Xbox 360

Microsoft placed kiosks for demonstration in some stores and the error began appearing. However the oil industry escaped essentially unscathed from the storm and post-storm predictions estimated only minor price rises. It was discovered in Wal-Mart stores days before the official console launch. With over half of Gulf production still shut down in the wake of Katrina, some economists have stated that a worst case scenario is for gasoline prices to briefly touch $5/US gallon ($1.30/L), which would be easily the highest real price for gasoline paid in the United States during the internal combustion era. The Xbox 360 screen of death is an error screen displayed by the Xbox 360 game console. Rita's path takes it through a dense area of offshore pipelines and oil platforms, and on land to an area with large refineries. [41]. Currently, there is very little spare crude oil capacity in the United States, and the Gulf of Mexico produces some 2 million barrels per day (300,000 m³) total, as well has having some 30% of the total refining capacity of the United States, which is the world's largest consumer of gasoline and crude oil.

On January 26, 2006, Microsoft released Q2 2006 earning report, stating the Xbox 360 has reached 1.5 million units in 2005, 0.9 million units in North America, 0.5 million units in Europe, and 0.1 million units in Japan. The heavy concentration of oil infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico makes hurricanes of Rita's intensity very problematic. Purchased separately, the price of the items would be AU$209.95. Bolivar Peninsula between Galveston and Sabine Pass had only a small ocean surge, in contrast to the eastern side of Rita's center which sent a 20 foot ocean surge through Louisiana's unprotected towns. To compensate for the Late Xbox 360 release to Australia and New Zealand, Microsoft released a VIP pack priced AU$149.95, containing the items below. Rita's ocean surge was easily handled by Port Arthur's extensive levee system. The Xbox 360 is scheduled to be released in Australia and New Zealand on March 23, 2006, delayed for 3 weeks from the original March 2 launch date. This placed most of the coastal community to the left of the eye and in the least damaging hurricane quadrant.

In Hong Kong, there are promotions include: free PGR3 faceplate with purchase of selected titles, DOA4 collectibles with purchase of a extra game, and reduced price when purchased with cross-promotional items. The "Golden Triangle" area was spared a more devastating ocean surge by the redirection of Rita's path hours before landfall. The launch date for Hong Kong and Singapore is March 16, 2006, delayed from original March 2 launch date. Those displaced by Rita were offered up to 60 days of hotel rooms, generators, chainsaws, and monetary assistance by FEMA. Promotions include one free limited edition PGR3 faceplate bundled for the initial shipment, and a gamepad-game combo pack containing Kameo and a wireless gamepad. A mandatory evacuation was issued before Rita's landfall. It will be released in Taiwan on March 2, 2006. Some areas did not have power for more than six weeks.

The Xbox 360 is scheduled to be released in South Korea on February 24, 2006. The water treatment plant in Port Neches was heavily damaged. In Mexico retailers such as the Liverpool, CompuDabo, Game Planet, gdGames, Cyberbox, and Camelot Games have started selling the console, games, and accessories. An enormous number of houses and businesses suffered extensive damage due to falling trees and directly from Rita's winds. The Xbox 360 was released in Mexico and Colombia on February 2, 2006. In Groves, the home of Texas' Pecan Festival, an equal number of the pecan trees were leveled. Sony has a substantial amount of Japanese third party developers. In Beaumont an estimated 25% of the trees in the heavily wooded neighborhoods were uprooted.

Recent surveys in Japan have confirmed that the majority of Japanese 'gamers' are strong supporters of Sony. Texas Governor Rick Perry declared a nine county disaster area. On the day of the launch, Capcom unveiled their Xbox 360-exclusive sci-fi game Lost Planet, which features South Korean actor Lee Byung Hun in the lead role. All communities in the "Golden Triangle" formed by Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Orange sustained enormous damage from Rita's winds. On December 17, Rakuten's website announced a special five-day sale starting on December 22 selling 10 Xbox 360s at 24,900 yen.[40]. ^[48]. To entice people into buying the Xbox 360 some retailers are offering discounts on the system if they sign up for a 2 year broadband contract, similar to cell phone deals in the US. ^[47] After water levels were lowered and an inspection was conducted by national and local experts, the dam was declared stable late on Monday, September 26, 2005.

Maruyama is widely credited for attracting support from Japanese game developers. Repairs to the dam are expected to take months to complete. Microsoft Japan executive Yoshihiro Maruyama stated that he expects sales of Xbox 360 in Japan to hit one million units sometime next year. As reported by the a number of news outlets, on Sunday, September 25, 2005, this discharge put lives at risk downstream and threatened a major bridge as well due to a sizable barge coming adrift. It should be noted that this number is roughly equal to the number of Xbox units sold in Japan by November of 2005. North of Houston, the 2.5 mile Lake Livingston dam sustained substantial damage from powerful waves driven by 117 mph winds ^[46] and had to conduct an emergency release in order to lessen pressure on the dam. Namco expects to sell 500,000 copies of Ridge Racer 6 in Japan. ^[45].

