“A newly leaked 56-page document sheds some light on the company’s plans, for what it calls the ‘Xbox 720’. The presentation appears to be from August 2010, and references future improvements like SmartGlass, a Metro dashboard, and Xbox TV apps. Alongside its incremental Xbox 360 updates, Microsoft has a clear vision for its next-generation Xbox 720 console – we’ve dug into its plans to bring you the best bits.” It’s important to note the documentation is already two years old – a lifetime in the technology world. Still interesting, though. Now if you don’t mind – back to Half-Life 2 on my plain old soon-to-be-outdated Xbox 360.
What’s with the 360 -> 720 thing? Will the next one be 1080?
Is it a sign that they are just going in circles?
Math fail
I’m reasonably certain that 720 + 360 = 1080.
Or 720 could be the estimated number of sales in Japan, if they’re lucky
The original XBox release did strike me as very ’MURCA. I think they’ll have their act together this time around and less monster-truck games.
Why?! This game is so much better with proper controls.
Xbox 720? I hate marketing. Why not call it what it is, an Xbox 3, just like Windows 7 should actually be called Windows 6.1. Are consumers really this stupid?
Duh, then it would be no better than PS3… (just like X2 would be no better than PS2)
At best we can hope for some proper name, I suppose (SmartGlass -> Xbox Glass? ;p )
I really don’t think graphics matter as much as they used to. I think most 360 owners would rather have more games.
Let pc gamers obsess over which gpu can render the most butt hairs. I play games for fun and while the ps2 was definitely looking jaggy during the height of its popularity I think the 360 has hit a sweet spot. The only game that really looks like it needs an upgrade compared to the pc is COD and I don’t play that series anyways.
Xbox360 has been limiting games for years. You can just see that their game design is hugely influenced. And pc games are limited by this pathetic console. Small levels, lame physics, lowres textures, DX9 effects etc. I want to hear your opinion when the xbox720 has been out for 3 years. At that time you will say: “So that is what would have been possible in 2012, WOW”
That a load of BS. Consoles are not limiting PC games.
FYI The majority of PC gamers are still on DX9 especially in asian countries. Popular F2P PC games works fine on SM2.0 because it is a very significant chunk of audience.
Edited 2012-06-18 01:46 UTC
That would only explain the DX9 effects and still leaves small levels, lame physics, lowres textures.
PCs at large basically just now caught up with the X360 console generation, when a fairly large proportion of them began shipping with the latest Intel integrated GFX.
Such machines, mostly laptops (more than 50% sold for quite some time), is what largely determines the state of PC gaming. Publishers don’t really care about relatively few pathetic enthusiasts; they generally prefer targeting much wider audience, which is much more profitable …and even then, the budgets are already insane (so throwing even more money at “shiny” just to limit your audience, just so that the pathetic enthusiasts could salivate a bit, isn’t very attractive).
The few most recent big PC-exclusives that I recall …also display the characteristics you blame on consoles (and live loading of levels is a fairly old tricks, BTW)
While the document is dated at best, they show the vision they expect from their next gen (codenamed 720, but probably will be something else) console.
They identify their current weaknesses, future goals (always on, STB based SKUs, etc), and possible competition (AppleTV, and OnLive gets same respect as PS4).
They want at least one version with BluRay and DVR functionality, and possible portability between devices (phone, tablet, etc).
The last part is mostly about their recent project (SmartGlass), and it means there were working on tablet integration even before WiiU tablet controller was unveiled (it is reasonable since most tech companies think similarly).
Anyways, it gives an idea on how Microsoft “used to” think at 2010. If you have time, it would be a nice read.