More Firm Rumours About Next Gen Consoles
Please call it the NeXtbox.
Published: 16:47, 16/11/2011 by Peter [Colossalblue].
None.
Edge is usually a source that steers clear of groundless conjecture. So, perhaps the rumours they’re publishing today should be treated with a little more respect than others we’ve seen floating around? Perhaps not. We’ll let you decide.
Apparently, Ubisoft Montreal is already working on projects relating to target hardware for the next Xbox. Apparently, the hardware is PC-based but built using off-the-shelf hardware supplied by Microsoft to roughly meet expected specifications. Finalised developer hardware is supposedly expected before Christmas with retail-ready hardware in the shops by next Christmas.
Edge is also claiming to know of at least one Sony-owned studio that is working entirely on next generation hardware projects. That same studio has apparently had some input into the graphics technology adopted by Sony.
Of course, until the platform holders themselves speak up about their plans, none of this should be counted on to be true. Speculation does seem to be gathering pace for an E3 2012 reveal though.
Both Sony and Microsoft will be acutely aware of the importance of getting to market early, with Microsoft’s jump on the PS3 giving them a big head start. Both companies will also be keen on the idea of stealing any potential thunder that the Wii U might be due when it starts showing seriously through the expo season next summer.
These are very definitely still rumours and conjecture at this stage but it’s all getting much easier to believe.
I think I’m ready for some new hardware, are you?
Source: Edge
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16/11/2011 at 16:51
Member since: Forever
Give me new hardware Xmas next year/Spring 2013.
16/11/2011 at 23:14
Member since: Apr 2009
2013 would be preferable please!
16/11/2011 at 16:51
Member since: Aug 2009
They could call it the “Lex” Box
16/11/2011 at 16:52
Member since: Forever
It’s approaching time for new hardware, with MS focused on DX, now up to DX11 as superbly demonstrated by Battlefield3 on PC it would be surprising if they can get a console together capable of those sorts of graphics that could retail at ~£250 I really can’t see anyone coming to market with a £400+ console, it would surely bomb in this world economy.
Still, quality games take 2+ years to make, so it’s not surprising if someone is already playing around with some hardware, between now 7 its probable release date price will plummet to hopefully consumer friendly levels.
16/11/2011 at 16:57
Member since: Forever
The question is, what does Sony do…
I don’t think they can gift a 1 year, almost 10m sales advantage to their rival again.
16/11/2011 at 17:02
Member since: Apr 2010
Depends on their angle this time round. Sony came into this generation well and truly from the wrong angle with uneeded features that would inevitably be stripped out, high prices, hard to design for hardware and as a result, bad launch titles. If they learn from their mistakes then there may be less harm than thought in giving MS a little lead.
16/11/2011 at 17:05
Member since: Forever
I think it’s fairly safe to assume that Sony will want something within the same rough launch window as Microsoft this time, at least to get closer in the massive US market. And they have enough first party studios that a decent launch window of software isn’t out of reach either, while they wait for a bump in 3rd party support.
16/11/2011 at 17:23
Member since: Feb 2009
I struggle to see how sony can release a new home console in the £250 range next christmas with the ps3 only just hitting the 200 range. I also can’t imagine sony want a ps4 and psvita having their first proper christmas’ at the same time
16/11/2011 at 17:45
Member since: Apr 2010
I don’t think anyone in their right minds expect a new console to cose £250! Even the 360 didn’t cost that at launch! I think the £350-399 mark is more realistic.
16/11/2011 at 18:05
Member since: Feb 2009
I just think people who have a 360 will buy the new xbox and people who have ps3 will buy the new playstation. There will have to be some pretty good reasons for people to change one way or other. A lot of people have invested a lot of time and effort into building their trophy level/gamers score and will want to continue that over to next gen.
16/11/2011 at 18:33
Member since: Jul 2010
Also it didn’t really affect Sony because in the long run, PS3 won. MS got what it deserved. Whilst PS3 surprises us gamers every year with games that push the PS3, 360 doesn’t, it’s out of steam.
£450 for a PS4 is the right price in 2014. PS3 can go another two years easily.
16/11/2011 at 19:22
Member since: Nov 2011
This comment is hidden.
16/11/2011 at 19:42
Member since: Feb 2009
@Awazye Really? I don’t think either console “won” and Xbox is certainly going as strong as ever in the sales department.
