4 days before the event for leaks makes sense. The 21st is a Tuesday, if they leak info the Thursday before MS can occupy the conversation over the weekend. However, the release schedule is barren, if they are smart they start leaking prototype bogus, concept stuff to drum up interest. It worked well with the PS4 controller. I would normally say the GAF would be the source for these leaks but Reddit might make more sense if MS is going for a wider (read: less game oriented) audience.

Blinx 3:Blinx3D (Pronounced blinxed), Voodoo Vince 2:Underwater and Blood Wake Two: Twin Torpedoes

aaaannnnnnndddd in the blue corner......

MS pls go...

It's gonna be great

@hashbrowns: The difference between emulating or including the 360 hardware and being able to read 360 discs is a very different thing. Personally, I think its unlikely that this next XBOX will use a DVD format over Blu-ray. Given that, the console would not be backwards compatible with 360 discs. However, that does not preclude the actual games themselves from running as emulating/including hardware that can run the game itself has nothing to do with the media drive. Look at the WiiU, it can run Wii games via an emulator. Sony's PS4 on the other hand is shit out of luck in that regard because the system is x86 based, where as the PS3 used their nonsense proprietary chip so they literally can't work. Microsoft has always cared about compatibility in regards to their OS and there is no reason to think the console won't use x86 (given a huge list of stuff I won't go into). Someone else in this thread also mentioned it being possible they use 360 hardware to handle some underlying functionality like media streaming (similar to Sony's PS4 stuff), then you could just tap into that to play 360 games.

tl:dr - NextBOX won't read 360 discs but it'll probably still run 360 games via emulation.

About damn time.

I'll be interested to see what they've got, but I find myself realizing that I probably won't get the next Xbox.

The devolution of the dashboard into something akin to a Nascar chassis, and the drastic decline in the quality of downloadable or exclusive titles leaves little to entice me besides the ability to easily play with friends. And I've only got a handful of them that I play with regularly...most of whom I play with on Steam as well.

If the always online rumors are false and they ditch the subscription I'll consider it.

Agreed. I'm still very skeptical of the next Xbox, and not just because of the rumors. The direction Microsoft has been headed for the last 2-3 years has not made me really excited to buy new hardware from them. And I'm certainly gonna wait to make sure the hardware isn't a mess out of the box like the 360 was. I'd rather not go through 5 Durangos...

I will hear them out on every subject and I will even stay listening to an argument for "Alway On". I want to know what their philosophy is and real world uses of Kinect 2. I don't mind excitement, but if I detect they are spinning poorly conceived ideas or ideas they don't/can't show working I will be disappointed. I don't want pipe-dreams or "Velocity Girl" spin.

One thing I would like is ADMITTING mistakes. Sony was very honest with what they did wrong. I think Microsoft MUST admit the amount of advertising on XBL is out of control. I think Microsoft needs to admit they harmed the user experiences and interface by turning XBL dashboard into a billboard to be "bought and sold".

If they don't show any remorse for their hubris like Sony did, I already know what my primary console will be.

Remember that part of the issue is their choice to stay silent. It is correct to point out that people are being overly negative about something no one really knows what it is going to be but it is also correct to point out that Microsoft isn't saying otherwise either.

In other words: If Microsoft choses not to "engage" with the fans things can get negative fast. The fans might be wrong and being stupid but clamming up and doesn't help.

The discussion seems to have turned into Console Wars: The Sequel. I thought the GB community was a little bit better than that.

Sony likewise said nothing up until the date of their big announcement. No one was bad mouthing the PS4 because Sony wasn't talking back then. Now Microsoft announced the date for their reveal and all of a sudden everyone can't imagine that the new XBOX might sway them away from their confirmed PS4 purchase, it's probably going to be shit anyway - and no one knows anything about it. In fact any news regarding the new XBOX that has been posted on these forums is generally met with a negative response it seems. XBOX infinite? What a dumb name. Leaked pictures of the new XBOX logo showing basically a stylized X - ugh worst logo ever in history of logos. Of course it's going to have a TON of ads ughh Micro$oft..

