Xbox 360

Microsoft placed kiosks for demonstration in some stores and the error began appearing. The telephone number to receive disaster assistance from FEMA is 800-621-3362. It was discovered in Wal-Mart stores days before the official console launch. There are hundreds of thousands of Katrina evacuees living in temporary shelters and/or trailer parks set up by FEMA and other relief organizations in the first months after the disaster hit. The Xbox 360 screen of death is an error screen displayed by the Xbox 360 game console. After the February 7 deadline, Katrina victims will be left to their own devices to either find permanent housing for the long term, or to continue in social welfare programs set up by other organizations. [41]. FEMA set a deadline of February 7, 2006 as the official end of any further coverage of temporary housing costs for Katrina victims.

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. However, formal investigations have yet to determine who exactly is to blame (and to what extent) for the Katrina disaster. Purchased separately, the price of the items would be AU$209.95. It is widely held that many things did not function as planned. 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. Katrina was seen as the first major test of the nation’s new disaster response plan under DHS. 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. Michael Brown would eventually be relieved of command of the Katrina disaster and soon thereafter resign.

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. Brown was criticized personally for a slow response and apparent disconnect with the actual situation on the ground. The launch date for Hong Kong and Singapore is March 16, 2006, delayed from original March 2 launch date. Then FEMA Director Michael D. 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. FEMA was widely criticized for what is seen as a slow initial response to the disaster and an inability to effectively manage, care for and move those trying to leave the city. It will be released in Taiwan on March 2, 2006. The situation was compounded by flood waters in the city that hampered transportation and poor communication between the federal government, state and local entities.

The Xbox 360 is scheduled to be released in South Korea on February 24, 2006. The enormous number of evacuees simply overwhelmed rescue personnel. In Mexico retailers such as the Liverpool, CompuDabo, Game Planet, gdGames, Cyberbox, and Camelot Games have started selling the console, games, and accessories. Within three days, a large contingent of National Guard and active duty troops were deployed to the region. The Xbox 360 was released in Mexico and Colombia on February 2, 2006. FEMA was responsible for the evacuation of the thousands of people who remained in New Orleans during the storm, as well as initial recovery work and appropriations. Sony has a substantial amount of Japanese third party developers. FEMA had pre-positioned response personnel in the Gulf Coast region, however many were only able to report of dire situation along the Gulf Coast, especially from New Orleans.

Recent surveys in Japan have confirmed that the majority of Japanese 'gamers' are strong supporters of Sony. FEMA received intense criticism for its response to the disaster. 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. August 2005 saw one of the worst natural disasters in United States history. 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]. (see also Hurricane Katrina). 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. Within the $5.5 billion, FEMA was also allotted funds to pay for its own recovery efforts.

Maruyama is widely credited for attracting support from Japanese game developers. As of 2003, FEMA had received US$5.5 billion to distribute amongst local and state agencies to help offset the cost of recovery. Microsoft Japan executive Yoshihiro Maruyama stated that he expects sales of Xbox 360 in Japan to hit one million units sometime next year. FEMA played its largest role in the appropriation of federal funds to aid local and state governments in paying for the disaster. It should be noted that this number is roughly equal to the number of Xbox units sold in Japan by November of 2005. FEMA had deployed 25 of the 28 Urban Search and Rescue teams at its disposal to the World Trade Center site, however the New York City Office of Emergency Management was in charge of the WTC recovery effort. Namco expects to sell 500,000 copies of Ridge Racer 6 in Japan. In the minutes after the first hijacked plane slammed into the World Trade Center towers, FEMA as well as emergency services all over the city and state of New York were mobilized.

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. (see also September 11 2001 attacks). 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. FEMA had previously been criticized for its response to Hurricane Hugo, which hit South Carolina in September 1989, and many of the same issues that plagued the agency during Hurricane Andrew were also evident during the response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. 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. Within five days, the federal government and neighboring states had dispatched 20,000 National Guard and active duty troops to South Dade County to set up temporary housing. 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. FEMA and the federal government at large were accused of not responding fast enough to house, feed, and sustain the approximately 250,000 people left homeless in the affected areas.

