[XB1] Official Xbox One Thread

[Swarley]

Analyst Reveals Next-Gen Predictions

Rumors are coming at a faster clip as we approach the inevitable release of next-gen consoles, and an analyst has added his post-CES predictions to the heap. They include potential price points, release windows, and a surprisingly grim outlook for Nintendo.

Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Baird Equity Research, says he's based these predictions on conversations with developers and distributors.

Sebastian says he expects that Sony and Microsoft will unveil their new hardware shortly before E3, which he predicts will be the biggest show since 2000. The next generation of console hardware will be based on high-end off-the-shelf PC components, which could ease the transition, since developers are likely to be familiar with the basic hardware architecture. These consoles could be priced between $350 and $400, which puts them in line with the 360's initial $399 price point, and the PS3, which had launch configurations ranging from $399 to $599. As Sebastian sees it, we'll be seeing both consoles in stores before the end of the year, possibly in October or November.

The sky isn't necessarily falling for brick-and-mortar retailers, though Sebastian says the wider transition to digital is inevitable. He does say that we'll be seeing a similar sales ratio of digital downloads to physical sales for at least the first few years of next-gen.

He doesn't have much in the way of good news on the Nintendo front. Citing what he calls a lackluster launch, Sebastian conjures up a grim future for the Wii U. He predicts that Nintendo could be forced to cut the console's cost before the company had planned, and that we'll need to see major first-party games such as Zelda on the system soon to prevent it from entering a free fall. In the worst-case scenario, he sees Nintendo farming out its first-party franchises to previously competing platforms.

What do you think? Is this guy on to something, or is he just tossing darts around?

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/01/14/analyst-reveals-next-gen-predictions.aspx

[Swarley]

PS4, Xbox 720 announcements in March?
Sony and Microsoft reportedly planning Apple-style press conferences to reveal next-gen consoles around GDC in late March.

Official word on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 may only be months away. A Game Informer report (via Videogamer) states Sony and Microsoft are planning "special Apple-style press conferences" to officially announce their next-generation systems "near the Game Developers Conference," which runs March 25-29 this year in San Francisco.

"E3 in June may be the industry's biggest event, but both companies want to give their systems their own limelight," the report reads. "That doesn't mean E3 won't be without its surprises. Next-gen games will be announced at the convention in preparation for the systems' release at the end of the year."

The magazine also speculates that Sony may be planning to release the PS4 ahead of Microsoft's Xbox 720, or whatever the system may be called. This was also predicted by Robert W. Baird analyst Colin Sebastian in a note delivered to investors today.

"We hear that Sony in particular is determined not to come out last this time like the PlayStation 3 did this generation, so we'll have to see how soon it can get the PlayStation 4 out the door, and whether Microsoft is motivated to prevent this from happening," the report goes on.

Sebastian's note today suggested Sony had encountered PS4 production snags that could keep the system from shipping as scheduled, though he admitted these concerns could be overblown. Whatever the case, the previous suggestion is that both the PS4 and Xbox 720 will be on store shelves late this year.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/ps4-xbox-720-announcements-in-march-6402358

[Swarley]

Xbox 720, PS4 could start at $350, says analyst
Robert W. Baird industry watcher predicts next-gen console prices, believes "lackluster" Wii U launch and holiday sales a concern.

According to one analyst, the cost of entry for next-generation consoles will be lower than prior system launches. Robert W. Baird industry watcher Colin Sebastian issued a note to investors today, predicting the Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4 could debut at $350-$400.

The Xbox 360 launched in 2005 at $400, with the PlayStation 3 debuting in 2006 beginning at $500.

Sebastian's estimations are based on conversations with a range of game developers and distributors held last week during the 2013 Consumer Electronics Show. Sebastian explained that these conversations yielded "interesting takeaways with respect to next-generation game development and more broadly, the intensifying battle for the living room."

Sebastian also predicted that the Xbox 720 and PS4 will be built using existing "off-the-shelf" high-end PC components. Other features may include a hybrid physical-digital distribution model, "enhanced" voice controls and motion sensing, as well as "broad multimedia capabilities."

What's more, Sebastian estimates that the PC-based architecture of the new consoles will carry a range of advantages, the first of which is a shorter learning curve for developers compared to existing technology. In addition, this will allow developers to more easily build online services and capabilities, including free-to-play and subscriptions.

Regarding the PS4 specifically, Baird said some production snags may limit the console's launch quantities or timing. According to field checks, these production issues could negatively affect the console's launch, though Baird said these snags are "not necessarily fatal, or even unusual."

