E3 demo stands powered by PCs, not consoles

[Chemilinski]

No that I am saying these claims are true or that the photos are accurate, but I found this an interesting find, and just wanted to see what people on the forum here think.





Source

I mean it could possibly be a developer kit which they've used. I remember seeing Xbox 360 dev kits as unassuming computer towers so maybe this is the same.
What do you think? Is Microsoft faking it or is this a misunderstanding?

 

[Mystictrust]

I think it makes sense, personally. And yes, it could very well be a dev kit, and maybe the dev kit runs Windows 7 (for some odd reason, though you'd think it'd be Windows 8). Or maybe it's just a regular PC. Still, why risk running game demos on console software that isn't fully finalized or optimized? I imagine production on the hardware will be starting soon, and not much is going to change, but the software could be a different story. They could have an automated way to massively go around flashing all the hardware boxes with updates. But still, I imagine software tweaks and optimization and such, including the addition or modification of features they haven't nailed down yet, will be going on as long as possible. Anything they can't get in by launch will be rolled over into a future update. And if their software has a bug? The game crashes on the E3 floor and the press nails them for having a console both with restrictive 24 hour checks AND games that crash and lag. Fair or not, it doesn't matter. Joe Schmo consumer is going to say, "Uh, damn... is it really that bad? Maybe I'll wait until after launch and see how it goes. Or I can try PS4"

 

[WPmunkey]

Posted already here: http://forums.windowscentral.com/xb...ly-windows-7-pc-highend-gpus.html#post2010172

As to which my response remains the same: Microsoft used Power Mac G5's when demoing games for the 360 at E3. This is normal stuff. At least normal in the sense that this is the second time Microsoft has done this and they probably did something similar with the original Xbox and Windows XP

 

[a5cent]

Yes, completely normal considering the state of the XBO. All console games are developed on what is essentially a PC, and considering most of these games won't have been tested on final hardware, it would be insane to demo them on anything but the developer box.