For his part, Famitsu Xbox 360 editor-in-chief Munetatsu Matsui pointed to DOA4's absence as the main factor behind the slow start. FEMA was widely criticized for the agency’s response to Andrew, summed up by the famous exclamation, "Where in the hell is the cavalry on this one?" by Dade County, Florida, emergency management director Kate Hale. 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. In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew struck the Florida and Louisiana coasts with 165 mph (265 km/h) sustained winds. 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. (see also Hurricane Andrew). [38][39]. There are also Mobile Air Transportable Telecommunications System (MATTS) assets which can be airlifted in.

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. For instance, they may operate a truck with satellite uplink, computers, telephone, and power generation at a staging area near a disaster, so that the responders can communicate with the outside world. [37]. These teams provide communications support to local public safety. Three North American titles (Ridge Racer 6, NBA 2K6, and NHL 2K6) were not available for the Europe launch. mines. [36]. These task forces rescue victims of structural collapse and other confined spaces, ex.

A total of 15 games were available for launch, including critical hits Call of Duty 2, Project Gotham Racing 3 and Perfect Dark Zero. National Medical Response Teams (NMRT) are equipped to decontaminate victims of chemical and biological agents. [34][35]. Disaster Mortuary Operational Response Teams (DMORT) provide mortuary and forensic services. [33] By the end of 2005, Microsoft sold 500,000 consoles in the region. There are also National Nursing Response Teams (NNRT), National Pharmacy Response Teams (NPRT), and Veterinary Medical Assistance Teams (VMAT). [32] In turn, some retailers blamed Microsoft for failing to provide enough consoles in the Christmas period. Disaster Medical Assistance Teams (DMAT) provide medical care at disasters and are typically made up of doctors and paramedics.

[31] The shortages led to some consumers criticising retailers, and others attacking Microsoft itself for failing to fill demand. Teams are made up of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc, and are typically sponsored by hospitals, public safety agencies, or private organizations. [30] As in North America, thousands of Xbox 360 appeared on auction websites like eBay, selling for more than twice their retail price. These teams provide medical and allied care to disaster victims. Microsoft confirmed that 300,000 units were available for the European launch. FEMA's emergency response is based around small, decentralized teams trained in such specialties as medical care, search and rescue, and communications. [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]. Other programs FEMA previously administered have since been internalized or shifted under direct DHS control.

Analysts believe Microsoft will not meet the original worldwide target of 2.75-3 million units sold in the first 90 days after launch. Fire Administration and the National Flood Insurance Program. [25][26]. FEMA currently manages the U.S. By the end of 2005, Microsoft sold roughly 900,000 units. The Director reports directly to the Secretary of Homeland Security. [24] In Canada, all 32,100 units available for launch were sold. Today, FEMA exists as part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate.

According to the NDP Group, North American sales totaled 326,000 units in November. As a result, FEMA Director Michael Brown was relieved of command of the Gulf Coast region and resigned shortly thereafter. 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). FEMA and DHS both came under intense criticism for their handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005 (see Katrina and Criticism sections below). 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. [Washington Post Dec 23, 2005]. 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. Brown, FEMA's director and DHS Undersecretary, warned that the shift would make a mockery of FEMA's new motto, "A Nation Prepared," and would "fundamentally sever FEMA from its core functions," "shatter agency morale," and "break longstanding, effective and tested relationships with states and first responder stakeholders." The inevitable result of the reorganization of 2003, warned Brown, would be "an ineffective and uncoordinated response" to a terrorist attack or a natural disaster.

The high demand for the Xbox 360 led to some owners almost immediately re-selling their console for vastly inflated prices. In September, 2003, Michael D. Microsoft has stated that they will look into the reports and have offered assistance reachable by phone. As a result, FEMA became part of the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate of DHS, and employs more than 2,600 full time employees. 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. FEMA was absorbed into DHS as of 2003. [22] The manual contains warnings about not placing the Xbox 360 on soft surfaces or in enclosed spaces to avoid heating problems. Following the Terrorist Attacks of 11 September 2001, President Bush created the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to better coordinate between the different federal agencies that deal with law enforcement, disaster preparedness and recovery, border protection and civil defense.

