Xbox 2 will NOT be backwards compatible

[AXmichigan]

MORAL OF THE STORY
NO POSTING ABOUT XBOX 2/XENON/XBOX NEXT.. whatever the hell its called
till we get actual
MS info


Xenon Leaked Doc's Real or Fake?
>> Seems the media have been busy making up their minds and putting forth their theories, in reference to the Leaked Docs News posted less than 24hrs ago...

From www.1up.com:

The rumor mill churning out speculation and supposition about Microsoft's next game console received another hearty turn of the crank today, with the publication on several message boards of a white paper purportedly running down specifications for the successor to the Xbox. Attributed to Peter Isensee of Microsoft's Xbox Advanced Technology Group (he's real, even if nothing in the document is), it describes in general terms the capabilities of a system code-named "Xenon," in anticipation of a planned 2005 launch.

Xbox Nation's Che Chou offers the interesting theory that the document could just as easily be a viral marketing plant by Microsoft itself, designed to reinforce popular belief in certain areas (i.e., that its next console will possess plenty of raw technical power) and counter rumors shaping the conventional wisdom in others (particularly persistent reports that the console won't be backwards-compatible with the current Xbox).

Microsoft itself, of course, is offering no comment either way on the subject.

Whether a genuine glimpse of the future or a clever exercise in fine-tuning the public's expectations, it's an interesting read.

From www.engadget.com:

Speaking of the Xbox 2 and what features it is or is not going to have, Xbox-Scene has posted up some new, probably fake, leaked specs for it (and we think we’re starting to get a little obsessed over the minutiae of a console that won’t be out for at least another year and a half). We wouldn’t necessarily give these any more credence than any of the other “leaked” specs which have surfaced, but these ones seem at least vaguely plausible, listing the next-gen Xbox as having a 3.5GHz IBM Power PC Processor, a 500MHz ATI graphics processor, 256MB of RAM, and a 12X DVD drive. No internal hard drive is listed (”the decision to include a built-in hard disk in every Xenon console has not been made”), though gamers should be able to add their own external USB drives or use the hard drive on a PC in a local network.

From www.eurogamer.net and www.gamesindustry.biz:

Although the document, which claims to have been authored by Pete Isensee at the Xbox Advanced Technology Group, admits that many of its figures are subject to change, developers working on Xenon technology have confirmed to us today that the details it contains are genuine.

Developers working on Xenon technology to whom we showed the document today confirmed that it tallies with what they have been told by Microsoft about the specification of the new console - even down to the continuing procrastination over making a decision on RAM size and the inclusion of a hard drive, both issues which have not been solved as yet.

"I've not actually seen this specific document coming from Microsoft," one developer told us this afternoon, "but there's certainly nothing in there which doesn't fit with what they've been telling us. If this is a hoax, which I doubt, it's a hoax so close to the truth that it hardly makes any odds."