7pm Pacific Update

Our work in the datacenter continues – we are currently in the validation process. I know everyone is anxious, but I am certain you can also understand why we want to make sure we got it right.
A lot of questions around what we are doing and why – of course, we don’t get to talk about everything, but here are some of the activities at a high level:
1. Completion of remaining upgrades to Windows and SQL Servers
2. Application upgrades/changes to support upcoming goodness
3. Capacity expansion changes

Given the number of servers we have to touch and some of the forward-looking work we are doing, this was a fairly complex session. Rest-assured we did some pre-work to make sure the downtime was as brief as possible. I know its hard to be off for a day, and believe me when I say we understand this as well as anyone – after this work we move immediately into executing on some plans for the fall that should make the length of future ‘maintenance’ sessions much more brief.

I have to go beat up on e and Shreddy in Halo for a bit just to make sure all is well. We have the entire LIVE org hitting things hard right now, testing every scenario, to make sure we got everything right. Will let everyone know just as soon as we are good to go.

8pm Update - On the Glide Path

Validation is going well – a couple of bumps here and there, but we are quickly working the kinks out. Will try to send hourly updates from here on out. Until then, a couple quick facts:
1. Regardless of what time MSDN or your computer thinks it is, its really 8pm here in Redmond. (ok - 8:14pm)
2. Myself and e are not responding to posts right now – we just got this blog up, and obviously need to figure out a way to validate identities once things calm down. Until then, if you see a response to a post that looks to be from us, it ain’t.
3. Pardon my sense of humor. Not playing Halo quite yet – a little busy still. If I was, it would be e kicking my butt. Figured folks would be onto that.
4. While we admire our stateless big brothers like search, big web properties etc., our little machine is still a bit more finicky. We are making progress every day, so please pardon this brief interruption in our journey to always-up.

Stay tuned.

The Latest On The 'New Xbox' Rumors
More and more new Xbox rumors. What to believe?
by Jim Reilly
June 16, 2009 - The Internet went into a frenzy over the weekend when a new rumor surfaced about Microsoft's upcoming plans to release an upgraded Xbox 360 sku to coincide with the launch of their new Natal motion camera in late 2010.

But now Microsoft has commented on the rumor, well, kind of.

Microsoft's own Aaron Greenberg told Eurogamer "I think part of the excitement about this announcement is that in many ways we are delivering a next generation experience this generation. With that said, I can confirm that Natal will run on Xbox 360 so no new console investment will be necessary," he said.

It's worth pointing out Greenberg confirms Natal will work with the current Xbox 360, which we already knew. However, he still doesn't address the possibility of Microsoft releasing a new, upgraded hardware sku in the near future with the Natal camera packed-in that the initial rumor suggested.

But with one rumor (sort of) coming to a close, another one pops up a day later.



TeamXbox now claims to have insider information regarding an entirely new console, not an upgrade to the current 360 model, and plans to reveal this new info throughout the coming weeks.

"I heard regarding the next Xbox is that it won't launch until a certain type of television becomes more widespread because in addition to built-in Natal tech, a key feature of the next Xbox would be full HD stereoscopic 3D visuals similar to 3D movie theatres," the website reports.

A new 360 sku with the Natal camera packed in seems likely at this point as Microsoft will want to get the new tech into as many homes as possible. But a hardware upgrade, no matter how small, seems unreasonable due to increased cost.

What do you believe?