The intertubes are buzzing once again with rumours that a new Xbox may be on it's way next year (as in the year 2010). According to 1UP, not only will Natal be as big as a new console launch, it will be the next console from Microsoft. Yup, a new Xbox console is coming soon, and not just the same thing with a fancy camera.
While developers seem to be complaining that the Xbox is current tapped, this new Xbox is said to have some new muscle under the hood. The specs will include:
- A new GPU that will be based on Shade Model 5 and will output in 1080p with 32mb of eDRAM. The GPU itself will come from ATI/AMD and will be clocked at 600mhz.
- The CPU will be bumped from 3 cores to 6, and is exactly the same as the previous, except just 200% faster (making it pretty equal to that of the PS3).
- RAM is also getting a nice upgrade, from 512 GDDR3 to 1024 GDDR5. The system will keep it's Unified Memory Architecture.
- The hard will be also go from a HDD to a SDD (32gb).
- The system will keep its DVD drive, ensuring backwards compatibility.
- Finally, the system will include built in WiFi.
To add some further fuel to the rumour, Blizzard has been in talks with Microsoft about their next console. The primary concern in the conversation was how to get some of their games more "friendly" to home based consoles (such as MMORPG and RTS titles).
In reality, this should be viewed similar to what Sony has done the PSP and what Nintendo has done with the DS in terms of introducing new models to the line. The old Xbox would be slowly phased out, but Natal would be sold as a stand alone add-on for the older console model. The system would be priced at around $300 US and we would see it in Q4 of 2010. While all of this is speculation, the only thing that is known so far is that Natal will be coming out some time next year.
UPDATE: Looks like it's true according to Ballmer. Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, has confirmed at the Executives Club of Chicago today that it is indeed coming, no details were given though.
UPDATE 2: Looks like Mr. Balmer may have been talking out of his rear end (wouldn't be the first time). According to Director of Product Management over at the Xbox and Xbox live divison, Aaron Goldberg, he has no idea what Ballmer is talking about, and flat out says "There will be no new console." I don't think you can get any clearer then that. While this has officially become a soap opera, we'll keep you posted as updates come in.
UPDATE 3:Major Nelson has stated on his blog that this is definitely not true, we have yet to have any real clarification from Steve Ballmer himself about the situation, but two key members of the Xbox team have come out and said it's not happening. Let the soap opera continue...
Looking forward to Natal fer sure.
Looking forward to Natal fer sure.
That would be the most non uninnovative name ever.
Yeah, I realised that after edit was no longer working...
this is in no way similar to the PSP Go as it simply breaks compatability
Think 1up are just looking for some hits.
Last edited by Quigley Guy on 16 Jun 2009 - 04:17
The CPU and GPU arch is the same, just updated, which if true, also means MS is basically saving a good chunk on R&D compared to the original 360 costs were they had to start totally from scratch.
It's basically like you swapping your Core 2 duo for a Core 2 Quad and a newer video card. All your games still run, but if you've got the newer specs they'll run better.
A new console from Microsoft will be just that. Unless you can play all the new games for it on your 360, I'm fairly sure it's beyond being a "new edition" as the 360 Elite or whatever was.
Not going to happen mate...
+1
So, I don't really see why, outside of cost, MS couldn't borrow the bigger hd-dvd storage tech just for it's games, while leaving movies and such to the direct download and on-demand model from now on. Thus sidestepping the need for bluray period.
It's not up to Sony who can use Blu Ray or not.
Also Blu Ray players are already cheaper than PS3's and the gap is only widening. The day when people bought the PS3 purely because of the Blu Ray capabilities are probably over or will be over soon enough so by 2010 the fact the 360 has Blu Ray probably won't impact that heavily when theres players on the market at the same time for half as much still.
In the end of the day, if MS wanted Blu Ray they'd get it. It'd make sense for them and it'd make sense for Sony. HD-DVD would be a waste of time and would hold the 360 back from being the centerpiece in the living rooms HD Media center well beyond 2010.
It's not really MS's decision to make yet but...not if they want to ensure sales. For the immediate future digital downloads isn't viable for games filling dual layered DVD's in many many parts of the world. Remove the limit imposed by DVD and developers will probably be using even more space. In the future yes, it will be digital only...but not by 2010.
I'm pretty certain that countries that can support bluray and allow MS to profit from such a move are also the countries that a push into online services and distribution is even more profitable for MS.
I don't think any country is exempt to be honest...if a household was to download 4 or 5 games in a month and view several HD clips in the same period you could be easily be looking at anywhere near 100GB+ for some households. Even in established countries these sorts of plans aren't always readily available.
It will happen but the infrastructure on a global level is not there yet.
Also what reason is there not to have a blu ray player in combination with the digital services? They'd only be covering their bases at a time where digital downloads is still in it's infancy.
You must be kidding. There are lots of countries that have poor broadband or have insane caps on bandwidth. Even so, those countries probably still buy lots of movies and games.
yeah, so they must be pretty happy to buy yet another unit and buy all their movies again.
