I’m taking a brief break from my video article series, “Great Video Game Ideas Not Used”, to do a piece about the rumors surrounding the up and coming Microsoft console. It has been affectionately dubbed the “Xbox 720” at the moment. Currently, we don’t have anything concrete on the console other than it being an improvement on the current console that Microsoft has on the market. Everything that I am going to cover is speculation, and then I will give my own input about these thoughts. I went over several different sites looking through them all for any information that would seem valid. I settled on three different sites that seem to have the best overall thoughts and hypotheses. Huffington Post, Forbes, and Tech Radar are the sites I gathered my information from. I will not be directly quoting any of them, but I will cover the issues they’ve bright to light like many others have.
Rumor #1 – The new Microsoft console will be shipped with Blu-Ray technology: I personally don’t know if this is true or not. I don’t really think that it is likely because from what I remember, Sony has a big stake in Blu-Ray, it was their most major success with the PS3 . Then again I could be completely wrong. It would be very nice though for the next Microsoft console to be able to play Blu Discs for movies. Though I don’t think they would use that technology for their games, meaning that they could possible pull a move like Nintendo and make their own High Density Disc format. It is certain that they would need something comparable to Blu-Ray if they plan to stay in the video games market.
Rumor #2 – “Xbox 720 ” will be much more powerful than Xbox 360 : Well, this most lately going to be true, it’s a bit of a given. Reports say that the new console will possibly be up to 6 times more powerful than the current Xbox , and about 20% more powerful than the Wii U . I could see this as a possibility also, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the games will look that much better than what the consoles of the competitors will. And we still truly know nothing of Sony’s next home console. Also, we know that the Wii U will have the touchscreen controller, opening up more options for playability.
Rumor #3 – “Kinect 2 ” will be shipped with the next console: This is something that I would think to be great. Though I think with the costs of the current Kinect, that a more advanced version being shipped with the “Xbox 720 ” would send prices up. It may not be too big of an impact, but only time will tell.
Rumor #4 – The Release Date: While both the Huffington Post and Forbes predict the release dates to be in 2013, Tech Radar on the other hand gives a bit broader range from 2013 to 2015. Seeing as the 360 was released in fall of 2005 and Microsoft originally planned for the console to have a 10 year life span, it’s possible the “720 ” may appear within the next year or two. That would be probable with 360 support fading out about a year and a half into the life of its successor. That would be the best way to work things out and allow players to have enough time to switch over to the new console.
Rumor #5 – Inability to play second-hand/used games: This is something that has been very loudly protested by gamers, at least as far as I’ve seen so far. There have also been some very angry rants posted to youtube. One by AlphaOmegaSin and another by Yellkaos on youtube I think generally cover what most gamers feel about this developing situation. In for me, this would pretty much be devastating. Not that I don’t buy new games, but not every game that I purchase is new. A good majority of the games that I have are used. I like to get the maximum bang for my buck, and purchasing all new games would really leave me with very few games to play.
It may be like that for the vast majority of gamers. Now, I would understand if the system that is in place now were to stay, being that if you purchase games new you get an exclusive DLC code or have to purchase those items if you get the game used. This will keep developers and publishers able to get revenue for their products, and keep gamers happy. The only other choice would be for the pricing on the games to be dramatically reduced down to possibly $30-$40. With the current economical standing of the world, not as many people are willing to shell out $60-$80 for a new game. And at the rate that games are being produced and released, it becomes far more difficult for gamers to keep up with all of the different series and games that they like or are interested in.
This would also severely hurt game rental services unless publishers would be willing to make specialized discs for them. But event then, there wouldn’t be any telling what a someone might put in order to keep a disc like that on their person. There would also be a huge spike in hacking, which would take more money away from game companies. All and all, this would probably cause more problems than it would fix. Though I do pretty much see it from a negative standpoint. I know that there are positives to this, but I think logically, the negatives heavily outweigh them.
I just had to throw my 2 cents to the pot for this spectacular development around Microsoft’s next console. One way or another, this will have a big affect on the video game industry. The only thing that I can say is that the industry is changing, now whether or not that change is good purely depends on how it is presented. Maybe the last rumor was wrong, and the next gen console just won’t be backward compatible with the Xbox 360 game discs.
If you would like to have your own say about it, feel free to make comments. I’m always open to seeing what my readers have to say. Plus it may be a good idea to say things here as well as many other places this subject has been covered to get the attention of the people who produce and create the games that we as players love. Please keep your eyes out for my next article, which will be the continuation of my series. Please show support to the All Games Network, and enjoy your games.