As for when the Xbox 720 and PS4 may be announced, Sebastian believes Sony and Microsoft will hold dedicated events prior to the 2013 Electronic Entertainment Expo (June 11-13, 2013) to finally unveil these machines. If all goes to Sebastian's prediction, Sony and Microsoft will hype the consoles during E3 2013 itself before shipping the systems to retail during October and November, respectively. This timetable is in line with previous predictions.

Also in Sebastian's note to investors today, the analyst said Nintendo may be facing an uphill battle with its recently launched Wii U. He predicted that Nintendo will shift to a "niche category," and is concerned that the console will lack broad appeal beyond the dedicated fans.

He said following the Wii U's "lackluster" launch and holiday sales (the Wii U did not outsell the 2006 original Wii during the period), Nintendo must release major first-party games, including the rumored Wii U Zelda title. This would be the only way to "retain the support of key third-party developers and reduce marketshare loss."

In the bleakest of scenarios, Sebastian said Nintendo would be forced to lower the Wii U price point earlier than it would like and even give consideration to releasing first-party titles--like Mario and Donkey Kong--on other platforms.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/xbox-720-ps4-could-start-at-350-says-analyst-6402356

[Swarley]

Showtime: PS4 rumoured at 1.84TF, Xbox 720 at 1.23TF

If latest rumours regarding next generation hardware are to be believed, the next PlayStation is to be significantly more powerful that the next Xbox.

Developer sources, speaking after meetings at CES, have told VG247 that the next PlayStation, codenamed Orbis, will have a run-capability of 1.84 teraflops. Conversely, the next Xbox, codenamed Durango, will be able to achieve 1.23 teraflops.

If true, these numbers mean PlayStation 4 will have a 50% raw, computational power advantage over Xbox 720.

While PS4 will have greater grunt that 720, however, the Microsoft machine has significantly more RAM at 8Gb, we’ve been told. Our source said that 3Gb is reserved for the OS, apps and security, leaving 4-5Gb for games.

Orbis will have 4Gb of RAM, said our source, of which 1Gb will be reserved for for OS, security and apps, leaving some 3Gb for games.

Both machines will supposedly have have the ability to read 100Gb Blu-ray discs.

Durango is apparently based on the Radeon HD 8770 GPU.

PlayStation 4 has been previously rumoured to be built on AMD’s A10 APU.

It was recently claimed that the two machines are to be announced in late March. It’s widely assumed that both consoles will launch in November this year.

VG247 is under the impression that several media outlets are in possession of documents related to Durango from CES and are currently working on major leak stories.

***Thanks to Handle for this info

[Swarley]

Report: Microsoft To Replace Xbox Live Chat With Skype

The industry news site Computer and Videogames is reporting that Microsoft intends to replace Xbox Live chat with Skype in an effort to "consolidate all of their communications technology" under one banner.

CVG says the information comes from a "a person familiar with the matter." This source says that Skype would become the default communications technology across all of Microsoft's platforms, including the next-generation Xbox, PC, and tablet. The source also said, "You might jump to the conclusion that we'll see asynchronous voice and video messages in next-gen Xbox Live."

Microsoft acquired Skype in 2011 for $8.5 billion.

Source: CVG

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/01/16/report-microsoft-to-replace-xbox-live-chat-with-skype.aspx

[killgod]

Kinda exciting to think new consoles are this year. My PS3 survived the whole generation, impressive for that fat bitch. Xbox #4 feels like it's gonna die anyday now.

[Swarley]

Kinda exciting to think new consoles are this year. My PS3 survived the whole generation, impressive for that fat bitch. Xbox #4 feels like it's gonna die anyday now.

I miss my fatboy PS3. Best looking PS3 of the bunch. I'm on my third Xbox, but only my launch one crapped out on me. Bought the Elite and then sold it when the Slim launched.

And yes, the thought of bringing home a new console this year makes me very excited.

[jms493]

I miss my fatboy PS3. Best looking PS3 of the bunch. I'm on my third Xbox, but only my launch one crapped out on me. Bought the Elite and then sold it when the Slim launched.

And yes, the thought of bringing home a new console this year makes me very excited.

I dont have any room in my TV stand...someone is going to have to go!

[JayDizzle]

I dig the idea of having more space to put games on (especially with my current juggling of 40+ physical copies of PS3 games plus 10+ digital, saves, DLC etc.) but the smaller amount of processing power bugs me a little.

I want the "shiny new thing" as everyone who's still gaming does but if I'm going to drop a wad of cash for it, I want it to be the best.

Then again, I'd like it to last as long as this current generation so I'll get my money's worth.

