Xbox 720 / NeXtBox / Durango / Infinity

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Blu-Ray is a perfectly logical thing for them to include in the next XBox.

[Tornado]

They had to drop HD-DVD because their whole strategy was wrong from the very beginning. They were losing tons of money from HD-DVD. No one is getting HD-DVD players. Hardly anybody. Why keep something that's going to make you lose money as years go by? And what's the point of buying a HD-DVD player for the 360 IF the 360 games will never support the fuIl HD-DVD capabilities? Publishers won't make two versions of the game for the same console!

If they weren't losing money from HD-DVD, I'm 100% sure HD-DVD will still be with us today.

[Conando]

Gotta agree with Tornado. They're a company that succeeded by providing tons of options for their customers through one platform (Windows), and relative ease of use to boot. They've tried similar things with 360 through digital means, so it only makes sense that they'd also catch up through physical with their next release.

[Ming Ming Hatsune]

Absolutely nothing about this is correct. Nothing. Microsoft did not have the same attachment to HD-DVD as Sony does to Blu Ray. Microsoft wasn't a huge investor in HD-DVD. They weren't a main force behind it's development. It made little difference to them whether it succeeded or not. The only support they put behind it was releasing a peripheral for the 360 that they never even pretended to care about beyond collecting the checks Toshiba almost certainly wrote them to release it in the first place.

Edited April 3, 2012 by Ming Ming Love

[VO.SUPER]

The thing that bothers me about this is that Microsoft is doing this before even seeing if the Wii U will be a success, I mean really now?

Edited April 3, 2012 by VisionaryBlur

[Scott]

The thing that bothers me about this is that Microsoft is doing this before even seeing if the Wii U will be a success, I mean really now?

If the Wii U is unsuccessful, I doubt it would be anything CD related

[Conando]

He's talking about the touch controller thing.

[Detective Shadzter]

Xbox 720 to release in 2013 holiday period – rumour

http://www.vg247.com...-period-rumour/

[Wraith]

GATHER ROUND KIDS. IT'S RUMOR TIIIIME.

http://dualpixels.co...twear-next-gen/

– Microsoft is the most vague out of all of them. It’s slated to be the most powerful out of all the next gen consoles about 4 to 6 times more powerful than Wii U and 2 to 3 times more powerful than Playstation Omni. The project has gone through many name iterations and will not be decided on until shortly before it’s E3 unveiling. Microsoft is also running into manufacturing issues and developers not having games done on time so instead of delaying the launch to Summer 2014, they are thinking of “soft launching” it Holiday November 2013 and then have a full blow out in the summer. All units will come with Kinect 2 built in which can track up to four people, all objects in the living room, clothing, face structure and fingers. It can also understand different voices and has it’s own PPU. In 2014, Microsoft will introduce the “LiveWall”, a omni-projection unit that will allow game environments to be projected nearly 360 degrees around the user. Useing Kinect 2, they have two demos of one that is a battlefield RTS and one that is a kung fu game with guys attacking all around. The LiveWall can also project diffrent images on the wall, so people can play different games on different walls. Microsoft is prepared to champion this unit as a cheaper and more effective alternative to wearing a “goofy stupid VR headset” to combat Sony’s Omniviewer while Sony is going to point out the low resolution quality and the lack of privacy. The system is going to be very expensive in the $499 range so Microsoft is planning on using a remolded X-Box Live (Possibly renamed X-Box Life) to offer a Pro (Gold) subscription two or three year contract to sell the unit at $300 – $399. The final goal with the tech is to shrink the system on a chip down enough so it can be put into tablets, PCs and Smart TVs so that all devices are X-Box ready.

.....Huh. This all seems to be a bit of a clusterfuck,.

[Tornado]

I'm entertained by the rumor that is saying the console that isn't out and we've heard nothing concrete about is "2 to 3 times more powerful" than the other console that isn't out and we've heard nothing concrete about.

And for that matter, to be "2 to 3 times more powerful" than a system that is already apparently designed with the design target of native 1080p@120hz seems to be...

Well, if Microsoft wants to waste money on nothing more than dick swinging, they can go right ahead.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Tornado

[Wraith]

Well, if Microsoft wants to waste money on nothing more than dick swinging, they can go right ahead.

That actually seems like something they'd do.

It's not like they'd have anything to loose. They're sitting on piles of money from Xbox Live subscriptions alone.

[Conando]

Wouldn't that frickin' overkill make 3rd parties just fuck off to the Orbis since they could probably multiplat between Orbis and Wii U with some tweaking?

[Thrippa]

So in order to use this wall thing, you have to have either a largish (enough space to move around in) empty room with no windows, shelves or anything on three walls or else invest in a set of floor up screens to project the surround video onto?

