Rejected Xbox 360 Designs Revealed [Archive]

Xaerin

11-05-2005, 01:21 PM

A BBC TV show screened in the UK last night offered glimpses of Xbox 360 rejected designs (http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1527&Itemid=2).

These images have previously been shown to journalists at some events, in brief video presentations but have not been made public before. We're waiting for original shots from Microsoft but here are some images. Apologies for the quality but they're just photos taken from a TV screen. Kinda interesting though.…
Courtesy of Next Generation. (http://www.next-gen.biz/)

Some expensive looking biscuit tins and petrol cans there.

Oddmaker

11-05-2005, 01:50 PM

Looks like they copyed the last picture below for the actully design it is now.

Morrolan

11-05-2005, 01:57 PM

The second-to-last pic looks surprisingly like the PS3. Heh.

Kefkataran

11-05-2005, 02:25 PM

I wish they would've used one of those big crappy-looking first designs. That would've been awesome.

fitbabits

11-05-2005, 02:36 PM

I wish they would've used one of those big crappy-looking first designs. That would've been awesome.
Give it a month or two and some cunning manufacturer will make a carrying case for the 360 based on one of those designs!

Kelegacy

11-05-2005, 02:49 PM

The first one was called Xbox because it was a box with an X on it. The second is called an Xbox 360 because...hmm. There is no X on it. It's not round. And it no longer resembles a box. What the?

Mjolk

11-05-2005, 03:08 PM

I find it much more likely it was a box with an X on it because it was called Xbox. Not the other way around.

bapenguin

11-05-2005, 03:13 PM

The first one was called Xbox because it was a box with an X on it. The second is called an Xbox 360 because...hmm. There is no X on it. It's not round. And it no longer resembles a box. What the?

Microsoft loves their whole X thing...like DirectX, ActiveX....as in X, variables...oh those guys...they are slick! :rolleyes:

Xaerin

11-05-2005, 03:19 PM

Indeed Mjolk, I believe the origin of the naming has something to do with the use of DirectX and not just the fact it's the "coolest" letter around.

Kefkataran

11-05-2005, 03:41 PM

X = hardcore

TrackZero

11-05-2005, 03:49 PM

Indeed Mjolk, I believe the origin of the naming has something to do with the use of DirectX and not just the fact it's the "coolest" letter around.

In "Unveiling the Xbox", they specifically discuss that it's mostly due to DirectX, and it just sounded good.

KamaItachi

11-05-2005, 05:09 PM

Most of those designs look like crazily like a lot of the equipment the colonists used in Aliens.

Is Microsoft the future Waylan Yutani?

Savok

11-05-2005, 05:47 PM

Fire them, fire every damn designer there. They can't make a good looking console, and just talk shit like "the inhale". Just fire them and hire people who can make decent looking electronics.

kid cabelgo

11-05-2005, 06:03 PM

anybody notice that you can't play on xbox live without playing with at least one person per round with some variation of xX Xx around their name?

"You've been killed by xXX l33t f4gz0r XXx"

...ungh

Paltry

11-05-2005, 06:57 PM

the first one is fucking badass and microsoft has sex with microsofts of the same gender bacause they didnt pick it

sonysyndicate

11-05-2005, 11:04 PM

One of them just looks like a waffle iron sprayed in copper paint.

Achilles

11-06-2005, 03:16 AM

So we’ve got three types of fuel tank, a macro processor, a waffle iron, and something that looks like it should be shooting heat rays and falling victim to our earthly viruses (second one from the bottom). I’m really glad they went with the inhale. In person the white inhale style console with the chrome tray actually looks really good.

EternalGamer

11-06-2005, 08:27 AM

I agree with Kefkatran that the first few designs shown there are so ugly its awesome. However, since I'm not into decking out my apartment kitsch style, I'm glad they went with the design they did.

Dan

sonysyndicate

11-06-2005, 08:37 AM

EternalGamer

11-06-2005, 08:37 AM

On thinking about those designs a bit more, I am a bit skeptical. Most of them are so incredibly bad, I find it hard to believe they were considered for very long, if at all. Perhaps this is just a really clever way to make the accepted design look fantastic by comparison. Remember, MS is the one that released these shots. Could it possibly be they chose the ugliest ones possible for comparison? I think we have a minor conspiracy here.

Dan

Bishop

11-06-2005, 09:04 AM

All I can say is those system designs are crap. One even looks like a gas can from a WWII military jeep. Those designers can't possibly be working for a living.

Savok

11-06-2005, 10:11 AM

Kefkataran

11-06-2005, 10:36 AM

You've never heard the shit about the inhale I take it.

?????????????

Kelegacy

11-06-2005, 11:14 AM

?????????????

The design of the new Xbox. It looks like the machine is "inhaling". Taking a breath. That's what those marketing/design guys said. Sounds like they've been doing a little too much inhaling themselves.

