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Smaller Xbox One Coming This Year, More Powerful Xbox One In 2017, Says Report (kotaku.com)
Keza MacDonald and Jason Schreier, reporting for game blog Kotaku: Microsoft is preparing at least two new Xbox models for release in the next two years, sources tell Kotaku. Later this year we'll see a cheaper, smaller Xbox One, and next year Microsoft will release a more powerful version of their premiere console. The 2017 Xbox, which is codenamed Scorpio, will have a more powerful GPU. We hear that it will also be technically capable of supporting the Oculus Rift and that Microsoft is pursuing a partnership with Oculus. As for 2016, sources have told us there's at least a more compact version coming by year's end. One source believed it will include a larger 2TB hard drive, double the capacity of the most spacious current model. We're expecting Microsoft to announce the more compact machine at E3 next month.
"Smaller Xbox One Coming This Year, More Powerful Xbox One In 2017"
So everyone waits for 2017, right?
Hope everyone's got double the QA time in their budget. Narf.
This doesn't really make much sense to me. It seems as if they're making a fork of XBox One that's compatible with earlier game releases, but will certainly have some exclusive games as well. Games that will utilize the "extra power". Reminds me of the whole N64 "expansion" debacle, but even that was mild compared to this. With the expansion modules you could upgrade your existing console whereas with this approach you'd essentially have to buy a new console to get the benefits and/or play the newer games.
Well, if Microsoft wants to shoot themselves in the foot (again), what the hell. Go ahead. :-)
-SR
Microsoft partnership with another company? It's very dangerous, the last one was Nokia and we know what appened, and if we go before there are other example of failed partership.
...the names "Xbox one" and "Xbox ONE" for the smaller and the powerful version, respectively?
If only there was a way to upgrade the existing console, instead of buy a new one...You know, a console with the ability to upgrade the hard drive, GPU, main board, and even the power supply if necessary. In fact, why not go all the way, and even let you buy a new outer shell you could put your existing system parts in.
If only such a product existed...Nah, that would never work.
So would that be an Xbox 2 or an Xbox 1/2?
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
Microsoft is pursuing a partnership with Oculus
Well it's about someone put a fork in Oculus because after all it's broken promises, it's done. They deserve each other.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Your comment is a great example of the Cockburn Effect in action.
This effect's general rule is, "When a company announces a future release of an existing product, and Slashdot reports about it, some fool will come along and post comments about the Osborne Effect, especially when it doesn't apply at all."
Microsoft will release a more powerful version of their premiere console.
I thought the death of the console will finally come, but I didn't think it would be at the hands of Microsoft. Console running Windows programs in a unified environment, spying on users in 3D, requiring always on internet connections, computers now working with xbox controllers, and now consoles have multiple tiers of hardware.
Any advantage the console had is now officially dead.
Xbox 1.5 coming in 2017.
I thought the entire point of console gaming was that the hardware is always identical?
This means that:
- All games work on all hardware.
- You only have to target one piece of hardware in development, which saves money.
- You can buy a new console and feel like you made a good investment because a "slightly faster one" won't come out in a year or two.
If MS is going to start upgrading consoles mid-generation, people might as well stick to PC gaming.
If it can't run MechAssault (and to a lesser extent, MechAssault II), it's still utter shite.
It's not an "advance" when the best mech games ever written for a console won't run on it. It's not an "upgrade." It's not a "step forward."
It's just fucking useless.
Good thing my original Xbox still works, I can still game. There's always more of 'em on EBay, too.
Maybe someday Microsoft will wake the fuck up and realize people don't want to give up their favorite games, not to mention forget about the money they've already spent on them. At about $50 a pop, it only takes a few games before you're looking at a "new" console and thinking "oh FUCK no."
More, faster pixels? Better colour? More polygons? More CPU power? SUPER! Won't run my games? WTF? Useless.
OTOH, if it WILL run my games, plus new stuff, and is otherwise fabulous in various ways.... then it's an insta-buy.
