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Microsoft's Next-Gen Xbox Consoles Are Codenamed 'Anaconda' and 'Lockhart' (windowscentral.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the rumor-roundup dept.

According to Windows Central, there are two upcoming next-generation Xbox consoles in the works -- a cheaper "S"-style console to succeed the Xbox One S, and a more beastly "X"-style console to succeed the Xbox One X. "The codename for the 'S 2' seems to be 'Lockhart,' and the codename for the 'X 2' seems to be 'Anaconda,' which may also be serving as a dev kit," reports Windows Central. From the report: The next-gen Lockhart console will be the affordable SKU, providing the next-gen Xbox experience in a package potentially around as powerful as the current Xbox One X hardware wise, with refinements under the hood. The Anaconda console will be more powerful and more expensive, providing a cutting-edge console gaming experience. We've also heard Microsoft is exploring technology to dramatically reduce loading times, potentially including SSD storage in the package.

We've heard from multiple places that the next-gen Xbox consoles will be fully compatible with everything on your current Xbox One consoles, including your OG Xbox and Xbox 360 library via backward compatibility. We've also heard that Microsoft is working on a new platform for games dubbed "GameCore," as part of Windows Core OS, which the Scarlett family will support when it's ready. It extends the work Redmond has been doing on UWP. GameCore should make it easier for developers to build games that function not only on Xbox "Scarlett" consoles but also Windows 10 PCs, further reducing the amount of work studios need to do to get games running across both platforms. The report doesn't mention if the cheaper next-generation Xbox console will be streaming-only, or if it will still support traditional discs and downloads. With a disc-free version of the Xbox One reportedly coming next spring, this seems like a possibility.

61 comments

  1. Cowboy bob by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Howdee

  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  3. Brought to you by the letter N by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    N
    N

    1. Re: Brought to you by the letter N by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I have to fact check this. I feel like these should have been released a long time ago. Are we in a weird time warp?

  4. My penis is codenamed Stanley... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...as in Stanley power tool

  5. More of the same Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Embrace, Extend, Extinguish

    1. Re: More of the same Microsoft by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Go fuck yourself, Mr. Torvalds.

  6. The Humanity by rmdingler · · Score: 1

    The report doesn't mention if the cheaper next-generation Xbox console will be streaming-only, or if it will still support traditional discs and downloads. With a disc-free version of the Xbox One reportedly coming next spring, this seems like a possibility.

    FWIW, I'm not a gamer, but I am responsible for most of the bills of a couple. Recently, a console malfunction destroyed several orders of many tens of hours of game play for one of my dependents, and the only recourse to recovery of the bulk of this digital experience was the repair of the existing equipment.

    Several failed, extensive and expensive, repair attempts later, the poor fellow has to redo many time units of gaming to return to a previous level of play. If only we'd been required to store game play advances in the Cloud with guarantees of retrieval approaching that of the Imperial Conditioning of Dr Yueh.

    --
    Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

    Ernest Hemingway

    1. Re:The Humanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      With a truly cloudy, diskless console they could reduce the lock-down on the accessories as now the Hollywo..UHD DRM wouldn't impose its additional restrictions on copyright protection mechanisms. I'd like to be able to stick a small USB dac/amp in the machine and control its sound volume from the console in order to be able to offer the gaming/media experience with the cheap monitors and "old" headphones without the extra space for TV or a AV-receiver.

    2. Re:The Humanity by mentil · · Score: 1

      There's zero chance that a 6Teraflop system equivalent to the Xbox One X would be streaming-only. If it were, that'd only require a 10W ASIC (even for 4K60), and they could sell it for 1/4 the price.

      I'm curious if the 'reduced loading times' will come from an Optane cache, these supposedly simulate the benefit of a SSD, even if using a hard drive. Of course this'd require Intel hardware like the original Xbox used, rather than the AMD used this generation. Of course in 2020 when this comes out, it might be cheaper to just use a SSD.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    3. Re:The Humanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If only we'd been allowed to store game play advances on our own backup media, we would have been able to restore them within seconds.

      FTFY.

      No console should require cloud saves. It's expensive to store save data for every player, and subject to loss if the player stops paying the subscription fee. Plus as we've seen with Nintendo, even if you are required to do that and have to pay up front for the privilege, the ability to do so is still subject to publisher / network maintainer approval. Personal save data backups are easier, don't cost the console manufacturer money, and can be done at player discretion. Personal save data backups should be allowed, and damn your anti-cheat and piracy excuse. If the console manufacturer can't mandate using their save data handling engine across every game released on a system, that can be updated by them to fix the very bugs that they are afraid will cause piracy, looking squarely at you Nintendo, and they can't handle server side validation of achievements / trophies / etc, then they deserve every hack they get regardless of it being caused by save data or not.