Those countries will just stick to dvds.
Clearly their DVD's still work and they can just buy Blu Ray from hence forth. You can't honestly tell me that people in the US or whatever wouldn't find value in being able to play their DVD's and Blu Rays on the XBox?
32mb of video RAM seems kinda small. The ATI card doesn't surprise me, the guys at AMD seemed to indicate when we were in Austin that something was in the works in that department.
I'm not surprised at all by this, I've been saying for a while the next Xbox is coming sooner then we think and people just shoot me down claiming the 360 has got plenty of life in it (and that it isn't even close to been maxed yet), but with the devs complaining about the 360 and this rumor, my prediction seems a tiny bit more plausable now
I'm not surprised at all by this, I've been saying for a while the next Xbox is coming sooner then we think and people just shoot me down claiming the 360 has got plenty of life in it (and that it isn't even close to been maxed yet), but with the devs complaining about the 360 and this rumor, my prediction seems a tiny bit more plausable now
Currently the XBOX360 uses 10MB of e(mbedded)DRAM for video memory, going to 32MB of e(embedded)DRAM video memory would be an improvement.
The embedded DRAM could be considered a "buffer" of sorts for the video card, kinda like your DVD drive might have an 8MB built in "cache". Its used to speed up access to certain graphic assets that are being used constantly.
Nonsense, there is too much proof the original design is defective. I'm glad you have good luck with yours, but don't assume I abuse my things because MS willingly released a broken piece of hardware.
If you are on your 3rd then I assume you are not on the original design, the 360 was updated several times to squash rrods.
i've got an original, and I've never had an issue. some luck I suppose, but still...
mine (2007) never got the red ring. instead the gpu overheated and melted the solder or something like that. im not quite sure.
source?
"Rumor" "According to 1UP"
There was no 'source' in the first place...
There was no 'source' in the first place...
That's not the same as "debunked".
32 gigs of flash would be great IMHO, load times would be incredible.
The switch to SSD will increase the performance speed though of the drive and console I feel its a good move.
What are you talking about? The PS3 doesn't have an expansion slot for another hard drive.
+1
-1
+1
±1
I agree with the idea of 32GB only... but think this may be besides the point...I'd have to assume they are probably going to allow the use of external storage in some way or another... this would however possibly cause some copyright issues so maybe not..
either way this is a rumour..I REALLY wouldn't read into it much
It will most likely have the same slot on top for the hard drive. I hope they allow users to change the hard drive manually, as was stated before, like the PS3.
I do remember hearing during the E3 MS keynote about Natal that it is compatible with the current xBox360 and will be compatible with future xBox360's. Why point that out in the first place? The will probably be (not a new console altogether) a major hardware refresh and continue to be xBox360, maybe with another name after it.
xBox games should theoretically be able to scale to better hardware since they are all DirectX based like PC games, right?
Games developers genuinely find it much easier to make games compatible with both 360 and PC due to the similar architectures.
Bit of a nightmare with the PS3 but that's what happens when you ridiculously overcomplicate your hardware to be the one with the fanciest specs on paper.
Games developers genuinely find it much easier to make games compatible with both 360 and PC due to the similar architectures.
Bit of a nightmare with the PS3 but that's what happens when you ridiculously overcomplicate your hardware to be the one with the fanciest specs on paper.
The 360 is a completely different architecture than a PC, and in fact is very similar to the PS3. Now, if you were talking about the original Xbox, then you would be correct comparing it to a PC.
Games developers genuinely find it much easier to make games compatible with both 360 and PC due to the similar architectures.
Bit of a nightmare with the PS3 but that's what happens when you ridiculously overcomplicate your hardware to be the one with the fanciest specs on paper.
The 360 is a completely different architecture than a PC, and in fact is very similar to the PS3. Now, if you were talking about the original Xbox, then you would be correct comparing it to a PC.
AFAIK;
PC: C/C++/C#, etc.
Xbox: C++ (I've got it)
360: C# (I've got it although never used or installed)
PS3: C/C++ and various VS .NET 03/05 plugins (SN Systems)
C# means going from PC to 360 is actually quite easy, whereas going from PC to PS3 is hard as it's using different hardware types
Cmon, that's just silly.
Now personally, I feel the 360 has had a lot of issues with heat than probably any console I've seen. Thinking of a "slimmed down" 360 actually scares me...
That's how it feels to me by touch anyways, and I haven't had problems at all.
The next revision was said to drop the internal chip die size to 45nm, thus making them run with the need for less power and cooler. To top it off, IIRC, they were going to put the CPU and GPU on the same die, aka stack them. Thus reducing costs even more, and the amount of cooling needed inside.
Only time will tell of course, but each new 360 revision has dropped the power requirement, so I fully expect the next one to do so as well.
Now personally, I feel the 360 has had a lot of issues with heat than probably any console I've seen. Thinking of a "slimmed down" 360 actually scares me...