@TrialbyFire Where are these figures like “pretty much every PS3/Xbox owner” coming from? I’m afraid I stopped paying attention to your comment when you had to call people who have other opinions “idiots” and “braindead”. Id rather read what those people have to say as they don’t have to resort to name calling.
16/11/2011 at 20:07
Member since: Sep 2009
Most of the delay in getting the PS3 out of the door related to blu-ray manufacturing problems – something that shouldnt’ be a problem this time around.
Gonna take a guess that the Sony studio with input on the graphics is Guerilla Games judging by their prowess in the field and they might have been a bit quieter than other devs over the last few months. Killzone 4 as a Launch title would be one hell of a plus point…
16/11/2011 at 20:35
Member since: Feb 2011
although i agree with most of what trailbyfire is saying you can’t pretend that sony haven’t made mistakes and from a purely business point of view Microsoft have done better. for me the ps3 is a better console as it has more of the features that i want although for anyone else that could be different.
@ag i though it was a known fact that xbox’s had a higher fail rate then ps3′s and there defiantly was a problem with the older models with disk scratching and anyone who’s had xbox since launch will of easily paid out hundreds of pounds in online fees. i thought these were common knowledge so I’m guessing I’ve missed your point lol
16/11/2011 at 21:13
Member since: Feb 2011
ooommmmmm he called them names!
16/11/2011 at 21:46
Member since: Feb 2009
@David Saying “pretty much every PS3 owner is still playing his £400 investment” is what I’m referring to, because it’s nonsense.
16/11/2011 at 22:18
Member since: Nov 2008
You make some very good points there TrialbyFire, although the execution leaves a bit to be desired.
Some of the points however are a little flawed, mainly the reliability comparison. I am on my 3rd Playstation, the first i didnt treat well, granted, but the second (and current slim) I treated with great respect (mainly through fear of a repeat performance) and guess what? Precisely 18 months later it went, the exact same length of time my first lasted.
I am now expecting my current slim to meet its doom in another 6 months when it reaches that magical best before date.
Sony, as you point towards, put out a future perfect console but it was at a cost, the consumer couldnt wait for the next gen gaming machine and so many people jumped ship which is still yet to be clawed back. It was a risk and maybe at the final hour it is paying off for Sony but its been one hell of a rough ride that im sure they dont want to let happen again.
16/11/2011 at 23:32
Member since: Apr 2010
Did Sony really put out a future perfect console? I think not. I’m as much a fan of the PS3 as any fanboy (not calling you personally, merely a reference) but to say Sony got the PS3′s early life right is a lie. They launched with a price nearly £150 more expensive than the 360 at its launch, my launch day PS3 with 2 games and an extra controller cost me £515! Hardly pocket change. Not to mention they made the architecture hard to design for, deterring devs for the best part of a year and a half and had a bunch of uneeded features that were eventually stripped out, it was then when the price dropped that the PS3 started to shine. So yes, the PS3 now is a good games console, but at launch it was not a future perfect model, the proof being merely that it had to be changed to sell.
17/11/2011 at 02:03
Member since: Jul 2010
PS3 won from a gaming aspect. MS missed out many features where as Sony over looked the RAM.
Also if people can buy £500 iPhones and iPads every year, I’m sure If the next console is a huge upgrade, people will buy it.
17/11/2011 at 02:30
Member since: Nov 2008
@jayjay By future perfect i mean it is has capabilities to outlast the rest of the market. While its main rival has all but hit the wall it is still rolling on producing better games and apps. All the while not requiring the consumer to shell out for its (sub standard/ inferior) online.
Yes it has taken time to grow and develop but the Xbox has seen none of that, what was bought day one is what is still there now.
Il admit, that does sound very fanboyish, which im not, would love to have owned an xbox but couldnt justify myself owning both and paying for online (plus i love blurays :D ).
Future perfect for me means the hardware has the capability to adapt.
18/11/2011 at 00:13
Member since: Sep 2009
£450 for a console are you crazy! I agree with the £250 – 350 price range but £450 holy crap. My gaming PC was £500 (which I built myself, and as a result I saved ALOT of money)
I agree with you @AG2297 about how some people seem to be generating imaginary figures and calling people idiots, c’mon is it really necessary? I would understand Microsoft releasing a new console since the Xbox has been out for 6 years come the 22nd of this month. 6 years! Yes the PlayStation has better hardware ( It doesn’t make it “win”) then again it did cost £341 (for the 40Gb – And it didn’t even include a headset) at launch, where as the Xbox was only £279.99 for the top of the line one at the time. The reason I took so long to get a PS3 is because of the silly prices. If it’s a repeat this time round then I’ll gladly do without the next one, at least until it becomes more consumer friendly. Also this time round they better include a headset, even if it’s a cheapish one.
