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

[ShyGuy]

IBM's OS/2 was my favorite operating system but IBM mishandled it. The old joke was "IBM's marketing department: two guys, a telephone, and pack of cards."

IBM mishandled a lot of things though. They got to big and didn't support their own department. I remember there was a time you could build an IBM PC with all IBM parts: Case, MB, CPU, RAM, Video, Audio, Network, drives, software. But IBM never supported it. You would buy an IBM computer and it would have a Seagate hard drive in it. Why didn't they put an IBM hard drive inside?

Lenovo was a Chinese company that bought the Thinkpad division of IBM. Or maybe it was formed from it, can't remember.

Thinkpad were always really well engineered.

[Shorty McNostril]

OK. Back on track shall we.

Apparently the same guy that cracked the Wii U CPU has dropped an interesting tidbit about the Durango CPS clock:

"If you want more evidence that MHz isn't everything, a little birdie points out that Durango (Xbox 720) is specc'ed to have a 1.6GHz CPU."

Tweeted that apparently.

[ymeegod]

Durango is supposed to have more cores though--6 to 8 meaning it's going be at least double the cores of the WII U.  Have to wait and see since rumored specs isn't another to go by.

[Caterkiller]

A slower CPU than the 360(3.2ghz) Gasp! Last gen confirmed again!

We'll see. But if its true I'd love to read U whiners response to this. People don't know nothing about nothing, I know I sure don't. 

[ShyGuy]

Fewer RROD at 1.6ghz. Smart move.

[MagicCow64]

Iiiiiinteresting. I've been wondering whether Microsoft and Sony would take the WiiUs specs as an opportunity to leapfrog and up the HD stakes, or as permission to release reasonable iterations that wouldn't lose them shittons of money upfront. Looks like Microsoft might have blinked a bit. Honestly, I think this is a good thing if true, the graphics arms race is not doing the industry any good outside of Castle Epic.

[BlackNMild2k1]

It's all about Balance.

You can have the fastest most powerful CPU in the world tucked into your system, but if the rest of the system isn't able to keep up with it, then it's all for nothing.

If the CPU is sitting around waiting on the GPU and the RAM, then those are clock cycles that were already paid for that have gone to waste. A more affordable CPU that is in lock-step with the rest of the system is more efficient in everyway.

You wouldn't put a ferrari engine in a go-cart.

[shingi_70]

Well there's more to a CPU than clock speed which made the Wii U bitching odd to begin with.

But one would assume that microsoft would use a more modern CPU than nintendo did. As well one has too kind of take what a hacker with third party info on dev kits had to say with a grain of salt.

Also Microsoft is rumored have two SKUs one being the Full Big spec leaked successor to the 360, and another being a cheaper box for media and XBLA games.

As for the naming scheme I'm guessing that microsoft wants something to connect it with windows 8 but doesn't look old once windows and windows phone hit upgrade 9.

I'm guessing the Big expensive box might be the xbox Infinty and the smaller one would be the xbox loop. This way you could use similar branding for both, while technically keeping an 8 in the names of both.





But their is a high chance that Loop is just a code name similar to Durango.

[NWR_insanolord]

Splitting the hardcore and casual SKUs to the extent they seem to be indicating seems like a horrible idea. It segments the user base, and limits your potential sales for games limited to the hardcore one. The whole advantage of a dedicated game console is having one standard hardware configuration to work for, and doing it this way unnecessarily complicates that.

Also, I doubt they'll call it the Xbox Infinity because it screws up the naming for their following console. How do you follow up  a console named Infinity? Xbox Infinity Plus One?

[shingi_70]

Splitting the hardcore and casual SKUs to the extent they seem to be indicating seems like a horrible idea. It segments the user base, and limits your potential sales for games limited to the hardcore one. The whole advantage of a dedicated game console is having one standard hardware configuration to work for, and doing it this way unnecessarily complicates that.

Also, I doubt they'll call it the Xbox Infinity because it screws up the naming for their following console. How do you follow up  a console named Infinity? Xbox Infinity Plus One?

Because you can give options and there are a lot of people who don't care about games that much. 

While i'm set to get a $400 Durango on day one for my next console, others would probably opt for a cheaper option.

Take my mom for example. She doesn't need a big powerful box that plays Halo and Call of Duty. She'd rather get something like the proposed loop where she gets access to all the media services she uses (netflix, youtube, etc) and smaller xbla games that she would have intreast in (Geomtry Wars, Pacman, Hexic)

Plus its about tackling two markets at once. While its true that gaming consoles are becoming all in one media boxes the price that they carry upon launch can be a downer for some compared to the low cost of Roku or Apple TV. This allows for them to compete on that scale as well as the big high end console one as well.

