Over the weekend an apparent Microsoft internal document was leaked and posted up to the document hosting website scribd, unfortunately that document has now been removed by a law firm associated with Microsoft but what did it originally say?
Well so far it seems like the lawyers have done a good job of removing any copies of the document but we can piece together most of it from a few different sources who have written up about it.
There was no really ground breaking information in the document which is the most depressing part from my side and most of these leaks are pretty obvious moves from Microsoft which either means it was a bored fans attempt to become famous or Microsoft really is going to be taking the safe road in the next generation.
First up we’ve heard that the new Xbox is going to contain a Blu-Ray drive outputting 1080p, native 3D output, it’s going to be 6 times more powerful than the current Xbox 360 and it is going to allow true application multitasking for those times when you want to play two games at once.. or something.
A big selling point, that may never make it through, is that Microsoft is debating on whether or not to include separate CPU’s to ensure backward compatibility with existing 360 titles. This will drive up costs but personally would be a much wanted feature.
I’ve never backed BC before but with the long lifespan of consoles in this generation and such a large catalogue for me to still work through I can’t say that I still believe it’s a useful feature. Rather than implementing it across the board though Microsoft should offer up two versions of the console. One with BC for an extra R500. It’s an easy distinction for retail to push and doesn’t lump unneeded functionality on new buyers.
A big selling point for the new Xbox is its always on functionality combined with the cloud so that no matter where you are in the world you can interact with the device at home and get it to record shows or push content to your smartphone or tablet.
Next up is the obvious Kinect 2 with better motion tracking and.. yeah that’s about it and all that we really need. I’m a fan of Kinect for certain applications but better motion tracking is never a bad thing.
And the document rounds off with Fortaleza Kinect glasses which won’t release with the next console and are expected to land in 2014, the glasses will beam information directly to your eyeballs; very much like a fighter pilots helmet as well as implementing true 3D in movies and gaming experiences. So who’s excited for a new Virtua Boy?
And that’s it, most of the Microsoft people I follow on Twitter are calling this a hoax and pointing out that it didn’t have the usual Microsoft confidential stamps all over it or that it doesn’t follow the standard Microsoft templates. Either way the only thing I can see here might not happen is the glasses. The backwards compatibility will be discussed, the 6 times more powerful idea is a given and if they don’t go with Blu-Ray they are going to be putting themselves at a disadvantage to Sony’s marketing team again.
But what do you think, were you expecting more from Microsoft’s next Xbox or is this enough to make you lay down some cash?
Last Updated: June 18, 2012
Liamo d legend
March 15, 2013 at 22:51
This is bull I used to work for Ms in Sandyford,Ireland and this looks like a noob 14 year olds attempt at starting Chinese whispers most of this is in the public domain as an obvious direction for the next console to go .Look at the stats of players who bought black ops II they have not rolled out a new console as too many still get a lot out of it .Fact