Initial predictions were highly optimistic as the highest rating launch game reviewed by Famitsu, Namco's Ridge Racer 6, scored 35 out of 40 stars. ^[44] Thirty one deaths have been reported in Harris County, of which all of them were indirect (mostly related to the evacuation and cleanup). Matsui predicts however that the Xbox 360 will likely gain momentum coming into January 2006 when new titles come out which includes Ninety-Nine Nights. Some windows blew out of some downtown skyscrapers, and some trees and signals were down. The 2-day 62,135 sales figure of the Xbox 360 is a little past half of the 123,334 units of the old Xbox that Microsoft sold in the first 3 days in Japan in February 2002. For the most part, Houston escaped major damage, apart from extensive loss of power. He even added information that over 60% of his readers had planned to buy the much anticipated Tecmo fighting game which is set for a December 29 release. ^[43].

For his part, Famitsu Xbox 360 editor-in-chief Munetatsu Matsui pointed to DOA4's absence as the main factor behind the slow start. Around midnight, a vacant restaurant collapsed nearby, which was reportedly as a result of the fire that weakened the walls. Others have also attributed this slow start to titles such as Dead or Alive 4 and Enchant Arm missing the launch date while others point to the marketing strategy that focused on selling the Xbox 360 as a fashionable item when customers were looking for an affordable or a high performance gaming console. No serious injuries were reported in the fire. Some believe this is mainly due to the other popular and prospective video game handheld consoles like the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PlayStation Portable, all of which have sold far more than the Xbox 360. However, the fire department was able to fight the blaze and prevent it from spreading through the city. [38][39]. In the late evening, a fire broke out in the Strand District of Galveston, Texas, gutting several homes.

While other regions such as the United States or Europe enjoyed successful launches, sales in Japan have trailed the other regions, totalling 100,000 by the end of 2005. ^[42]. [37]. ^[40][41] Many of the passengers were mobility-impaired making escape difficult or impossible. Three North American titles (Ridge Racer 6, NBA 2K6, and NHL 2K6) were not available for the Europe launch. The fire started in the brake system, and the passengers' therapeutic oxygen tanks may have caused the bus to explode. [36]. Twenty three people were killed as a result of that incident.

A total of 15 games were available for launch, including critical hits Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Perfect Dark Zero. On the morning of September 23, a bus carrying 45 nursing home evacuees from Brighton Gardens in Bellaire, Texas erupted into flames and exploded on Interstate 45 southeast of Dallas in Wilmer. [34][35]. This poor area was just getting back of their feet after feeling Category 2 winds when Hurricane Katrina moved through the area. [33] By the end of 2005, Microsoft sold 500,000 consoles in the region. Also Lauderdale County which is in east central Mississippi reported several confirmed and unconfirmed tornado touch downs in and near the cities of Marion and Meridian. [32] In turn, some retailers blamed Microsoft for failing to provide enough consoles in the Christmas period. There were several non-life threatening injuries.

[31] The shortages led to some consumers criticising retailers, and others attacking Microsoft itself for failing to fill demand. There were also numerous mobile homes damaged at the University Hills trailer park just off the campus. [30] As in North America, thousands of Xbox 360 appeared on auction websites like eBay, selling for more than twice their retail price. MSU officials do not have specific damage assesments available; however, they do note there was significant damage to some buildings. Microsoft confirmed that 300,000 units were available for the European launch. A tornado touched down on Mississippi State University's campus. [27], and Microsoft has revised their initial 90 day estimate down to 2.5 million units, though their 6 month sales estimate remains unchanged at 4.5 to 5.5 million consoles.[28][29]. ^[39].

Analysts believe Microsoft will not meet the original worldwide target of 2.75-3 million units sold in the first 90 days after launch. Another death was reported in Wilkinson County, although it has not been confirmed if it was storm-related. [25][26]. Another unconfirmed tornado was reported in Bolivar County. By the end of 2005, Microsoft sold roughly 900,000 units. At least 40 homes and an industrial plant were damaged from one tornado in Humphreys County in central Mississippi, in which one person was killed. [24] In Canada, all 32,100 units available for launch were sold. Several tornadoes from Rita's outer bands affected the state.

According to the NDP Group, North American sales totaled 326,000 units in November. ^[38]. As of January 26, 2006 at 4:59 EST, major online retailers are sold-out of both Xbox 360 packages (including Amazon.com, circuitcity.com and buy.com). 250 people were rescued on Saturday, September 24. It was reported [23] that 40,000 units appeared on eBay during the initial month of release, which would mean that 10% of the total supply was resold. In Vermilion Parish south of Abbeville, rescue efforts were undertaken for up to 1,000 people stranded by local flooding. eBay in particular was a popular location for such offers with thousands of consoles going up for auction, some selling for many times the original retail price. ^[37].

