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Microsoft Confirms Work Begun on Next Xbox
Via 1up, an interview with Chris Lewis, head of Xbox Development in Europe. Along with some interesting discussion of X06 and aiming games at European markets, Lewis confirms what most people could reasonably expect: Microsoft is already hard at work on the next Xbox system. From the 1up article: "'You can't sit back on your laurels in this business - the consumer won't let you, the developers certainly won't let us. So that's happening right now,' ... In order to remain competitive, hardware manufacturers have to start thinking about the next cycle the moment work finishes on the current one. Ideas for the following generation were likely generated during the development of Xbox 360, and you can surely bet the same situations cropped up in the R&D rooms of Sony and Nintendo while working on PlayStation 3 and Wii."
Tacit admission of failure!
Check out my foes list to see who is so retarded that they can't use the signature line!!!
I for one welcome our new Microsoft - oh wait, that is soooo 20th-century.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
We're going to have the XBox 720?
Considering how much processing power is already packed into the XBox 360, I'm curious on how they intend to top that and keep it cost effective. Also, just how much processing power does a game console need? At the rate they're going, they are going to soon have the power of an enterprise server!
This signature was left intentionally blank.
The XBox 360 is ALREADY outdated? :P
I mean really, I don't want to buy a console that I know is just going to be replaced so soon.
Imagine what the world would be like a few years from now if teh intarweb had one less console to hate.
You want your customers continually buying your gear as well as avoiding becoming 'obsolete.' The competitive nature of the market gives them incentive to innovate and constantly. I just wonder how long they'll give the 360 before they release the new thing. 3 years?
PS: I don't reply to ACs.
Not to mention, it's going to take Microsoft a good long time to finish designing their next XBox. Look at how down-to-the-wire things got with the 360, and look at how much Sony are struggling to get the PS3 out in a timely manner. They certainly wouldn't want to end up in that mess twice.
That'll show the people who said MS was only getting into the console business to milk people on the hardware treadmill!
This guy's the limit!
..we will soon receive news that Bungie is developing yet another Halo game for this new console. Honestly, how many of you own an XBOX just to play Halo?
*raises hand*
.-.
I think one thing is obvious about the next XBox: it won't have an optical drive. I would expect it to just have permenant storage (hard drive, possibly based on future technology) and use an internet conneciton to get games. We are getting close to there right now, so by the time the next XBox comes out in 4-6 years it should be well into prime-time for that. If MS can do as good a job with that as they have done with Live they will have a very nice package (assuming things continue as status quo).
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
So... even more reason for the Japanese market to hold out then?
I for one vote that we semi officially call this the neXBox from now on.
If they're smart about it, they'll plan to equip the newest system with whatever the newest/most likely to suceed/most cost efficient media reader in the next one. I for one am rather disappointed that they've planned on keeping the hd-dvd's functionality strictly to movies. If I recall correctly, one of the ways they said the Gamecube would fail was, it's inability to hold as much data as games would need/it's competition had, well, they've gone the same route by sticking to DVD. The Wii also could've gone another route, but I really expected more out of the company who really gave Nintendo hell about such a thing.
This just in, the new XBOX will undercut profits by so much, they will literally pay YOU to take one. of course, games will cost $10 per minute, so you'll pay them back many times over in the first hour of play.
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The next XBox won't be out until after the first Windows Vista SP1 is released. Given Microsoft's current time management processes that probably won't be until 2010 or 2061.
Before the GameCube came out (before it was even called the GameCube) there were already plans underway for the underlying technology under the Wii's (Revolution's) hood. The power of the Playstation 3 was already demonstrated about the time that the PS2 hit the market. The major names in the console market never sit idly and just watch their sales; they're always working on the next major step. Even in Windows, we see this... The successor to Vista is already under development, and has been for quite some time.
I'll probably be modded for redundancy, but it's a point that I wanted to make clear.
/* No Comment */
The Xbox 360 is selling worse than the first Xbox after blowing around 5 billion. And they have already lost 1.6 billion just this first year on the 360 and have pushed back their best case estimate of turning a profit to at least 2008. And have no chance of ever even remotely making back the money they have lost to keep the two consoles alive in the market.
The failure of the first Xbox was rationalized away as "just trying to break into the market - didn't care about winning or losses". Yeah right. It's like a team coming away from the World Series saying they didn't care about winning and they were just happy to put a good first showing in. And the failure of the new Xbox to do any better is being rationalized as "pretty good for such an expensive console".
Console hardware is clearly not an area that Microsoft has competence in. Microsoft has had six years of flat to declining stock price and a complete failure of finding new markets to fuel stock growth. And now they are looking at the 360 continuing to generate huge amounts of red ink for most of its life and then another hugely expensive console project?
Personally I find it a bit insane that a new system is being devised without enough time to evaluate the negative aspects of the current system. I feel that this will only lead to bland changes of simply making systems more powerful.
Hardware HDR. Just give us a really broad palette to work with, and handle the HDR on-chip.
