Register Hardware

Original URL: http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/15/slimmer_xbox_360/

Slimmer Xbox 360 en-route?

By James Sherwood
Published Thursday 15th May 2008 11:40 GMT

The gaming world is rife with speculation that Microsoft is inking in plans to launch a slimmer and lighter Xbox 360 model.

Register Hardware has already reported (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/05/09/ms_orders_65nm_xbox_gpu/) that the software giant is thought to have placed orders with chip and motherboard makers to produce components for an updated 360 – dubbed ‘Jasper’.

According to a the latest report (http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/37376/135/), by TGDaily, it’s now claimed that these updated internal components will be complemented by a new, slimline casing. Aside from giving gamers more space underneath or beside the telly, a slimmer and lighter console could be cheaper to produce, less power hungry and, hopefully, quieter.

Sony has been rumoured in the past to be working on a slimline PS3 (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/02/04/ps3_slim_and_light_model_rumours/), just as it did with the PS2. A slim PS3 would boast many of the same benefits offered by a slimmed-down Xbox 360.

This latest Xbox 360 rumour should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt, because Microsoft stated earlier this week that it has “no plans to release a new console in 2009”. Although that could just mean that the so-called slimline Xbox 360 will appear later this year.

In any case, if Microsoft really doesn’t have plans today to release a slimmer model, there's nothing to stop the company changing its mind tomorrow.

It might be worth remembering though that Sony once pooh-pooh'd speculation (http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2007/11/22/sony_psp_phone_denial/) that it was developing a 40GB PS3, a claim that later turned out to be false. Similarly, it also dismissed claims an 80GB PS3 was in the works, right up until the model was launched – even despite the existence of FCC documents to the contrary.