      Several failed, extensive and expensive, repair attempts later, the poor fellow has to redo many time units of gaming to return to a previous level of play

      So you mean you had to get a new system then? How's that re-download going? If it were me, I'd say "awww f' it" and play on a different system. (Or just use "backups". Considering my broken one would have been hacked to begin with to allow me to keep the damn digital purchases I made and to restore them in that explicit scenario without needing to wait for a week to be able to play everything again.)

    4. Re:The Humanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Optane is pretty much a better SSD, but more expensive.
      In fact even cheap consumer SATA SSD use TLC flash (three bits per cell) and use a small portion of the same cells as SLC (one bit per cell) so that it acts as a write cache.

      So, let's say the new Xbox uses an SSD with QLC flash (four bits per cell, because a cell is set to one of 16 charge levels). QLC is on the market right now, still fairly new (a bit expensive yet even though it's for cost savings), will be slower/less reliable on writes but that's good for game content that just sits for months/years.
      A good amount of the flash could be reserved for use as SLC, which brings down storage capacity but makes it a bit more like a set up with Optane + SSD.

    5. Re:The Humanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The "cloud" save game can be deleted at random by service provide if their automatic system decides you are a cheater or they "update" their business model or EULA. And of course, the data is stored only if the monthly tribute has been paid and there is no way to get the data back. Actually the save game services might be the most expensive cloud storage ever built, as saved games take just few megabytes at most yet it costs $10 per month.

      One might even wonder, if consoles could support local backups to USB stick, but somehow that is possible only in PS4, not in XBox.

    6. Re: The Humanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Steam provides cloud backups for every player, for free.

    7. Re: The Humanity by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      I don't know about using Optane a a reliable way to reduce loading times. The use cases for it are extremely narrow and specific. Plus it takes away from a M.2 slot. The new consoles would benefit much more from using a regular NVMe M.2 SSD in that slot. I could see MS implementing it and hyping the benefits when the benefits are small.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    8. Re:The Humanity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      no thanks. because once it's in the cloud, it's held for ransom. back your shit up.

    9. Re:The Humanity by tlhIngan · · Score: 1

      Several failed, extensive and expensive, repair attempts later, the poor fellow has to redo many time units of gaming to return to a previous level of play. If only we'd been required to store game play advances in the Cloud with guarantees of retrieval approaching that of the Imperial Conditioning of Dr Yueh.

      Except for the times when the game itself corrupts the save and the cloud dutifully mirrors it. Happened at least twice - once to PSN (the PS4 OS had a serious bug and corrupted saves, and those saves migrated their way to the cloud, corrupting your saves there as well). I think Steam did as well to a lesser extent - a game corrupted the save and Steam promptly synced the corrupted save to the cloud.

  7. These will probably get released sooner than you t by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These will probably get released sooner than you think. Even the xbox onesie isn't doing too well.

  8. Re: There was never a pause in global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    False

  9. 16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by L_R_Shaw · · Score: 0

    Microsoft is 0 for 3 in the console market. And now going for 0 for 4.

    The current Xbox is selling so badly that Microsoft refuses to not only give out sales numbers but they won't even give out their infamous channel stuffing shipment numbers like they would with their previous Xbox marketplace failures.

    Gamers are just fucking tired of Microsoft's garbage console products. They are like the shit race driver who is always down a lap or more and screwing up the track for the good drivers.

    The same irrelevant niche of the console market in the US and UK that were dumb enough to buy the first Xbox, 3,4,or 5+ duplicate Xbox 360s due to the RRoD fiasco, and the POS Xbox One will once again buy the Xbox Microsoft craps out.

    And once again the rest of the gaming world won't give a shit about yet another junk console from Microsoft.

    1. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are fanboys so interested in sales numbers? I mean, who cares? You like Sony. I don't get why you like any particular corporation over another. Seems like a weird thing to be a fanboy of.

    2. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why are fanboys so interested in sales numbers? I mean, who cares?

      People care because it can be an indication of which console might be best to buy as more sales of a console tends to imply a larger install base which further indicates a larger development pool. It's not perfect of course, but notice how many developers pledge porting or developing for the Switch precisely because of its massive sales figures.

      Having said all that, the other major interest is because sales numbers indicates in aggregate to all other consoles some idea of the health of the industry. PCs or phones might be taking a bite into their numbers, and both game and console sales are usually a lot easier to come by with only three big players vs trying to determine how accurate any of Google or Apple's numbers are with phones or app sales. For PCs we have Steam, but that's still far from perfect.

      Honestly, I understand your frustration with the negative spin the GP has on Microsoft, but I do think it is rather telling when a company doesn't want to release sales figures (or shipping figures). There's been a lot of cross PS4/XBox One/PC sales that makes one wonder what the actual worth of a console is. I don't know if we'll ever move to a post-console world, but it is getting to the point that parity of hardware is very much blurring the line on the point.