16/11/2011 at 17:13
Member since: Forever
Consoles can also spit out more power than a PC with lower spec hardware remember. The unified hardware and lack of massive OS overhead help.
16/11/2011 at 18:23
Member since: Jul 2010
£250 is to cheap. £450 is the ideal price depending how it compares to a gaming PC.
16/11/2011 at 18:34
Member since: Jul 2009
£450 is a shocking price and kept so many people away (including me). I’m utterly convinced that Sony will try to nail the £300 mark again (think: PS1, PS2).
16/11/2011 at 18:57
Member since: Jun 2009
Would anybody be able to afford one though with all the doom n gloom and ever increasing prices.
16/11/2011 at 19:58
Member since: May 2009
the PC i built cost me about £500 and will last me at least the same amount of time the consoles have not to mention no need for more money on a pc to use to its cheaper still…
17/11/2011 at 07:43
Member since: Jul 2009
I would hope the PS4 comes in at around that £450 mark. To say the Vita will launch at circa £300 must surely indicate that £300 for the PS4 almost two years (?) later is ridiculous. The PS4 should be miles ahead, spec-wise, than the PS3, and the Vita and so how can it launch at a similar price?!
Personally, I am ready for the PS4 to push console gaming forward, close the gap on the PC’s, and if that means £450 I will once again shell out that much for a quality machine. Hell, that’s what my PS3 cost, and that has lasted me since launch. The same cost 6 years down the line would be fine by me.
17/11/2011 at 19:07
Member since: Jan 2011
Yea i have no problem shelling out £450/€480 for the PS4, as i have for the PS3 on launch day, i’ve never had a single problem with my PS3.
16/11/2011 at 18:38
Member since: Mar 2010
Well, the X in Xbox does come from DirectX, and so it would be natural for it to come with 11. And it’s going to cost more than £250 if it’s to be more than a casual-gamer Kinectbox. I think £300-400 seems likely. And here in Norway that’s going to be about £500+… *sigh*.
16/11/2011 at 19:29
Member since: Oct 2008
Yup, Scandinavia isn’t great for prices. Our new games cost around the £55 mark (in store) – and in Norway is must cost slightly more.. :(
16/11/2011 at 19:42
Member since: Mar 2010
A new game in store usually cost about the same nowadays, about £55. Some places they can cost up to 65 though (they normally launch for £55 to get sales, and then they may jump up to £65 shortly after).
As a result, I buy all my games from the UK for half the price or less.
16/11/2011 at 16:52
Member since: Jan 2010
4 new consoles in a year? that would be tough on the wallets if anything.
16/11/2011 at 18:16
Member since: Sep 2009
i’m with you here. the next gen can wait for a year more for my sake.
16/11/2011 at 19:44
Member since: Mar 2010
Thirded, no rush here.
16/11/2011 at 20:15
Member since: Apr 2010
If money is what people are worrying about then them launching next year shouldn’t be a problem either way. By the time you come to buy it, it will have had a price drop and a plethera of games with it. Everyone wins.
16/11/2011 at 17:00
Member since: Aug 2011
I firmly believe that is should be called the NextBox. I am well and truly behind the name.
16/11/2011 at 18:24
Member since: Mar 2010
It can’t, what would the next ‘box be called? The “OneAfterNeXtBox?”?
17/11/2011 at 09:36
Member since: Jun 2009
NeXtBox 2 obviously. XD
16/11/2011 at 17:00
Member since: Aug 2008
Am I ready for new hardware? Always. But I question if it’s really necessary.
When you see the PS3 capable of turning out something like Uncharted 3, and realise that most other devs have yet to achieve a similar standard on current hardware, it makes you wonder if perhaps they should focus on getting the best out of what we have before demanding more power.
That view is only reinforced when you hear incompetents like Bethesda claiming that PS3 development is no longer an issue, only to then see the stuttering frame-rate videos of Skyrim popping up on YouTube, proving that they haven’t really moved on at all from where they were 3 years ago with Fallout 3.
