Items tagged with Xbox 720
After all the speculation and rumors, in less than a week from now Microsoft will officially unveil its next generation Xbox game console. The Xbox 720 (codenamed Durango), or whatever it ends up being called, will be introduced via a live stream on May 21, 2013 at 10 AM PDT (that's 1 PM for folks on the East coast) on Xbox Live, Xbox.com, and Spike TV, giving you plenty of viewing options, provided you can steal some time away from work. Microsoft set up a special online hub teasing the upcoming reveal and is encouraging users to "join the conversation" on Twitter. That should be an easy sell, considering the conversation's been going on for quite some time now. One of the biggest talking points...
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Microsoft has begun sending out invitations to members of the media for a press event at its Redmond campus in Washington. The event will kick off at 10:00 AM on May 21, 2013, at which point Microsoft is expected to announce its next generation Xbox game console, lest its invitation is grossly misleading. "On Tuesday May 21st, we’ll mark the beginning of a new generation of games, TV and entertainment. On that day, we’ll be holding a special press event on the Xbox campus and we invite you to join us via the live global stream that will be available on Xbox.com, Xbox Live, and broadcast on Spike TV if you are in the U.S. or Canada," Microsoft announced on its Major Nelson blog. "On...
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Microsoft announced a new "Spring Bundle" for its Xbox 360 game console that will be available for a limited time and while supplies last. It replaces the Holiday Bundle, which you can still find online, and could be one of the last major bundles for the 7-year-old console, depending on when the Xbox 720 comes out and how aggressively Microsoft will want to promote its last generation hardware. First things first -- the Xbox 360 250GB Spring Value Bundle, as it's being called, ships with the latest version of the Xbox 360, a 250GB hard drive, wireless controller, headset, Darksiders II, Batman: Arkham City (via download), and a free month of Xbox Live Gold. It runs $300 and is available on Amazon...
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At its New York City event earlier this week, Sony unveiled the PlayStation 4. The device, which will be designed to compete with the next Xbox and Nintendo’s Wii U, includes a beefed up processor and a new GPU that the company says will deliver dramatically improved graphics in games. In fact, the console's GPU alone will be able to deliver almost 2 teraflops of compute performance. But perhaps the big story behind the event was that Sony didn’t even show off its hardware. Instead, the company talked about the many features its hardware will offer and focused on streaming. When it’ll actually unveil the PlayStation 4 console itself remains to be seen. That Sony...
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The next-generation console ball is now in Microsoft's court. Nintendo is already moving full steam ahead with its Wii U console, which it released in November of last year, and earlier this week Sony formally introduced its upcoming PlayStation 4 console. That just leaves Microsoft as the odd man out among the three major console players. Maybe not for long. It was previously expected that Microsoft would unveil its Xbox 720 console at the E3 convention later this summer, as Redmond's been teasing, but the PS4 announcement reportedly lit a fire under Microsoft's feet. CVG claims to have spoken with a senior Sony official, who said the PS4 event caught Microsoft off-guard. "We definitely ruffled...
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For years, Sony's game division has been one of the major revenue earners at the beleaguered company; in 2011 gaming provided more operating income than any other division. That leg was rudely kicked out from under the company this past quarter; Sony's gaming revenue fell 17% while operating income dropped by 86%. Yearly sales for the PS2 and PS3 are now projected at 6.8 million units, down from the 7.4M devices the company moved in 2011. The really ugly story, however, is in handhelds. Sony counted all of its PlayStation Vita sales as part of 2012, but only expects to move seven million PSPs and PlayStation Vita's by the end of the year. In FY 2011, Sony sold 6.8 million PSP's. That means Vita...
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Here's a curious thing. If you direct your browser over to the Major Nelson blog, which covers Xbox Live related topics, you'll find a countdown timer to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in 158 days and some odd hours from now. Above the timer is a three word statement: "And it's on..." Yes folks, it's on indeed. Perhaps one of the worst kept secrets in cyberspace is that Microsoft is planning to unveil its next generation Xbox console at E3, and posting a countdown timer on the Major Nelson blog is a pretty big hint that Microsoft is prepping a big reveal. If not the Xbox 720, or whatever the next Xbox will be called, what else could it be? We won't even go there, because with all the...
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Is there anything Google can't do these days? Apparently the sultan of search can even predict which next generation game console is likely to be the top dog. The mystifying answer to which is going to be more popular, Microsoft's Xbox 720 or Sony's PlayStation 4 (or whatever each console will ultimately be called) can be found by glancing at past search trends. You can do that on Google Trends, a Google service that allows you to explore trends in search and even compare different search queries based on a number criteria. Since Microsoft and Sony have both kept relatively quiet about their next generation console plans, Google Trends allows us to at least see which one consumers appear more...
