New Xbox Rumors

While gossip surrounding the next Xbox has been churning around inside the rumour mill for a good few years now, there's no doubt that we're getting closer to learning some cold, hard facts.

We fully expect the Xbox 720 - if it is indeed to be called that – to launch in time for Christmas 2013. And with the increasing frequency of new rumours, reports and leaks, an official reveal from Microsoft cannot be too far away.

So what can we expect from the Xbox 720 when it is finally revealed by Microsoft, and when will it finally hit the shelves?

Xbox 720 to pack Blu-ray and DVR features?

A document that leaked in June 2012 indicates that the Xbox 720 will come packing 1080p 3D support, Blu-rayplayer and DVR functionality. This would indicate that Microsoft is trying to position the Xbox 720 as the single does-it-all set-top box in your living room.

Xbox 720 to pack AMD graphics and CPU?

If the next Xbox is to be as popular and last as long as theXbox 360 – without the frankly appalling hardware failures which blighted its early days – it's going to need some reliable and powerful components.

Latest rumours suggest that the console will contain a revision of AMD's 7000 series graphics, which is based on its 28nm Graphics Core Next (GCN) Southern Islands tech.

Anonymous sources are being quoted on VG247 as saying that the graphics setup in the Xbox 720 will be "like two PCs taped together" which sounds like waffle to us. What does that even mean?

The same sources say that the two GPUs in the Xbox 720 "aren't structured as they are in a normal dual PC set-up," with each chip working separately to draw different items simultaneously.

Again, this sounds rather wooly to us, so let's try and make some sense of it...

Perhaps it depends what the source is referring to as different 'items'. The traditional usage of multi-GPU tech is Alternate Frame Rendering (AFR) where each GPU renders a frame in turn; if the source is saying that is not the case in the Xbox 720 then it will be a whole new usage of twin graphics chips.

It's also possible the confusion here could be arising from the difference between AMD's old GPU architecture, used in the Xbox 360, and the new Graphics Core Next technology. The old Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW) architecture of AMD's last gen GPUs essentially batched up instructions before outputting them.It's possible this simultaneous rendering of different items could be referring to using the twin GPUs to display 3D outputs – where each chip is rendering a different angle of a scene to generate the 3D effect. This would then minimise the stress that 3D gaming puts on graphics chips.Still, if that secondary GPU is lying dormant during non-3D gaming it would be rather wasteful, so the GPUs must surely still be used concurrently to render the games.

But GCN is made up of more independent microprocessors capable of carrying out more instructions concurrently.

Either way, the inclusion of AMD 7000 series graphics would put the new Xbox on a par with the current rumoured specs of the Sony PS4 which is in turn expected to also contain AMD Southern Islands graphics as well as an AMD x86 CPU.

Are we really to believe that the 'next generation' of games consoles would essentially be out of date mini AMD PCs, with just the operating systems and scale of fun-sucking DRM the only levels of differentiation? We can't see that being the case, and a report in April 2012 suggests that Microsoft does indeed have something more exciting up its sleeve.It would put the two consoles on level footing in terms of performance as they will essentially contain the same hardware, though by the time they actually go on sale they would to be hopelessly out of date compared to modern PCs.

Xbox World reported that the Xbox 720 will pack a 16-core CPU, which would certainly add some much needed muscle to the maybe-possibly underpowered graphics.

What will the Xbox 720 actually be called?

It's entirely possible that Microsoft could call it the Xbox 720, but we reckon it'll have something a bit more exciting up its sleeve.

Noted Microsoft blogger MS Nerd outed the name Xbox Loop, claiming that the long-awaited console will be "far smaller", cheaper and quiteKinect-focused when it finally lands on our shelves.

Rrecent reports indicate that Microsoft's internal codename for the new Xbox is 'Durango'. Sean Tracy, a technical designer at games developer Crytek,said on Twitter: "Enjoying the Durango developers summit in London. So far, great swag and interesting talks". The tweet was very quickly taken down but the codename was out of the bag by then.

Xbox 720 storage and disc format

It now seems highly likely that the new Xbox will arrive packing a Blu-ray drive.

Microsoft was, if you remember, a staunch member of the HD DVDPromotion Group and went so far as to launch an external HD DVD drive for the 360. So it represents a bit turn-around for Microsoft to embrace Blu-ray, but it also makes perfect sense.

Read speeds from DVDs are still faster than from Blu-ray discs, but BDs can hold vastly more data. A standard dual-layer BD can contain 50GB of data compared to the Xbox 360's dual-layer DVDs which contain between 8 and 9GB.

