Thursday 7 February 2013

Xbox 720 Rumours

Well, if the Daily Mail reports it...it must be true!

Seriously though, rumours have been going nuts for the last few weeks about the new Xbox (probably 720 but possibly 'Kryptos') and how it will run. There's a pretty comprehensive breakdown over at GamesRadar, but for those of you who want it right now here we go:

  • Unsuprisingly, it's going to be stupidly powerful. The term 'Teraflop' is one that sounds like the arousal caused by MMO and chainmail bikini purveyor Tera online but actually means a ridiculous amount of processing power.
  • Depending on who you believe it will either be £300 odd pounds or £100 but act as a cable/satellite set-top box. GamesRadar quotes Comcast but as Sky already have a distribution app for customers on Xbox I could see a similar deal coming forward on this side of the pond. Good way to tie up entire households leisure time in one source.
  • Supposedly it's going to require an 'always on' internet connection. A lot of people are up in arms about this but realistically I think this is how games are going. We've seen it more and more on the PC and PS3 and eventually the Xbox would follow up.
  • Of more concern is reports (like the Daily Mail story above) that the 720 (I refuse to call it Kryptos) will require games to come with 'activation codes' that stop disc-swapping and second hand sales. Now we've all heard how the second hand market is under attack by the Games Industry, eager to get some of the money back from retailers, but this would be the first real step on consoles.

    It could also tragically backfire, if this turns out to be true not only have Microsoft abandoned one of the fundamental strengths of console gaming but they leave themselves open to Sony, prepping their own PS4, to either abandon DRM or simply come up with something a bit easier and a significant chunk of sales might swing their way.
That's the main points for now, apologies for the text heavy post, flu continues to assail me!

Until next time friends, let us say Skål! and drink together

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