbox 360.

[DAWG]

uuhh;443446']I think this may be out of context. The idea behind this was one major Blue Ray player manufacturer wanted to build a Blue ray DVD player home entertainment system with a built in Xbox 360.

When reading this, I thought ... "where have I heard this before?"

It would be in the form of the Sega Tera Drive (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_TeraDrive). That fell on it's backside pretty quickly. Manufactured by IBM (who at the time, where THE PC people) for Sega (who at the time, where THE console people) and they still didn't manage to get it to sell. Which emphasises why keeping it proprietary is the only way to go.

There's so many companies / people, running around, thinking about how to make money from cross-licensing, that they forget that it's hasn't got universal scope, and not everyone wants an "everything in one" package. I'd like to be proven wrong, but this sort of thing doesn't have a very good track record :(

[master baits]

this would open up the door to piracy ,and set top multi boxes with unique id's used instead of cards.

its basically the idea of the clone ibm pc all over again , and ms supplying the os over again....this time in chip form.

[Josho]

Haha, developers would have to come up with an original trademark, not the 3RRoD.

[saltynay]

I am interested merely because I want a freeview tuner with a built in games console atm I am looking into getting a cheap freeview tuner to plug in the back of my monitor but with the advent of BBCiplayer and 4od I am still indecisive. I am also looking into buying myself a ps3 or xbox 360 for crimbo and plugging it into the back of my computer monitor. Probably go for a ps3 just because I have psp and they are compatible in some amazing way that I haven't looked into yet and probably will never use.

[Cosmo_1847]

@saltynay. I have our PS3 plugged into a Dell widescreen monitor running at 720p. The composite is used for the audio.

[saltynay]

My monitor has lots of types of connection hdmi,dvi,vga, composite, some funky ports that I haven't figured out yet can't say I look often, so plugging it in won't be a struggle. It also accepts audio via hdmi and reroutes it to the front 3.5mm jack so I can then reroute audio via the computer and thus my 12.2 speaker system :D