'If MS doesnt release another console it will be future proof.'

That's not how IT WORKS. Futureproof is to anticipated what will happen to the future and try to keep up with technology... for example Blu-ray vs DVD-9.

'The graphics dont have to keep improving for the games to improve.' While I FULLY agree with this sentement I must admit you are taking it out of context, graphics and sound are something we messure technological advancement as story cannot improve with chips and gameplay is pretty constant. Graphics are a messure of how future proof a console is.

'Natal will allow for a whole new range of games which will let the 360 have a good additional 5 years on the market.' Harbringer you are, unbiased you are not. Seeing as the Wii has done this for 3 years, the PS3 motion is due for spring and Natal is christmas. I am not good with timelines but it appears all next gen consoles will have a form of motion control which I am not excited for I do admit Natal looks like the freshest out of the three.

All praise Natal!!

/s

Well if the PS2 could last that long without needing to have great tech like the Xbox 1 then 360 should have no problem standing its ground in the future, with or without Bluray

i totally agree with you on that.and i love my xbox360.you can not say MS released the 360 to rival the ps3.simply there was no ps3 when it launched.and how much into the future are we talking about here? according to greenburg its got another 5years.my god, i hope he is joking!maybe another 2.sure the 360 has made leaps and bounds with software since launch.but surely the hardware has limitations.we know it has in terms of games.but the software has to give up somewhere soon.

but its definately stuck between two generations.the ps2 generation and the ps3 generation.

What a JOKE of a question.

The 360 was OUTDATED the moment the PS3 came into the market around 2006.

And NOW the xbots are asking themselves. ROFL Youre only 3 years too late.

You guys are being naive. The 360 is just as powerful as the PS3 and the only real thing the PS3 has that the 360 doesn't is Blu-ray, which is of little importance for gaming. The importance of Blu-ray for consoles this generation boils down to this and nothing more: a few longer games will be available on one disc on the PS3 whereas the 360 versions will come on 2 or more discs. That's it. Big freakin deal.
Not to mention that the Blu-ray drive in the PS3 is a little slower than the DVD drive in the 360, so that loading on multiplatform games tends to take longer on the PS3 than on the 360.

"The simple truth is that technology starts to age as soon as it is finalized, and what's inside the current boxes is getting older by the day."

Agree 100% with this

Yeah, they just designed and put it out as competition against the PS2.

And a toaster is pretty much future proofed. 1000 ears from now toast will be made exactly the same way it is today.

That's if mutated roaches need toast...

to the wheel...

The hate for what? There's definitely no lack of hate for any of the current players, that's for sure.

Hate for what? Wii fans and 360 fans are not preoccupied with the failure or success of the opposition on any level close to what you see with the Sony camp. Wii is future proof but lacks the features the other consoles have.

"Future proof" is being used superficially in a fanboy feud based on the frustration of a group of people not liking there favorite brand not being on top.

"Mr. Built in Wi-Fi?
Mr. Built in bluetooth?
Ms. freeee Internet browser?
and last but not least,
Ms. interchangeable & non-proprietary HDD?"

These things don't make anything "future proof" what does though are core game offerings like:

-Game related system Software evolution
-Games
-Now Motion, more than anything else when it comes to casuals
-Continued company support
-3rd party support/3rd party dependence when it comes to this gen
-Top of the line Online offering and features gamers are now so accustomed to and expect

There is no denying Natal will in reality, will be like a Brand new next generation console releasing that will share a new market with no other competition.

LOL the haters took a bubble.

Oh please, the mere fact you spout about the 'Sony camp', along with a quick look at your comment history, shows you have a touchy side when it comes to Sony products, not to mention you specifically ask for the thoughts of '360 gamers', like they're view won't be as skewed as anybody elses.
All 360/Wii/PS3 fanboys are just as bad as each other, and trust me, there's plenty from all 3 on here.

Seems to me that the rush job paid off considering Microsoft says they are closing in on 40 million sold. Not going to be able to ride that "rushed" horse forever.

A rush job that has got them ahead in sales for one competitor yet they're lagging behind hardware wise, have had RROD and E74 tarnish their already crappy reputation for quality products, lack of first party support, lagging tech...the list goes on. Meanwhile Nintendo and Sony chug happily along.
As I have always said, Microsoft are the sheep of the industry. They have yet to prove themselves as a leader in any way shape or form. Until they do something that really contributes to the industry other than only gaming, I refuse to respect them. If only the 360 was in better hands.

Ok IF MS is really closing in on 40m, then Sony is closing in on 35m. In case you dont know, MS's only strong hold is here in the good'ol US of A and even that gap is closing FAAAAAAST! Aside from the US the PS3 outselling 360 Month after Month.

You would think they wouldve covered more ground with such a long headstart. Also with a 33% failure rate and millions being banned so they can make folks repurchase a 360 to play MW2 taints that 40m claim quite a bit.