I can't decide whether to watch the real stream or the GB one. I'm probably gonna have to sacrifice some bandwidth and have both on

can i git my pizza on the new one? im hungry fer a taco pizza

This is the first thing I thought of as well.

Little to no focus on games? That's probably the worst move possible for Microsoft. Then again, from what we've all heard, games mean jack nor shit to Microsoft anymore, so that also makes some sense.

The ps4 will cost $1000000,-, be shaped like a waffle iron, have a hastely implemented touchscreen on the controller and have sick David Lynch tv commercials.The new xbox will melt your discs, break when unboxing, and have to be bolted to the foundation of your house.

also no more rumble

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend going for the laptop route. The fans start getting worse in a matter of months, resulting in overheats and forcing you to lower the clock speeds of the machine in order for it to stay stable, which will of course make it much worse for gaming. You're probably better off buying a mid-tier media center style PC. The Micro-ATX/Mini-ITX cases aren't all that big, pretty comparable to that of a console, and thus not all that hard to move around when needed. You can find motherboards with relatively powerful integrated AMD or Nvidia GPU's, and if that isn't enough, there are mid-range GPU's that are usually low profile and/or single slot, which work great in smaller cases (at least from AMD, Nvidia have gotten a bit more inconsistent about that). They may not be able to max Battlefield 4, but they'd most likely be able to handle it at at least medium settings, and if you just upgrade the GPU to the next mid tier card every 2-3 years or so, you'll probably be able to keep up with the games coming out for quite a while.

Blu-ray drives can read DVDs.

12 yards long 2 lanes wide, 65 tonnes of American pride! CANYONEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Canyoneroooooooooooooooooo.

@hashbrowns: I learn something new everyday.

So unless they introduce a new disc format, I can't imagine it not being backwards compatible. The day one pitch of "plays every 360 game disc or download" is a fairly strong selling point and one Sony can't use (in regards to PS3 content).

I think this whole presentation is gonna be about the "total entertainment center'. I bet they're gonna stick a DVR into it and force you to sign up with certain cable providers. I honestly do think it will be revolutionary but maybe in the wrong way and tied up with yesterday's market forces.

Um I believe that's because there are two separate lasers, not because one reads the other...

@fattony12000:

We need this man back(J Allard), fuck Don Mattrick

@jakob187: I thought I heard something about unveiling the game lineup at E3? Still, I hope they give us a few hints of what games the console will provide.

Anyone think Microsoft will bring back any of Rare's old IP's for this new console or is there zero chance that Rare makes a comeback?

@mocbucket62: It's irrelevant if MS got Rare to make a game based on the old IP. They have just been Rare by name for a while now. Everything that made Rareware so great back in the day left a long time ago. Now their just a Kinect warehouse.

And those two separate lasers are both in the Blu-ray drive, therefore Blu-ray drives can read DVDs. I can't think of a single Blu-ray drive that's been built that excludes DVD playback. To think that Microsoft will be commissioning a custom Blu-ray drive that EXCLUDES such a ubiquitous, common and basic feature seems absurd on the face of it.

I wonder if this will happen again. I sure do hope so.

500 bucks, no buy. 300 bucks with "subsidized" plan that makes it end up costing more than 500 bucks, no buy.

400 bucks or less, I'm interested. Attachment that costs 100 bucks or less that allows full backwards compatibility, I'm more interested.

I just wanted to clarify the situation.

Also, I'm not convinced Microsoft will be using a blu-ray player. It seems stupid when people are latching on to streaming more and more not to mention having to give their money to Sony. But I guess we'll see.

@gabe_fox: For sure

Odds are you won't be buying the next Xbox then.

Valid points, but if they will not include Blu Ray and go for download/streaming only, they would cut their audience in half. Allot of people want to actually own the game physically, not to mention there are allot of places where downloading/streaming isn't a viable option.

