New Xbox Console Rumours

Shortly after Microsoft announced their new "Project Natal" the rumour mill started churning away about the possibility of a new Xbox sooner than we were originally thinking. Rumours suggest that a new updated console may appear even as soon as 2010 to coincide with the launch of Natal. This is somewhat contrary to the information which 360 fans received not that long ago talking about extending the Xbox 360's lifespan until 2015. It would seem that this new Xbox would be more of an upgrade than a full new console and has been described by IGN as "presenting a similar generation leap as that witnessed from Nintendo's GameCube to the Wii". While Natal and this new Xbox model will probably come in the form of a huge box full of gaming delight it is possible that we may see some kind of new hybrid incorporating the Xbox and Natal into a single unit. Predictably, Microsoft has refused to comment on mere speculation but I've decided to attempt to predict what sort of upgrades that we might be likely to see in this updated package:

1 Terabyte HDD (1,000 GB) - Rumours suggest that we will soon see the release of hard drives up in this region for the 360. This will be great once Xbox Live rolls out the sky player later on this year. Microsoft has mentioned that features of the Xbox will be included in this setup so we could soon see recording TV onto your 360 as "the norm" which would be great.

Gigabit networking - It only makes sense to see an upgrade to a Gigabit Ethernet connection on the 360 as standard. The PS3 has had it since launch and it’s time the 360 made the step as well in this media rich world society that we live in.
Included media remote - Possibly, whilst it might make many people happy to use with Sky player, Microsoft would probably rather their customers used Natal to navigate their media.

Graphics/Processor upgrade - Who knows, it would be great to see some improved anisotropic filtering and anti-aliasing but this may or may not be improved until the next major console release.

Whatever they may do, it has been stated various times that there will be no need to upgrade current consoles to be able to use Natal. However, myself like many people may find themselves tempted to upgrade to a bigger hard drive in preparation of what is coming soon especially if like me you still only have a 20 GB hard drive console model. I can’t help but feel it would be worth trading to the newer model if it lives up to the anticipation, especially with the extended life duration of the Xbox 360. What do you think this upgraded Console will sport when it arrives?