The high demand for the Xbox 360 led to some owners almost immediately re-selling their console for vastly inflated prices. Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco reported that 700,000 homes had lost power in 41 of the state's 64 parishes. Microsoft has stated that they will look into the reports and have offered assistance reachable by phone. ^[36]. Microsoft claims that these problems are to be expected on a large scale release for a console and the number of reports versus the number of consoles released was very minimal. It has been reported that at least 100 people needed to be rescued from rooftops, and at least 25 more remain stranded. [22] The manual contains warnings about not placing the Xbox 360 on soft surfaces or in enclosed spaces to avoid heating problems. ^[35] Some people were stranded in flooded communities, and boats had to be used for rescues.

Some reported the Xbox 360 crashing with errors, some reported the hard drive does not respond in certain situations while others report error messages during various games or unusually fast overheating. In Terrebonne Parish, virtually every levee was breached. Immediately after the launch, reports about the new machine's technical glitches started coming out. Widespread flooding was reported in coastal parishes. [21]. In Vinton, several fires were burning, the roof was torn off the town's recreation center and many homes were damaged by fallen trees. Peter Moore, Microsoft corporate vice president, predicts that shipments will reach 10 million units worldwide by the end of 2006. ^[34] Damage to the city's electrical system was so severe that authorities warned that power would not return for two weeks, if not longer.

This allowed them to launch several months earlier than would otherwise be possible, but also led to shortages. There was also extensive damage to its regional airport. They did not, however, build up a sufficient supply of consoles to satisfy the entire demand at launch. At a hotel on the Contraband Bayou, water was reportedly up to the second floor. they did not withhold produced consoles). Lake Charles experienced severe flooding, with reports of water rising 6-8 feet in areas around the lake itself. Evidence indicates that Microsoft launched with all consoles available at the time, and operating at maximum production capability (i.e. A casino boat and several barges were floating loose in Lake Charles and damaged a bridge spanning Interstate 10 across the Calcasieu River.

Prelaunch reports assume that Microsoft intentionally restricted supply [18], although there is no evidence to support this and Microsoft has said they are releasing all units into supply chains as quickly as possible [19] [20]. In Cameron Parish, the communities of Hackberry ^[33], Cameron, Creole, Grand Chenier, and Holly Beach were heavily damaged or entirely destroyed. contest that offered participants a chance to win one of three hundred and sixty Xbox 360 console bundles six days before the official launch.[17]. Damage in southwestern Louisiana was extensive. The campaign was later revealed to be a U.S. ^[32]. [16] This website hosted a number of images that appeared to perpetuate obscure conspiracy theories, but sometimes contained obtuse references to Xbox 360. As of Saturday night, September 24, water from a 150-foot gap in the Industrial Canal levee had some areas of the Ninth Ward under eight feet of water.

On October 13, 2005, members of the TeamXbox forums were directed to the Hex168.com website through mysterious messages posted by someone called "Lutz". Some pumping stations were abandoned. October 2005 saw the launch of "Hex168", another viral marketing campaign commissioned by Microsoft and executed by the Marden-Kane advertising agency. CDT, water had begun gushing through another leak in the patched London Avenue Canal into the surrounding Gentilly neighborhood. Design for the website employs flash animation of a Bonsai tree and bland elevator music to create a serene environment that is punctuated by visually intense psychedelic episodes involving the host rabbits. By approximately 5 p.m. New contests include a Halo 2 tournament and a competition to design a "Gamertile" (an avatar icon). CDT on Friday.

The initial contest was a raffle that required participants to answer three trivia questions regarding the Xbox 360 for a chance to attend a promotional pre-launch event. Water in the Ninth Ward was reported to be waist-deep at 11 a.m. Unveiled on September 27, 2005 the website, hosted by talking rabbits Boss and Didier offers visitors an opportunity to enter in various contests. CDT on Friday, September 23. OrigenXbox360.com was the next viral marketing campaign from Microsoft. Water entered the Ninth Ward over two 32-foot (10 m) wide patches in the levee as of about 9 a.m. Allard. On Friday, September 23, the day prior to landfall, rising water due to Hurricane Rita was pouring through breaches in the patched Industrial Canal levee in New Orleans' already hard-hit Ninth Ward, as reported by the Army Corps of Engineers.

On May 12 the ARG section of OurColony closed, visitors were instead greeted with a promotional video hosted by J. New Orleans levee system had already sustained heavy damage from Hurricane Katrina before Rita's outer bands of rain fell on the city. Throughout March and April OurColony.net offered challenges to its community, rewarding solutions with cropped pictures of the console and game screenshots. ^[31]. The promotional campaign for Xbox 360 began on March 14, 2005 with the opening of an alternate reality game called OurColony. Both were due to high surf and rip currents caused by Rita's distant waves. EB Games locations received the Xbox 360 kiosks in their stores just over a week prior to its release. While the Florida Panhandle escaped most of the land effects from Rita, two deaths were reported on beaches.

