Xbox 360: coming round full circle

We love our Xbox here at Crave, despite it being the ugly duckling of the console world. So we're even more pleased that Microsoft seems to have taken cues from Apple in the design of the follow-up, the Xbox 360. Now we don't have to hide away the console in embarrassment when we're blowing away the Covenant in Halo.

The pictures have been leaked onto the net ahead of Microsoft’s formal announcement, which takes place on the suitably 'gnarly' MTV network on May 12th. The follow up to the original Xbox, this image has been confirmed by a number of high-profile sources as the final design, although the case will be interchangeable with a number of different colours, to appeal to 'da kidz'.

Quite a lot is already known about the Xbox 360. First off, it’s not just in the design that Microsoft has taken cues from Apple -- the console will boast huge processing power thanks to its PowerPC-esque three 3GHz parallel processors. You may also be wondering where the joypad ports are on the front of the console, but they will be wireless as standard. As you can see from comparing the size of the DVD tray to the old Xbox, this model is also much smaller. As opposed to coming with a hard drive as standard, the new Xbox will use 64MB memory cards, and rumour has it that it will even network across to your PC.

The Xbox 360 is set to launch in Europe before the end of the year and will be previewed at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in LA on May 17th 2005. Expect more details, and of course full coverage from Crave, next month. -GC

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