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There have been all kinds of rumors and speculation surrounding Microsoft's next generation Xbox game console (codenamed Durango), and one of them is that it will ship with an improved Kinect motion camera device. How much improved? The answer to that question may have been revealed in a sample image purportedly taken from a Kinect 2 device running on an Xbox 720. The image was uploaded to Twitter (see below) and there's a question as to its legitimacy. However, some reports indicate its the real deal, plucked straight from Microsoft's Durango Xbox Development Kit (XDK). Image Source: Twitter (@superDaE) If the picture is genuine, then it bodes well for the next generation Kinect. Compared to...
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Bob Feldstein, AMD's VP of strategic development and former overseer of the company's console relationships and licensing agreements has left Sunnyvale for greener pastures in more than one sense of the word. Feldstein has taken a position with Nvidia, AMD's archrival in the graphics business. Every time AMD has announced a major departure since the beginning of the year, we've had a conversation with company representatives to discuss the impact on AMD. Thus far, the company's explanations for these losses have made a reasonable amount of sense, and we've described them in fairly neutral terms. We've given AMD the benefit of the doubt on this uncertainty. This is different. Feldstein was the...
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A leaked 56-page presentation spilled the details of Microsoft's upcoming Xbox 720 game console, but what's even more telling is how Redmond's legal team is handling the situation. The document first appeared on Scribd and sat there for all the world to flip through, right up until Covington & Burling LLP, a law firm that represents Microsoft (as well as several other clients) sent the site a takedown notice. Some viewed that as an admission of accuracy, and if that wasn't Microsoft's intent (which it wasn't), then it's going about things all wrong. Since that time, Covington & Burling LLP have sent takedown notices to several other portals, demanding that websites hosting the massive...
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A leaked presentation from circa 2010 has the tech world buzzing. The original document and mirrors have been pulled, but we saved a copy before that happened. While there's no confirmation from Microsoft on whether the document is accurate, it lines up extremely well with what we've seen Microsoft announce so far this year, as well as previous speculation on the company's next-gen Xbox 720, codenamed Durango. At 56 pages long, there's quite a bit of data -- we'll hit the most salient points. Future Platform Hardware - The slide below doesn't explicitly call out AMD's architecture, but other slides have a "Radeon" logo in the corner; a not-so-subtle hint at who's providing the GPU. Xbox 720 High...
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The rumor mill is still churning out quite a bit of information on new consoles this week, including new data on Nintendo's upcoming Wii U. According to unnamed developers, the Wii U actually isn't as powerful as the Xbox 360 or PS3, despite boasting HD graphics and significantly improved hardware. According to Nintendo's public statements, the new console will have 8GB of onboard Flash, a new, Power-based CPU built on a 45nm process. IBM has hinted that the Wii U chip leverages technology found in its own Watson, which would make it a derivative of the Power 7 architecture. There's a substantial disconnect between the tech specs being floated and the claim that the Wii U won't measure up to...
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There's been a lot of chatter the past few months about what Microsoft's next-generation Xbox might look like, as well as repeated speculation that the device could tip up at the upcoming E3 Exposition. According to the head of Microsoft Corporate Communications, Frank Shaw, the company is flattered by the rumors but has no plans to launch a new console generation this year. “While we appreciate all the interest in our long-range plans for the future, we can confirm that there will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon,” Microsoft’s Corporate Communications boss Frank Shaw told AllThingsD. “For us, 2012 is all about Xbox 360." Sales figures show that the...
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Microsoft isn't too keen on discussing the Xbox 720 or whatever it plans to call its next generation game console, and apparently the Redmond outfit isn't all that keen on optical drives, either. We've heard reports that the next Xbox iteration might ditch optical storage hardware entirely, and now at least one website claims to have confirmed as much with an un-named source. The source tells MCV that Microsoft's hardware and software partners are under "the strictest NDA" they have ever signed, nevertheless they were willing to leak the fact that the Xbox 720 will ship sans a disc drive. Instead it will use a type of solid-state card storage, though it's unclear if that means it will have a...
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Remember when game consoles were for playing games and nothing else? Actually, don't answer that, lest you date yourself as an old fogey. The consoles of today are used for much more than just gaming, sitting in our living rooms streaming music, movies, and photos, tapping into Netflix, and even allowing us to burn a few hundred calories jumping up and down in front of motion sensors. Because of these expanded capabilities, both Microsoft and Sony have been content to tweak their respective consoles with slimmer designs and more storage space rather than release brand new hardware, but if the latest rumors are any indication, look for Microsoft to announce a successor to the Xbox 360 at next...
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