In the first week of November, the Xbox 360 screen of death was reported. No deaths were reported in either Florida or Cuba from the initial impact. In October/November 2005, North American Target and Wal-Mart stores received kiosks to demonstrate games like Call of Duty 2 and Kameo: Elements of Power. ^[30]. Microsoft claims that most of the games were running at 25-30% of full capacity because they were not running on actual systems. More than 2,000 National Guard troops and dozens of law enforcement officers were brought in and are on standby. The demos were running on "Xbox 360 Alpha Development Kits" which were Apple PowerMac G5s, chosen due to the PowerPC processor architecture that the machine shares with the Xbox 360. Bush in four counties: Broward, Collier, Miami-Dade and Monroe.

The system, along with some playable games, were shown off at E3 2005. A state of emergency was declared by Florida Governor Jeb Bush and a federal emergency by President George W. In the article he says "It's perfect...The day Sony launches [the new PlayStation], and they walk right into Halo 3." [13] Read more at wikiquote. Microsoft executive Robbie Bach later clarified this statement, saying "Philosophically the point Bill was trying to make is that we're not just going to ship and not have great stuff coming up."[14] Gates himself later clarified that "Halo 3 will ship when Bungie is ready." [15]. ^[29]. The Xbox 360 was also featured on the cover of Time magazine's May 23, 2005 issue with Microsoft chairman Bill Gates holding up one of the units. EDT on Tuesday, September 20, about 25,000 customers were without electricity in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, plus another 2,100 in the Keys. The official unveiling of the system occurred on Thursday, May 12, 2005 on MTV in a program called MTV Presents: The Next Generation Xbox Revealed hosted by actor Elijah Wood with a musical performance by the band The Killers. As of 8 p.m.

See Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Microsoft Points. The Overseas Highway (US 1) connecting the islands was impassable in some sections as a result of the flooding. Points can be purchased directly through Live or via game cards sold at retails shops such as Target. Flooding was reported along the Florida Keys as a result of the storm surge. While game demos and trailers are free, full versions of games must be purchased using a system called Microsoft Points. More than 340,000 people were under voluntary or mandatory evacuation orders in Florida and Cuba. By far one of the most interesting features of the Xbox 360 Live is the capability to download arcade-style games through Xbox Live Arcade, as well as game demos and other content through Xbox Live Marketplace. No deaths were reported in Arkansas due to Rita.

It offers the following selections:. ^[28]. The Xbox Game Guide is a tabbed user interface that can be accessed instantly by pressing the Guide Button on any Xbox 360 controller. Most tornadoes move northeast. An Xbox Live Gold account costs $49.99 USD, £39.99 Pounds Sterling, €59.99 per year (or, in the UK, a 3-month Gold membership is available for £11.99). The tornadoes were unusual in that they moved in a northwestern direction due to the direction in which Rita was moving. Then when the user goes to add a Xbox Live enabled profile to their console, the user just needs to provide the console with their passport account information. ^[27].

To transition an Xbox Live account to the new system the user needs to link a Microsoft Passport account to their gamer tag on Xbox.com. In addition, significant flooding has been reported in several areas. Microsoft has allowed for previous Xbox Live subscribers to maintain their profile information, buddy lists, and games history when they make the transition to Xbox Live Gold. While Rita weakened to a tropical depression, the outer bands continued to spawn numerous tornadoes in Arkansas, including one in Lonoke County and another in Conway County, damaging many homes and businesses in several communities. However, video conferencing was not available when the console was first released. poisoning, illnesses, waiting for help). Xbox Live Gold has the same features as Silver plus online game playing capabilities and video conferencing. Indirect deaths indicate those caused by hurricane-related accidents (including car accidents, fires or other incidents), as well as clean-up and evacuation incidents and health issues (i.e.

Microsoft has also announced there will be trial weekends for Silver members to access the full features of Gold service temporarily. Direct deaths indicate those caused by the direct effects of the winds, flooding, tornadoes, storm surge or oceanic effects of Rita. Silver members are not allowed to play any games online. The two Florida deaths were both in rip currents on beaches caused by Rita's distant waves. Xbox Live Silver is free of charge and allows users to create a profile, join on message boards, access to Microsoft's Xbox Live Arcade, and talk to other members. One was caused by a hurricane-related tornado in the outer bands, and three others were caused by fallen trees during the storm. With the launch of the Xbox 360, Microsoft's online gaming service, Xbox Live went through a major upgrade adding a basic non-subscription service (Silver) to its already established premium subscription-based service (Gold). Only six of them were direct deaths.

