Large content patches. Think World of Warcraft. 

nevermine june 11

While the news seems sketchy at best and I don't buy it, in terms of planning and marketing this probably would've been the smartest move they could make. If everyone inside maintained their confidentiality agreements (unlikely), and they figured they could have the system pretty well ready to launch by mid-year, they could've just been waiting for Sony to confirm a holiday launch, and then surprise announce that they're launching during the summer. Early adopters rush out to get the 'first true next-gen system for the hardcore gamer', and when the holidays roll around all the kids want a 720 because they've been playing on Xbox Live at "Steve's" house all summer (Steve being the young kid that everyone knows that gets everything he wants immediately when he wants it).

Made my antivirus get alerted and I had to uninstall the game.

Good thing too, it was starting to get boring.

Yeah, looking like I'm skipping Nextbox.

It would certainly be feasible for MS to announce at E3 and launch in June, at least as far as marketing goes, assuming all the magazine, TV, Internet spots are already paid for and production has already started.

However, considering how leaky MS is with information I find this very, very unlikely.

What games it would have at launch might be limited and summer isn't a prime time to sell but it would likely hit the holidays with a larger catalogue of titles than Sony, so that's a plus. It would also already be well established with more mainstream (aka casual) consumers by holidays and have more product in the pipeline. So that is to say, it'd crush Sony over the holidays if they launched in June.

We lived a block away from a "Steve". I was at his house as much as mine when I was little. XD

The key thing for a summer release would be having everything set up exactly right. A solid games line-up, no weird manufacturing bugs or RROD-style failures, and having all the key Live services ready to go. Then there's the issue of how they manage to properly promote the console and shipping them out in time for retailers and the like--both of which I'd have expected to see a while ago if they were serious about that.

Releasing in June out of the blue has "Sega Saturn" painted all over it. That's why I highly doubt they're actually launching the console itself. Again, I think it's just pointing to an E3 reveal.

They wouldn't have 3rd parties backing it thats for sure until later and their "old" specs that were leaked that were supposidly outdated would probably need to be the final specs considering mass production would need to be going right now... very bad idea on all fronts. Not stevie would be able to save it

Microsoft could probably pull it off. Granted that they were opting for a soft launch. The company itself is actually incredibly good when it comes to data security. It is almost always retail partners, development partners, or acts of hoaxers that ruin the surprise. However I really doubt that a soft launch would be ideal. It would definitely hurt their relationship with certain retailers. Who might retaliate against them either overtly, or in a more subtle fashion by giving the competition preferential treatment.

I think the news outlet is confused, and thinks that a unveiling, and a launch must coincide. Which is most often the case in a lot of industries. Companies introduce a product that will go on sale very shortly. Gaming consoles however don't necessarily follow that model. Well more specifically they shouldn't. It has been tried to disastrous results in the past. Consoles aren't like a new kind of candy bar that can catch on over time. They are very finicky things. They need the right amounts of hype, advertising, support, and word of mouth. For them to grow fast enough so they can stay in the market.

my sig is from when LBP and U2 were launching before vgchartz changed all of that stuff and I left the site shortly there after. When i came back like 2 years later the sig's links didn't work properly and for some reason I can't change it. Ive tried... seems like I'm stuck with the sig

I saw a bbc video interviewing Kaz Harai yesterday and the guy asked "how come you didn't show the ps4 during it's launch?" Kaz had to clarify that they haven't launched the Ps4 and there will be many oppertunities for them to show it before they do... so maybe a similar thing here. Media thinking reveal=launch