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. The end of the Cold War also allowed the agency’s resources to be turned away from civil defense to natural disaster preparedness. Immediately after the launch, reports about the new machine's technical glitches started coming out. Witt initiated reforms that would help to streamline the disaster recovery and mitigation process. [21]. In 1993 President Bill Clinton elevated FEMA to a cabinet level position and named James Lee Witt as FEMA Director. Peter Moore, Microsoft corporate vice president, predicts that shipments will reach 10 million units worldwide by the end of 2006. These disasters, while showing the agency could function properly, also uncovered some inefficiencies.

This allowed them to launch several months earlier than would otherwise be possible, but also led to shortages. FEMA also responded to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident where the nuclear generating station suffered a partial core meltdown. They did not, however, build up a sufficient supply of consoles to satisfy the entire demand at launch. One of the first disasters FEMA responded to was the dumping of toxic waste into Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York in the late 1970’s. they did not withhold produced consoles). FEMA was also given the responsibility for overseeing the nation’s Civil Defense, a function which had previously been performed by the Department of Defense’s Defense Civil Preparedness Agency. Evidence indicates that Microsoft launched with all consoles available at the time, and operating at maximum production capability (i.e. FEMA absorbed the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, the National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, the Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration activities from HUD.

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 1979, President Jimmy Carter, at the prompting of the National Governor’s Association, signed Executive Order 12148 which put a new agency, FEMA, in charge of coordinating all disaster relief efforts at the federal level. 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]. Many government agencies were still involved in disaster relief, in some cases over 100 separate agencies may be jockeying for control and jurisdiction of a disaster. The campaign was later revealed to be a U.S. This agency would oversee disasters such as Hurricane Carla in 1962, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Agnes in 1972, the Alaskan (Good Friday) Earthquake of 1964 and the San Fernando Earthquake of 1971. [16] This website hosted a number of images that appeared to perpetuate obscure conspiracy theories, but sometimes contained obtuse references to Xbox 360. By the start of the 1960’s, federal disaster relief and recovery was brought under the umbrella of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) which created the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration.

On October 13, 2005, members of the TeamXbox forums were directed to the Hex168.com website through mysterious messages posted by someone called "Lutz". This “piecemeal approach” to disaster recovery was troubled by poor interagency cooperation and bureaucratic red tape. October 2005 saw the launch of "Hex168", another viral marketing campaign commissioned by Microsoft and executed by the Marden-Kane advertising agency. Army Corps of Engineers authority over flood control and irrigation projects and thus played a major role in disaster recovery from flooding. 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. The Flood Control Act of 1944 also gave the U.S. New contests include a Halo 2 tournament and a competition to design a "Gamertile" (an avatar icon). The Bureau of Public Roads in 1934 was given authority to finance the reconstruction of highways and roads after a disaster.

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. RFC can be considered the first organized federal disaster response agency. Unveiled on September 27, 2005 the website, hosted by talking rabbits Boss and Didier offers visitors an opportunity to enter in various contests. RFC was also responsible for dispensing federal dollars in the wake of a disaster. OrigenXbox360.com was the next viral marketing campaign from Microsoft. The purpose of the RFC was to lend money to banks and institutions to stimulate economic activity. Allard. After the start of the Great Depression in 1929, President Herbert Hoover had commissioned the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) in 1932.

On May 12 the ARG section of OurColony closed, visitors were instead greeted with a promotional video hosted by J. POOP. Throughout March and April OurColony.net offered challenges to its community, rewarding solutions with cropped pictures of the console and game screenshots. After President Abraham Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theatre, the 54th Congress passed legislation compensating those who were injured in the theatre. The promotional campaign for Xbox 360 began on March 14, 2005 with the opening of an alternate reality game called OurColony. Examples of these include the waiving of duties and tariffs to the merchants of New York City after a fire in the mid 1830’s. EB Games locations received the Xbox 360 kiosks in their stores just over a week prior to its release. Between 1803 and 1930, ad-hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times for relief or compensation after a disaster.

In the first week of November, the Xbox 360 screen of death was reported. This is widely considered the first piece of legislation passed by the federal government that provided relief after a disaster and can be viewed as the beginnings of federal policies to provide relief after a disaster. 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. The Seventh Congress passed a number of measures in the Congressional Act of 1803, which provided relief for the merchants of Portsmouth by waiving duties and tariffs on goods. Microsoft claims that most of the games were running at 25-30% of full capacity because they were not running on actual systems. The first major disaster in the history of the United States was a series of devastating fires in the port city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. 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. The history of FEMA can be divided into the following parts.