MS would switch to 45nm or 32nm for the CPU/GPU to slim the 360 down and that would decrease heat of the CPU/GPU by 30%-40% or so. It would also decrease the power drain significantly.
a) MS are running on a shorter console cycle than the others
b) They already stated they will release a new console that enhances current games
c) Their hardware is already one year older than the PS3
d) Their current design is faulty
e) Everyone else will have their new console announcements next year
How are they NOT going to announce this?
http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/19960/Rumor-...-You-the-Truth/
It's not that much better in real world performance to trade off for a loss of an entire 1GB. That's why I think this rumor is wrong.
I still love my PS3 so I don't care how many versions they release, great hardware and games are getting better so I'm quite happy.
It always happens
Now if you were saying this 2 days after the 360 launch it might sound a bit different.
Now, i feel this is a really nice punch in the face for the PS3 community. Why? Since the start they claimed the PS3 is much more powerfull than the Xbox 360, but the lack of really cool games was the major "NO BUY" factor. Now, we not only will have a very similar console in terms of specs, we will also enjoy a very vast of quality games for the Xbox 360/720, really nice Natal technology and did i mentioned we have a really massive collection of AAA games since the begining?
They (PS3 users) did wait to enjoy their console in terms of quality games and software for it. We didn't. And jumped in a really nice entertaiment platform.
I did miss the very first Xbox, but the 360 gave me a new way to see, play and enjoy games and community, specially the community. Now, with this news, i really doubt that Sony will make a real difference with they platform or console.
Blu ray will not be a Big deal. Its just a Cd that holds alot of storage and makes games load slowly. Btw DVD is coming up with its Bluray Killer, 500gb Storage dvd. Hopefully is will kill Bluray
MMOs and RTS should stay on the PC. I do not want Console port RTS games
This is really a back handed comment against the 360. The PS3's cell processor has been said to be faster than the CPU of the 360 in theory, but it certainly isn't 200% faster. You can argue hardware specs all you want, all that matters are the quality of the games, both in gameplay and graphics.
No Blu-Ray? FAIL! They seriously need to put their games on blu-ray, don't go back to DVD...
The whole point of Natal is to not have to release a new console anytime soon. They stated that during their E3 presentation.
Not to mention those "specs" just sound absurd they way they're written.
Sony owns the name Blu Ray and everytime you see Blu Ray in a store, you know it's a Sony product and you don't care how many companies are in the Blu Ray consortium, because Sony is at the top of the list everytime. And when the format wars were going on, it was Sony Blu Ray vs HD DVD. Sony, Sony, Sony, Sony, Sony. Sony Won, not Blu Ray.
I think it has future but they made loads of stupid mistakes.
For example why not to apply blue ray content standard to DVD Video disks first. I mean DVD + x264 + 1280x720 video. Everybody would be benefiting from higher quality with small cost.
Also, I think idea to reduce default blue ray case and push it was not a very bright idea. Yes, you need less plastic, but you can't fit default manual/brochure/book into new size and need to waste your money on redesigning everything.
For example why not to apply blue ray content standard to DVD Video disks first. I mean DVD + x264 + 1280x720 video. Everybody would be benefiting from higher quality with small cost.
Cos you'll still have to pay for licensing, obviously. So in actual fact the costs will be pretty much the same.
All I gotta do is check my local Blockbuster. The Blu-Ray section is growing like a fungus and real estate for older DVD's is geting smaller and smaller.
Your text to link here...
To me it makes no sense. If anything they will go a larger mechanical one to help people make use of the newly announced 360 games downloads and to further push movie downloads.
- Going from 3 cores to 6 is a 100% increment, not 200%
- Doubling the processor speed would make it approximately twice as fast as the PS3, not equal.
- Doubling the processor speed would make it approximately twice as fast as the PS3, not equal.
I assumed they intended to say 200MHz
i always thought that rumors is not news? *checks adress bar*.. hmm nope.. not the enquirer
If MS wanted to push digital services then they need the capacity on the drive to support it and 32GB would make no sense what so ever. There's also the obvious cost inflation in going with SSD's.
So rather than speculate, we went straight to the man himself to help sort out this situation.
This afternoon, Steve Ballmer issued IGN the following statement:
"I confused the issue with my poorly chosen words. There is no news in my comments. Things are as reported after E3. Sorry,"
While that helps clarify things immensely, we're still trying to figure out just what exactly was said during the conference. But as it looks now, we may have to close this case.
Link
Still hoping this is true though
Am I the only one who thinks Steve Blamer really, really needs to be on medication for mental health problems? Seriously.
No there is no New xbox comming , there might be a new version of the 360 with natal.
I'd want something like:
# A new GPU will output in 1080p with 128mb of eDRAM. The GPU itself will come from ATI/AMD and will be clocked at 1.2 Ghz.
# The CPU cores will be 300% faster (beating PS3).
# RAM upgrade, 1500 or 2048 GB DDR5
A system that will stick around for 5 years, so developers can get used to the system for a long time to come
Commenting has either been disabled on this article or you are not logged in. Click here to login or register, its free!
Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.