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Microsoft Recruiting For Next-Gen Console Development
An anonymous reader writes with this excerpt from Eurogamer:
"Microsoft is ramping up development of its next generation Xbox console according to job positions being advertised on business networking site LinkedIn, brought to light on the Beyond 3D Forum. The first position advertised is for a Graphics Hardware Architect, working with the team that is 'responsible for defining and delivering next-generation console architectures from conception through implementation.' 'The responsibilities include architecture analysis, key technology selection, architecture specification, communication and collaboration with extended Microsoft teams and partner companies,' according to the advert. ... the most intriguing element of the story is just how early on in production we appear to be — far earlier than many had suspected. Unless Microsoft is actually planning pre-production of the next next-gen console, the evidence seems to suggest that the system is so early in development that the graphics hardware at the very least hasn't been locked down."
The PS2 was released March 2000. The PS3 November 2006. If the XBOX team hasn't started yet, I'm surprised.
Whatever Microsoft does, my mind wanders off to Nintendo and what they might have up their sleeves. Unless Microsoft pulls out something groundbreaking beyond better graphics this will be just another iteration of Xbox. I haven't seen any interesting acquisitions of gaming technology companies of late so i hardly anticipate anything new.
The trouble for Microsoft is that as soon as they develop a way of commanding FPS games that is on par with a mouse and a keyboard, their PC-Gaming business is soon cannibalized. If Nintendo succeeds in that feat, they have the possibility to take away a serious chunk of Microsofts gaming audience.
So, this time the war is still about the controller. Kinect is far from perfect, Wii also sucks for serious FPS gaming and PS3 arent any better. The one bringing the best controller to the market is whom i suspect will win. Better graphics or raw CPU punch just wont help a darn thing.
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Im not at all impressed by graphics on PS3, a good PC or an Xbox. All the games look roughly the same regardless of game engine or developer. The problem seems not to lie in the amounts of rectangles, fps or resolution. I suspect the only way to go forward is by using raytracing or similar instead of textures on triangles. Hardware is not anywhere near that kind of power so any improvements in graphics will for the foreseeable future seem very superficial and modest.
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If you dance in front of a camera naked, check the "please upload pictures of me to the web" button, don't be surprised when the camera takes naked pictures of you and uploads them to the web.
Durp.
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Yup. That's what the new XBox will be like.
Slightly better graphics, slightly better Kinect and 4x more processor power.
Sadly, 75% of that processor power will be spent analyzing the Kinect footage and deciding which advertising to push.
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Physics is one area I'd love to see vastly improved on consoles. Real-time fluids++
Though they're probably already adding that.
Real-time ray-tracing would be amazing, but yeah, unlikely in the near future.
Sony taught all the console manufacturers a lesson - Never ship with the ability to run Linux - if you take it away at some point in future a small group of angry geeks will make it their life's mission to destroy your business.
Didn't something like that already happen to MS with the first Xbox back in 2003, even though they didn't have the ability built in to start with?
Why yes, I believe it did.
You can't escape the small group of angry geeks!
Well, seeing as it's going to be a major INCREMENT of the X-Box family, I'd suggest the name Xcrement
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I am by no means an MS fanboy, but you're talking bullshit. Xbox division is one of the few areas MS is making money. The 360 made money not long after it was released. Revenue for the Xbox division has been a steady US$8bn for a few years and profits have been far from abysmal (approx US$500m).
I am always amazed at what fanboys come up with, and I'd suspect you are a Sony fanboy.
500mil per year? on a >8B investment 11 years ago? and you think its great? ....
Not to mention Games division started making profit only in 2007, so BEST case scenario is 2B return for >8B investment.
Its not even a profit, They just started earning back the investment, 12 more years and they will be in the green.
And its time to invest another 8-10B
Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
me, a fanboy? no, I'm a Microsoft developer, have been for donkeys' years. However, I like to consider myself wise and sensible enough to look beyond the petty politics and tribalism of the members of the IT industry and see a slightly wider picture.
I don't have a console at all, and Sony are in my bad books after that rootkit stuff, but their little mp3 players are the dog's danglies, and their new internet-connected TVs are very good indeed.
I do take issue with Microsoft using their cash generative business to subsidise other areas, especially as they cannot compete effectively without doing that. I disagree with Microsoft's position of having to have a finger in *every* pie. I also have issue with Ballmer still being in his position, especially after he kicked Bob Muglia out (someone said that server&tools division was a money-maker, well it is now after Muglia built it up from the cost-centre it used to be. Guess that's why Ballmer did him in).
So, anyway, Microsoft invested $10bn into XBox development, and is now making a relatively small profit. They have never made a return on their investment. Any other company would have gone bust by now.
Problem with your post is this: The entire point of the Xbox was NOT to make money which if you'll watch the early talks about the system they made quite clear what the main focus was: To get MSFT out of the Office Den and into the living room. And I'd argue on that front they succeeded beautifully.
Now with the X360 not only do they have a front row seat in millions of living rooms, they also get money from every game sold thanks to licensing and have a way to sell entertainment and other devices, such as how Windows 7 which is bog simple to hook to an X360 or WinPhone 7 which if rumors turn out to be true will come out with a way to have your games tie into your phone, so that for instance you play a minigame building armor that armor would be available on the console.
So if you look at the console based on its stated purpose, to get MSFT into the living room just like iPod got Apple into millions of pockets then it is a smashing success. One thing MSFT has shown is they don't mind spending money if it gets them into a long term steady growth market and the sheer simplicity of consoles means that for the foreseeable future they aren't going anywhere.
As I said in a previous post the smart thing to do now that PCs are so far ahead tech wise is to do another COTS like the original Xbox, Like say the 12 core Bulldozer CPU/GPU combo into an AMD 6xxx GPU. This would allow developers to get better physics and AI thanks to being able to use the power of the Radeon 4xxx built into BD, while leaving the 6xxx free for graphics. As the console matured the developers could use the BD GPU in connection with the 6xxx in hybrid crossfire for certain games or even when they just need to crank the purty, and the low R&D and quick time to market would have the console making money almost from day 1 while catching the competitors blindsided. This would also make games going from PC to console and vice versa trivial, and if they wise up and kill GFWL and partner with Steam could make matchmaking between the two systems easy.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.