The bigger question is why the need for loop when the 360 already is a big player in that market. Probably has to be wanting all its products running on the same Windows Kernal and for the 720 and loop to share a lot of the same assets.

But I guess Infinty would be problematic for the foruth system. Maybe they might just go with the new Xbox.

I guess we might find out this Friday or next month.

[NWR_insanolord]

I understand how it's good for consumers, I just don't get how it's good for Microsoft. The last couple generations have proved that casual users are willing to buy full-fledged game consoles to get a few games and the media capabilities they want. In the long run, having one console to sell to everybody is clearly better for Microsoft than splitting the market, and unlike Sony they're not in enough of a rush to sacrifice the long term for the short term.

[ShyGuy]

It's all about Balance.

You can have the fastest most powerful CPU in the world tucked into your system, but if the rest of the system isn't able to keep up with it, then it's all for nothing.

If the CPU is sitting around waiting on the GPU and the RAM, then those are clock cycles that were already paid for that have gone to waste. A more affordable CPU that is in lock-step with the rest of the system is more efficient in everyway.

You wouldn't put a ferrari engine in a go-cart.

Right on, right on! 360 and PS3 both had hugely overpowered CPUs in comparison to their GPUs and Memory. This allowed them to last a long time in their generation, but it also led to designers making their games CPU intensive.

[EasyCure]

Also, I doubt they'll call it the Xbox Infinity because it screws up the naming for their following console. How do you follow up  a console named Infinity? Xbox Infinity Plus One?

Xbox Infinity & Beyond?

[tendoboy1984]

Xbox "Infinity" would imply that this is the be-all, end-all Xbox console, and that there isn't anything beyond that.

All this arguing about tech specs is pointless. People always demand more from their entertainment devices. Is it really a big deal if the Wii U isn't as advanced as the next Xbox or PlayStation? As long as it plays the games you enjoy and has the features you want, then there's no reason to be ungrateful. The Wii U's online features are a huge improvement over Nintendo's previous efforts, yet people still complain.

We all know that the DS was extremely weak compared to the PSP, and the Wii is underpowered compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3.. But that doesn't matter because those systems had games I (still) enjoy playing. I still love playing the old games on the Virtual Console, and many of those games look like **** compared to what we have now.

This power race is getting us nowhere, and it's kind of pointless to worry about such trivial things.

[shingi_70]

If the tech specs put it in a wii like postion I could see complaining. Even then you'd probably only complain if you owned multi system making it a moot point anyway. I've noticed that nintendo fans in most cases don't know what they're missing.

As much as I bitched about the wii U online set up I know most of what I had problems were trival matters.

They already said miiverse and eshop will be getting web clients soon enough. I just wish they were there at launch.

The odd friend request system is somthing that should be patched but shouldn't be a worry if you use miiverse to send friend requests.

DLC is being patched in this month.

The only legitamte problem is the Nintendo Network problem whichis hopefully fixed.


Also if anyone wanted to read it here's the leaked 2010 document that surfaced a few months ago before microsoft started taking it down.

 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B0iImq1q0Y-SaUdSWjI5aUVJNVE/preview?pli=1

[tendoboy1984]

How do you search for specific Google Docs? A web search for "Xbox 720 document" doesn't find any results.

[ThePerm]

Also, how is cloud computing going to play into this? You only need your console to be a window into a bigger world if you can have a super super computer server process all the data

[shingi_70]

I was assuming cloud based meant the usual stuff.

-Profile and Saves in the cloud (microsoft already does this)
-A service similar to Onlive or Gaikai
-Backend stuff for services (Halo 4 and Waypoint use windows azure)

I saw a thread on gaf about Rare hiring for someone with cloud experience the other day. Here's the job posting in question.

 http://m.microsoft-careers.com/job/Midlands-Region-Principal-Cloud-Services-Engineer-Microsoft-Studios-Rare-Job/2239907/#job/Midlands-Region-Principal-Network-Services-Engineer-Microsoft-Studios-Rare-Job/2239907

Pretty much confrims that Rare is working on a new kinect title.

Also after Onlive inploded a few months back microsoft held a meeting for people displaced by the company to apply towork at its redmend campus.


Intresting enough while digging around on the microsoft careers mobile site I came across a posting for a tech director of online services for lionhead.

 http://m.microsoft-careers.com/#

They're also hiring for an unannounced game. The person has to have had experience with rpg, action and adventure, and rts genres. Not only that but the person must have a passion for MMOs and shipped one. Ties in with the rumors around e3 that Lionhead was working on a sorta mmo game.

