Microsoft Predict THE FUTURE thread

[Bob]

As we've been discussing in the magazine forum there's a bit of a gap in the 2011 release schedules for big hitting 360 exclusives and Kinnect titles that are going to take real advantage of the hardware.

Is this because the first party exclusive is a thing of the past?

That there's enough 3rd party multi-platform stuff coming?

No one wants to make Kinect games?

Has M$ taken it's eye off the ball?

Or is, As Dan has suggested, 720 a whole lot closer than we think and Lionhead, Rare, Turn 10 and all the other M$ big hitters are secretly beavering away on a whole raft of launch titles?

Or is it something else?

[Ginga]

I hope for none of these. Except maybe the Kinect one.

[BarryChuckle]

I hope there's a 720 announcement at E3.

Maybe, due to the financial climate plus the pretty safe position Microsoft sit in with one gajillion consoles sold, they're not too bothered about pushing new exclusive IP's, as their existing ones are doing well, and coincidently appear to be reaching the 'end', GOW3 for example, just as the 360 is coming to an end?

Fair play to Sony for pushing on with the exclusives, but as there's obviously life in the old PS3, they need to keep on working at getting where they obviously feel it needs to be, proudly atop of the pile, which incidentally will be quite amusing when the 720 gets announced. They're on a roll at the moment, so whatever they're doing, it's working. Alternatively, would more exclusives sell extra 360's at this stage? I doubt it.

I genuinely couldn't care less about Kinect, and hope it crashes and burns.
It will never, ever be accurate enough, regardless of tech improvements, to be able to allow core gamers to play the games they like accurately, so apart from when my kids get older and want one to play Wack a Mole HD, I won't be buying one.

[Bob]

Keep making Kinect 360 games for the forseeable to keep the casuals happy, whilst letting the big boys play with the new 720 behemoth?

I'd be happy with something like that.

They'd be very silly to drop 360 as fast as they dropped teh original X-Box last time.

Sony have shown that its perfectly possible to reposition the old hardware to a new audience and I'd expect M$ to do that this time.

Let's hope 720 comes with a bundled Kinect just so that every console has one.

[BarryChuckle]

It would make sense to carry over the Kinect, as I'm sure they will, but keeping the 360 going would be in everyone's best interests, as it would keep the noobs in the Microsoft loop, instead of pissing them off by binning the console they forked out £200 last Christmas.

I'm definitely ready for a new console now, hell I've even been considering getting a PS3.

[Bob]

What I'd like to know is what disc format the proposed 720 is going to use.. Surely next gen games will require even more games making disc swapping the norm if they stuck with DVD.. are they going to swallow their pride and move over to Blu-Ray?

[BarryChuckle]

What was that story last week about new disks being used, was it a capacity thing or anti piracy?

[Palerider_GB]

What I'd like to know is what disc format the proposed 720 is going to use.. Surely next gen games will require even more games making disc swapping the norm if they stuck with DVD.. are they going to swallow their pride and move over to Blu-Ray?

Or just install the discs to the HD drive, thus negating the need to "swap discs"...

[BarryChuckle]

What I'd like to know is what disc format the proposed 720 is going to use.. Surely next gen games will require even more games making disc swapping the norm if they stuck with DVD.. are they going to swallow their pride and move over to Blu-Ray?

Or just install the discs to the HD drive, thus negating the need to "swap discs"...

The new console will have to come with a 250gb HD as standard surely, so installation makes sense.

[Bob]

Blu Ray can hold 50Gb of data.. so presumably that would limit you to 5 games.

I can't see M$ being particularly generous in HDD size either.

[BarryChuckle]

What are the chances they have developed their own MS Ray (see what I've done there?) that holds 50gb of data?

Would something like that have been leaked by now?

[Keep 117]

Doubtful as they lost the HD-disc Vs Blu-Ray disc war way back, due to porn and Sony backing Blu-Ray(Mostly due to porn backing Blu-Ray) and the money they had invested in HD discs and the company shares they bought backing the HD disc format, that turned out to be worthless, I can't see MS venturing down that road again.


I just pulled this off of http://forums.highdefdigest.com/high-def-disc-faqs/91283-who-owns-blu-ray.html

It's worth noting that Panasonic holds the most patents in the technology at this time, and it appears that the BDA will adopt Panasonics 3D Blu-ray model, so Panasonic will likely hold more patents in the technology still.

Sony holds the most patents related to the disc design structure which potentially will garner them the highest profits on the technology. Where Panasonic gets paid for every player sold, Sony gets paid for every disc produced. Per unit they get less, but overall they will get more.

At least, this is my understanding after following BD for years.

There are other players in BD as well, for sure, but I'm not sure if any come as close as Panasonic or Sony for patents in the technology.




I can't see Sony releasing there stranglehold anytime soon on the format let alone for MS to creep in and secure the relative patents. Digital Download seems the way forward for MS, or serious corporate espionage either/or.

[Cerebral_Wolf]

Or is, As Dan & Wolf have suggested, 720 a whole lot closer than we think and Lionhead, Rare, Turn 10 and all the other M$ big hitters are secretly beavering away on a whole raft of launch titles?

[biron_w]

It wouldn't surprise me if they announce a new console soon. Even if they do I doubt it'll be out for a couple of years. Maybe for christmas 2013. Or at the very earliest christmas 2012.

[sambo]

Crysis 2 developer Crytek has plunged its oar into the next generation console debate, saying it wants at least 8GB of RAM in the next generation of console platforms.
"My finger-pointing at Microsoft/Sony would really be on the memory side," graphics engineer Tiago Sousa told Digital Foundry.
"It's way too low, and the biggest crippling factor from a visual perspective. I would really like to see next-gen console platforms with a minimum of 8GB."