Many current Xbox 360 titles come on two or three discs, and with the size of Xbox 720 games destined to dwarf current titles, that extra capacity is a fundamental requirement.

Xbox 720 games are in development

It looks as though games developers are already playing with Xbox 720 hardware - a recent job advert from Peter Molyneux's Lionhead studio asks for developers with a background in DirectX 11 - a platform not used by any of the current consoles but is rumoured to be used in the AMD-powered Xbox 720.

It's a bit of a no-brainer that titles are in development from all the big studios if you ask us.

What about the Xbox 720 controller?

Many rumours suggest that the second version of Kinect will sit at the heart of the Xbox 720 experience. A console built around motion detection has lots of promise and it seems highly likely that this is the direction Microsoft is taking, given the way it's currently pushing Kinect hardware and software.

However, you can be sure that the trusty control pad will remain a core component for hardcore gaming. The 360 control pad is wildly popular amongst both console and PC gamers so we can't see the design changing too radically, either.

Will Microsoft kill the second-hand games market?

There have been rumours cicrulating that the new Xbox console will feature a system aimed at preventing owners playing used games. That would mean no trading-in of old titles in order to fund the purchase of new ones - a move that would not be warmly received by gamers or highstreet store.

The rumours centre around the concept of the new Xbox demanding an always-on internet connection. That sounds like a horrifying idea to us – say it ain't so!

The Xbox 720 release date

All indications are that the next Xbox will arrive in time for Christmas 2013.

How much will Xbox 720 cost?

That leaked document we mentioned earlier mentions a $299 (£190) price point which soundsd gloriously ambitious to us. Expect it to cost a bit more than that but assuming the PS4 launches around the same time, expect some competitive pricing.

http://www.squidoo.com/xbox-720-news

Delayed Plans for NEW Xbox

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will release the next version of its Xbox console in 2013 at the earliest, as the company squeezes at least one more year of sales out of its current model, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

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Xbox 360 game console during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas on Jan. 11, 2012. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

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A Microsoft Corp. representative demonstrates an Xbox Kinect video game at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Monday, June 6, 2011. Microsoft Corp. said it struck an agreement with Google Inc.'s YouTube to deliver video on the Xbox Live service, as the software maker lines up a live television service for later this year. Photographer: Jonathan Alcorn/Bloomberg

The company may show the successor to its Xbox 360 in June 2013 at the E3 conference and put it on sale that same year, said the people, who declined to be named because the plans are confidential. David Dennis, a company spokesman, said earlier today that Microsoft won’t discuss new Xbox hardware at this year’s E3, quelling speculation that the device would be unveiled at the 2012 show.

Microsoft’s Xbox 360, bolstered by the Kinect motion-sensor accessory, had its best year of sales in 2011 -- the console’s seventh on the market. Announcing the next model too soon risks hurting orders for the current lineup, and new consoles typically lose money for their first few years. The Xbox 360 is profitable, giving the company incentive to keep it on store shelves for a longer period.

“They’re still selling a lot of Xbox 360, and they’re making money,” said Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities Inc. in Los Angeles. “I don’t think the world needs them to put a new console out just because we’re bored.”

Sales Growth

Microsoft’s entertainment division, which includes the Xbox, posted a 45 percent sales gain to $8.91 billion in the fiscal year that ended in June. The Xbox 360 outsold Nintendo Co. (7974)’s Wii and Sony Corp. (6758)’s PlayStation 3 in 2011, and also sold better than any other TV-connected devices, including DVD players and home-theater systems, Dennis said.

“There will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon,” Dennis wrote today in an e-mailed statement. He declined to say when Microsoft would release the next model. “For us, 2012 is all about Xbox 360.”

Microsoft has no reason to put out a new console soon, Pachter said. He estimates that the company makes about $115 of profit on the $300 Xbox 360, a model with a hard drive.

Pachter expects Microsoft to release the next version at the end of 2013 or beginning of 2014. The company will probably look at competitive pressure and sales in the current year to determine timing, he said.

Nintendo, meanwhile, is due to release a new machine called the Wii U later this year. Sony will probably update the PlayStation around the same time Microsoft puts out a new Xbox, Pachter said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Dina Bass in Seattle at dbass2@bloomberg.net; Ian King in San Francisco at ianking@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net

Xbox 720

Where the hell is Xbox 720?

Microsoft doesn't want to talk about its next console, known as Xbox 720 or Durango. But IGN does want to talk about the next generation and so do IGN readers. We want to know why Microsoft came to E3 without showing us anything of its next-gen system, which is currently with developers.