I feel console gaming is falling into the same trap as PC gaming. Whenever devs don’t think something is possible, they just want to throw more power at it, rather than optimising what they have and making it work. Not sure if that’s down to laziness, or an over-reliance on pre-built game engines and an unwillingness/inability to tweak and optimise code, but as a gamer, I find it disappointing.
16/11/2011 at 17:15
Member since: Forever
That’s basing off the assumption that Uncharted 3 isn’t already optimised to hell, which I’m sure it is…
16/11/2011 at 18:13
Member since: Aug 2008
I’m sure it is, but that’s exactly my point. If one company can create a title of such quality, there’s no reason – other than lack of ability or desire – that others can’t do the same. i.e. they want more power, so they don’t have to bother doing the hard work.
16/11/2011 at 17:33
Member since: Forever
It’s got to make business sense, 3rd parties can’t spend 6 years crafting & optimising graphics like GT5. There is a point where a game just has to release.
With new hardware you’ll be able to do a lot more without spending 1000′s of man hours optimising.
16/11/2011 at 18:26
Member since: Jul 2010
Uncharted didn’t take 6 years and neither did UC2 and they are graphically superior to any game.
16/11/2011 at 18:33
Member since: Aug 2008
I agree, but GT is something of a special case/anomaly, with it’s previous sales and massive fan-base perhaps earning them more leniency with deadlines than others would be permitted.
It’s not only about optimisation, though. You think of Uncharted and how each sequel has taken just 2 years and gone from strength to strength. Then you think of the shambles that is Bethesda, and you have to wonder if they’ve made any progress at all in the last 3 years. With them it’s not just about optimisation – some of the bugs which make it into their games are so glaringly, startlingly obvious that you have to wonder if they perform any debugging at all. And that’s not just on PS3, that’s across all platforms.
For them to have gone on record saying that PS3 development is no longer a problem, then turn out a game which is suffering the exact same problems (stuttering, lost followers etc.) as Fallout 3… you can’t help but wonder if they’re simply incompetent or deliberately taking the piss. You also have to wonder if they’d actually benefit from more advanced and powerful hardware, or just make bigger games with even more bugs.
16/11/2011 at 20:41
Member since: Jul 2009
I remember an interview I read with one of the guys from Sonic Team, in which he stated that back when they wer efirst party if they had a problem trying to get something running on hardware they would just phone the hardware guys up and ask them why it isn’t working. Now that they are a third party they have to workout the majority of it for themselves. The same could be true of Naughty Dog and Bethesda
17/11/2011 at 08:51
Member since: Nov 2009
Well Uncharted 1 was the groundwork for what followed with UC2 and 3 so basically you could argue that UC3 had around 6 years of optimizing. The all run on the same engine or optimized versions of the first engine, right?
18/11/2011 at 22:28
Member since: Nov 2011
This comment is hidden.
17/11/2011 at 02:06
Member since: Feb 2011
Have you even played Skyrim? If you had you would know how much of a leap forward in terms of both graphics and reliability.
Also if your comparing the visuals in a linear game like Uncharted to a massive open world like Skyrim then you’re an idiot. The playing field isn’t anywhere close to level in that example.
16/11/2011 at 17:02
Member since: Sep 2009
If this is true, the Wii U is going to fail.
16/11/2011 at 20:06
Member since: Mar 2011
Dont rush in with that attitude too fast. Nintendo know what they’re doing…
16/11/2011 at 17:08
Member since: Jul 2009
NeXtbox? Really?
D’ya not think that is sorta close to the NeXtCube and the NeXtstation, made by NeXt?
16/11/2011 at 18:27
Member since: Mar 2010
It’s been the second nickname for the next Xbox, along 720, for quite some time, with varying populartiy. Here on TSA I’ve noticed it’s become quite a popular name the last months.
17/11/2011 at 02:09
Member since: Feb 2011
I’ve never heard of either of those consoles so who really cares? Surely it’s better than Xbox 720.
17/11/2011 at 06:42
Member since: Feb 2009
Doesn’t really matter if you or I have never heard of it, if there is something already on the market of such a strikingly similar name they would not be allowed to name it that.
16/11/2011 at 17:20
Member since: May 2009
Cue yet more Apple lawsuits.
16/11/2011 at 17:52
Member since: Feb 2011
I think with the way Sony has handled the PS Vita, they have learnt from mistakes made with the PS3, and by the time they release the PS4 im sure it will be much stronger against the next Xbox.