[ThePerm]

There's a difference between cloud computing and cloud storage. I was thinking more along the lines of a server farm. Theoretically, you don't need a web enabled computer to have much in the way of power. All you need is for it to connect to a server. If the server had a lot of power then it could relay back visual information. This idea sounds laggy, but there is a fix. If the console is medium powered then it can pick up some of the load. If no console power is dedicated to doing things like AI, or physics for instance it can focus on doing graphics. Kinda how when we forget the name of an actor, or want to brush up on a subject we go to wikipedia, or imdb.

[shingi_70]

Any reason why Yahoo one of the most on the brink companies writes dooms articles on the big 3. They wrote an article saying microsoft couldn't afford to invest in xbox any more due to the xbox divsion being poor.

Not only is their assesment factually wrong (they pretty much say xbox makes money but not all the money so the company should drop it). But they couldn't be bothered to research why the Interactive Enteraiment divsion is weighed down.The xbox makes a pretty decent profit, the problem is that its stuck in the same divsion as zune,kin, and also windows phone).

Its really odd that someone could make this assesment as a journalist when microsoft just made their most expensive game to date (Halo 4) and it sold $200 million on day one. Not only have they rebranded everything to the xbox branding but more quality sources (bloomberg and the verge) have reported on a new xbox and this being's microsofts best year overall.

[ShyGuy]

Sony is more likely to drop out of the console market than Microsoft.

[nickmitch]

You know, that leaked MS doc mentions never needing to upgrade your hardware again (thanks to cloud computing) which would make the Xbox Infinite/Loop name a little more valid.

[Uncle_Optimus]

Any reason why Yahoo one of the most on the brink companies writes dooms articles on the big 3. They wrote an article saying microsoft couldn't afford to invest in xbox any more due to the xbox divsion being poor.

What article? Recent?
The challenges facing Microsoft are not quite as immediate as Nintendo and Sony (as the Shyguy said, it almost feels like Sony is facing an existential crisis due to killer competition across nearly all their major markets) because the majority of their revenues come from other, still healthy product lines. What keeps MS up at night is the very real threat that those cash cows may dry up over these next couple cycles (the computing paradigm looks to be gradually but surely shifting thanks to the lightweight, adaptable and ever-growing mobile platforms).
I am watching closely to see how much of their market remains come the inevitable Windows 9 in a few years. Meanwhile, if they can be made secure enough, cloud services just might displace that stranglehold MS has on business. Could be talking outta my ass on this one, but disruption can be fast, brutal and take no prisoners. Just ask RIM and Nokia. And heck, Sony.

To be clear, I think MS is still in a very strong position, flush with cash and with plenty of opportunity to transition into an even more ubiquitous entity than they are now...but the computing boom markets certainly are very much up for grabs and the momentum is not in their sails at this moment.
It does indeed sound like XBox (in all its planned flavours!) will be a huge part of their strategy to seize the consumer market, as it should be. If that Yahoo article is just as you said, it would actually be foolish of MS not to invest in and leverage the consumer success they have bled and bled for (wonder what total net profit for their two-generation XBox initiative works out to? Whatever it is, the colour is probably red). They need an enticing ecosystem and the "halo effects" it creates 'cuz their competitors are steadily constructing the potential means for their downfall.

[shingi_70]

So a few new apps launched for the xbox Today. We got

Maxim
Skydrive
Cnet
Skydrive

They also released a list of a bunch of other apps releasing early next year. Sadly it seems that Twitch.TV is off of the list.

The Xbox Karoke game released today and the pricing is set to buy in differnt hour blocks of 2,6, and 24 hours depending on hiow much you play. Game has smartglass support and no need to wait for songs to download as its all streaming based.

This weekend there is going to be a THQ sale on xbox live since they need to raise as much money they can. Hopefully the first Darksiders is below $10.



Also starting December 18th microsoft is holding their christmas/new years sale throughout the 31st.

The new Double Fine Kinect game is hitting the 18th as well and its going to be free through the 31st as well. Looks like a fun party game and the giantbomb stream was pretty awesome.

I also have to say microsoft has been doing a decent job of supporting xbox live for windows 8. Some miniclip and Gameloft mobile games were released that don't really intrest me, but illomilo+ and two Gunstringer games have been released as well. They seem to be supporting them well with Adrea being updated with the 2nd episoide (4.99).


Also apparently one of the console makers are going to tease their next gen console real soon. I think arthur gies said it might be a ces or an event around that time frame.

[ShyGuy]

What Microsoft want's to do is have the same basic homongenous platform across PCs, Tablets, Smartphones, Consoles, and Set Top Boxes. It's a lofty goal, but they need to make functionality more seamless and smooth.

You pay a yearly M$ fee and get a universal ID, messaging, gamerscore, software library, game saves, internet favorites, address book, calendar, etc. That is what they want.