Why Microsoft's Keeping the Next Xbox Under Wraps 195
donniebaseball23 writes "Microsoft recently confirmed that it's not going to be talking at all about its next Xbox, codenamed Durango, at this year's E3, instead keeping the focus on Xbox 360. Forbes columnist Chris Morris explains that Microsoft likely doesn't have games to show for the system yet — and why should they take the focus off Xbox 360, which currently has a lot of momentum? Ultimately, though, the decision not to show the next system 'could have a ripple effect on the rest of the industry,' he says. And by pushing Durango's unveiling back a year, 'Microsoft could find itself going head to head with Sony in a battle of features, even if the machines don't hit shelves at the same time.'"
The latest rumor is that an ARM-based Xbox 'lite' is planned for 2013, with a true successor to the 360 coming some time after that.
Re:My personal opinion (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:So much for the traditional 5-year lifespan (Score:2, Interesting)
If anything is going to kill off console gaming it certainly will not be desktops. It will be cell phones. Within a few phone generations (which are remarkably short) we'll have pretty staggering graphics capability on our cell phones. Perhaps the 3rd gen XBox will be a mobile phone + controllers...
Why release a new one? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:My personal opinion (Score:4, Interesting)
Wii won in unit sales
And turned a profit on every unit sold.
but they have turned a generation off
That "turned off generation" already abandoned them on the gamecube. But nintendo found a whole new market of people to replace them.
continued rehashes of old franchises.
Lets see what's most anticipated according to gamestop's website:
Assassin's Creed III
Another Ghost Recon
Witcher 2
Borderlands 2
Tiger Woods PGA 13
Another Star Wars Game
Halo 4
Prototype 2
Warriors Orochi 3
Darksiders II
Resident Evil 6
Another Bioshock
Max Payne 3 (with BONUS!)
Sniper Elite 2
Dragons Dogma * first game that is not a continued rehash of an existing franchise?
Another Medal of Honor
Lollipop Chainsaw * second game that is not an existing franchise
Far Cry 3
Yep, continued rehashes of old franchises for the win. And a near uninterupted parade of FPS games. How is it you are not turned off by the xbox360?
they need to out-power the big boys and deliver some adult games
Why is that? There aren't enough Medals of Honors and Halo's on your xbox that you'd buy a wii 2.0 to play even more of them?
Hate to break it to you, but Nintendo already lost you. Pandering to you with a parade of FPSes featuring giant robots that dismember alien zombie hookers isn't really going to win you back... that market is saturated.
Going after new markets is a winning strategy... New Super Mario Bros Wii is probably one of the best games I've ever played. Super Paper Mario and Super Mario Galaxy were great too. The Metroid Primes were well done,and Kirby's epic yarn was pretty much adorable, and the kids loved them all too.
Re:My personal opinion (Score:4, Interesting)
Nintendo proved that you could sell an underpowered console at a profit from day one and still make piles of money. Apple and numerous Android manufacterers have shown that you can sell a nifty device at a decent profit margin and satisfy millions of people with $1 games.
Yeah, if anything I think it's the other way around. Casual gamers are often very casual - a $1 smartphone/tablet game may be enough, why get a $200-300 console? In 2006 there really weren't many other casual gaming options except flash games, in 2013 there are plenty. Hell, sometimes they drive an insanely crazy bargain against themselves, for example I got Hector: Badge of Carnage for the iPhone and it's a steal for $3 - actually 3x$1 so you can try it for a dollar, as opposed to paying $19,99 on the Telltalegames site. I can get Angry Birds [amazon.co.uk] for the PC at a bargain price of only 6.47 GBP. It's like they don't want to sell for the PC at all unless you're hemorrhaging money.
As for the xbox/ps3, I think they both know the next generation will last much longer than this one - just look at graphics card reviews and how far they have to crank it up to 2560x1600 at Ultra/Extreme/Enthusiast/Maximum quality level and the most punishing AA modes to show the difference. The next gen consoles will have full HD and "enough" shaders for a 1920x1080 screen and will not be outdated for at least a decade. They're waiting because they want to have a little edge over the other - better to have an edge in 10 years than be first to the market for 1 year. Microsoft couldn't honestly couldn't care about their positioning relative to the Wii U, it's their positioning relative to the PS4 that matters to them.
Re:And why would I want to? (Score:4, Interesting)
Try looking a little deeper into the crystal ball.
If I can use my phone as a console, playing games on a large TV with a wireless controller, I am pretty certain that I'll also be able to use (or already wearing!) a wireless Bluetooth headset as well. The phone menu will allow me to answer my phone and chat to friends, or use Google+ Hangouts to have team based voice chat going. This doesn't seem like particularly far-fetched science fiction.
As an added bonus, you can bring your phone with you to your friend's house, and access your apps, your saved progress, your controller settings, your favorite servers, etc. I think that would be extremely awesome. God help you if you lose it or someone steals it, of course, but by then I'll hope to have Steam For Phones that will let me re-download anything I've bought already. (Does the Android market do that already?)