Microsoft has changed the content of several Xbox games when running under the 360's emulator, such as when they blocked the Halo 2 trailers from running off of later copies of Halo: Combat Evolved discs, presumably because the advertisements promoted a very different game than what ended up being released. CDT on October 3 (0300 UTC October 4) stands at 119. [12]. The reported death toll as of 10 p.m. Microsoft states that they will be adding more emulation profiles as they become available, with the intended goal of making the entire Xbox library playable on the Xbox 360. Also gas prices fell in the U.S instead of rising as feared. As of January 10, 2006, the Japanese Xbox site shows only 30 [11]. ^[9].

list includes over 200 games, fewer games are listed as backward compatible in the European markets. ^[8] Total damage is estimated $9.4 billion, which makes Rita the ninth costliest storm in US history. Although the U.S. In total, it is estimated that well over 2 million customers were without electricity. market was released on November 11, 2005 and is maintained at Xbox.com. ^[7] Calcasieu Parish, with the communities of Lake Charles, Sulphur, Westlake and Vinton also suffered heavy damage. The list of backward-compatible games for the U.S. Cameron Parish was heavily damaged, with the communities of Holly Beach, Hackberry and Cameron being essentially destroyed.

[10]. However, local storm surges of 15 to 20 feet (4.5-6.1 m) in southwestern Louisiana were reported, and in from coastal parishes, damage was extensive. Updated emulation profiles can be obtained through Xbox Live, by burning a CD with content downloaded from Xbox.com, or by ordering an update disc from Microsoft at a small charge for shipping. The 5 inches (130 mm) of rain expected to fall overnight in New Orleans also did not happen, and the pressure on the levee system was eased. Hard drives purchased separately or as part of the console package will include a certain number of "emulation profiles" for games, including Halo and Halo 2. The storm surge feared in Galveston did not materialize, as the city was well to the west of the storm's center; the strong winds actually flattened the surge, which was only seven feet (2 m), and the seawall was easily able to handle it. A hard drive is required to enable backward compatibility. The effects of Hurricane Rita were not nearly as severe as expected.

Software emulation is far from perfect, as significant drops in framerate are observable in some titles.[9]. Valero Energy Corp, the nation's largest refiner, stated on September 21 that Rita could have caused gasoline prices to rise well above $3 per US gallon ($0.79/L). Some games have slightly improved draw distance, possibly due to the system's greater memory bandwidth. While no potential storm path would threaten all of the capacity at once, a direct strike on Houston could disable up to 8% of the nation's refining capacity. Games have minor graphical enhancements due to being rendered in 720p resolutions with Anti-Aliasing enabled. The Texas Gulf Coast is home to 23% of the United States' refining capacity, and numerous offshore production platforms were in Rita's path. The Xbox 360 achieves backward compatibility through software emulation of the original Xbox hardware. The storm threatened a large amount of oil infrastructure that was left undamaged by Katrina.

The Playstation 3 also has impressive procedural synthesis capabilities, but the technical implementation differs significantly. Concerns had been raised over the state of the oil industry in response to Rita. Other interesting examples of procedural synthesis are shown in various demoscene demos. As part of the evacuation, Johnson Space Center in Houston handed off control of the International Space Station to their Russian counterparts. Procedural synthesis is also found outside of the Xbox 360 in the advanced freeware FPS game .kkrieger, where such techniques have reduced the size of the visually stunning game to a mere 96 kilobytes. Many motorists ran out of gas despite turning off their air conditioners in the 98 degree record temperatures. The downside to this approach is that when part of the L2 cache is locked, there is even less data immediately available to keep the 3 symmetric cores in the Xenon CPU running at full efficiency (1 MB of shared L2 is already a rather small amount of cache for 3 symmetric cores to share, especially considering that the Xenon CPU does not support out-of-order execution to more efficiently use available clock cycles). Evacuees fought traffic all day and only moved about one hundred to one-hundred and fifty miles.

The rationale behind this design is that procedurally generated game content can be streamed directly from CPU to GPU, without incurring additional latency by being stored in system RAM as an intermediary step. The Texas Department of Transportation was unprepared to execute this in an efficient way and in many cases without a release point to the North traffic would only speed up for a short time. The Xenos GPU can then read directly from this locked cache space and render the procedurally generated objects. Contraflow lanes were instigated after it was realized that a the state's highway system had become gridlocked. When locked, a segment of cache no longer contains any prefetched instructions or data for the CPU, but is instead used as output space for the procedural synthesis thread. Distances that usually took 2-3 hours of travel time took some passengers upwards of 24 hours. The Xbox 360's architecture was designed with this approach in mind.[8] When running procedural synthesis algorithms, one of the Xenon CPU's cores may "lock" a portion of the 1 MB shared L2 cache. Designated evacuation routes slowed to a pace far worse than with any previous hurricane.