[BigBucs]

Kinda exciting to think new consoles are this year. My PS3 survived the whole generation, impressive for that fat bitch. Xbox #4 feels like it's gonna die anyday now.

Same, was surprised to hear about everyones PS3s dying when my OG 20 gig hasnt had any real issues. I also brought a 500 GB bundle for the hell of it. I hate the look of it and the way you have to put the disc in. Real question amongst this news is how much longer is TGT/220 gonna be on current gen systems?

[dave]

Kinda exciting to think new consoles are this year. My PS3 survived the whole generation, impressive for that fat bitch. Xbox #4 feels like it's gonna die anyday now.

Still have my original 60GB PS3 and am on my third 360.

[Point Blank]

Pretty excited for March. I'm ready to at some possible RB6 news too.

[Handleit_44]

Microsoft hosting event on Jan. 24, will they reveal the next Xbox?

Microsoft is hosting an event on January 24th that some people believe may be where they formally unveil their next Xbox console, or other exciting devices. The event will take place in Mountain View, California. If they do reveal something Xbox-related at this event it will be more Apple-style than any of their past console announcements. The event will take place between 5:30pm to 8:30pm PST.

Here’s Microsoft’s invitation:

"Please join us for an exclusive open house on January 24th in the new Microsoft Technology Center in our Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View. We will be showcasing some exciting devices, including the Xbox 360, Kinect, Surface, Windows 8 on an 82” touchscreen from Perceptive Pixel, and our newly launched SmartGlass application. We’ll have leading engineers from our hardware, manufacturing, and software teams on-hand to speak about what Microsoft has in store for the future.

As a very special bonus, Alex Kipman, one of the revolutionary minds behind the Kinect, will be delivering our keynote about the future vision for Microsoft and how we are working to join together software and hardware into meaningful, exciting hardware devices in the years to come.

This will be a great opportunity to network with engineers at Microsoft, and get your hands on some of our newest devices AND to enter a drawing to walk away with one! We hope you’ll join us!"

[Swarley]

Are these the specs to the Xbox 720? A leaked report says so.

The rumours surrounding Microsoft's successor to the Xbox continue to mount, with one website claiming to have had access to the machine's specifications in full. According to technical documents acquired by VGLeakz, the console will feature an 8-core CPU, Blu-Ray, a DirectX 11.1-capable GPU and 8GB of DDR3 RAM.

The site also claims that the next Xbox's processor will feature an x64 8-core CPU with a clock of 1.6Ghz. Each "CPU thread has its own 32KB L1 instruction cache and 32KB L1 data cache", while both modules "of four CPU cores has a 2MB L2 cache resulting in a total of 4MB of L2 cache."

On top of that, "each core has one fully independent hardware thread with no shared execution resources" and "each hardware thread can issue two instructions per clock," according to the site.

Elsewhere in the document, the Xbox 720 - codenamed Durango - will allegedly feature 8GB of DDR3 RAM, a 6x Blu-Ray drive and 32MB of embedded SRAM.

The GPU will support DirectX 11.1, run at a core of 800mhz and feature 12 shader cores which provide "a total of 768 threads." The document reports that at peak performance "the GPU can effectively issue 1.2 trillion floating-point operations per second."

The document also claims that Microsoft's latest version of Kinect is always present, presumably indicating that the motion-sensor will be build into the machine itself.

Another point mentioned is that a SATA 2.0 "hard drive is always present", suggesting that Microsoft's next machine won't allow for optional hard drives in the way the Xbox 360 did.

Rounding off the rumoured specifications is support for HDMI 1.4a, 802.11n Wi-Fi and USB 3.0 alongside a bevy of codecs, multi-channel echo cancellation for Kinect and "cryptography engines for encryption and decryption, and hashing".

http://uk.gamespot.com/news/xbox-720-hardware-detailed-report-6402692

[Swarley]

Sony to let Microsoft make the first move

You may have noticed that there are lots of rumours flying about regarding next-gen consoles. No one knows definitely when Microsoft and Sony will unveil their successors to the current Xbox and PlayStation, but Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai has said that it will let Microsoft make the first move.

In the Business section of The Times today, Hirai said, "Why go first, when your competitors can look at your specifications and come up with something better?"

With Nintendo already out the next-gen blocks with the Wii U, can Sony hold its bottle until the Microsoft announces? Surely his comments are slightly disingenuous, since there would be relatively little scope for changing the specs of the PlayStation this late in its development cycle. It's more likely that the additional time would be use to adjust the messaging surrounding the announcement.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/21/ps4-sony-will-let-microsoft-make-first-move