EternalGamer

11-06-2005, 01:23 PM

I think Kefka was a aware of what the "inhale" design was. Knowing that doesn't help either of us understand what Savok was getting at.

Dan

Kefkataran

11-06-2005, 01:33 PM

I think Kefka was a aware of what the "inhale" design was. Knowing that doesn't help either of us understand what Savok was getting at.

Actually, no, I hadn't heard that before and had no idea. Those fucking marketing guys are weird.

OSX

11-06-2005, 01:50 PM

I guess the idea was to emulate the reaction to the price. A sharp inhale followed by a "WTF?!"

Achilles

11-06-2005, 02:13 PM

Actually, no, I hadn't heard that before and had no idea. Those fucking marketing guys are weird.
Wow you didn’t know that? Well let me really blow your mind then.
The PS2 was meant to represent man’s ascension into space. Its black shape, when positioned upright and supported by the tapering blue stand represent space and earth’s upper atmosphere. That’s why the controller, which comes from the blackness of the console has silver flecks in the plastic representing stars (most people never notice 'em).

Industrial designers are artists, just imagine an artist who’s only creative outlet was a consumer device and there you go.

EternalGamer

11-06-2005, 02:32 PM

Industrial designers are artists, just imagine an artist who’s only creative outlet was a consumer device and there you go.

That statement seems highly antithetical to those early concept drawings we just witnessed. If those designs were by "artists" then Andy Warhol must have been their god.

Dan

OSX

11-06-2005, 02:48 PM

Wow you didn’t know that? Well let me really blow your mind then.
The PS2 was meant to represent man’s ascension into space. Its black shape, when positioned upright and supported by the tapering blue stand represent space and earth’s upper atmosphere. That’s why the controller, which comes from the blackness of the console has silver flecks in the plastic representing stars (most people never notice 'em).

Industrial designers are artists, just imagine an artist who’s only creative outlet was a consumer device and there you go.

I kind of had an inkling towards that, but I always thought it had alot of influence from 2001's monolith, bringing us to the space thing. Interesting stuff.

Savok

11-06-2005, 08:45 PM

I think Kefka was a aware of what the "inhale" design was. Knowing that doesn't help either of us understand what Savok was getting at.

Dan
You can bet those designs were considered. If they're fucked in the head enough for that inhale shit, then to even think people would give a fuck about the inhale, then you better believe they considered them.

Achilles

11-06-2005, 08:58 PM

What the theme is, is much less important than whether or not there is a theme. The theme could be Derelicte, or essence of gullibility, whatever it is, as long as there’s a unifying theme to the industrial design it’ll make everything look better because the shapes and colors will work with eachother instead of clash. Inhale’s a weird theme, but if it wasn’t there, well you get the original Xbox, which is very Bauhaus. That’s my opinion anyway.

Savok

11-06-2005, 09:04 PM

What? Look, I just want a console without a pile of latte sipping wankers fucking it for me.

EternalGamer

11-06-2005, 09:16 PM

You can bet those designs were considered. If they're fucked in the head enough for that inhale shit, then to even think people would give a fuck about the inhale, then you better believe they considered them.

Well, whether or not you find the concept behind it hokey, the inhale design itself isn't all that bad. It is actually rather minimallistic and has a pleasing aesthetic. Those mock-ups, however, are the most gaudy, ugly things I have ever seen. I find it hard to believe the same type of person(s) came up with them.

Dan

Venkman

11-06-2005, 09:29 PM

X = hardcore

no,no no no...

X = EXTREME!

Like J. Allard.

;)

I'll shut up and keep playing my Xbox now...

Venkman

11-06-2005, 09:32 PM

What? Look, I just want a console without a pile of latte sipping wankers fucking it for me.

I almost snorted my drink while reading that. Awesome.

I just want a console that is STACKABLE. As in FLAT. It may not look the coolest, but by God it is functional. The PS3's curved top SuX0RZ.

EternalGamer

11-06-2005, 09:45 PM

Btw, props to Achilles for leading me to an interesting exploration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus) of architectural history.

Dan

Achilles

11-06-2005, 10:13 PM

Btw, props to Achilles for leading me to an interesting exploration (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhaus) of architectural history.

DanForm follows function... to the eXtreme!

Bauhaus was the attempted murder of everything interesting in architecture and industrial design. If wikipedia doesn't say that, it should.

Glad I could expand your art history horizons though :)

KeeBaud

11-07-2005, 04:29 AM

I just want a console that is STACKABLE. As in FLAT. It may not look the coolest, but by God it is functional. The PS3's curved top SuX0RZ.

Good point. However, the XBOX 360 is not exactly 100% stackable itself. And as for the original XBOX ...

I wonder if anyone is going to sell a stack-adaptor for these consoles.