Profile login on a Sim card in the controller. The Xbox 1 had the right idea, but they milked the memory card price too much. Register your controller on the network by popping in a tiny / cheap sim card.
Network Storage. My web host offers 400 GB of storage and a ridiculous amount of bandwidth for not much more than a Live Gold account. Drop the hassle of memory cards, jump to Sim cards, and store the basic game info remotely.
Pad-based controller recharging.
Game Modding and user-created content. I don't know how this would happen, but it needs to happen.
Physics co-processor. There is enough particles bouncing these days that we should have some special purpose iron to help with the load.
The ______ Agenda
It's common practice in the IT industry to work on version n+1 of a product before version n is released - e.g. Firefox versions 2 & 3, MS Office, etc. Consoles are no different - I'm pretty sure that development work for the PS3 had started when the PS2 was in it's "shortage panic" stage.
Don't you just hate it when people reply to your signature?
Raise your hands, everyone who remembers Windows 1.0? Windows 2.0?
IE1? IE2?
(Hm, on second thought, this is maybe not such a good idea to poll this particular group with this particular question... save your responses if you have seen these beasts, I'm illustrating a point.)
Its always v3 MS products that get real attention. Win3.1, IE3, etc.
Or perhaps its just 'hurry up and get the Xbox3 team assembled before out shareholders calculate just how much cash we've blown out our asses on this games thing so far'. That's not meant as a troll, but Xbox has hardly been successful so far in any incarnation. I believe the only time that division ever reported a profit was the quarter Halo 2 was released.
Ah well, I wish 'em luck.
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
How much will it cost the artists to create hundreds of gigs of data for a game? And how long will that data take to load?
Sega must have done the same when they were finishing the Dreamcast. I wonder at what stage the abandoned the plan and what they were planning to release?
"all through my house i set up traps, it seems like the rats have a map, so now i feed the rats crack" - Donald D
So many sarcastic comments around.
Are those from the same people that are yelling about Microsoft releasing the 360 hardware too soon before it was tested?
If they start early, maybe they won't repeat the mistakes of the past? When it comes to hardware and consoles, i find that Microsoft is actually one of the only company that listens to it's user base and try to meet and improve on their expectations. They actually learn from past mistakes.
Why exactly do people say the 360 is already obsolete, that MS wants your money and other such stuff? What exactly is WRONG with this news? It's a good news for everyone concerned as it will mean better hardware and an overall better product if we decide to buy it when it comes. At least in theory and i'm betting it's the same calculations that Microsoft is making.
Badly-done photoshop mockups of the "really real new leaked Xbox design" in 3..2..1..
Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
They are working with SUN to develop a portable XBOX to compete with PSP. If you look a few stories earlier you can find the prototype, codenamed "Blackbox".
"Don't you know you're going to shock the monkey?"- Peter Gabriel
The strategy of the original XBOX was based on what Sony tried to do with their PlayStation 2 console - instead of being just a game console they wanted to be an entire family entertainment Hub.. No console yet has satisfied that goal, or even come close in my mind. 360 is getting better with their live content, but it is still HIGHLY lacking.
... Where is the iTunes relative content? I want to download a *WIDE* variety of TV shows, Videos, Music, etc on DEMAND (sorta like cable TV.) That's where the next step is going - You won't need cable, because everything you want to watch you'll be able to pull down from live the day after it airs. Of course, this is possible with the current 360 now, so shouldn't be much of a surprise.
/opinion
The normal lifecycle of these consoles is ~5years. It doesn't surprise me in the least that they would start the planning stages already - it will give them a legup on being first to market with the NextGen when the time comes. In this industry that type of advantage creates major waves - just look at how it worked for the 360 compared with the (not yet released) PS3. If the PS3 came out first and had some decent launch games, I might have picked it up and skipped the 360 (thank god for favorable coincidences!)
So the next XBOX will have (dun dun dun!) more powerful Graphics than the 360, PS3, or Wii (gee that was hard to guess.) Beyond that I see them really expanding on the LIVE portion of their service. Right now they offer games, demos, and weak selection of music and videos(mostly game related)
Of course, it will likely be first to market with the 'latest and greatest' tech stuff... i.e. today we have BluRay vs HD-DVD.. In 5 years who knows what the new 'hot' tech thing is, but im sure the XBOX will have some of it. I'd expect it to highly integrate with the ZUNE (which is probably where/when the music content will really ramp up on the system.)
Long story short (too late), they only have things to gain in terms of preparing this early for the next Gen console, and likely all of us consumers will benefit because of it - Longer development (hopefully) means better quality overall, and they won't need to rush in order to enter the market behind the frontrunners.
Its Deluxe, son. Deluxe!
My friends and I were lamenting that they don't just offer a low-cost xBox model where they just remove the optical drive and put a copy of Halo in a read-only partition on the hard drive.
As far as I'm concerned, that's the purpose of an xBox. It's not a game machine, it's a "Halo appliance."
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
"If they start early, maybe they won't repeat the mistakes of the past? When it comes to hardware and consoles, i find that Microsoft is actually one of the only company that listens to it's user base and try to meet and improve on their expectations. They actually learn from past mistakes."