The system, along with some playable games, were shown off at E3 2005. The United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), has existed in one form or another for over 200 years. 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]. . 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. FEMA provides financial assistance to individuals and governments to rebuild homes, businesses, and public facilities; trains firefighters and emergency medical professionals; and funds emergency planning throughout the United States and its territories. 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. FEMA coordinates the work of federal, state, and local agencies in responding to floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.

See Xbox Live Arcade, Xbox Live Marketplace, and Microsoft Points. Mainly, FEMA responds to any disaster that occurs in the United States that is declared a federal disaster area by the President of the United States. Points can be purchased directly through Live or via game cards sold at retails shops such as Target. The agency is charged with what it defines as four domains of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. While game demos and trailers are free, full versions of games must be purchased using a system called Microsoft Points. The Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA is a government agency in the United States which is organized under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate. 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. David Paulison (acting), September 2005.

It offers the following selections:. R. The Xbox Game Guide is a tabbed user interface that can be accessed instantly by pressing the Guide Button on any Xbox 360 controller. Brown, March 2003 - September 2005. 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). Michael D. 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. Allbaugh, February 2001 - March 2003.

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. Joe M. 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. John Magaw (acting), January 2001 - February 2001. However, video conferencing was not available when the console was first released. James Lee Witt, April 1993 - January 2001. Xbox Live Gold has the same features as Silver plus online game playing capabilities and video conferencing. Tidball (acting), January 1993 - April 1993.

Microsoft has also announced there will be trial weekends for Silver members to access the full features of Gold service temporarily. William C. Silver members are not allowed to play any games online. Stickney, August 1990 - January 1993. 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. Wallace E. 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). Jennings (acting), May 1990 - August 1990.

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. Jerry D. [12]. Morris (acting), June 1989 - May 1990. 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. Robert H. As of January 10, 2006, the Japanese Xbox site shows only 30 [11]. Becton, Jr., November 1985 - June 1989.

list includes over 200 games, fewer games are listed as backward compatible in the European markets. Julius W. Although the U.S. Morris (acting), September 1985 - November 1985. market was released on November 11, 2005 and is maintained at Xbox.com. Robert H. The list of backward-compatible games for the U.S. Giuffrida, May 1981 - September 1985.

[10]. Louis O. 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. McConnell (acting), April 1981 - May 1981. 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. John W. A hard drive is required to enable backward compatibility. Bernard Gallagher (acting), January 1981 - April 1981.

Software emulation is far from perfect, as significant drops in framerate are observable in some titles.[9]. John Macy, August 1979 - January 1981. Some games have slightly improved draw distance, possibly due to the system's greater memory bandwidth. Thomas Casey (acting), July 1979. Games have minor graphical enhancements due to being rendered in 720p resolutions with Anti-Aliasing enabled. Gordon Vickery (acting), April 1979 - July 1979. The Xbox 360 achieves backward compatibility through software emulation of the original Xbox hardware. Office of Emergency Preparedness, May 1975-April 1979.

The Playstation 3 also has impressive procedural synthesis capabilities, but the technical implementation differs significantly. Hafer, E.O.P. Other interesting examples of procedural synthesis are shown in various demoscene demos. James K. 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. Ten of the people whose funerals were paid for were not even in Florida at the time of their deaths.[8]. 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). FEMA used hurricane aid money to pay funeral expenses for at least 203 Floridians whose deaths were not caused by the 2004 Hurricanes, the state's coroners have concluded.

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. Senate committee and the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security found that FEMA inappropriately declared Miami-Dade county a disaster area and then awarded millions, often without verifying storm damage or a need for assistance.[6][7]. The Xenos GPU can then read directly from this locked cache space and render the procedurally generated objects. A U.S. 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. When Hurricane Frances hit South Florida on Labor Day weekend, (over 100 miles north of Miami-Dade County) 9,800 Miami-Dade applicants were approved by FEMA for $28 million in storm claims for new furniture, clothes, thousands of new televisions, microwaves, and refrigerators, cars, dental bills and a funeral even though the Medical Examiner recorded no deaths from Frances. 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. Consider buying flood insurance.

