The Official Xbox Thread

[Onyx]

Microsoft has also been tipped to unveil new console hardware this year, with a follow-up to the Xbox 360 said to be in the works under the code name of either 'Thebes' or 'Durango'.

Previous reports suggest that the next-generation Xbox will include two CPUs, one for gaming and another for multimedia applications, as well as Kinect 2.0, 3D technology and the long-rumoured Xbox TV.

Microsoft are yet to officially confirm any specific details of their future consoles.

[The Franchise]

Affordable price being your dont quite have to remortage your house, but selling your car and walking to work would be advisable.

[B-Mac]

they will probably be 500-600$ on release like the last ones were


and I will buy one

although I did wait about 2-3 years after 360 came out to get one and payed 300$

[Dutti]

I'd rather have an expensive console but very cheap big title games upon release.

[Bellabong]

Huh? All this has been known since March...

This "news" is almost a year old lol

[Bellabong]

Please post sauce cause I want to know what crappy site is posting stuff from February & March 2012 in January 2013 lol

Xbox "Durango" leak which mentions targeted pricepoint & release date: (February 2012)

Http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/16/3090944/microsoft-xbox-720-kinect-2-kinect-glasses-doc-leak-rumor/in/2495929

Playstation Orbis details which mentions name, specs and targeted release: (March 2012)
Http://www.kotaku.com/5896996/the-next-playstation-is-called-orbis-sources-say-here-are-the-details

[Ganso]

4th quarter of 2013?GET OUT SONY.Ain't nobody got money so soon.At least I don't.I hope it doesn't cost more than $500.

[Bellabong]

They wont be that expensive because Steam Box.

[McLewis]

All that stuff about anti-used games is going to turn quite a few people off. Other than that, I like what I read from those 2 links Phritz posted.

[FalcaoPunch]

I wouldn't mind paying a higher premium for a great console. Now if they are really getting rid or stomping down on the used game market, there should be consideration on lowering prices on video games.

60 bucks a game is a bit much.

[Bellabong]

You're kinda missing the point about Consoles then - which is to provide a cheaper hassle-free alternative to PC's. Sell the hardware at a loss and sell the software for massive profit.

With Steam Box being confirmed by Valve and some awesome lookimg prototypes making an appearance at CES the console makers will need a far better price-point than $500 because for that price point you're looking at all the functionality of a PC with the ease of use of a console (Steam Big Picture) and content library of Steam.

Looking at the hardware specs $300 price points for the Orbis and the next Xbox is a good estimate. They're using dated hardware and Sony doesn't need to recuperate its Cell investment. If they were any more expensive there'd be no point because a good PC costs far less nowadays than when the previous generations of consoles were released.

[Ganso]

Wasn't it already 60$ on the ps2 days? @phritz:but when the ps3 and 360 came out they were expensive.shouldn't the same logic be applied at the time?

[Tomwin Lannister]

I'm going to be broke this year then...

I tell myself I can wait until the price drops but within 3 days I'll buy it.

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

Common knowledge tbh..... also i never buy consoles on release and never will....

Reasons? lack of games, they usually have issues like bugs etc etc and are overpriced.

I didn't get my Xbox 360 till 2008 despite it coming out in 2005 and i'll probably do similar again.

[Bellabong]

@Ganso even building your own PC during the time of the 360 and PS3 that had gaming credentials would cost $1200+. That was mostly due to PC games pretty much pushing hardware limits to the point where Crysis might be superceded graphically from a technical standpoint by the PC version of Crysis 3, being released 6 years later. You pretty much had to wait until the next generation of video cards before you could play games at max settings.

When the PS3 and Xbox 360 were released they also featured GPU's of the current generation (at release) of their PC counterparts but instead of forking out over $500 for a GPU you got an entire console.

If the rumoured specs are true, then Orbis and Durango will have hardware specs comparable to the previous generation of PC hardware. Which is good enough to make people feel like a new console is worth it (i1080p vs barely 720p, VRAM improvement alone will allow bigger textures - one of the easiest ways to make a game look better, for Xbox it'll mean DirectX 11 vs. DirectX 9.0c) but wont be as expensive as the previous gen. There's also no new storage medium like DVD or Bluray which will mark up the price.

All in all, releasing a console above $400 is suicide when you can now get quite decent PC's for $650+ that can also play the games you want to play.

Plus there's nothing that would justify the next gen consoles being expensive because of the old hardware and no real development costs for new technologies to recuperate.

[RealGunner]

They will release it around Christmas time so the sales can be greater. I won't get the PS4 when it releases. Too many bugs n shit like mole said

Maybe around jan-feb time. Also it's not a certainty that they will be released on time. Both Sony and Mehcrosoft will be trying to out-do each other. Might push it to 2014

[LeVersacci]

If the launch titles for ps4 is good, i'll buy it on launch.