This is precisely the error. The entertainment business is dependent on surprise. How do you poll people asking, "What will surprise you?" This is why Xbox 360 sales are lackluster despite a few people 'absolutely loving' their 360s.
The game developers/publishers would absolutely LOVE this. There would be no resale market for downloaded content. I am actually surprised the standard model right now isn't to ship a game with a code that you have to call in and activate to your console rendering the copy useless to anyone else's system. Only issue there is if your console is goes dead, but even there they could connect it to an online system to store your personal activation codes.
Well the xbox360 is by now quite the year out. And since over four years atleast a new console needs to be there... they better prepare things already :)
Who knows what the future brings in chips and alike..it will take atleast 2-3 years for them to put their focus and plans right to begin with. And developing and ensuring games are out is another big part of it all..so yes better start early then late!
Codefile Defected to another Hexadimal Range refresh your CHAOSTACK.NLM file with a new copy
I heard that its going to have a Wiimote... I mean Xmote controller whos position and direction can be accurately detected. And it will have a killer game called The Lengend of X-elda.
Of course they're working on a new system. Inevitably during any project you have to draw a line and say "This is as far as we go." Anything beyond that goes into the next iteration. Video game systems are part of a cycle. If you want to stay in the game you always have to be looking at least 5 years down the road.
-- Flaw
Enjoy the seats as Sony and Microsoft push each other to bankrup studios with rapidly-ballooning game budgets on ever-more-expensive game consoles that are ever-more-complex to develop for with ever-more-demanding asset expectations. All hail the era of having games lag hardware by years.
So to play say GT6, you'd buy a car and a track, but because of the way the downloads are made, after a day or two, you'll need to swipe your credit card again if you want to play with the same card on the same track. I've already seen that on a few downloaded cheapy games, sure you can try them, but after a set time, the game locks and becomes useless -- unless you pay. That's going to be mighty painful if you're going to have to pay $10 or $20 every time you boot up XBOX^3 or whatever they'll call it.
Believe it or not, designing a game console requires *slightly* more planning than a typical PC upgrade. Of course they're getting started early.
--Jeremy
Jesus was a liberal
Just pushing out as many consoles as you can as fast as you can isn't a good plan. People *don't* want to have to buy new consoles every 3 years. They already blew it big time releasing the 360 too soon, so it will be overshadowed by the PS3 and Wii. Didn't anyone at MS even look at the dreamcast disaster just for a minute?
It is no surprise to anyone that Mircosoft is developing another console right now. They should be. The question seems to be what will/won't it include, and that will only be speculation for a long time.
Follow with me here. The 360 released before any other next-gen console right? So they had an early lead. If M$ releases their NEXT next-gen console in say a year or two, then they'll have an EVEN greater advantange and win the next console war by default since Sony and Nintendo won't have anything to fight against it. Brilliant.
For the love of god, don't fucking start shortening the god damned fucking release cycles again you bastards!
I've said it a thousand times.
The Xbox 1 is a 4.5 year old unit, it's by far the most powerful and some still quite attractive games are released for it - yet it was the FIRST to get a replacement?! - Value for money? Hello
JUST as it was taking off properly, Microsoft shot it - way too early and now they are wondering why people hesitate to purchase the X360./
The PS2 on the other hand is damn near 6 years old now and substantially less powerful than the Xbox yet it's replacement is STILL not out - value for money is GOOD, sure it's time for a PS3 but I feel anyone who bought a PS2 at launch (if it lasted, that's a seperate matter) got value for money.
Now I can understand researching the Xbox 360 replacement but if those motherfuckers release it Nov 2009, only 4 years after the X360 I'll be pissed, especially considering how little support the Xbox 1 has received in the past 12 months.
The X360 should be thoroughly "milked" as long as possible - gives US value for money and THEM money cause we buy it, plus we'll consider the Xbox 3 or whatever if the X360 is properly supported.
Considering the track record so far though,........
Sound's like they're trying to become the next Sega...
I wouldn't be surprised if solid-state memory became the norm again - like the cartriges of old, only smaller - but for most of the world, meshes, textures, and sounds are getting bigger faster than the pipes are getting fatter. It will be a long time before a console vendor can give up on physical media without abandoning a big chunk of their market.
But, they make that stuff out of silicon these days.
Who's surprised? Consoles take time... what do you expect the team to do after the product has launched? Sit around for a couple years? Of course they're going to start planning the next console now!
But I thought that was the pricing model that they were going to use for the PS4.
Damn you, Microsoft, you're ahead of the curve here!
Why would you download all levels, surely it obvious you would only download each level as you complete one.
Duhh!!!
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Right Move but it's WAY too early! Just 2 years on the market now the 360 is getting shoved aside? Man, I'm a Microsoft/Xbox fan but this is REDICOULOUS! the Xbox 1 had more time! I really hate the fact that they are gonna make us pony up more so soon! GATES WHAT ARE YOU DOING???