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. Encourage community to participate in National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). 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. Take measures to reduce losses in the future. For example, trees are one of the most complicated objects to render in a game, due to their organic complexity. Procedural synthesis is an approach to generating game content via algorithms.

A newer approach to generating content is utilised for Xbox 360 titles, a method referred to by Microsoft as procedural synthesis. As complexity in each rises, the demand for storage rises as well. 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. For the Xbox 360, Microsoft has drawn on recent research in computer graphics to enable a new method for game programming.

For example, John Carmack stated at QuakeCon 2005 that the Xbox 360 had "the best development environment" he has seen for a console. To date, some developers have endorsed XNA Studio. Microsoft believes that this will give developers more time to generate unique content and reduce time running the content process. 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.

These tools are designed to work together to automate common development tasks and present interfaces tailored to the different functions within the team. XNA Studio will provide versions of key production tools such as asset management, defect tracking, project automation and work lists. 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. XNA Studio will enable collaboration between content creators, programmers, management and QA staff to speed the game production process.

XNA Studio covers three areas: Content Creation, Production Processes and Game Technologies. The Xbox 360 game development will be centered around the XNA Studio game development platform. 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. During early development the Xbox 360 was referred to as "Xenon", "Xbox 2", and "Xbox Next".

[7]. 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. 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. 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.

After installation the computer and the and Xbox 360 will automatically detect one other. To connect the Xbox 360 to a computer the user will need to download Windows Media Connect. 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. The main dashboard is divided into 4 main sections:.

From there, the full Dashboard can be run, exiting the current game. The Dashboard can also be accessed via the Xbox Guide button on the controller at any time to open a player specific blade. The Dashboard will launch automaticially at boot if no game disc is inserted into the console. The Dashboard is the main interface to the Xbox 360, governed by a series of "blades" to subdivide categories.

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. Xbox 360 games are set to the standard 7.95GB of storage available on a dual-layer DVD. 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]. [4].

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. The other supported formats are: CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R/RW, WMACD, MP3CD, and JPEG Photo CD. 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. The system bandwidth comprises:.

The graphics processing unit (GPU) is a custom ATI R500-based "Xenos". ^[3]. The central processing unit (CPU), named Xenon (Microsoft) or Waternoose (IBM) is a custom IBM triple-core PowerPC-based design. Specifications are also available at the official Xbox website.

The price of these custom designs are around $20 with more to be released by third party manufacturers. Microsoft has also distributed two promotional faceplates, one for those present at the E3 2005 unveiling and one for VIP X05 attendees. 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. 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.

This drive will not be included in the Core System bundle at launch, and also will not be sold separately in Japan. This content will be included on both the bundled hard drive and the stand alone product. 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. A hard drive is also required for the user to be able to play backward compatible Xbox games.

Only 13 GB of this hard drive are available to the user; the rest is reserved for the system and games. 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. This port replaces the two proprietary USB connectors on the front of the Xbox controller. The rear of the controller includes a port where the player can connect a headset.

The black and white buttons have been redesigned as shoulder buttons, now referred to as bumper buttons, located above the left and right triggers. 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). 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. 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.

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 controllers have two digital Touch-sensitive trigger buttons.The rest of the buttons are not Touch-sensitive. The wired controller has a nine foot (2.74 m) long cord with a break-away feature.

Since the controller has a USB cable, it is also usable in Windows PCs. 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. The Xbox 360 has the ability to support up to four wireless controllers.
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This discrepancy is partially accounted for by the time needed to localize the games. Japanese customers, however, only had six titles to choose from by the time the Xbox 360 was released on December 10, 2005. The European countries had fifteen titles available for the launch date of December 2, 2005. Eighteen launch titles were available for customers in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico on November 22, 2005.

For full details see Console Launch. Without it the Xbox 360 numbers sold were less than originally anticipated. The main reason for this may have been the delaying of Dead Or Alive 4 which remains an extremely popular Xbox 360 Japanese game. In Japan, it was received far less enthusiastically, despite the low price and bonus features.

Many stores sold out on the first day, and as of mid-January consumers had to hunt across many stores to find one in stock. The Xbox 360 has been released in North America, Puerto Rico, Europe and Japan. They have also stated that they may release a similar Blu-ray attachment, depending on which format (HD-DVD or Blu-ray) becomes standard, though there is currently no plan except the support for HD-DVD. Microsoft plans to release an external HD-DVD attachment to play high-definition movies.

