Xbox 720 dev kits send out to devs by christmas 2011

[NightDragon83]

crissindahouse said:

NightDragon83 said:
It takes more than a year to fully develop games, especially for a new platform... 18-24 months generally.

If devs are just getting their kits at the end of '11, then do the math... they won't have games in the can for the NextBox until midway through 2013 at the earliest. And I keep repeating myself, but NONE of 2012's biggest titles like Halo 4, GTAV, Bioshock Infinite, the next COD, etc, are slated or even rumored for next-gen hardware by ANY of their devs... so where are the next-gen games in 2012? What's the 720 going to launch with? Hmmm???

And on the IGN homepage they also have this article stating 5 reasons why the new console won't be revealed at CES but at E3 2012 instead, which isn't until June...

http://www.ign.com/articles/2011/11/10/why-we-wont-see-the-xbox-720-at-ces

So you're telling me that M$ will for the first time officially unveil their console in June of next year, and then launch it just 5 months later with no major software and at huge risk of cutting into the success of their existing console which will still be selling like gang-busters thanks to the steady stream of AAA hits and an impending price cut?

This is why we call fanboys "fanboys"... because their blind love for a game company or console causes them to lose all rationality when it comes to these kinds of topics.

first of all, they are talking about dev kits but it's rumored there are whateverkits since a while now.

and if they would unveil the console only 5 month before release? do you know when the unveiled the 360? that was gdc 2005 in march so this could be the case this time as well.

2005 was a totally difference scenario than what M$ is currently facing... M$ was fighting a losing battle against Sony last gen, and they made a decision to leap into the next gen early in order to effectively get the jump on then market leader Sony and their PS3, which wasn't due for release until the following year at the earliest.  They also made a conscious decision to essentially pull the plug on the original Xbox that same year and move all resources to the 360 in the process, hoping that Xbox owners would upgrade to the 360.  That was all a huge gamble for them, and it paid off (minus the faulty launch hardware debacle, of course), but they also owe a great deal of success to Sony's miscalculations of releasing the PS3 at such a high price point, and with very few AAA games for its first year on the market.

This time around they are in a far better position than they were at the end of the last generation... they've sold more than double the 360s as they did Xboxs worldwide, they are leading Sony in the North American market by a comfortable margin and are neck and neck with them in the EU and elsewhere, and they still have a shit ton of AAA games slated for release for their current console over the next year, unlike the original Xbox whose AAA software lineup had essentially ran dry by the time the second half of 2005 rolled around.  There's absolutely no reason for them to rush a next-gen console out this time around, especially when their biggest competitor Sony is struggling to keep up with them in hardware sales, and their next console isn't scheduled for release for at least a couple more years at the minimum.