As much as we're loving our current system(s), we need to let reality sit in, and get ready for the next set of consoles soon.
The Xbox 360 launched in 2005 making it 5 years old (aka the average life cycle for a console), and next year's line up of games is looking pretty grim. Which leads me to believe their going to try and live off of 3rd party support and Kinect until their ready to show their new console.
So what should we realistically expect from the console.
In all honesty I don't think Microsoft is going to try and blow us away hardware wise this gen. Both Microsoft and Sony have seen Nintendo's success, and Microsoft will want that same success for themselves. Sony is no longer Microsoft's target, Nintendo is. And ultimately I think that may be a huge mistake to make, but nevertheless here's what to expect from Microsoft.
CPU: MS will go with a quad-core CPU if octa-core CPU's don't exisit by then. The next generation of consoles will do much more than gaming as this gen already does, and MS will want to stay competitive in this regard which is why they need as strong of a CPU as possible. To keep things inexpensive Microsoft will most likely use a custom designed Quad Core processor by IBM.
Price: $125
GPU: MS will use ATI once again, to design a custom dedicated graphics card sporting 1GB of RAM specifically for the card. This will be enough to move console graphics forward, without spending a fortune.
Price: $100
RAM: This is going to be the toughest choice. They're going to use DDR3 RAM, but the decision they'll have to make is to use 2GB or 4GB. If they use 4GB they won't be completely outclassed by the PS4, but the price of their console will be higher to produce than they want. But if they use 2GB it'll be more cost efficient, but the PS4 will outclass it. 3GB would probably be their best bet, and even though it's a completely odd number to use that may be the direction they go. RAM is getting cheaper every year so, it should be dirt cheap by 2011 - 2013.
Price:
2GB: $20
3GB: $30
4GB: $40
Storage: Will the new console use Blu Ray, HD DVD, Dual layer DVD, SD cards, or digital download only? DVD is out of the question by now, and a couple Blu Ray disc are being filled by PS3 games, so HD DVD may not be enough either. MS is going to have to use Blu Ray or some high capacity storage media for their next console, because the world isn't ready just yet for a completely download only console.
Price: $60
HDD: The main thing is how much space will be available and whether or not they go proprietary (which I'm sure they will). HDD size should be around 500GB, since I believe they'll allow you to bring over all of your Xbox 360 content by purchasing a cable to sync you HDD to the USB ports, and 500GB should be plenty.
Price: $50
Your Price: $150
Everything else: Well since we have the main components, we just have to figure a price for everything else. The motherboard will be cheap, networking capabilities will be cheap, Audio Video will be cheap, USB 3.0 will be cheap (expect at least 4 ports), etc...
Price: $100
Overall: I'll play it safe here and use the median of the prices. So after adding everything together the 360 specs should be as followed.
CPU: Custom IBM Quad Core 3.2Ghz
GPU: Custom ATI 1GB GPU
RAM: 2GB/3GB/4GB DDR3 (I used 3GB for the final total)
HDD: 500GB HDD @ 7200 rpm
Rest:1080p display, 3D display, 7.1 Dolby, etc...
$125 + $80 + $30 + 60 + $50 + $100 = $445
But remember buying in bulk produces discounts so expect MS to get 20% off bringing their total down to.
$356
And with that theoretical information expect the Xbox 720 or whatever MS calls it to launch at.
$399 for a 500GB version
This means they'll be selling each console at a loss when you include R&D fees and a bunch of others, however, they'll practically break even thanks to Xbox live being $60 a year now which is an ideal position to be in.
(If they were to use 2GB the price would drop to $348 pretty much making a profit on every console thanks to XBL, but if they use 4GB the price would be $364 which again isn't bad at all)
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I think with these specs. MS will be able to run Crysis on max settings. It takes a lot to run Crysis, but we have to remember consoles are designed specifically for running video games, everything else is a second hand feature, and that vice-versa for computers. Anyway here's what we can expect from the next Xbox if they use these specs.
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
And if that's not believable then here's a list of current GPU's (specifically the first GPU) and how many frames per second they can run Crysis on maximum settings.
http://www.tomshardware.co....