Rampancy

Gamesindustry.biz has another story up speculating on exactly what the Xbox 360 is going to be when it finally launches. This one suggests two editions; a stripped-down, games-only edition without a hard drive, and a premium edition with a hard drive and Internet access. However, the point of interest to most owners of Halo and Halo 2 probably this:

The site reports that the basic edition of Xbox 360 - the version without the hard drive - will not have backwards compatibility, while the "premium" version with the hard drive will ship with Microsoft's WebTV functionality built-in.

The site they're siting is gaming blog Kotaku; they have articles up on the inclusion of WebTV, a hard drive, and backwards compatibility in the premium edition, as well as a few other tidbits. Apparently, royalties due to Nvidia over backwards compatibility are driving its inclusion only with the higher-end box. It's also worth noting that the image Kotaku uses when referring to the Xbox 2 was debunked as a decoy weeks ago. (You'll also have to forgive me if WebTV doesn't exactly excite me. And without Halo 3 as a launch title, I seriously wonder how Microsoft is going to get gamers to shell out $400 for the new box, as that site speculates--Ed.)