I'm not one to brag about numbers since you cant play them. I just lol at you 360 guys who say your monthly prayer the night before NPD's are release. Dear God, Please let the 360 be ahead of PS3 this month, Please Lord PLEAAASE! LMAO

With that high ass failure rate and MS locking people out of XBL so they will re-buy a 360 makes it clear that we will never know how many consoles MS has "sold".

I can see the 360 becoming the economically priced starter package to HD and controller free gaming. Agree withe concept, maybe just not the year.

you have one?

I guessed you missed where the devs said that it's a 30fps camera. That guarantees an average lag of 16ms as the absolute minimum, and that's before any data is sent to the XBox for processing. Count on lag likely being somewhere in the 50-100ms range.

Also Natal is going to consume 10-15% of available CPU resources adding further constraints for the rest of the game code.

I think you are getting mixed up with the PsEye it is capable of 60fps 1:1 motion control(with the psWands), and sometimes it can do 120fps (at a reduced resolution)
Natal can only do 30fps, and will have a 10-15% extra demand on cpu, and lag time was 200ms before taking out the internal chip, now it is due to even more lag with the x360 doing the work.
The only thing different about natal is the fact it can track up to four people, but at a huge cost, if you have not already seen one of their developers have already shown a better solution similar to wii controls on the PC (yes I am talking about Valve).

Let's see? Where should I start. Firmware updates every 2 or 3 months sounds like they added quite a lot of shyt to me. They went through at least 3 re-designs. They have added: XMB; unique ID's, larger hard drives; Achievements; home; Netfex; Marketplace; Wand; need I go any farther or is that enough to disprove your rant?

you're not thinking clearly.everything you mentioned is software.most of microsoft's is hardware.and motion is already a part of ps3 with sixaxis.360 has no motion...

but here comes a new camera.why not use the old one?but that would mean microsoft is supporting something they already got.and they don't do that.

the only reason they want to last is because they KNOW sony WILL for a THIRD time.

The PS3 design changes actually removed features like PS3 compatibility and a couple of USB ports, and still it has more features than the XBox. But while it's more future proof than the XBox due to it including more advanced tech out of the box, it still likely will need a USB connected transmitter to support 3D on older TV's. Even the future proofing of the PS3 has an expiry date, it's just a little later than the XBox.

@3.1 Actually your rant only supports his rant as it shows how the PS3 has been future proof so far. They have been able to add a multitude of new features without changing the hardware. Every PS3 ever made supports all the new features. Sony just recently proposed a new Bluray format that can increase capacity by 50% with a firmware upgrade, a great example of future proofing, assuming it happens.

Early Xboxes cannot support everything new ones can due to the lack of HDMI, and those lacking hard drives imposes other limitations. The DVD is also another factor that is an issue now, let alone in the future.

Criticizing hard drive upgrades is particularly silly. At some point it becomes cheaper to put in a larger hard drive than keeping the existing size because the old smaller one is no longer being produced. Just try and go buy a new 20gb hard drive. They don't exist except for SSDs and they cost a fortune in comparison.

no one had a problem with multi-discs on the ps2.its not really an issue.forza3 had 2 discs.you install the first to the harddrive and never use it again.then you play off the second.simples.

Things are supposed to get better as time goes on not stay the same. If you are ok with still swapping discs in 2010 that's fine but I would rather not.

And what about the Arcade owners? They don't have a HDD to install on. Are you saying it is ok for them to not get the full experience of the game?

you misunderstand.i install 1 disc.u say it like im continuously swapping between discs to play 1 game.which is no different to what you do with games on any console.there is no disc changer for any console to my knowledge.if you want to play a different game you still gotta swap discs whether its on a ps3 or xbox.which is why i say its not a big deal.

but you make a fair comment about the arcade model.which has only one solution...buy a hdd.which is expensive for the console.and your basically payin for the plastic shell.but on a not so serious issue is my ps3 40gig.which is half full.so over a long enough period id have change that hdd aswell.

which brings me to my op.i dont think the xbox is future proof.and you gave another good point to my arguement,with the arcade model.

greenburg says 5years left in the xbox.i disagree.and if thats the case then i'll be buyin games for my ps3 very soon.the xbox cant keep up with ps3's 1st party games now.in 5years piff.gawd knows wot the ps3 will be pumpin out.and i doubt 3rd party devs will lead on the xbox by then.but atm a few superb games on the ps3 wont make me change consoles just yet.

How else would you know what appeals to them? But yes, if Natal fails Xbox 3 will be here much sooner. But I wouldn't worry about Natal failing if I were you. It is a 360 exclusive. Only 360 owner have that possibility to deal with. Then again you guys always have your faces pressed up against that hole in the wall. May be you have more riding on this than we do? Where did I put that salt?

If it primarily sells to existing XBox owners and doesn't pull in new Xbox owners in significant numbers then it will have failed at it's primary goal. They don't need Natal to keep their existing fan base, they need it to grow their fan base.

