Last we heard, there was a possibility Microsoft would reveal the next-gen Xbox console at E3 2012. Now we may have reason to believe it.
A veritable handful of professionals have tipped us off by listing their job titles on LinkedIn, which Twitter user Supererogatory first broadcast. According to the professional networking site, the following people are working on the next Xbox:
Jeff Faulkner is the “Xbox Next Gen Creative Director,” Jonathan Harris, a senior creative director for Xbox says he is working on “designing the next generation of entertainment,” and Joe Langevin is an Xbox hardware intern who’s job involves developing “high speed data buses to prevent electromagnetic interference in next-gen devices.” Patrick Corrigan, who works in visual design and branding, is an ex-Microsoft employee who says he was formerly “providing groundwork and integration for branding elements for next-gen Xbox on all forms of media. Ranging from print to UI across future releases of the Xbox platform.”
All these job positions and descriptions were removed as of press time.
Microsoft’s been cagey about “Xbox 720” details, although sales numbers would indicate the company is in no hurry to produce another console. This past summer we heard the Xbox 360 was only halfway through its life cycle, which isn’t terribly clear but doesn’t exactly sound like an update is on the horizon.
An obscure leak of sorts in March revealed close to nothing except that new hardware could be on the way for 2015. And given how long these things are in development, the LinkedIn listings don’t necessarily indicate we’ll see the next-gen console at 2012. It does however mean one is in the works.
Akex Pittman, away with your spam!
Play Station copying is in progress.. ;-)
But then where is the innovation? Sony is rolling out the new PSP in December, and that thing’s processing power is on par with the 360. Hell, it’s more powerful than a standard Mac, and it’s a little handheld for an eighth of the price. THAT, is innovation. The Wii U, which has the same processing power of the 360 (so tech over 7 years old), is just a Wii with an updated processor and an iPad controller. That’s not innovation, that’s just stupid.
Point being: Developers are often limited by the rendering power and capacity of the system they’re developing for. They have the resources and fanbase to successfully make a new console. To stick with the obviously-defunct 360 for much longer would be plain stupid. More gamers and more developers are turning to Sony nowadays.
They better change the business model then. Onlive / Streaming / Cloud is where its at. http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/consoles-are-the-new-coin-op
Well I mean in the sense that games are still free flowing, i’m not talking about hardware, framerate, or the nitty gritty of the consoles. I’m talking about production. Xbox’s are still selling and people are still buying games. The industry doesn’t need to update the systems until production slows. Because as everyone knows, the industry definitely likes to milk the gold mines dry then go find a new one. I do understand that we’re reaching capacity with the 360 and its performance but at the same time it’s really still (even after 5 years) making a shitload of money for Microsoft, as well as the game industries. I’m a Sony guy myself so it honestly doesn’t matter to me how long the 360 lasts but i could see both systems stretching out for 10 more years. Maybe not an excellent, and thriving 10 years, but it took the original Xbox some time to die even AFTER the 360 was released so the timeframe between now and 2021 could yield next gen game system releases and new hardware updates, glitches, crashes, restorations, and renewals but regardless of what happens i can still see the 360 lasting one more decade. It’s a consumer comfortable product that may not be up to date when the time comes but it will still be something everyone is used to. And that’s what our society wants. We want them to sell us comfortability.
I definitely see where you’re coming from there and I didn’t really take into account all of the testing and programming they would have to do. In that aspect, touche good sir. Touche indeed.
Bad move? No, the bad move is the leaked information. The 360 is a great console, I use mine regularly. But new consoles don’t just happen. They would have started planning the next console shortly after the 360 was released.
If the console has a solid 4-5 years of planning and development, then a solid year (it won’t happen but we can wish) of testing (we all know the RODs) to create a solid reliable console which blows away the competition.
As Lorne mentioned though, it’s not just about the console now. It’s about streaming, the cloud and integration with pretty much everything. It will take years to get this software right, and even then they’ll get it wrong and will have to give it a make-over a year or two later.
The 360 is supposed to have a 10 year lifespan (according to some from Microsoft), so the 360 isn’t going anywhere for awhile. My guess–and it is a guess–is that the development will be at least 3 years long, with a full year of testing to avoid a repeat of things like the RRoD. Work has already been going, and odds are the design is already done to a degree, but they will take time to actually get the thing to work.
We may get a product announcement next year at E3, but more likely it will be 2013, with a 2014 release. Then the systems will both receive support for at least a year, maybe two, before the 360 support is quietly discontinued in favor of the 720 (or whatever they call it, but 720 has a nice ring to it).
Best guess? Xbox 720 November or December of 2013 at the earliest, and they will probably take a year to two years post-release before it has Microsoft’s total support.–Ryan
P.S. The PS4 will probably be about a year after the 720. PS3 is just starting to hit its stride, but Sony can’t allow Microsoft to get too big a lead…again.
They are developing now because if you wait until the 360 is decline before you design a successor, you are way too late. When the time is right all they will have to do is pull the trigger. I am sure Sony is up to something too, and Nintendo has unveiled theirs.
They better change the business model then. Onlive / Streaming / Cloud is where its at. http://penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/consoles-are-the-new-coin-op
Bad move on Microsoft’s part. The 360 still has at least 10 years of life left but they’re going to kill it by releasing the new Xbox that no one will be able to afford or want at first causing their stocks to plummet because people are still interested in their 360′s and the 720 will still have to wait for games to come out; meanwhile, developers are still working on games for the PS3 and 360 so they won’t be too interested in having to create new engines and software for this new system. Stick to a UI update and fresh games, that seems to work well. It has in the past, hasn’t it? Then there’s the fact that if they DO release it Sony will just release whatever next generation console they want to release a few years later when people start to get tired of the old systems and their sales will shoot up. No one ever thinks about these things. It’s all “SKAUDHASDHSALDK MONEY MONEY OMNOMNOMNOM, oh wait, why are we not selling any consoles?”
The 360 is old, though, and it’s really showing its age at this point, with such titles as Red Dead Redemption, Crysis 2, Split/Second, and other such titles having to be decently dumbed-down for the 360 version, or just left with horrible framerate issues. How you can say that the 360 has “at least 10 years of life left” is beyond me. Hardware restrictions are really hurting game development at this point, but then again, so is Microsoft’s unfair submission policies for Xbox 360 games.