Instead, a general recursive algorithm will generate the tree's model and textures, so that each tree looks different from the next, and do so with high efficiency. By the time Jefferson County began their mandatory evacuation up Highway 69, 96 and others, Houstonians had already clogged up these highway arteries to the North. A game with only one model for a tree will appear odd, as nature is far more random; the game loses some of its immersion as a result. During the Rita evacuation these preperations and their execution were overwhelmed by the enormous and unprecedented numbers of people fleeing from the Houston area prior to the residents of the "Golden Triangle". For example, trees are one of the most complicated objects to render in a game, due to their organic complexity. Plans were put in place to open up these intersections. Procedural synthesis is an approach to generating game content via algorithms. After Lili, citizens came back with complaints of long lines of cars caused by stop lights and stop signs along evacuation routes unattended by anyone from law enforcement.

A newer approach to generating content is utilised for Xbox 360 titles, a method referred to by Microsoft as procedural synthesis. Highway 73 between Port Arthur and Winnie was also widened to facilitate future evacuations in response to an even earlier hurricane. As complexity in each rises, the demand for storage rises as well. Officials in the "Golden Triangle" area had set up evacuation routes and a shelter system of sorts in response to the slow evacuation of residents prior to Hurricane Lili. In traditional games, all content is statically stored and generally immutable; that is, textures, meshes, and other game content is stored on a storage medium. "If you're not in the evacuation zone, follow the news," he said, advising people to use common sense. For the Xbox 360, Microsoft has drawn on recent research in computer graphics to enable a new method for game programming. After heavy traffic snarled roads leading out of town and gas shortages left numerous vehicles stranded, he backed off on this.

For example, John Carmack stated at QuakeCon 2005 that the Xbox 360 had "the best development environment" he has seen for a console. On Wednesday, Houston mayor Bill White urged residents to evacuate the city, telling residents, "Don't wait; the time for waiting is over," and reminding residents of the disaster in New Orleans. To date, some developers have endorsed XNA Studio. These evacuation-destination cities included Austin, College Station, San Antonio, Dallas, Huntsville, and Lufkin, Texas. Microsoft believes that this will give developers more time to generate unique content and reduce time running the content process. Also, different zones were to be forced to go to certain cities in Texas and were not allowed to exit their designated routes except for food and gas - another feature of the evacuation plan which hoped to keep traffic and flow orderly throughout this timeframe. XNA Studio will allow team members to collaborate using familiar techniques and tools, even when elements of the team are distributed geographically, an increasing trend in game development. Officials of Harris County hoped that the designation of zones A, B, and C would be able to prevent bottlenecks leaving the area such as those seen out of New Orleans prior to Katrina and Hurricane Dennis this year.

These tools are designed to work together to automate common development tasks and present interfaces tailored to the different functions within the team. Nonetheless, many residents remained in the county because they were either unaware of the danger of the storm or believed that it was more important to protect their belongings, particularly in the wake of looting following Hurricane Katrina. XNA Studio will provide versions of key production tools such as asset management, defect tracking, project automation and work lists. Officials in Galveston County (which includes the city of Galveston), which was devastated by the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, ordered mandatory evacuations, effective September 21 at 6 p.m., in a staggered sequence setting different zones in the area which were due to leave at different times over 24 hours, well in advance of the storm's possible landfall later in the week but not enough in advance to ensure that all residents could evacuate safely in advance of the storm. Based on Microsoft's Visual Studio 2005 Team System, the XNA Studio is the Visual Studio for game development; an integrated, team-based development environment tailored for game production. Highway 290 northwest to Bryan/College Station. XNA Studio will enable collaboration between content creators, programmers, management and QA staff to speed the game production process. ^[6] On September 22, Governor Perry and the Texas Department of Transportation implemented a contraflow lane reversal on Interstate 45 north towards Dallas, on Interstate 10 west towards San Antonio and U.S.

XNA Studio covers three areas: Content Creation, Production Processes and Game Technologies. Texas Governor Rick Perry recalled all emergency personnel, including almost 1,200 Texas National Guard from Katrina recovery efforts, in anticipation of Hurricane Rita's arrival. The Xbox 360 game development will be centered around the XNA Studio game development platform. In addition, residents of Cameron Parish, Calcasieu Parish, and parts of Jefferson Davis Parish and Vermillion Parish were told to evacuate ahead of the storm. In March 2004, Microsoft announced a new game development software strategy dubbed "XNA", which Microsoft claims would enable game studios to cut development times by up to a third if developing across multiple Microsoft platforms, by means of tools created with the increasing difficulty of programming for a machine with three processor cores in mind. ^[5]. During early development the Xbox 360 was referred to as "Xenon", "Xbox 2", and "Xbox Next". The original breaches had occurred a month earlier as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

