Friday, November 25th 2011
Microsoft Working On Not One, But Two New Xbox Product Lines
Finally, next generation gaming consoles are around the corner. It will have an uplifting effect on the entire gaming industry as it will raise the bar for visual and technical detail in games. Many of today's games are designed keeping consoles in mind, and so their PC platform versions don't look much more than what has come to be known as "console-ports". There are a few exceptions to this, but it would be refreshing to see most game developers move on to creating games that take advantage of today's insanely powerful PC platform, because the console platform will have caught up technologically.
Rumors have it, that Microsoft will be developing not one, but two product lines that succeed the Xbox 360, and we're not talking about product variants here, but two distinct lines. The first of the two will be an entry-level console designed more like a set-top box, designed around the Kinect controller (perhaps something to compete against Nintendo Wii U). The second product line will be the one that will be supercharged with the latest technologies that will raise the bar in graphics. It will compete with whatever succeeds the Playstation 3. There is talk that it will pack a 6 core processor, an AMD-made GPU, and 2 GB of fast DDR3 memory. This console could be unveiled to the world (although not launched), at the CES event held in January. Meanwhile, Microsoft is allowing TSMC some time to refine its 28 nm bulk process.
Source:
TechSpot
Rumors have it, that Microsoft will be developing not one, but two product lines that succeed the Xbox 360, and we're not talking about product variants here, but two distinct lines. The first of the two will be an entry-level console designed more like a set-top box, designed around the Kinect controller (perhaps something to compete against Nintendo Wii U). The second product line will be the one that will be supercharged with the latest technologies that will raise the bar in graphics. It will compete with whatever succeeds the Playstation 3. There is talk that it will pack a 6 core processor, an AMD-made GPU, and 2 GB of fast DDR3 memory. This console could be unveiled to the world (although not launched), at the CES event held in January. Meanwhile, Microsoft is allowing TSMC some time to refine its 28 nm bulk process.
81 Comments on Microsoft Working On Not One, But Two New Xbox Product Lines
...we hope.
upgraded consolitis?
Christ almighty, shit'll be fine. At least it's a path forward.
Two product lines is really weird. Unless the first will be a casual/download only device for home theater type stuff as well.
It's going to last two years !
I hope it's not true.
Hopfeully MS will shove another 6 buttons on the current controller in hope i can have games with things like leaning and a cover key so less of this automatic BS like there was in Mass Effect.
Sure the cover system was alright be for those of use who have keyboards are quite capable of pressing a extra key lol.
PC gaming has languished because of consoles. We should have been at Metro 2033/BF3 level effects years ago, not just finally coming to it.
The industry is stagnant until new hardware is released. Yeah there are still hit titles that come out but come on...there is no drive to really create something grander when you can recycle the same thing again and make money. Ha, critical dig at CoD there ;D. They've been doing it for years and people kept buying it and going "Ooooo!!"
You know why people go "Oooo!" over aging console games? Look at the GPU sales leader. People are idiots!! They buy crap!! They buy bargain hardware with Intel craphics then buy their cheap console to see something pretty. Then they thumb their nose at PC gamers, rub in our faces how much devs love them more, and think we are the more arrogant master race.
Well fine, I'm part of the master PC race and proud of it. I have a right to be. I spent my money to build it. I've spent my time to maintain it. I don't like playing on crippled resolutions. If I can't max it out, I can't be satisfied with the game. When I play a console game that is clearly hampered by the hardware, I find the experience to be lacking and almost not worth playing.
Consoles are not bad until they are tapped out. Till then, they can drive innovation on both console and PC side. After that, they need to be retired.
I sure hope M$ is making the same hardware on both. This sounds like they are making two sets of hardware. A weaker entry unit and then the full gamer unit. This has never been a good thing in the industry. Sony found that out with keeping the PS2 around so long. Just make the one unit. Don't keep two on the market.
Also, since when was it a bad move for anyone they kept PS2 around for so long? if anything it was good for everyone.
EDIT: I could make a serious rebuttal to your ... post, or whatever it is, but I will instead sum it up with three letters: WTF.
Most of the PC games we play today have 32-bit executables anyway (including Battlefield 3), and being 32-bit, they'll never get to use >2 GB of our high-end >9000 GB PC RAM.
So now, going further with predictions.
The weaker one will be ARM based, I'm telling you!
The push to ARM is strong and clearly visible, this would be ultimate test drive for next-gen where it'll be ARM-only (when they catch up with performance)
Look, it's kinect-like so they won't have to care for cross-compatibility since kinect-games create totally different experience so you wouldn't want to have same games (experience wise, titles will probably overlap on both) on two different products. Right?
+ Recent rumors of Kinect like devices for Windows 8 which will run on both arm and x86!
It all makes sense!
2GB was good for windows xp times... and 8gb cost US 50$ ... there can never be to much memory... ... 2GB ram is for our videocard these day..
put more ram i say!
Besides, discs are obsolete. Next gen consoles will increasingly use digital download distributions. You buy a game, it gets downloaded to your console's HDD. Your internet too slow? Tough poo.You must be one of them. Your insistence on Blu-ray shows that you game on PS3. Casual.