      Then again, perhaps it'll go the other way and consoles plus phones will undo most people having a PC. It's really hard to know where the current situation will go.

    3. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Sorry, but you're wrong, the Amiga is WAY better than the Atari ST.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    4. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You got it all wrong. MS went into the console business years ago with a plan to create consoles based off of PC hardware. They were so successful that both MS and Sony do this now, and games get developed simultaneously between PC, PS4 and Xbox. Back in 2000 they were worried about Sony taking over the living room, and taking over everything. Now hardware like the Cell is a distant memory and it turned out they should have been watching Google and Apple instead.

    5. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You would make a lot more sense without foaming at the mouth. It's a console. Grow the fuck up.

    6. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who cares? There are enough games produced for both Sony and Microsoft. More than anyone could possibly play. I've never heard anyone complain that there wasn't enough games. Sony fanboys are the worst.

    7. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They were so successful that both MS and Sony do this now, and games get developed simultaneously between PC, PS4 and Xbox.

      It seems like GameCore is only going to help between PC and XBox, and not so much development for PS4/Switch/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS.

    8. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      0 from 3 lol you mean 2 from 3. They did what they wanted with the original, Xbox 360 smashed it out of the park for sales and profit and whiule Xbox One has under performed it still has great sales and is profitable, just not PS4 levels.

    9. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hey at least they have done better than Sony. their ps3 generation was so bad they are still recovering from it, their YLOD and massive losses helped to almost send them bankrupt. not sure how you could call the 360 a failure though, most of the most successful and profitable consoles in history.

    10. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by gravewax · · Score: 2

      When sales levels are in the 10's of millions (e.g. 40m for xbox ~85m for ps) it really doesn't matter, both get great support, both are very successful and profitable (yes one more so then the other but from a users perspective those numbers just aren't relevant.)

    11. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Tough+Love · · Score: 1

      The current Xbox is selling so badly that Microsoft refuses to not only give out sales numbers

      VGchartz reports them, in short: 85M total for PS4, 39M for XB1. I would not call that a failure but Sony certainly has a commanding lead.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    12. Re: 16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Game core? Lol. More like lag core.

    13. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Microsoft "won" last gen if you can call selling more units winning for a few reasons:

      - Sold more units than the PS3, the PS3 had the just as problematic YLOD so any suggestion that the RROD problem inflated the sales over the PS3 is nonsense. Microsoft had a returns and repair or replacement process for the 360, but Sony refused to do any such thing for the YLOD, so if anything Sony benefitted more from their hardware failures than Microsoft could have.

      - The sold vs. shipped argument is stupid nonsense, retailers don't take stock they can't shift, so shipped rapidly becomes sold with only a difference of maybe a month or so, it's used as a figure because manufacturers only have accurate information on what they've shipped, and as they can only ship stuff retailers know is going to get sold then it's as accurate as a figure you're going to get. That's why Sony use it as well, even though fanboys like you think the accusations of shipping not equating to sales magically only applies to Microsoft not Sony.

      - The Xbox 360 had a far higher attach rate than the PS3 or the Wii, Microsoft were selling more than twice as many games per console than Sony and almost 4x as many per console than Nintendo. Given that's where the money is and Microsoft sold more 360s than Sony did PS3s then it's clear that the multiplier of games sold on top as well as millions of XBL subscriptions meant Microsoft made way more profit than Sony last gen even with their $1bn write down to pay for the RROD screw up.

      Finally yes, Sony is most definitely doing better than Microsoft this gen, but your suggestion that they're 0 for 3 is nonsense, because contrary to the Sony excusing propaganda, they trounced them last gen, just as well as Sony is trouncing them this gen.

    14. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by L_R_Shaw · · Score: 1

      "VGchartz reports them"

      Are you fucking joking?

      You actually just reposted fake sales numbers from a site run by a twenty something year old kid who lives at his mom's house.

      There's a reason Microsoft refuses to release their horrendous sales numbers or even shipment numbers.

      The Xbox One isn't anywhere near 39 million or even 35 million worldwide. What is hilarious about those made up numbers is they don't even make sense...

      The Xbox One is MAYBE around 30 million worldwide.

    15. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by L_R_Shaw · · Score: 1

      LOL

      What fucking planet are you posting from???

    16. Re:16 Years Of Failure For MS Consoles by L_R_Shaw · · Score: 1

      Holy shit!

      We've found the craziest Xbox Dead Ender of the day.

      Angry, delusional wackjobs like you are why the console market hates the POS Xbox and its tiny group of hateful and pathetic fanboys.

      It is glorious just how bitter you are over some piece of shit console failing in the market. Go back to crying yourself to sleep in your Halo jammies.

  10. Posse Up!!! by Urinal+Pube · · Score: 1

    Hopefully, for my sake, the X2 will be indifferent to whether or not you got buns.