[7]. Although Rita remained well to the south and west of New Orleans, a pre-landfall storm surge overwhelmed a levee protecting the lower 9th Ward ^[3], a part of a fragile and already compromised levee system as repairs continued ^[4] At landfall, more parts of the levee wall were breached causing major reflooding in New Orleans. By using a program "mceDivX360" on the PC, the Xbox 360 is able to receive streamed films which are converted to WMV format from DivX by Windows Media Encoder. ^[2] However, as Rita developed in the Gulf of Mexico, the reopening was cancelled and a re-evacuation of the city was initiated on September 21 as the storm was initially forecast to make landfall much closer to the city. The Xbox 360 is able to stream movies from a PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition, although it is unable to stream movies in DivX format. Before Rita, the mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, had planned to begin reopening the city after the damage caused by Hurricane Katrina on September 19. Windows Media Connect allows users to stream their favorite music collection through the Xbox 360 Dashboard, and allows users to play their music via the Xbox 360 Guide in place of the game's original soundtrack. Hurricane Rita was the third (now fourth) most intense hurricane on record in the Atlantic basin and the most intense hurricane on record in the Gulf of Mexico, taking over the latter record set by Hurricane Katrina only three weeks earlier.

After installation the computer and the and Xbox 360 will automatically detect one other. Rita has broken multiple records, being the earliest 17th named storm, the third (now fourth) most intense storm, and quickest drop of pressure in one hour. To connect the Xbox 360 to a computer the user will need to download Windows Media Connect. The Hydrometeorological Prediction Center ceased monitoring Tropical Depression Rita early on September 26. The Xbox 360 has the ability to connect to Windows XP based computers over a home network to stream music and pictures right to a TV. Rita's remnants -- technically an extensive low pressure area -- moved quickly out of the lower Mississippi Valley region and were absorbed by a cold front. The main dashboard is divided into 4 main sections:. Rita lost both hurricane and tropical storm status on the same day as its landfall.

From there, the full Dashboard can be run, exiting the current game. Rita's wind field was so intense that it destroyed or disabled several weather buoys. The Dashboard can also be accessed via the Xbox Guide button on the controller at any time to open a player specific blade. "Rita is the strongest storm that I've ever been in," he commented. The Dashboard will launch automaticially at boot if no game disc is inserted into the console. Warren Madden, a Hurricane Hunter and meteorologist for The Weather Channel, recorded a peak wind gust of 235 mph (380 km/h) while in the eye of the storm. The Dashboard is the main interface to the Xbox 360, governed by a series of "blades" to subdivide categories. Col.

Due to the limited space of standard DVDs, some games made for the system may span multiple discs, although procedural generation of textures and models (as seen in the PC game .kkrieger) may reduce the need for multiple discs. Lt. Xbox 360 games are set to the standard 7.95GB of storage available on a dual-layer DVD. (NASA clip depicting the history of the storm before landfall). Bill Gates has confirmed during his keynote speech at CES 2006 that an external HD-DVD drive will be released for the 360 this year.[5] However, Peter Moore has stated that if HD-DVD loses the format war, Microsoft may release an external Blu-Ray drive.[6]. Hurricane Rita's rapid intensification may in part be attributed to its encounter with the Gulf Loop Current and Eddy Vortex. [4]. CDT, the advisory said that Rita's maximum sustained winds had increased to 175 mph (280 km/h) with an estimated minimum pressure of 897 mbar (hPa), (26.59 inHg).

It has been confirmed by Yoshihiro Maruyama, Japan's chief of Xbox operations, that Microsoft will never release games for Xbox 360 in a format other than DVD. At 10:00 p.m. The other supported formats are: CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, WMACD, MP3CD, and JPEG Photo CD. CDT, a reconnaissance aircraft recorded a pressure reading of 899 mbar (hPa), but it was thought to actually be lower since the reading was not from the center. A 12X DVD-ROM SATA drive, capable of reading DVD+R/RW discs and DVD-R/RW, is part of the console, with game titles shipping on single or dual-layer DVDs. At 6:50 p.m. The system bandwidth comprises:. CDT (19:55 UTC), another update was issued, saying Rita had strengthened into a Category 5 storm with maximum wind speeds of 165 mph (265 km/h).

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is a custom ATI R500-based "Xenos". Less than two hours later, at 3:55 p.m. ^[3]. CDT (1815 UTC) said that Rita's maximum winds had increased to 150 mph (240 km/h) and a minimum pressure of 920 mbar (hPa). The central processing unit (CPU), named Xenon (Microsoft) or Waternoose (IBM) is a custom IBM triple-core PowerPC-based design. An update issued at 2:15 p.m. Specifications are also available at the official Xbox website. Rita continued to gain strength unabated.

The price of these custom designs are around $20 with more to be released by third party manufacturers. At that advisory, Rita's maximum sustained winds increased to 140 mph (225 km/h). Microsoft has also distributed two promotional faceplates, one for those present at the E3 2005 unveiling and one for VIP X05 attendees. EDT on September 21. The default faceplate (Xbox 360's Chrome or Core System's Chill) can be replaced with a range of custom designs, each to be sold separately. EDT on September 20 to 11 a.m. According to J Allard, the chief of Microsoft's Xbox division, Microsoft may sell larger capacity detachable hard drives for the Xbox 360 in the future, and territories outside of North America may have a differently sized hard drive in the retail unit. The National Hurricane Center's official advisories, issued every three hours, showed strengthening at every single advisory from 5 p.m.

