Call it Xbox 720. Call it Xbox Infinity. You can even call it Durango, for that's its internal codename at Microsoft. Whatever, the next Xbox (or Xbox Next, as we'll call it in this piece) is on its way. Microsoft is absolutely not discussing the subject, but the cluster of games releasing early 2013 and the deafening silence from summer onwards, plus unending industry gossip, suggests an E3 reveal and a Christmas release.
Based on the best available facts, a little inside knowledge and a few of the most realistic rumours, here's a little entirely unofficial guesswork from Jeremy Laird on what to expect from the most important new gaming device of the next decade.
1. A more powerful CPU
What was once cutting-edge, courtesy of three processor cores and one of the first graphics processors with unified shaders, is now beginning to bump up against the imaginations of game designers.
Our bet is four x86 or PowerPC cores running at between 2GHz and 4GHz depending. But it's not the CPU cores that will do most to transform Xbox Next's gaming prowess. Nope, that'll be graphics and memory.
2. A high-capacity optical drive
With Xbox 360 games now routinely coming on multiple DVDs, Blu-ray is the likely choice for the Xbox Next's optical drive. It's Sony-backed tech, which will sting a bit, but it can store huge amounts of data and is a lot cheaper than it used to be. But with games increasingly being delivered and played online, does it actually need one?
12 comments so far...
Windowlicker79 on 19 Jan '13 said:
Thats not really a problem at all. DVD and CD were also developed by Sony. They are all industry standards now.
Hopefully they'll utilize the newer triple layer BDXL 128gb format.
SilentDark on 19 Jan '13 said:
More processing power and shiny graphics are the most obvious improvements, what I really don't want to see is a cost cutting exercise which only ends up costing the company more in the long run and short changing the loyal fanbase who bought the console on or near launch.
Get it right this time.
Windowlicker79 on 19 Jan '13 said:
I think they've probably learned their lesson from the RROD fiasco. I reckon they've probably got a whole department just working on cooling the thing efficiently!
Metalrodent on 19 Jan '13 said:
Yup, I like owning a box and leaflet (not that games put any effort into these any more
And mainly just for that nice feeling of unboxing your new proudly bought game
SilentDark on 20 Jan '13 said:
Until internet speeds get fast enough to deliver 50Gb of data within a few seconds I'll stick to my physical media. Besides if the network goes down you can't purchase games.
Xbox11 on 20 Jan '13 said:
AMD,s latest is the 8000 series GPU , And everyone has known that for a long time, Including you OXM, There is no hiding the fact that this console is going to be ancient history tech wise if it ships with a 7000 series GPU, Just because the 8000 series has been delayed ages and ages doesn't make it any better for Xbox , It just makes it stand out more, Lets hope to god for our sake , It ships with the 8000 series.
As for kinect 2.0 if it means losing out on gaming power , Drop it right out of the build, Gimmicky laggy motion capture wont be the reason millions will play the next Xbox, Pukka quality games will be
MasterChiefJ117 on 20 Jan '13 said:
Rather than Broadband speed being the problem the following Article on IGN and Eurogamer worries me more about moving to downloadable content only....
Too Human Disappears from Games on Demand
By Alex Rubens IGN
Silicon Knights’ troubled exclusive is no longer on Xbox Live.
Early today, a Twitter user reported that everything associated with Too Human, Silicon Knights’ troubled Xbox 360 exclusive, had been pulled from the Xbox Marketplace. While just a product page remains, there was originally a demo, gamer pics, dashboard themes, and the full game available through Games on Demand.
No statement has been made about the disappearance yet, but all signs are pointing toward the court ruling back in November of 2012 that ordered Silicon Knights to cease production of any games made using Unreal Engine 3.
Silicon Knights was also ordered to “recall and destroy” all unsold copies of its games that were built using Unreal Engine 3 as well as pay Epic, the creators of Unreal Engine, $4.45 million for damages and nearly $9 million overall.
This all stemmed from five years of courtroom battles between Epic and Silicon Knights after Silicon Knights claimed that Unreal Engine did not work as it was supposed to, causing them to lose time and money during the development of Too Human. Epic won during its countersuit and Silicon Knights was forced to comply.
