Topic: XboxOne ~News/Rumor/Speculation~ Biggest Console Released This Gen!!

[Enner]

I wonder if Microsoft is thinking about having consumers come in stores with USB memory drives or flash memory cards to grab the game data and then install it to the Durango hard drive. That sounds like too much of a hassle compared to buying a plastic box with a plastic disc in it.

[Ceric]

I wonder if Microsoft is thinking about having consumers come in stores with USB memory drives or flash memory cards to grab the game data and then install it to the Durango hard drive. That sounds like too much of a hassle compared to buying a plastic box with a plastic disc in it.

With the internet that technique is dead.  It would be a cart.

[Chozo Ghost]

Though if they want to do it, fine.  I wouldn't mind MS shooting themselves in the foot.

You know, we've all gotten so used to the idea of Nintendo always doing something each and every generation which fucks things up for them, whether that be sticking with cartridges on the N64, or forsaking online with the GC, and so on. But now with the Wii U its really hard to pinpoint anything Nintendo is doing wrong. So could it be that Nintendo has shaped up and gotten their act together, and passed the blunder torch on to Microsoft? Is it now Microsoft's turn to fumble their way through a few generations of terrible design decisions with their consoles?

Making the console download only does have some appeal for developers/publishers, but a lot of consumers are against it, and retailers are definitely against it because they can't make any money if there are no tangible games for them to sell. Sure, they can sell the systems and the accessories, and some redeemable cards, but if they lose all the games of that system its a serious loss of revenue and I think retailers would revolt over that, and probably refuse to sell the Xbox420 hardware at all since they can't also sell the games with it.

Without retailer support, the system would end up like a Neo Geo or Atar Jaguar or something like that. It would be this weird console you read about in gaming magazines, but you never see it on store shelves, and none of your friends own it. The only way to get it would be to order it directly from Microsoft or the small number of retailers Microsoft manages to get on board.

[oohhboy]

I would say the Wii's problem is it is massively underpowered. All consoles of the current Gen are under powered despite screaming they are HD consoles. Display technology had out ran all the consoles and Nintendo was hit worse. It was one thing to have a 5 year(At the time) old upscaled GPU to run the graphics, it is another to not give your console enough CPU power and RAM to the point it limited the non-graphical things that could be done. The architecture was sound, it was very efficient, but there wasn't any power behind it. While the backwards compatibility is nice, if this was the price to pay for it, it wasn't worth it. They skimmed too much, but Nintendo got lucky.

The other big mistake was not having motion plus from day one. They knew what the limitations without it, but again they cheap out again. Also online, because Nintendon't online.

[BlackNMild2k1]

I'm sure if Nintendo had known how much of a run away success the Wii was gonna be, they might have eaten the cost to include M+ from the start.

But I agree, the system was basically a re-release of the GC.

Wii U is righting the wrong. Durango will probably out perform it with raw numbers still... nothing that most people will notice graphically.

[Kairon]

Hindsight is always 20/20.

[ShyGuy]

So can somebody give me a summary of what the Next Xbox is expected to be? I know there are little hard facts, but what are the more solid rumors?

[BlackNMild2k1]

Code named Durango
no Disc Drive, uses cartridges of some sort (solid state media) and focusing more on Digital Download model.
more powerful than Wii U (obviously)
possibly releasing next year and could be revealed at E3 (or not, who knows)
Kinect 2.0 is everything Kinect 1.0 was supposed to be and then some.
tablet/touch-screened controller

and that's all I can remember off the top of my head right now, but I haven't been keeping up on it or really updating this thread like I should have been.

[Chozo Ghost]

Yes, but can it do HD graphics? I hear that's the big thing these days.

[ShyGuy]

More powerful than Wii U? Tablet controller? Kinect Plus? This thing sounds expensive...

[Kairon]

No Disc Drive at all and moving back to cartridges of some sort sounds ridiculously risky. I think it's much more likely that if they do this, they'll have two SKUs: a cheaper, non optical drive SKU and more expensive SKU with an optical drive.

[nickmitch]

The ball is really in Microsoft's court here. On the one hand, they've got a new Halo series brewing with a new dev team. Having the game on new hardware could give it a great edge. The team will probably want to differentiate themselves or evolve the series, but the new hardware would give it something that fans could say makes it "objectively" (yeah, I know) better. Then, they've gotta replace Gears. New IPs could easily give a console momentum.

On the other hand, they could play wait-and-see with Nintendo, and strike at a more opportune time. Why risk teasing a new console when you know Nintendo has to put on a show?

And Sony is Sony. Whatever.

[ShyGuy]

I think the bloom is off the rose when it comes to Halo. I think Microsoft will rely on their trusty moneyhats to get a key third party or two to give them some exclusive franchise.

On the other hand, Alan Wake took like five years and was a disappointment in many ways.

[Adrock]

Microsoft can certainly try but they're losing their most important advantage: launching first. Sony stupidly selling a $600 console didn't hurt either. The few exclusives MS scrored weren't major difference makers. Gears of War, for example, was awesome but rushing the 360 launch and Sony's inadequacies were what really put MS in a prime position.

