Microsoft unwraps Xbox 360

The company has been saying how it learned a lot and messed up a fair bit with its original console, Xbox (1). This time around it's going all guns ablaze after Sony's top spot in the home gaming market.

Microsoft may have awoken late to the power of the Interweb but now seeks to tie in gamers to online mayhem through its Xbox Live network.

The Xbox 360 will come with free second-class (silver) access to the network, assuming you have a broadband connection.

Games already announced for the console include Call of Duty 2 and Tony Hawk's American Wasteland, plus summat called Quake 4 from id Software. Electronic Arts contributes Madden NFL 06, Need for Speed Most Wanted and Tiger Woods PGA Tour 06. Then there's The Darkness, Perfect Dark: Zero, Kameo: Elements of Power, Project Gotham Racing 3.

Oh, and something called Half-Life 2 will be demo'ed on the console at upcoming games fest E3.

The console will boast a teraflop of system-floating point performance, claimed the Vole, thanks to a "three-core" PowerPC-based CPU, a custom ATI graphics processor and more than 512MB of memory.

Microsoft said the console will launch in North America, Europe and Japan this Christmas holiday. µ

L'INQ
Xbox factsheet