Hoping for exclusives like Uncharted 4, GT6, new IP (Agent lol) & ofc the multiplats

[FalcaoPunch]

Is PC gaming better because it looks better?
I know some people who spend big on nice gaming desktops but I don't see the point if all il getting is better texture on a tree.

[Ganso]

I play most of my games on pc and honestly I don't notice a whole lot of difference in terms of graphics.I still rather play games on console.

[FalcaoPunch]

I mean there's nothing wrong with pc gaming and there's a reason why it's so popular. But I still don't get the all the hype for Frames per Second and better shadows on lightposts.

Gaming on a console in HD, well at least in my experience and it's fine honestly.

[Bellabong]

I could make a massive list of how PC gaming is better than console gaming but I don't want to get into an arguement about mostly petty things and am just going to answer the graphics question and list two things that make PC gaming unbeatable in my book.

First of all the best example I know of the graphical differences is CryEngine 2 Crysis on PC, released more than half a decade ago vs CryEngine 3 Crysis rereleased on PS3 and Xbox. (The differences are quite depressing when you think about it) We're talking more than texture sizes here - shadows are only rendered every 2nd frame, physics are massively simplified and draw distances are tiny and all that at downscaled resolution and only 30fps as well!

Then there's emulators. PS2 games like Shadow of the Colossus are gorgeous in 1080p and seeing Wii games like Skyward Sword in 1080p makes you wish Nintendo put a little more oomph into the Wii.

But what can't be argued with is mods. That's where having a PC really shines over consoles and where you can find your moneys worth. From little things like more realistic faces in Skyrim and improved AI in Empire: Total War to bigger ones like replacing GTA's cars with real ones and adding quest lines in TES games or adding content to Minecraft to mods that are practically new games like Third Age: Total War (Medieval II: Total War), Fall From Heaven 2 (Civilization IV) and DayZ. (Arma II)

Some mods are legendary and even spawned their own stand-alone games and franchises like Counterstrike (a Half - Life mod) and Battlefield 2 (originally the Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 and of course DayZ is becoming a standalone game.

There are other reasons that just make PC gaming "superior" but emulators and mods are what do it for me. Apart from the fact I have a preference for strategy games and mmo's which are non-existant/jokes on consoles.

[the xcx]

at this Crytek talk again. The only good thing they made was revolutionize graphics, but judging from the gameplay value it sucks. They cant even make a proper multiplayer .

[Bellabong]

And there you go again, blatantly showing that you haven't even touched Far Cry, Crysis or Crysis: Warhead. What prompted you bring up Crytek? Anyways, judging Crytek on the abomination that was Crysis 2 is like judging Bioware on Dragon Age 2.

[FalcaoPunch]

All this console talk and my ps3 decides to stop working .

[Great Leader Sprucenuce]

I could make a massive list of how PC gaming is better than console gaming but I don't want to get into an arguement about mostly petty things and am just going to answer the graphics question and list two things that make PC gaming unbeatable in my book.

First of all the best example I know of the graphical differences is CryEngine 2 Crysis on PC, released more than half a decade ago vs CryEngine 3 Crysis rereleased on PS3 and Xbox. (The differences are quite depressing when you think about it) We're talking more than texture sizes here - shadows are only rendered every 2nd frame, physics are massively simplified and draw distances are tiny and all that at downscaled resolution and only 30fps as well!

Then there's emulators. PS2 games like Shadow of the Colossus are gorgeous in 1080p and seeing Wii games like Skyward Sword in 1080p makes you wish Nintendo put a little more oomph into the Wii.

But what can't be argued with is mods. That's where having a PC really shines over consoles and where you can find your moneys worth. From little things like more realistic faces in Skyrim and improved AI in Empire: Total War to bigger ones like replacing GTA's cars with real ones and adding quest lines in TES games or adding content to Minecraft to mods that are practically new games like Third Age: Total War (Medieval II: Total War), Fall From Heaven 2 (Civilization IV) and DayZ. (Arma II)

Some mods are legendary and even spawned their own stand-alone games and franchises like Counterstrike (a Half - Life mod) and Battlefield 2 (originally the Desert Combat mod for Battlefield 1942 and of course DayZ is becoming a standalone game.

There are other reasons that just make PC gaming "superior" but emulators and mods are what do it for me. Apart from the fact I have a preference for strategy games and mmo's which are non-existant/jokes on consoles.

Not really sure why people have such a fascination over GFX for tbh, i have seen high end PC's for games like Witcher 2 etc etc and the difference isn't big enough to spend 1,000s on keep updating a PC to keep it relevant.

If you want GFX watch a movie ffs, games are about the experience not flash textures which are hardly that much of a difference to care about anyway.

Besides some of my favourite games of this generation are not even on PC and the ones that are on PC quite frankly are shitty ports which are no better than their console counterparts.

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