You'd think they'd buy a clue, or something. But no. They're too busy developing "Clippy II" or the like.
Upgrading the GPU every three to four years will be cheaper than this (assuming a mid-tier card).
Development for PC isn't that hard as long as you plan out for lower-end hardware to play the game with fewer graphical effects.
Even Japanese companies are starting to release ports to Steam.
Join the PC Gaming Master Race today!
XBox Two (would make sense, but that already disqualifies it)? XBox One-Two (also makes a little too much sense)? XBox 10 (would go nicely with Windows 10)? just "XBox" (reboot-style)?
After all the naming idiocy of the last few years I cannot wait to hear what madness they've come up with this time...
PS4 is going to do it, Xbox is going to do it. A more 'iterative' Apple like approach. /well supported/ for a good lifetime, anywhere from 4 to 7 years.
At one point (as in every other console generation, previous to now) you could purchase a console and rest assured that it would be
The 'ruleset' for the new consoles, apparently also includes supporting the old device going forward. However with the old consoles, as there was only one choice, period - you would find in the later lifetime of the console, exceptionally good looking games were produced which did fascinating things with the hardware, as the developers were of course limited. Examples such as Uncharted 3, The Last of Us, God of War 2, The 'new' Tomb Raider game on Xbox 360, Gears of War 3. Shadow of the Colossus and so on. /extremely/ likely that the support for the original consoles will not be quite up to the level it would've been, had they been the only choice for 5+ years, let alone as the device ages and more and more move to the newer models.
These new mid generation consoles will allow developers to focus on a new platform, while they still must support the old one, to appease Sony and MS certification and of course angry early adopters, it's
One other advantage (if you will) of being a console gamer is that when you've decided to buy a console, there's an element of 'nerd relief' in that you don't even need to /consider/ upgrades. There's no such thing. You've accepted the compromise of console gaming* and once past that, can relax knowing you have the best on offer for that platform, for the full duration. This advantage is about to disappear and the nerdier gamers (myself included) will always have that urge to research the differences on the updated platform. Perhaps in game reviews we'll see "The original Xbox One edition of XYZ game, looks quite good, however the edition of XYZ game has vastly surprising and significant boosts in ABC features"
We don't want to read that, if we wanted that, we'd have bought a PC.
So yeah, I'm quite disappointed with this change in console gaming, I do not feel it's for the better. Well actually no, I'm sure there will be some benefits - but it will /almost certainly/ become a more expensive hobby going forward.
* Yes console gaming is obviously a compromise from PC gaming in many ways, exceedingly few console gamers actually believe it's a better option than PC gaming, it's simply a different option. I PC gamed for near 25 years before I finally went 100% console gaming. Primarily time and money limitations.
Free windows phone and upgrade to windows 10!
Nobody seems to understand that those long console lifecycles were forced on the console manufacturers, not by a desire to provide a long life cycle (and thereby long-lasting value to the consumer), but by the need to recover the cost of developing the hardware in the first place. Now the situation is different: AMD is taking care of all the development, so the console manufacturers can simply refresh their consoles whenever they feel like. Compatibility is guaranteed because it is all PC hardware anyway. Now that the need for a long life cycle is gone, why would Sony or Microsoft sit idle while their hardware grows more obsolete by the minute?
Regardless of the old limitations, there's an expected formula which has now been changed. I for one am not interested in such frequent iterations.
My money is on XBOX One:VR as a name. Games will be launched as VR - Only or VR compatible, where you can still play them on the "old" XBone but don't get any VR niceness. VR takes double the rendering power, so the older machine may still be able to play them on a traditional single screen and gamepad setup.
Given how often Windows, OS X and Linux applications fail because of a system software "upgrade", no change in hardware at all, I'm going to remain dubious on this one until it's actually demonstrated. The PS3 / Linux debacle also remains fresh in my mind.
I strongly suspect a different target than "let's preserve the customer's investment."
Cynical, I know. But that's been my experience.