I caught up with Phil Spencer, corporate vice president of Microsoft Game Studios, at the Xbox 360 booth at E3. I understood that Phil was not able to talk about Microsoft's plans directly, but he was happy to talk in general terms about the company's thinking.

Reading between the lines of his answers, it's clear that the company is in no hurry to move on from Xbox 360, and has a lot of solid financal reasons to wait. But Spencer is also aware that the core audience will not wait forever.

Also, that the next machine will likely be all about multiple-device connectivity, new models for buying and playing games and priced, at least as an option, on a smart-phone subscription model, with a low entry price and further payments over a couple years.

You can best judge for yourself what's going on here with the transcription of the conversation. We also talked about Halo 4 and other now-generation topics, and I'll post those in the near future.

Colin: So a lot of people are saying that this has been a disappointing E3, that the hardware companies, including Microsoft, haven't taken enough risks.

Phil: Okay... Well, I think there are multiple audiences when you come to a show like E3. You've got the developers, who are looking at each other. You've got the people who are all about buying new hardware, and they're just really focused on when the next hardware's coming out. And then you've got the whole business, retail kind of people, who are looking at business stuff.

“

People are looking for new things.

I think our business is really in a sweet spot, if you think about the installed base and the number of people, the addressable audience of a platform like Xbox 360 right now. So as somebody who's running a publisher, a first party publisher, but still, an entertainment publisher, it's a great time to be on Xbox. We've got tens of millions of people out there, so when we put out something like Minecraft, we sold two million units. That's a great business.

You're now at a scale, both on Live and the hardware, where you can come out with things that are not Call of Duty, Halo, Assassin's Creed, these big hundred-million-dollar productions. Because the audience is there to reach people and actually have real success. I think that creatively that's a great unlock. There's just more things you can focus on. You can focus on specific segments, or specific projects. We think about entertainment, television, sports, fitness... You know those people are out there because you look at the numbers and it just pours out. You're going to have more women, younger kids, a lot of people in the system. I think it's a really healthy place for us.

Colin: It must make it difficult for you to let it go, for you to say, well, let's move on to the next thing now. Because hell, everything is going really well. And yet we work in the games business, we want something new. Everyone is asking, where the hell is Xbox 720? Why did you come to the show without a new piece of hardware?

Phil: Well, I think we have to be careful when we say "everyone" is asking. Because I don't think it's everyone, right? There's a core set, and I'm one of these people. In my heart I'm a core gamer. There are some people that are looking for what's next. And I love that. Those are the catalysts for our business, those are the people who are going to line up outside the store the night before and get the newest piece of hardware when it comes out. You want to keep that core enthusiast involved in what you're doing, and they're the most critical. But we can't fool ourselves into thinking that that's all that this business is about. Because this business is much broader than that.

Colin: I think that you were going to show something and then you decided not to, that's my personal opinion. Can you comment on that?

Phil: We start our E3 plan in December and January, we start looking at assets and getting stuff together. But we've been pretty consistent on what our E3 plan was going to be all along. We haven't really changed that. Certain things start showing well and other things need more work, but in terms of our key messages at E3, Halo is going to be the biggest game. But no, our E3 plan has actually been pretty consistent from the beginning.

Colin: You're stuck with this problem of when to jump to digital-only, to release a console where all the content is downloadable or streaming and retail is gone, and there are no discs. But the world isn't quite ready for that quite yet. So if you wait you can get closer to that world, which is more ideal for your purposes. Right?

Phil: I would say, and not just for PR reasons, that retail is very important to us. Retail distribution of games is going to be very important for years. When you go to a midwest town, there are still people where retail is still the way they buy , even music. There are millions of people who still buy DVDs. And they're going to buy [retail] games and they're going to buy consoles.

Colin: I am trying to figure out what you have up your sleeve with the next Xbox. Something, maybe, in Kinect, I just can't put my finger on it. You've got to have some really interesting idea and I don't know what it is.

Phil: You look at the beginning of Xbox, talking about eleven years ago, the beginning of Xbox 1, to where we sit today, and you see that the amount of time spent on an Xbox 360 in the house has gone up dramatically. We've seen continued online growth, a growth in online gameplay and now we see online video actually eclipsing online gameplay in terms of just hours used. And that's not because online gameplay is going down, it's just because the box is literally on for more people in the house at more times during the day.

“

There are some people that are looking for what's next. And I love that.

This is a really interesting opportunity for us with the kind of entertainment that we can bring to the box. It doesn't mean that we have to diminish focus on the core. Just like if my TV shows a different thing in the morning than it does in the middle of the day than it does at night.

