Xbox 360 - The Next Generation

The NextBox, Xbox 720, Xbox 360-2 or whatever the hell it’s going to be call has received an expansive amount of attention of the past few weeks. Rumours are hitting the internet thick and fast as the next generation of home consoles are starting to be confirmed. I’m going to go with Xbox 720 for this report and will be assessing the rumour mill as it constantly turns.

Discworld

One reporting reaching out computers last week was the information that the new Xbox will be utilising a Blu-ray drive. Many of us remember the HD format wars from a few years ago where Microsoft backed the wrong horse as Sony’s Blu-ray conquered the market. The Blu-ray option for the Xbox 360 was often rumoured but never cam into fruition but with a new console not far off the industry expects the big X to play the ‘if you can’t beat them joint them’ card.

Blu-ray technology has come a long way since it’s initial release and is becoming the drive of choice in most homes worldwide. The drives have gotten faster, storage size has increased and the whole set up has become less costly to produce. The new Xbox will almost certainly use Blu-ray in some form or other as it will allow releases more storage and a chance for higher-resolution graphics too.

Likely – 8/10

Power

A rumour kicked up in late January confirming the possible new specification of the hardware itself. IGN reported that it will use something similar to the Radeon HD 6670 (which offers DirectX 11) as well as 3D and 1080p output.

What this really means is that the system will be offering a specification that is six times the power of the Xbox 360 and even more powerful than the already confirmed Wii-U. The rumour mill then spun out of control as various sites advises the public that development kits will be with developers by August 2012 and that the first announcements are expected at this years E3 expo.

SO-SO – 4/10

Used Games

Notably the most controversial news coming out this week was the rumour that the system itself would not allow for the use of used games. This rumours is still unconfirmed at this point (much like the above) but this hasn’t stopped people from discussing the whole option at great length in various forums.

At the moment this is entirely speculation but people expect each new game to come with a one-time-use code that will prevent the disk from working on other machines, whether this is the truth or not though is still a very grey area. Microsoft has not yet denied the rumour and as this slowly expands across the net more and more players are getting concerned that this option would not only lower sales of the new system but also affect businesses across the planet.

Publishers though have been adamant for long enough that they believe that used sales are bad for the industry as a whole. Even so the big players on the high street like Game and Gamestop would all suffer as a sizable chunk of their revenue comes from the used games market.

Unlikely – 2/10

Microsoft Points

While this doesn’t affect everyone it is quite a possibility that the new Xbox would do away with the current online purchasing method. My article a few weeks ago outlined the downright oddity of the points themselves and the pain in purchasing anything online. Many gamers find them cumbersome and most would be happy to see a direct purchase method like on the Playstation or PC as the best way to take the online market forward.

 I think this is the most likely rumour to come true as there doesn’t seem to be a lot of arguments for keeping the points system in place. I for one would be happy to see the back of the current system and I’m sure the majority of you would agree too.

Very Likely – 9/10

At the moment there are a awful lot of eyes taking note of the Microsoft rumours regarding the next generation but until something concrete comes along I think it’s best to take all of the above with a pinch of salt.