Xbox 360 is compatible with DVD movies, but not HD-DVD nor Blu-Ray. Microsoft hopes to avoid such a predicament with its new console, the company is predicting that a greater market share and falling hardware costs will make the Xbox 360 a profitable item. Microsoft's home entertainment division posted a loss through nearly every quarter of the console's lifecycle as a result. Because of these chips and the added expense of a hard drive component, Microsoft was never able to reduce the cost of manufacturing an Xbox below the break-even point.

Both of these were very similar to "off the shelf" PC hardware and were therefore sold to Microsoft at inflated market prices. This flexibility stands in contrast to the situation faced by the original Xbox, which contained a processor from Intel (a slightly modified Pentium III) and a GPU from NVidia (a modified GeForce 3). Also, since Microsoft owns the patents or licenses thereunder for all custom hardware used in the Xbox 360, they can easily switch to new fabrication processes or change suppliers in the future in order to reduce manufacturing costs. The strategy of selling a console at a loss or near-loss is common in the console games industry, as console makers can usually expect to make up the investment with revenue from game licensing.

BusinessWeek magazine compiled a report which estimates that the total cost of all of the components in the "premium" bundle is $525 USD, aside from additional manufacturing costs, meaning that Microsoft is losing at least $126 on every Xbox 360 system sold in the US, and at least as much in Japan. However because of the existence of a Core System edition, many games do not require a hard drive. Microsoft's decision has also allowed Japanese developers to fully utilize the hard drive to optimize game performance, since it is part of the default system configuration in their market. Japanese pricing of the console has drawn some criticism, as customers there will be able to purchase the Xbox 360 full package, albeit one region-coded for Japan, for a lower price than in other countries.

The Xbox 360 Premium Edition is being sold in America for $399.99. The Core System is not available in Japan, instead Microsoft offers a package identical to the Xbox 360 SKU for ¥37,900 ($323.90 as of 21 December 05 8:09 UTC, [1]). In United Kingdom and Europe, the console is available in two versions: an Xbox 360 SKU, frequently referred to as the "Xbox 360 Premium Package"; and an Xbox 360 Core System SKU. Microsoft's current retail strategy involves two different configurations of the Xbox 360 in most countries.

. Australia and New Zealand, after being delayed, have been set-back from March 2 to March 23. It will be released February 24 in South Korea, March 16, 2006 in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan (Delayed from original March 2 launch date). The Xbox 360 was released on November 22, 2005 in United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico, December 2 in Europe, December 10 in Japan, February 2, 2006 in Mexico and Colombia.

It is equipped with 512 MB of RAM and uses the DVD-ROM storage medium for Xbox 360 game software. The console hardware is based on a custom IBM PowerPC-based "Xenon" central processing unit (CPU) and a custom ATI R500-based "Xenos" graphics processing unit (GPU). The Xbox 360 configuration, often referred to as the "Premium Edition", includes a hard drive (required for backwards compatibility with original Xbox games), a wireless controller, a headset, an Ethernet cable, an Xbox Live silver subscription, and a component HD AV cable (which can also be used on non-HD TVs). In all countries except Japan the console is sold in two different configurations: the "Xbox 360" and the "Xbox 360 Core System".

The Xbox 360 will compete amongst the upcoming generation of consoles, including the Sony PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Revolution, and was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, a week before the E3 trade show. The Xbox 360 is Microsoft's second video game console, the successor to their original Xbox. Membership to the Xbox 360 VIP website. One Xbox 360 Preview DVD.

One Wireless Controller. Perfect Dark Zero. Xbox 360 Faceplate. Friends Lists.

Custom Playlists. Favorites List. Marketplace. Xbox Live.

Initial Setup - Runs the system setup that executes the first time the Xbox 360 is used. Computers - Manage connections to other computers over network. Network Settings - Create and manage internet connections, set up wireless connections. Memory - Manage things on the harddrive such as game saves, profiles, and downloaded content.

Family Settings - Toggle parental controls, adjust profile levels. Console Settings - Edit Xbox 360 settings such as display, audio, and language. Media Center - Activate Media Center extender. Video - Watch videos stored on the HD.