Silicon Knights had until December 10, 2012 to complete this recall and comply with the ruling, but the Games on Demand version stuck around for a full month past that point.
It is unclear whether Silicon Knights or Microsoft is behind the disappearance, but Too Human is becoming an increasingly rare commodity.
Source: Eurogamer
What stuck in my mind were the following posted comments..........
SpaceJonk Lord_Jushiro
It's a shame they're destroying the game. Whether it was good or not(not), it's out there now. It's a part of pop culture. a piece of gaming history. I understand the judges ruling for Epic, but it's scary to know they can just erase a part of history from existence like this. It's like burning a book. Why couldnt the judge keep the game on sale and simply divert all proceeds to epic, or a charity or some other social program? How much manpower is going to be wasted pulling and destroying every disk? What if i wanted to play the game? It should be illegal for a society to destroy any form of public or commercial art like this. There are so many different things they could do withi the disks to recoup some of the costs.
DaveC1964
This is a prime example of why the move to DRM laden digital download only, and always required connection to internet games are bad. If this were one of them, no one could play it again, ever, even if they paid for it. It goes to show how digital content will be at the whims of big greedy corporate interests with their trial lawyers, not the end user.
Eventually people will wake up, but by then it will be too late.
Bezza89 on 20 Jan '13 said:
The reason it was pulled was because they don't have the license to the unreal engine so it can't be sold. I don't think it is unplayable to those who own it but it is a court order to cease selling the game, so I don't see the problem.
CunningSmile on 21 Jan '13 said:
I laughed that Silicon Knights Xmen game was Deal of the Week two days after it was no longer allowed to be sold.
I've still got a sneaky suspicion that the Gertrude will run on memory sticks (or similar) rather than discs. There's no real limit on how much data you can put on them, they're silent, relatively cheap to produce in bulk and was I the only one to notice just how many USB ports the 360S had? Far more than it would ever need just for peripherals.
jimbosolo on 21 Jan '13 said:
Wii U use`s 25Gb disks using nintys own media. The majority of PC`s still use DVD as standard because blu ray is a waste of money when you can pick up a 1TB harddrive for £40 and broadband speeds are getting faster all the time. Not to mention near ultra high def resolutions (IE twice as much as 1080p) oh and DX11 (x360 uses DX9), and this is from pc dvds and download. The X360 continues to outsell the ps3 and it dosent have blu ray, MS are not selling up their portfolio due to lack of money and resources unlike sony. MS shouldnt attempt to bail out sony in anyway by adopting blu ray. A healthy market is one thing but that dosent mean we should bail out the competition due to their own arrogance etc.
MasterChiefJ117 on 21 Jan '13 said:
Blu-ray is currently the only way to OWN full 1080p versions of your favourite films or series so is something I really want from the next 'XBOX'. Yes I have 100mb broadband so can stream 1080p content or download it to my hard drive. Yet I want a disk that I can easily play in any room of my house and my family can take to Grandma's.
Even SKY and Virgin media only offer resolutions of 1080i and 720p not 1080p. So in order to get the best out of my living room entertainment system the only real solution is Blu- ray.
Xbox may well be leading sales in USA but worldwide it is a very different picture with PS3 finally closing the gap in sales due to Microsoft's 1 year head start (prompting the move to next gen ?)
4k and 8K resolutions may be the future but due to the recent negative response to the Hobbit shot by Peter Jackson in 5K and 48fps compared to the standard 1080p and 24fps these resolutions may not be the future of at least the film industry anyway.
I am also a fan of limited editions of games when they are done well like Halo3 , Halo Reach and the recently released Halo 4 with ' Dr. Halsey's personal journal' being a real highlight with Halo Reach offering real quality fan service.
So as a die hard Xbox fan with 9 years of Xbox live will I buy the next XBOX with out a doubt, but will it win the battle to be my main console of choice probably not without the inclusion of a Blu-ray drive.
cade360 on 21 Jan '13 said:
I'd prefer HVD. 6TB of storage on one disc.