11 Design mistakes of the Xbox 360

[Killer 57]

FiringSquad posted an article noting some design mistakes of the xbox 360. you can read the article here (http://firingsquad.com/hardware/xbox_360_mistakes/)

here is the list;

Mistake #1: Overheating CPU or GPU
Mistake #2: No MSN Music
Mistake #3: No HDMI support
Mistake #4: 20GB is too small
Mistake #5: Microtransaction Security
Mistake #6: No Web Browser
Mistake #7: No WMV-HD DVD Playback
Mistake #8: No MPEG-4 AVI playback (i.e. XviD, etc)
Mistake #9: No System-Wide Video Calibration
Mistake #10: Poor DVD Playback Quality
Mistake #11: No pressure sensitive face buttons

I completely disagree with number 5. here is a qoute from the article' .....I don't mind letting other people log into my Xbox 360 as myself and play online, adding losses to the record. I'm also lazy – I don't want to have to enter a password every time I boot the Xbox 360 and want to login that sounds like more of a personal problem. So do you guys agree or disagree with the article?

[morzy]

As i don't have a 360 yet i can't fully comment. What i can say is that there is alot of room for improvement and some of the Mistakes you would think MS would have easily implemented.

Obviously #1 is by far the worst and should be delt with asap if it can be as no one wants their 360 to freeze up mid-game.

#2, well you would have thought this would be a simple purchasing system from the Market place to rival iTunes as the article says and could have huge potential. Using your market place points to buy albums or/and singles.

#3 is done to try and make people buy more then 1 HD which is one of the reaons why its a removable device.

I agree with you about #5. If you can't take the time to press a few buttons to make your console that bit safer then...
If you want people to know then just write it down or something.

Good read.

[dikiminster]

Well, sure, it would have been great to have all those multimedia bells and whistles, but I think as a games console it does its job. The web browser would have been great, as i wouldnt have to keep swapping the bloody VGA cable from my 360 to my PC. Guess im just too cheap to buy another monitor or an HDTV! :unsure:

[backin-strachan]

Well I`m happy for him if hes going to make comments like that and lucky for him most of the points are regarding his 360 and not mine.

[AfroJoe]

I hate people that do things like this.

If I don't like something, I just won't buy it. I don't need to try and think of as many things possible to belittle whatever the something I don't like is.

[Raide]

Mistake #1: Overheating CPU or GPU
Mistake #2: No MSN Music
Mistake #3: No HDMI support
Mistake #4: 20GB is too small
Mistake #5: Microtransaction Security
Mistake #6: No Web Browser
Mistake #7: No WMV-HD DVD Playback
Mistake #8: No MPEG-4 AVI playback (i.e. XviD, etc)
Mistake #9: No System-Wide Video Calibration
Mistake #10: Poor DVD Playback Quality
Mistake #11: No pressure sensitive face buttons

Interesting list...

1) Maybe a few more fans or water cooling would have been a good idea but most consoles do suffer from over heating in one form or another.

2) MSN Music? With 360 soon to be intergrating MSN anyway it is only a matter of time before MSN Music appears. Remember, it is still a games consoles :)

3) HDMI is still a really new technology. We are only just getting around to the fact that we may have to upgrade all our TV's so the 360 looks spanky. I am unsure people would really want to do that again just to make use of HDMI. Sure it is good but will the average use really notice?

4) Too small for what? If you want to cram all your music etc onto it then yes, its a bit too small but most people will have the 360 networked to a Media Center PC and stream all that stuff. So for 360 use, the current HDD is fine.

5) Once Marketplace kicks off, then this will be useful. At the moment I would hate the 360 to be bogged down with needless bits and bobs added just because its new and someone thinks that the 360 is a mistake because it does not have them. I doubt we will see many people getting their 360 hacked.

6) GET A PC. No, really..get a PC if you want to surf the net. Sorry, 360 is a games conosole, if you want to browse the web get a PC. Sure it may be added in the future but web connectivity is not really top of Microsofts list at the moment.

7) Again this is only a newish technology and most people do not have the kit to make the most of this. If it is supported by the masses then the 360 will upgrade.

8) You mean so you can watch your ripped DVD in DivX format? If it is needed, it will be added. Supporting all these odd formats is just more work at present.

9) I could be wrong but it is not that difficult to do manual calibration. This is just so people have to do one thing instead of a few things. Cannot see it being such a major design flaw.

10) For the average DVD watcher, its perfect. For the Uber Boffin who wants nothing less that progressive scan and more bells and whistles on that a country circus, they will already have a £1000+ DVD player with all this stuff on it. Not a flaw, just a price consideration.

11) Erm...not sure this really,really matters. The pad works and is comfortable. Good design to me!

[mjmaskrey]

I think that article is pretty awful tbh.

CPU/GPU overheating...I'd have something to say if I'd ever experienced it but haven't.

The only thing that seemed a good idea is the TV calibration setting...as I move my console from regular TV to VGA monitor to HDTV LCD and the difference between each in gamma levels is massive.

Most of their points raised are worthless...no WMV-HD is a joke...HD_DVD maybe but certainly not WMV-HD. No web browser...my Dreamcast had a web browser..probably used in total for about 30.4 seconds. DVD playback looked pretty decent to me but not why I bought the console...I'll watch movies on a stand alone DVD player thanks. And pressure sensitive buttons are very poor, the PS2 has them and how often were they used?

Article was mainly knit-picking.

:)

[RiLu@]

they just try to look smart, this and that, blabla...

[Domfunkle]

It sounds alot like they're just complaining about what the 360 DOESN'T have as opposed to what's wrong with what it DOES have...

It would be just like saying that my desk-lamp is crappy because it doesnt have a tilt, rather than complaining that my desk-lamp's tilt is screwed (I'm really reaching out for examples here...:brow). I could probably agree with the whole DVD thing, despite my not having a 360 (yet). If you're going to put in a DVD player, at least make it good quality instead of crapping out on it. Now...I don't have a 360, so I don't know what the quality's like, but let's just say that it was crap, then at least this argument would be valid..

but hey...what do I know...I'm Australian...I havent even touched a 360, let alone seen one outside the internet..