We really start looking at the Xbox as an entertainment product, plugged into the biggest screen in your house, the TV, and a unique display surface in the TV. That's why I try to focus on SmartGlass, trying to light up other things that are happening in the house, because we understand that it's a connected-device ecosystem.

It's a little bit like Kinect when it came out. We got Dance Central 3, the kind of game that didn't even really exist before Kinect came around. I think now we look at SmartGlass and these other opportunities, and I think the kind of entertainment that we're building will continue to push forward, multiple devices and opportunities to play anywhere, asynchronous multiplayer gameplay. We're trying to come up with new terms for these connected experiences. I think you're going to see just a ton of growth.

Colin: I was talking to Gaikai about their deal with Samsung. I asked if consoles are dead? They said, no, not just yet, but yes, one day it's all going to be through the TV, the cloud. That, presumably, is a problem that you guys have been thinking about.

Phil:  Cloud is a huge opportunity. And someday, yes, someday. But if you look at the internet capabilities today, it's a challenge. Even, forget about games. If you said everybody was going to watch the Champions League Final concurrently via the internet at HD-level quality, the internet can't handle that. And that's just people watching a [soccer] game. That doesn't include the level of interactivity of a game and a  two-way pipe going back and forth.

So there's just bandwidth issues in terms of metering and things that are out there. So I believe, yes, in the long run we'll land in a spot where there's cloud distribution of all content and Microsoft is clearly invested in that. I like the work that Gaikai does, I play games on Gaikai, and if I get the right bandwidth situation they're actually good experiences. But today it's not really up to scale. You're still going to be pushing boxes out to people's houses that they're going to plug into the TV. That's what they're going to use to play their AAA games. And I think that'll be the case for a while. But that's not trying to downplay what Gaikai is doing, because I think that it's great that they're investing in it.

Colin: Are you going to do a price cut this year for Xbox 360?

Phil: We're not announcing any price cuts right now. We feel good about where the console sits, number one console globally. The partners like the sales rate of games that are coming out, so competitively we feel like we're well-positioned.  We announced the opportunity to buy an Xbox with a subscription, where you can sign up to a two-year Live subscription and you get an Xbox for $99 which obviously brings the up-front price point down on the console below a hundred dollars, which is a really attractive price to people. We've seen good uptake. We're just moving out of a trial on that. But it's... I think there are opportunities like that to continue to try to hit all price points.

Colin: So from what you've seen of that experiment, is it something that you guys can work with in the future?

Phil: I think it should be part of our model, absolutely. It's pretty new. I think you want to let it play through, to really get full analytics on what happened. But if we just take our early impressions that we've seen, it's been very positive.

Colin:  Do you feel that when the new console comes, say in 18 months' time, there will be a lot of new IP that you've been sitting on?  

Phil: Well, there's no doubt that when new hardware lifecycles start, it's always a great place to launch new IP. You just look at us historically, I'll say that we had three big hardware launches. Xbox 1, Xbox 360, and Kinect. Obviously Halo launched with Xbox 1, I'd say Gears was a franchise that was created with 360, and I'm going to look at things like Kinect Sports and Dance Central for Kinect.

if you look at the sales and the financial success of those games, they're big successes. I think it's a unique opportunity, when new things come out, to launch new IP. There's no doubt about that. Because you have that core fan there that wants something new. It aligns very well with what you're bringing in. People are looking for new things."

by Colin Campbell

JUNE 6, 2012

New Xbox Release in 2013

         Devoted Xbox players...Are you tired of the same xbox 360 platform!?  I am, I could have sworn that by early 2012 we would have had our new model of Xbox's.  BUT NO!  They had to stumble upon the kinect technology which boomed their sales.  They actually thought that Kinect wouldn't make any money, it was just a marketing ploy, but of course the public loved their product and the dollar signs lit up their eyes.  So now that they got the public to enjoy the pleasures of Kinect they figured they would squeeze all they could out of the current platform.

           But now we see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.  We now know that the new xbox model will hit the shelves sometime in 2013.  Hopefully by public demand we might see the earliest start date possible.  But knowing how they operate I honestly think that it may come out in the holiday season of 2013.  I've also heard rumors that they won't come out with it until 3D TV is more prevalent so they can also lead the market in broadcasting media.  With the way Xbox is incorporating all these different media outlets I can see them trying to reshape the gaming consoles as we know it. With all the new technology available now I'm quite excited about the possibilities.

Hopefully now at this years E3 we will finally find out what is behind the curtian.  I CAN'T WAIT!