2007's worst kept gaming secrets

The Xbox 360 hardware upgrades and the 360 Elite

Ye gods, this one is immense. The epic saga of Microsoft’s upgrades to the Xbox 360 actually started in 2006, but given that it took in all of 2007 and still continues to this day, we feel that its obscenely dragged-out nature makes it a spectacular debacle wel🌼l worthy of inclusion on this list.

Back in July 2006, photos appeared onlinean HDMI port grafted onto a 360 motherboard. Interesting, but easily likely to be a fanboy hoax. After all, gamers had wanted the full 1080p HD capabilities of the connection since the 360’s launch, and Sony’s upcoming PS3 was already proudly flaunting its HDMI capability in Microsoft&rsq😼uo;s face. But then in January 2007 the big ball of stealth-failure really started rolling when Endadget got hold of of a finished 360 with the port clearly shown on the back. They also heard a rumour of a bigger 120 Gb hard drive and the inclusion of a smaller, cooler, 65nm processor to combat the good old red rꦡing o’ death.

At this point, the rumour mill started throwing things up faster than a drunk on a rollercoaster. We heard claims that MS had leaked information on the new Xbox to a retailer in Australia. A supposed scan of a page from Game Informer’s April issue appeared online seeming to confirm the machine’s existence. We got more alleged leaks from MS, this time seeming to come from an XNA developer. The official announcement of the Xbox 360 Elite came very soon after,ꦐ and not ෴a single person was surprised.

. Just sitting there. No big announcement, no song and dance. When contacted, Microsoft simply made a low-key admission and left it at that.

Oh, and in August an🐬d September we got confusing hints of an HDMI-enabled Core uni🐻t as well. Duck and cover people, duck and cover right now...

Long-time GR+ writer Dave has been gaming with immense dedication ever since he failed dismally at some '80s arcade racer on a childhood day at the seaside (due to being too small to reach the controls without help). These days he's an enigmatic blend of beard-stroking narrative discussion and hard-hitting Psycho Crushers.