Xbox 360 Update to Add 1080p Support

October 30, 2006 By Geoff Duncan

Xbox 360 Update to Add 1080p Support

Microsoft's November update to its Xbox 360 game console will include support for 1080p games and movies and support for the Xbox 360 HD DVD player.

Beginning tomorrow—October 31, 2006—Xbox 360 users will be able to download a free system update which adds significant new features to the company’s standalone gaming console. Chief among the added capabilities: support for games and movies at native 1080p resolution, support for Microsoft’s forthcoming HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360, and the ability to play stream WMV video from Windows systems running Windows Media Connect or Windows Media Player 11—or from CD, DVD, USB storage device, or connected PC.

The November update also adds numerous enhancements to Xbox Live Arcade (including auto-download of new demos, an improved leaderboard, new categories, and faster listing of games), support for Zune media streaming, wireless headset support and support for amateur games built using Microsoft’s XNA Game Studio Express.

The update will be distributed via Microsoft’s Xbox Live service and will be free for download to all members (Silver and Gold!) with no hard drive or disc required. Microsoft has posted a list of all 85 enhancements included in the update.

Showing 4 comments

Paul DeLeeuw at 8:09am 25th November 2006 My son has an XBOX 360 for games, but it is not connected to the internet. Is there a way to download this upgrade on my PC and burn it to disc?
Thanks,

Paul D. pdl@mail.com
Tim Stevens at 9:07am 31st October 2006 I would assume that future games will support 1080p, but probably not in the near future. I dont think any of the PS3 games announced for launch support 1080p either.
James at 8:55am 31st October 2006 So does that mean that some of the upcoming games will have 1080p compatibility?
Tim Stevens at 2:48pm 30th October 2006 Adding support for 1080p is pretty huge since Sony's been trumpeting that as a lead over the XBox 360. It's pretty cool they could do this with a simple software update instead of screwing the existing customers and having it hardware only.