We don’t usually share news about consoles, but since we got a lot of mails about it, we felt the need to write about the leaked specs of the next Xbox console that were revealed back in June. In case you’re unaware of, a PDF document with Xbox 720’s specs got leaked and Microsoft was quick enough to react and take it down. According to that sheet, Xbox 720 will be 4x-6x times more powerful than Xbox 360, will have Next-Gen Sensors (Kinect V2.0 and Glasses), will be packed with a Blu-Ray drive, and will feature video acceleration capabilities.
One of the reasons we hate Kinect is that awful ‘lag’ that is pretty evident in every Kinect game. Thankfully, this will be a case of past as Kinect V2.0 will feature a Dedicated Processing Unit that will eliminate all those latency issues. In addition, Kinect V2.0 will support better 3D Play Space (closer, wider, deeper), improved Voice Recording, 4 Player tracking and an improved HD RGB Camera.
Xbox 720 is also said to be powered by 3 CPUs (that will run at 3.2Ghz) and 4GB of memory, something crucial for next-generation games. After all, Square Enix stated that next-generation consoles will need a lot of memory in order to run a game like the Agnis Philosophy Tech Demo.
Microsoft is also targetting for a 10 year lifecycle and the launch bundle of Xbox 720 (with Kinect V2.0) will be priced at $299. Now this seems unlikely, but who knows. Microsoft might pull a magic trick with this new console.
Kinect Glasses will most probably offer “Screen Zero” Transscreen experiences and will be launched in 2014. Or at least that’s Microsoft’s plan.
On the other hand, Microsoft will invest in a Cloud Rendering Platform for gaming, video and apps in 2015, meaning that gamers will be able to enjoy better games without the need of buying a new console. This whole Cloud ‘thing’ sounds fishy to us (especially after Sony’s Gaikai acquisition) so we’ll have to wait and see how things will turn out.
Again, take everything you just read with a grain of salt. Special thanks to our reader Sid for sending us the document.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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