[Patticus]

LiveWall... Huh, looks like Fahrenheit 451 and Black Mirror: Fifteen Million Merits were bang on the money about where our entertainment is heading. If this rumor is correct, that is.

I can't see anybody earning less than $250k buying into it though. It's a niche product for rich folks with big empty rooms.

And now for something completely plausible:

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will release the next version of its Xbox video-game machine, the top-selling console, in time for the holidays next year, according to people familiar with the company’s plans.

The new device is planned for Thanksgiving and Christmas sales, said the people, who declined to be identified because the product road map is confidential. The software maker hasn’t decided whether to unveil the new Xbox at an industry event such as the E3 show in June, or a separate event devoted solely to the machine, one of the people said.

The new version will debut a year after Nintendo Co. (7974)’s brand-new Wii U, which went on sale Nov. 18 in the U.S. Sony Corp. (6758) is also readying an update to its PlayStation console. In the meantime, Microsoft is still trying to squeeze out sales of of the current model Xbox 360, selling 750,000 over the week around Thanksgiving, surpassing company expectations.

That was almost twice as many shipments of Nintendo’s Wii U console, which went on sale that same week. That device, the first major new console since 2006, is a high-definition machine offered in two versions costing about $300 to $350 with a 6.2- inch (16-centimeter) touch-screen controller called the GamePad.

Microsoft Xbox spokesman David Dennis declined to comment.

While Xbox 360 had a strong Thanksgiving week, there are signs the console market is overdue for updates to boost sales, which have been declining. U.S. retail sales of video-game software, hardware and accessories dropped 25 percent in October from a year earlier to $755.5 million, according to researcher NPD Group Inc. While Microsoft has led in console sales in the U.S. for the 22 months through October, its monthly sales have been declining, NPD said.

Since the release of the Xbox 360 in 2005, the gaming market has changed, as casual games played on tablets and phones gain in popularity. Microsoft introduced full-body motion controls to console gaming with the Kinect. More than 40 million of the 70 million Xbox 360 customers also have Xbox Live online subscriptions, many of which are used to watch TV and movies, rather than play games.

http://www.bloomberg...day-season.html

[Blackthorne]

Off-topic, but am I the only one that thinks "Xbox 720" is a dumb fucking name?

Edited November 30, 2012 by Blackthorne

[Tornado]

Wouldn't that frickin' overkill make 3rd parties just fuck off to the Orbis since they could probably multiplat between Orbis and Wii U with some tweaking?

It would most likely end up like WiiSP ports did, where the Wii version looked almost exactly as bad as the worse version because the developers didn't give a shit about the extra power outside of the ability to not have to bother with optimizing their code. The system might last on the market a lot longer (maybe), and first party games would probably look better (though... really, if the PS4 is already pegged at 1080p native, what more could Microsoft do?), but otherwise the extra power would be a bullet point on a press release.

Like when Sony started throwing around the pure number crunching capability of the CELL as if anyone gave a shit, or GENESIS DOES WHAT NINTENDON'T!

Edited November 30, 2012 by Tornado

[Blue Blood]

Off-topic, but am I the only one that thinks "Xbox 720" is a dumb fucking name?

Well yes it is dumb. But it's the logical name to give to a 360 successor that's yet to be announced so we're pretty much just talking about it in theory and rumour.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Blue Blood

[TheOcelot]

Well yes it is dumb. But it's the logical name to give to a 360 successor that's yet to be announced.

It makes it easy to remember, that it is the next generation of the previous console. I mean PS4 will always be PS4 to me, even if they call it a stupid name like Orbis.

Edited November 30, 2012 by NightwingFox

[Tornado]

I yearn for the days of naming originality, like when companies like Nintendo and Atari introduced their consoles by taking the company name and adding some words and/or numbers to it.

Edited November 30, 2012 by Tornado

[Scar]

It makes it easy to remember, that it is the next generation of the previous console. I mean PS4 will always be PS4 to me, even if they call it a stupid name like Orbis.

I thought that was the Code-name...

[Patticus]

Off-topic, but am I the only one that thinks "Xbox 720" is a dumb fucking name?

I prefer to call it the 'NeXtbox', or variations on that, as the 720 moniker really irritates me.

[Solkia]

Xbox Dickswing is pretty original.

[TheOcelot]

I thought that was the Code-name...

That's not been confirmed.

The name Orbis does make some kind of sense if you combine it with the word 'Vitae' (or Vita). Orbis Vitae apparently translates from Latin as 'circle of life' and hints at some connect between the PS4 and the PS Vita.

[Conando]

I thought the next Xbox was codenamed "Durango".

[Emerald Chaos]

SEGA still hold the crown of console naming.

Unlikely anyone will be taking that any time soon