They need some form of physical distribution. They can't bring back HDDVD and they sure as hell cannot stick with DVD once more. SD cards with sufficient space are far too expensive and developing an entirely new format even more so. Blu Ray seems the best option.

Cool cool cool.

@msavo: you must be a sony fanboy who doesn't know what he is talking about. obviously you never played any of the exclusives for the xbox. and it was either 1 or 2 indie developers talking crap because MS didnt like what they were doing. xbox actually supports the indie developers wayyyyyy better than ps3 and all the other indie loves xbox. get your facts straight before you try to troll another xbox article. also the always on rumor was created by bloggers and sony fanboys.(you must be getting ALL your info from pro sony IGN) The "deal with it guy" was fired from microsoft before he tweeted that BS. Someone that is actually working for microsoft leaked news that they never intended to do an always-on DRM.

In half? You are giving Blu-Ray WAY too much credit, it hasn't made a significant dent in DVD sales.
I personally have never and don't know anyone who has ever bought a Blu-ray when a DVD was an option.

They can absolutely stick with DVDs, it's still a completely viable option. But I personally wouldn't miss DVDs either, I stream -everything- these days anyway, as do most people. Digital will grow more and more over this "next-gen" cycle, so if they are truly planning ahead they can toss all that crap out.

Everything will be steam box type things soon anyway, PC is where it ends.

@cp123005: Yup big Sony fanboy here with my PS3 collecting a little dust from all the 3DS and PC games I'm playing...

They got rid of the coloured names on the site for a reason. There are no "fanboys" for God's sake, it's 2013. You just play the games you like wherever they are.

Blu-ray has significantly more capacity than a DVD. There is no way Microsoft continues to use multiple DVDs when a single Blu-ray will do that job and more. They could still present a new disc format, but I think that's extremely unlikely.

@oginam: DVDs are cheaper to produce, on top of the cost to use blu-ray from Sony, on top of everything going digital.

I'm not saying it's impossible, I just think MS getting into blu-ray isn't the best idea. I'm super interested to see what they do though.

@xeirus: Sticking with DVD would be a terrible idea. It'll be a disc with larger capacity one way or the other.

@xeirus:I think you misunderstood. I am not saying if they didn't go with Blu Ray they would cut their audience in half, I was saying if they went without any physical medium they would.

I download games off Steam all the time, but there are allot of people out there for whom that isn't a viable option. Also, allot of people who play games get them out of a store. If they suddenly can't do that anymore, but the PS4 games are still available there, then they'll just go and get that instead.

In any case, they really cannot possibly stick with DVD for another generation. It worked out pretty well this generation, but that's because games did not really exceed dual layer DVD that much. Sometimes you got a 360 game on two discs, most of the time on one disc. I believe only in LA Noire's case there were like 7? DVD's that was made on.

In this next generation, it will probably only take a year or two before every single game packs the same amount of punch as LA Noire did, most likely even allot more. It makes no sense on any level to ship a game on, say, 10 DVD's in standard capacity. It is highly annoying for the consumer and a serious fault for the system. I do not know this, but I would totally believe it also is more expensive then just going for the single Blu Ray disc.

Yep, probably not.

That's fine, I can wait for a sale. I don't think I'd ever buy a Microsoft console at launch after what happened last time anyway.

I'll make sure to have my popcorn ready for the inevitable shitstorm that will follow. I have a feeling that those shitty rumors about it always needing a Kinect and always needing an active internet connection to work are going to be 100% true. If they weren't they would have shot them down the second they surfaced to gain control of their PR and crush any negativity instead of allowing them to fester and let the rumors become truth. Microsoft are assholes, they're not fucking brain dead retarded.

Well on second thought if they do require an always on internet connection maybe they are fucking brain dead retarded.

@eccentrix: Gears of War 1 & 2, PGR4, Some Naruto game, Army of Two TFD and a few others I can't think of. Basically any game that is basically impossible to S rank now in my quest to S rank every game on my tag