This drive will not be included in the Core System bundle at launch, and also will not be sold separately in Japan. As Hurricane Rita entered the Gulf of Mexico, it rapidly increased in intensity. This content will be included on both the bundled hard drive and the stand alone product. The warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, which was at the time 1 °F (0.5 °C) above average, was very favorable for hurricane development. The individual drives will come pre-loaded with a promotional video about the making of the Xbox 360, the "XBOX 360 Custom Mix" (A collection of music), additional Dashboard skins, songs, additional Xbox Live Gamertag images, and Hexic HD, an Xbox Live Arcade game from Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov. Four hours later, another special update stated that Rita had reached Category 2 strength with 100 mph (160 km/h) maximum sustained winds. A hard drive is also required for the user to be able to play backward compatible Xbox games. EDT that morning showed that Rita had closed the eyewall and winds clearly reached hurricane strength.

Only 13 GB of this hard drive are available to the user; the rest is reserved for the system and games. Aerial reconnaissance data released at 9:45 a.m. A detachable SATA 20 GB hard drive is used for the storage of games, music, downloaded trailers, levels, demos, player preferences, and community-created content from Xbox Live Marketplace; it may also be used to transfer such content between Xbox 360 units. Rita was slow to become a hurricane; discussions early on September 20 showed that wind translations to surface level were indeed at 75 mph (120 km/h), however, the lack of a complete eyewall meant that the National Hurricane Center kept Rita as a tropical storm with 70 mph (110 km/h) winds overnight. This port replaces the two proprietary USB connectors on the front of the Xbox controller. A mandatory evacuation had been ordered for the entire Florida Keys. The rear of the controller includes a port where the player can connect a headset. It became the 17th tropical storm of the season on September 18, less than a day after forming.

The black and white buttons have been redesigned as shoulder buttons, now referred to as bumper buttons, located above the left and right triggers. A surface low formed near it, and the season's 18th tropical depression formed soon thereafter east of the Turks and Caicos Islands. The ring of light lights up the quadrant (on the controller as well as the console) that represents the player number assigned to that controller (starting with the top left quadrant as player one, and proceeding clockwise to player 4 in the bottom left). The storm formed at the tail end of an old frontal boundary, where convection and low level circulation around an upper level low steadily developed for over two days. Pressing the Xbox guide button will bring the Xbox 360 out of sleep mode, turn the console on or off, and bring up the "Xbox Guide" for access to digital movies, music and games libraries. Rita was in fact the third seventeenth storm of any season to form since naming of tropical storms began in 1950, but in the 1969 season many tropical storms went unnamed due to the lack of sophisticated forecasting systems; the seventeenth storm of 1969 was Hurricane Martha. The Xbox 360 controller adds an Xbox guide button, which has the appearance of the Xbox 360 emblem and is surrounded by a ring of green LEDs. Rita's name itself is a significant indicator of the activity of the 2005 hurricane season: only once before had a name starting with 'R' been used for an Atlantic storm, in 1995 for Hurricane Roxanne.

The controller for the Xbox 360 is a similar version of the Type-S gamepad for the original Xbox. . The wireless controller has a battery life of up to 25 hours on the NiMH rechargeable battery pack (optional and recommended) and a recommended range of up to 30 feet (9.14 m). The storm killed just 6 people but caused 113 indirect deaths; damage estimates are around $9 billion (2005 US dollars). The controllers have two digital Touch-sensitive trigger buttons.The rest of the buttons are not Touch-sensitive. Post-landfall damage was extensive in the coastal areas in southwestern Louisiana and extreme southeastern Texas. The wired controller has a nine foot (2.74 m) long cord with a break-away feature. A day prior to landfall, the resultant storm surge also reopened some of the levee breaches caused by Hurricane Katrina a month earlier, and reflooded parts of New Orleans.

Since the controller has a USB cable, it is also usable in Windows PCs. The storm first struck Florida after making an approach near Cuba and went on to strike Texas and Louisiana. Alternately it can support two wired controllers through the use of its USB ports at the front, the USB port on the back will support a third controller. It was the second-most powerful hurricane of the season (behind Hurricane Wilma) and the fourth most intense hurricane ever in the Atlantic Basin. The Xbox 360 has the ability to support up to four wireless controllers. Hurricane Rita was the seventeenth named tropical storm, tenth hurricane, fifth major hurricane, and second Category 5 hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season.
. Estimated repair time: two weeks to a month.

This discrepancy is partially accounted for by the time needed to localize the games. Damage: two cooling towers and a flare stack. Japanese customers, however, only had six titles to choose from by the time the Xbox 360 was released on December 10, 2005. Valero, Port Arthur, Texas, 250,000 b/d