On top of that, I'm sure Microsoft has tried to lock in more exclusives this entire generation but being able to release a game across 2 (soon to be 3 consoles) is probably driving the cost of exclusivity too high, even for Microsoft. Their best bet is to make their own exclusives. Personally, I rank them last in terms of 1st party titles. No one touches Nintendo and if I want a second console, Sony's 1st party games trump Microsoft's.

[Kairon]

It's rumored that Obsidian's cancelled project was for 720 and was 7 months in development. If that's true, it heavily suggests a 2013 launch for MS, 1st half if the project was a quickie launch bit, 2nd half if it was a bigger project, which it most probably was.

[ShyGuy]

2013 Sounds about right. We haven't heard enough leaks about the console for it to be any sooner. I think they will try for first half of 2013 if they feel the pressure from the WiiU. I'm guessing the launch lineup of games will be weak, but it was weak for the first six months or so of the 360's life too.

[Adrock]

360 is doing well enough (which is actually an understatement) that Microsoft can definitely wait until Q4 to launch a successor. I doubt they wait any longer than that. Nintendo will likely be battling some shortages, probably nothing on the scale of the Wii but they'll have an entire year to get the ball rolling and work out issues. Microsoft shouldn't give Nintendo much more than a year head start.

[ShyGuy]

Looking back in restrospect, wasn't the first Xbox a mediocre console at best?

[Chozo Ghost]

Microsoft can certainly try but they're losing their most important advantage: launching first. Sony stupidly selling a $600 console didn't hurt either. The few exclusives MS scrored weren't major difference makers. Gears of War, for example, was awesome but rushing the 360 launch and Sony's inadequacies were what really put MS in a prime position.

On top of that, I'm sure Microsoft has tried to lock in more exclusives this entire generation but being able to release a game across 2 (soon to be 3 consoles) is probably driving the cost of exclusivity too high, even for Microsoft. Their best bet is to make their own exclusives. Personally, I rank them last in terms of 1st party titles. No one touches Nintendo and if I want a second console, Sony's 1st party games trump Microsoft's.

You also don't have to pay to play online, which was the single reason why I choose the PS3 over 360.

[Luigi Dude]

Looking back in restrospect, wasn't the first Xbox a mediocre console at best?

Well in terms of sales, Microsoft lost over 5 billion with it only to outsell the Gamecube by about 2 million consoles.  So in terms of money spent, it was a disaster.

In terms of games though, it had the best version of most multiplatform games so it was worth owning for people who wanted the best version of third party games.  In terms of exclusives though, it had the worst selection of actual exclusive titles though.  Not that many worthwhile exclusives compared to the PS2 which had a lot of great third party exclusives and the Gamecube which had a lot of great Nintendo exclusives.

[Shaymin]

It's rumored that Obsidian's cancelled project was for 720 and was 7 months in development. If that's true, it heavily suggests a 2013 launch for MS

And that game would have so many glitches.

How many glitches?

ALL OF THE GLITCHES.

[BlackNMild2k1]

MS says E3 2012 will be all about 360
http://www.gamespot.com/news/no-new-xbox-hardware-at-e3-microsoft-6366366
So Nintendo better shine really bright. They practically have the show to themselves... But you know Sony will announce something with some sot of "target" render that will never be achieved just to rain on Nintendo's parade.

[Luigi Dude]

MS says E3 2012 will be all about 360
http://www.gamespot.com/news/no-new-xbox-hardware-at-e3-microsoft-6366366
So Nintendo better shine really bright. They practically have the show to themselves... But you know Sony will announce something with some sot of "target" render that will never be achieved just to rain on Nintendo's parade.

I'd imagine Microsoft is expecting what most of us are, that third party games on the Wii U will graphically look just like their 360 counterparts or just slightly better and the change will be un-noticable to the average person.  So there's no point in them showing off how much better multi-platform games might look on the 720, when all the multi-platform games on the Wii U will look just like they look on their current 360 system.

The only games that will look better then current 360 games will be Nintendo's own Wii U games but as Microsoft learned last gen, the graphics aren't what make million of people excited about Nintendo's games.  Microsoft showed games that were graphically better then anything on the Wii had at E3 2006, but the Wii still dominated because of Nintendo's own games they showed.

Basically Microsofts logic is, if Nintendo has some great games ready to show on the Wii U, nothing they can show from their new system will effect the news they create.  So their's no point in wasting time that could be focused on making the 360 lineup look stronger to try and counter something they have no way of actually countering.  Now if Sony was to announce they'll be revealing the PS4 at E3, I can guarantee you Microsoft would change their decision in a second and focus everything on the 720 even if it's over a year away.  Since unlike Nintendo who relies on their own software, Sony release heavily on the same third parties Microsoft does and so showing FMV bullshots for 720 games would actually take away a lot of attention the PS4 might have had.

[Chozo Ghost]

MS says E3 2012 will be all about 360

I wonder if they will announce a price drop. One would think they should, especially with the Wii U coming out this year. The non-gimped Xbox model is still $299.99 which is just ridiculous at this point in time, especially in light of the PS3 dropping to $249.99. The 360 is still the most expensive console out there, even though its been on the market the longest. Go figure.

[Adrock]

True. And on a semi-related note, I'm personally amazed that the Wii still costs what, like $150 despite the fact that it costs Nintendo a banana and a handful of sand to manufacture those things. In any case, I expect a price drop for everything this year but Microsoft and Sony probably won't drop the price until close to when Wii U launches.