| radishhead said: Since we know nothing about the next Xbox, it would be a good time to start making predictions, so that once we have all the info we can refer back to this thread and see who was the closest. You can answer as many or as few as the points below as you like. - Name? 720? Will it even use the Xbox brand? - Release date? 2012, 2013..? - POWAH? On par with WiiU? More powerful? - Games? Post your most outragious predictions for Xbox 720 games here - Price? Something more expensive than 360 when it was released? Mor consumer-friendly price? - Other (anything else you want to predict in relation to the 720?)
Post here now, and prove your psychic skills in the future! |
Name: Xbox (not like any name we have thus far)
Release date - Winter 2012 or Winter 2013. (Unveiled at E3 2012 or at a surprise event days earlier like 360 was) A release date outside of the holiday season while possible isn't as likely. Mainly because the holiday season is the best time to launch a product, you get a ton of early adopters and your device is the must have of that Christmas!
Power- I suspect Microsoft's Next Xbox will be slightly more powerful then WiiU. Probably around the difference between DreamCast and PS2. I think the fact that developers don't want a huge jump in power and dev costs are already pretty high that Microsoft will avoid pushing up costs to third party supporters. Also since Microsoft has stated Kinect is the future we can expect an upgraded Kinect camera bundled with each unit. The Kinect camera will drive hardware costs higher, so in order to sell at a competitive price with Nintendo Microsoft will have to have power capabilities that are pretty close. Microsoft isn't likely to launch the next Xbox at a loss or much of one, they saw Sony's failure with PS3 and they themselves took a financial beating with the original Xbox and a smaller beating during the early life of 360.
Games - Microsoft has been working on next generation software since 2008, this can be confirmed officially by Microsoft's job postings. This leads me to believe at least five first party titles will be available within the launch window possibly as many as 10. Rumors that Fable is going to be a launch title are likely accurate. If launched in late 2012 I expect Halo 4 to also be a launch title. If launched in 2013 I'd suspect more then 7 launch titles. Third parties have been rumored to have had kits since way earlier this year, since so many different developers supposedly had kits there is likely truth to some of those rumors. This means about 25-40 titles to be launched within the launch window.
Price- I already alluded to Microsoft selling the hardware either at a profit or break even, not likely to take a substantial loss on each unit. I am guessing a retail price of 350$ for the cheap model and 399.99$ for the more expensive model.
Other, Microsoft is likely to focus more on crushing Sony and catching up with Nintendo then last generation. Last generation Sony made a huge booboo and Microsoft knew that they weren't the biggest threat after a year. However Microsoft noticed that Sony did improve over the years towards the end of the generation. Microsoft is likely to take offensive action in any way possible to knock Sony down early in the next generation. I also expect Microsoft to work on ensuring they can compete very well against Nintendo. Microsoft wants to have the success Nintendo had with Wii!
-JC7
"In God We Trust - In Games We Play " - Joel Reimer
