What do you mean with "need"? And who is "we"? Are you a dev? If ram is there, it will be used. Thus it is needed (somehow). So yes. If it's less, it's also needed. One thing many people don't know that almost every game uses 100% of a consoles resources. The magic lies in *how* to use the 100%.

I don't get it, why did Microsoft even reveal the XBO in the first place if they're just going to change every single thing about it?

They're seriously going to be able to do this 3 months before launch? Are there any other examples of that happening so late? Because the timeframe alone makes this sound really farfetched.

If this is true than it'd be good for everyone actually.

Due to the more available RAM in the Xbone they could simply store the game worlds, and since the PS4 has a much stronger GPU and better bandwidth they could simply stream everything the Xbone's store, thus making multiplats look better on both, since the current xbone specs would improve greatly by the RAM.

Well, one of the big reason on PS3 fail was the yen's value, wich made PS3 20% less profitable than PSX/2.

It's just a return on bad luck =p

Seems excessive.

OS's become too bloated or what?

3 months to launch and they still trying to figure this stuff out? What a freaking mess if true, I think they have enough memory with 8GB.
This rumor is BS.

Unboxing Xbox One

http://news.xbox.com/2013/08/xbox-one-unboxing

4k hdmi, 500gb, 5ghz wifi, 853mhz gpu, 8 core cpu, power brick, USB 3.0, Chat Headset, Xbox One controller, slot load Blu-ray drive, IR blaster port, HDMI input and output, S/PDIF interface, new Kinect sensor, etc ... but dont mention anything about 8gb RAM. The rumor still may be true. The console shown in the video is one of the first production units - less than 20 exist in the world.

Xbox 360, actually :) the devs (particularly EPIC Games) wanted more and they listened. Last minute change around August. August is when they went in production for 360 which was a November release. If this decision was made several weeks ago, that means planning goes back farther than that and I'm sure they would have had several test units already designed for 12gb. Could make the changes just in time for production again.

Wasn't that a year in advance? http://www.1up.com/news/epic-games-cost-microsoft-billion