  11. Hardware specs ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 0

    The Anaconda console will be more powerful and more expensive, providing a cutting-edge console gaming experience.

    Inside the updated XBox One X2 case is a Playstation 4 Pro ...

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    1. Re:Hardware specs ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the ps4 pro is slower than the existing xbonx though. You'd think they could sit on a design for at least a few years before confusing everyone and releasing an "update" that doesn't change performance

  12. Re: There was never a pause in global warming by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FALSE.

    Humans will be extinct by their own grimy hands within 300 years time.

  13. Dislocated Jaws by mentil · · Score: 2

    The Xbox Anaconda will have DRM that strangles you to death, then swallows your wallet whole.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    1. Re: Dislocated Jaws by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      Either that or crawl up your ass and eat your spleen.

  14. Price by dohzer · · Score: 2

    Also known as the "original-price" model, and the "over-inflated-price-due-to-the-fact-we-have-two-models" model.

  15. Xbox Was Worst Thing that Happened to Windows by BrendaEM · · Score: 1

    When Microsoft divided their effort between Windows and the Xbox, Windows suffered terribly.

    --
    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
    1. Re:Xbox Was Worst Thing that Happened to Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You have no clue what your talking about. They didn't divide anything, they created a whole new division from new staff to work on the Xbox hired from many of the gaming and hardware companies.

    2. Re:Xbox Was Worst Thing that Happened to Windows by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Windows suffered terribly.

      You say that like it is a bad thing.

  16. Re: I'd have shown my anaconda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And MS is making sure that their customers will get to see THEIR anaconda and maybe Even try it

  17. Wonder what their answer to Vulkan is by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Buried somewhere in their licensing agreement will be a "you will not use anything other than the DirectX API" I can guarantee it.

  18. Does it have buns? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hun

  19. Anaconda eh? by rune2 · · Score: 1

    Sounds like that should be the code name for their Windows 10 updates... I sure got bit by that last one! It might be more honest to start naming these Windows releases after vicious animals.... Barracuda, Cobra, or Honey Badger anyone? These days you never know what you'll get when you click that "Check for Updates" button.... I've heard of click-to-run but this more like click-and-run.

    1. Re:Anaconda eh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's a reference to "Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot: My Anaconda don't want none unless you got buns, hun.

  20. Microsoft politics summarized by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think they're pretty good names, because once Microsoft embraces you like an anaconda, your heart will remain locked in and you will never be able to switch to better, cheaper offerings from the competition.

  21. Cutting your market in two by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I __really__ hope this does not turn out to be a new trend of console power divergence where there will be games that come out that can only run on the more powerful version. Or you have the cheaper version but can "top up" your power by subscribing to a cloud computing service.

  22. Older examples of games requiring upgrade by tepples · · Score: 1

    I __really__ hope this does not turn out to be a new trend of console power divergence where there will be games that come out that can only run on the more powerful version.

    Such a trend would not be new. About a year after the Game Boy Color came out, most new games were Color-only to take advantage of its faster CPU, larger RAM, and larger video memory bandwidth. Likewise with GameCube to Wii.

    1. Re:Older examples of games requiring upgrade by CastrTroy · · Score: 1

      It's not a hard and fast rule though. Nintendo upgraded the 3DS and created the "New 3DS". There were very few games released that were exclusive to the "New 3DS". Only a handful of retail releases and a bunch of SNES ports that you could buy online. The most noteable were Minecraft and Xenoblade Chronicles.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  23. XBOX Going Switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This isn't quite correct. Microsoft is doing some bullshit mobile Switch conversion shit to their XBOX -- straight up theft. These are the code names for the console shit that's going to stream from the local server (traditional XBOX). There will be a 'big' version of this with a better core system, but it's not yet in development and slated for refresh.

  24. Two models at launch! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You can imagine they will also have another higher spec model halfway through the generation as well.

  25. Re:These will probably get released sooner than yo by JMJimmy · · Score: 1

    My opinion, who cares? The lack of quality exclusive content, the horrific user interface, and the overpricing of games means new hardware is pointless. All it will do is encourage lazy developers to build to the best version of the hardware and downplay any sluggish response on the original X1.

  26. Re:I'd have shown my anaconda by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    to Anne Lockhart back in the day....

    http://www.galactica.tv/battle...

    That's an awfully generous choice of words. It's more like a garden snake.

  27. of Games and Hardware by Xnet+Project · · Score: 1

    When it comes to the console space, powerful hardware is a plus, however a solid set of games, and not just exclusives must follow suit; otherwise having a powerful console alone with a lackluster list of games to play will fall short as we've all seen throughout 2017 / 2018 years. For the sake of console gaming as a whole in the Xbox realm; one should hope the abundance of solid games will be as plentiful as the power of hardware being used.