Pictures - View pictures stored on a camera, a computer or other portable devices. Music - Listen to music from the hard drive, computer or other USB-connected devices. Trailers - Watch downloaded movie/game trailers. Demos - Play downloaded game demos.

Xbox Live Arcade - Allows the user to play games they have downloaded from the Xbox Live Marketplace. Played Games - Displays a list of all the games the user has played. Achievements - Allows the user to view all of their unlocked achievements from games they have played. Xbox Live Marketplace - Download a wide variety of content such as avatars, trailers, even game demos.

Friends - Displays the user's Xbox Live friend list. Messages - View messages, friend requests or game invites sent by other Xbox Live members. Connect to Xbox Live - If offline, allows the user to connect to Xbox Live. There are several ways to utilize the custom soundtrack option: by ripping music from audio CD's, by streaming music directly from a PC, plugging in a USB Flash Drive, or by plugging in a USB-capable portable music player.

Microsoft claims all games will support custom music. 3 USB 2.0 ports. Some games will optionally support native 1080i and 480p video resolutions as well. The GPU can downsample 720p to lower display resolutions (including 480i SDTV and 480p) and dynamically crop or scale 16:9 to fit 4:3 screens.

All games must support a 16:9 aspect ratio, and a minimum of 720p HD resolution with 2x full-scene anti-aliasing enabled. DVD playback on the console has similar lockouts. Games bought for the console in a specific region can only be played in a console from the same region, though some games are region-free. The console makes use of regional lockout.

Media Center Extender capability. Support for WMV HD and progressive or interlaced DVD video playback. 45.9 cm (L) x 35.8 cm (W) x 18.3 cm (H) (22.15 x 20.15 x 13.27 in). Weight 3.5 kg (7.7 lb).

additional MPEG2 decoder for DVD video playback. Bink Video is licensed for games like Project Gotham Racing 3. VC-1 supports DVD quality and high definition quality video. VC-1 or WMV will be used for streaming video.

VC-1 at non-HD NTSC and PAL resolutions. Uses XMA codec (advanced audio technology from Microsoft). Voice communication except during games or applications that do not support voice. No voice echo to game players on the same Xbox console; voice goes only to remote consoles.

256+ audio channels. 32 bit processing. 320 independent decompression channels. Supports 48 kHz 16-bit audio.

All games support at least six channel (5.1) Dolby Digital surround sound. 1 TFLOPS theoretical peak performance of CPU and GPU combined. 115 GFLOPS theoretical peak performance for CPU. 1 GB/s southbridge bandwidth (aggregated 500 MB/s upstream and downstream).

21.6 GB/s front side bus (aggregated 10.8 GB/s upstream and downstream). 32 GB/s GPU to eDRAM bandwidth (2 GHz × 2 accesses per clock cycle on a 64 bit DDR bus). 256 GB/s eDRAM internal logic to eDRAM internal memory bandwidth. 22.4 GB/s memory interface bus bandwidth (700 MHz × 2 accesses per clock cycle (one per edge) on a 128 bit bus).

512 MB 700 MHz GDDR3 (1400MHz effective) RAM (Total system memory is shared with the GPU via the unified memory architecture.). Dot product operations: 24 billion per second or 33.6 billion per second theoretical maximum when summed with CPU operations. Pixel fillrate: 16 gigasamples per second fillrate using 4X multisample anti aliasing (MSAA) or 4 gigapixel per second without multisample anti aliasing (8 ROPs x 500MHz). Texel fillrate: 8 gigatexel per second fillrate (16 textures x 500MHz).

Maximum polygon performance: 500 million triangles per second. 16 Filtered & 16 unfiltered texture samples per clock. 8 ROPs in daughter die. Shader performance: 48 billion (48,000 million) shader operations per second (96 shader operations x 500MHz).

96 Shader operations per cycle across the entire shader array. 2 Shader operations per pipe per cycle. Support for DirectX 9.0 Shader Model 3.0, limited support for future DirectX 10 shader models. Unified shader architecture (This means that each pipeline is capable of running either pixel or vertex shaders.).

1 ALU per fragmentpipe for vertex or pixel shader processing. 3 groups of 16 arithmetic logic units. 48-way parallel floating-point dynamically-scheduled shader pipelines