Whoever’s in charge of Xbox 360 ads over in Italy might be having a bit of a headache just now, because if you look at this Italian gaming site, there’s an advert playing for an Xbox 360 that looks a little bit different.
Assuming it’s real (the ad links to xbox.com) the ‘new’ Xbox 360 looks like it comes with a 250GB hard drive, wifi and something called Kinect, which is presumably the ‘real’ name for Project Natal. Here’s a grab from the ad:
This comes as Microsoft were claiming super tight security around their new announcements for tonight and the rest of the week. Utterly batshit bonkers insane, or whatever the terminology is these days.
We’ve no idea what the ad is all about, or whether it’s real, but we’ll hopefully see later tonight.
Source: GAF.
Update: It seems that the Kinect name has been filed as a trademark by Microsoft, although there’s no confirmation that it’s the new name for Project Natal.
The only information available is that Microsoft hold the trademark and that it’s filed in the ‘computer software, computer hardware and computer peripherals’ class. Thanks to SebMoss for sharing this.
Update 2: The advert appears to have been removed from the site.
Update 3: USA Today have a preview of Kinect that went live half an hour ago, repeatedly referring to the peripheral as Kinect multiple times. Alex has the full story here.
Jas-n
erm… eiwwww
It’s like a high end gaming PC that’s been squashed, also doesn’t look “slim”
AlexRoz
Yup, agreeing with Jas here. To me looks like a comp rig that was squished in the middle but thats about it to me it looks the same height. Although the new side vents are nice :)
teflon
I doubt they’d go with “Slim” anyway. PS3 only went “slim” cos it was “Phat” to start off with. The 360 already looked rather slender, through design so that’s not what MS will use.
Maybe “mini” or maybe they’ll just stick with Xbox 360, plain and simple. What’s the point of differentiating, when that’s all that’ll be on sale.
H3O
Doesn’t look that good tbh.
bajere
i really like it. Looks waaaay better than the current gray one! might look odd when not stood up though
AJ
That really doesn’t look to slim… The shape and the vents on the side make it look like some sort of PC.
Wasn’t Natal renamed Wave?
Raen
Was only a rumour.
Raen
Kinect is cooler than Wave and I get the whole kinetic energy thing. I’d bite on this as real, to get the 360 faked, looking professional and then put it live on a site for a fair chunk of money seems to much to be a prank. Does look kinda cool, although not actually slimmer.
djhsecondnature
Kinect would be an awful name. It’s not a nice sounding word, nor does it roll of the tongue easily.
benny boy
I like clever names like that. It’s a bit more original than “Move”.
benny boy
Although I agree it needs to roll off the tongue a bit more. You have to put in too much effort to say it.
Raen
It does stick a bit, although I realised I pronouncing it as ‘connect’.
bunimomike
I find Kinect easy to pronounce. Same syllable count as connect and almost the same phonemes. Finally, if you feel the word coming out of your mouth your facial muscles aren’t partaking in any weird gymnastics to try and say the word. It’s just a new word so feels a bit weird.
Apnomis
I don’t think it’s that bad – for a start it’s a made up word so will be easy to Google (unlike Move) and obviously makes you think of the words Kinetic and Connect, I assume it is pronounced the same as the latter…
As for the redesign it’s hard to tell until you see it in someones hands or next to the old model – there’s no sense of scale… funny how they gradually make it more and more like the PS3 though now it’s black, slim, has a 250GB HDD and has built-in Wi-fi… All it needs now is a Blu-ray drive!
bigwhiteyeti
Honestly, it sounds like a coffee table I’d buy at IKEA.
bajere
haha! how right you are!
BioEye
Slim? Xbox? … Fat computer.
Charmed_Fanatic
LOL
bunimomike
Looks like a media PC on it’s side and someone’s buggered about with the Perspective tool in Photoshop. Still, I like the name Kinect (if that’s what they go with). Kinetic, Connect. Very good.
benny boy
I think it looks quite nice. It’s better than the piece of ugly they’ve got right now anyway.
It doesn’t look much thinner though. It just looks different. I like the name Kinect as well. It’s quite clever.
52pickup
Ugly. Not sure about the Kinect name either. If this is real then this is the next best leak since PSPgo.
cc_star
Wonder if the fan which it uses is still the one from jumbo jet.
Looks really good though
Think a new model, rebrand and maybe a price movement (or a very attractive Natal/Wave/Kinect bundle) is definately going to happen.
Wonder how Sony will respond so they don’t use their momentum
Jas-n
If it includes all that’s stated, it should be called the XBOX 360, as it has everything included like the PS3, although, no BD yet, come on M’soft, admit you need it.