How would I know what appeals to them?

Because I'm a gamer. Because I have an Xbox. Because I can easily see what sort of games XB owners mostly buy and see a trend.

But its easier for you to write me off as a PS3 fanboy, that way you can ignore all the legitmate points I made. You can shuffle them out of your head even if they're true because how would a Sonyman like me make an educated guess on what XB owners would buy, even if I am one.

I'll tell you this, when you'se were all trying to convince us Banjo was better than LBP, I knew no one would buy it, and they didnt.
When you were all bragging Tekken was multplatform I knew no one would buy it. 2:1 thank you very much.
Just like I know, no one who cares about Halo, Gears or CoD, and thats pretty much all XB gamers, is going to care about standing in a living room with enough space to jump around playing waggleware.

i dont think you can say people like free online play.if the ps3 had pay to play from day one.you guys wud be paying regardless.besides you get wot you pay for.as for blu-ray.how would ms know about blu-ray considering the ps3 launched a year after xbox,with blu-ray.no built in wi-fi!seriously?if you want to game then buy a £6 20m ethernet cable.and the web browser argument...rather nothing than a half ass'd web browser.besides ms already stated that a web browser on the xbox would be a massive conflict of interests between its other software ventures.

A PRIME example of why MS craps on its Yes-Man user base and can pump out crap hardware without reaping any consequences. Look at this clowns statement- "besides ms already stated that a web browser on the xbox would be a massive conflict of interests between its other software ventures". BUT for $90 you can buy our WiFi addaptor and we'd(MS) be willing to.. er hmmm.. overlook our "other" software ventures. They can tell you guys Anything! and its ok.

Let me try this. 360 has no web browser because Maria is making Tamales. Hmm I can see where this would be fun for them XD

My apple IIC+ came with a switch that lowered it from 4mhz to 1mhz so it could run apple IIC software natively ;)

Wow...4 to 1 megahertz...That reminds me of the comment that bill gates made once. Wasn't it something like people would never need more than 50 kb of storage space, lol!!!

then speak again. PS3 IS NOT EVEN SECOND.

What the hell do sales have to do with being future proof? Just goes to show the quality of 360 fanboys arguments these days. They have nothing but sales to counter the PS3.

This topic was not about sales or profit, read the article, its about the 360 making it another 5 years. Aaron Greenburg stated it would, and thats why members of N4G are proving that (and pay attention) it will not survive another couple of years without announcing a new system.

The PS2 could not render games using heavy pixel and vertex shaders during that time period. Games like Max Payne on it were done so poorly because shader effects were not programmable within the systems hardware. HL2 and Chronicles of Riddick could not have been done on the PS2 properly, YET Sony often preached how it was future proof.
Now we are hearing the same thing today from MS and Sony for their consoles. Every generation we hear the same thing,,,,,,,

Stupid comment. I guess the PS3 is not "present-proof" either, since it is in third place and losing to the Wii which is technology from last generation and the Xbox 360 which is equally powerful as the PS3.

Seriously, what the hell is the matter with some of you?

Seriously, are you for real ???

By what stretch of the imagination does quantity sold relate to how futureproof something is ? By your retarded logic the PS2 is technically more future-proof then the xbox 360 since it has sold more. Clearly thats not the case and clearly you are a chump.

The components (DVD) in the xbox 360 are old tech so therefore it is becoming out of date. The technology within the PS3 (blu-ray) is a new emerging format which is becoming accepted - therefore it is more future proof than the 360.

Try and get your head around whats being discussed before bleating on about "bu bu but teh sales !"

Heavy Rain uses fixed camera positions and this allows them to put greater detail into the parts of the scene that are in view since it is easier on the processor than having a dynamic camera.

BTW, I love how you find the worst possible image of Gears of War 2 that you can to compare to. You guys are so dishonest.

Actually both DVD 9 and Blu-Ray have there weaknesses.

DVD has obviously less storage, Blu-Ray is much slower hence the reason why some PS3 games force an install.

Most people couldn't give a rats a$$ about Dolby True HD and lossless audio either. I would honesty love to know the percentage figure of how many PS3 owners actually own or will ever own a 7.1 True HD compatiable surround sound amplifier.

Why are people also saying that onboard wifi is futureproof but if you buy an external wifi dongle it isn't??

To answer the question NO 360 isn't future proof , neither is PS3 or Wii.

edit: Would really love to know why i just got a disagree when i think i stated facts not just thrown my opinion in there.

I agree,

I spent £1k on an LCD which has been bettered 10x over in the 3 years since i've bought it, why do you think console hardware is any different.

ATI and Nvidia are releasing better and better Graphics cards, Intel and AMD are realising super fast 4ghz quads and so on.

One thing that has to be considered is if Sony plan to stick with the PS3 and MS or Nintendo decide to release a console soon with superior graphics (say 1080p @ 60fps standard) how many will jump ship?