More New Xbox Rumouring – Six Core, Kinect, Blu-ray, Always On Internet Required

Xbox 720, NextBox, Durango, Xbox 3rd Gen, Terry. Whatever you want to call it, the next iteration in the Xbox family is very likely just over the horizon.

We’ve heard lots of rumours of constant connection DRM and lack of optical media before but now VG247 is going public with some of the information they’ve been told by their friends who are willing to interpret a Microsoft NDA slightly more loosely than probably intended.

They’re claiming that the XBox 720 – as they call it (and we’ve heard elsewhere) – will definitely have a Blu-ray drive and will utilise the constant connection for DRM that many have said will totally put them off the console.

They’re also claiming a four or six core processor with one core completely dedicated to Kinect and one dedicated to the operating system. Kinect will, apparently, be built in to the machine somehow.

According to these latest rumours, holiday sales season 2013 is looking good for a release but Microsoft has already promised that there will be no new Xbox hardware shown at E3 this year.

We’ll see.

Source: VG247.

39 Comments

  1. This sounds expensive, and therefore not worth it for the included DRM. Is Sony rumored to be doing the DRM also? If so, surely it would make sense not to, since the PS3 barely got hacked and there’s little to no piracy for it?

    • “the PS3 barely got hacked”

      … are you kidding?

      • I mean in the way that there’s little piracy compared to any other platform, I’m aware of the network hack, but that’s nothing to do with the PS3 itself.

      • There was plenty. After Geohotz jailbroke it (although piracy was not his intent) the homebrew firmware that poured out afterwards had loads of piratabillity. There is still plenty of USB style devices out there to get past the latest firmware’s.

      • Compared to pretty much every other electronic device ever made, the PS3 fared extremely well, and even when a hole was found (a pretty obvious one, from what I’ve read), it was quickly patched. While I don’t have many good things to say about Sony lately, I can’t fault the security of the console itself.

    • Except for that massive breach back in April. ;)

      • What does a server breach have to do with the actual hacking of the PS3 machine?

  2. Kinect out of the box will ensure it’s not an after-thought for devs, if they can make it higher fidelity & combine it with a controller for some games it would be a very strong tech to back against

    Not sure always on net is the barrier that most people on here will make it out to be, yes I personally see the problem with it but my PS3’s constantly connected to the net & if it did a genuine check I wouldn’t have a problem, so 50m non-core owners wouldn’t give 2 shits either, even though a small number of core PC gamers get their knickers in a twist over it.

    As for specs… schmecks, it’s all about the games & the experience

    • The trouble with the constant internet connection is what happens when you unexpectidly get signed out mid-game, will your game progress be instantly lost? Also its not like PSN is always reliable, and the weeks of downtime due to the hack.

      If BT suddenly decided to do some work and hand you internet downtime, your console would be useless.

    • I personally don’t have a problem with a constant internet connection but there are other problems that come with it. While a provider outage renders any game unplayable on a console that sits directly infront of me, even the slightest connection loss that could occur because someone on the same network is downloading a huge file (happens from time to time on my PS3) would kick me out of a running game which would be very annoying.

    • There are a few problems with it. First year of university, I was in student halls. My PS3 could not connect to the internet because of what they restricted, which is fair enough. But an always on DRM for it could have left me with my PS3 being useless for that year.

      And no, I shouldn’t have been spending more time studying. It’s first year, there’s fuck all to do and it’s mostly spent catching up people who didn’t learn anything about the subject before, so I had plenty of time. Now, if they could have cut off my gaming in second and third year when I was living in a house, that might actually have been useful :P

  3. “Kinect will, apparently, be built in to the machine somehow”

    The machine will probably BE the Kinect.

    • Does that mean it has to sit on top of my TV? Not sure how a console with cameras in would work practically…

  4. No deal then MS. The built in Kinect, i don’t mind as long as it’s optional but the constant treat everyone like a pirate DRM is the one thing that i will never be able to put up with on consoles.

    Aren’t Sony a shareholder of the group that invented Blu Ray? If so, i wonder if MS had to pay Sony to allow them to use Blu Ray or if the group allowed MS to use it regardless? Hopefully, this should put a stop to content being cut from games due to the size limit of DVDs as FF13 had a ton of content cut out and i think the DVD size limit was the reason.

    • Sony will do the same thing with the PS4. No doubt.

      • Unfortunaly, i think you are right. I would prefer if both MS and Sony didn’t treat us as pirates. :( Looks like i’m going to be building myself a gaming PC and game on the PC next generation as i know what to expect with it.

      • I hope you don’t think PC’s do not suffer from DRM issues steve, as unfortunately you would be very much mistaken.

  5. Haha. Yeah… The Kinect cameras will be built into the main unit of the next Xbox…

    Because that makes sense, right?

    • It could come bundled with it? It’ll mean they can push the price up.

      • Well if it’s bundled with it, then it’s not “built into the machine.”

      • Well it depends how you interpret that sentence. The hardware could be built in to the machine (as kinnect has a separate processor currently) and the camera itself on a bluetooth/wire bundled with the machine.
        if the Kinnect camera itself was in the machine it would not work for 60% of users and I can bet you anything right you now it’s not like that.

        If they changed the technology to not use purely optical/visual input then it would be possible.

      • Don’t blame me for VG247’s inability to clearly set out the key points of this rumour.

        There’s a big difference between Kinect being “built in” and having a dedicated image processing chipset built in with the cameras bundled in the box alongside.

      • I assumed it would be the way Kreisash being built into the machine is ridiculous to think, it would be that the processor would be in the machine and just the camera its self would be a separate device sold with the console.

    • I thought this, balancing the console on the top of your TV might be awkward.

      • That’s a good point, and could be the stupidest design decision ever made! Does anyone hear sit in front of there console when they play? I have my 360 on the floor, with my TV on the wall! No way would it work out.

      • It seems the challenge for next gen is to build your home entertainment system around your console (as a built in kinect unit would have to be somewhat central).

        This means that mine would probably look something like a random jenga game at any one time.

      • I love Jenga.

      • So do i… With wooden blocks.

        Would be a tad more risky with hundreds/thousands of pounds worth of entertainment equipment though! :S

  6. I hope kinnect isn’t forces upon us! If people want it; they want it, I don’t want to spend the extra money on some sh*t I don’t want.

    • That’s what I said about not being able to find a PlayStation controller without those stupid joysticks on the front of it back in the PS1 days…

      • All that does it confirm my already strong suspicion that you’re a fool! A FOOL! :-p

  7. It would not surprise me if this rumoured always on internet connection (DRM) also killed off the second hand market at the same time.

    Gaming is fast becoming a service orientated business, the way we access our games is going to change and at this point I’m worried about what this future holds.

  8. they should do a deal xbox get blu ray free & the ps vita gets skype for free

  9. DRM is an interesting one, the market is reluctant to accept it, yet the majority of devs and publishers want it.

    So lets say that Microsoft confirm always on and DRM methods, while Sony say that they won’t have such methods. Brilliant as this is we currently have a market where huge players such as Activision and EA can influence console-makers decisions.

    Would Sony go DRM free if Acti / EA said they would boycott the machine if it didn’t have piracy/pre-owned measures? no they wouldn’t.

    In my opinion a lot rests on how the companies go about selling games on each new system. There’s a great deal to be said for the Valve method of distribution, pricing and publisher negotiation, while Ubisoft’s abysmal DRM approach has resulted in me not buying any of their games for a few years now.

  10. There’s going to be a lot of heat in the console if that’s true!

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