Time for another spin on the wheel of next gen console rumours. This week's batch reaffirm claims of a 2013 launch for Xbox 720, with key components already in production and devkits shortly to appear.
Citing anonymous sources, Fuzilla reports that Xbox 720's "System on a Chip" began production in December 2011. It's allegedly codenamed Oban, and is being produced by IBM and Global Foundries.
"If speculation is correct, which our sources believe it is, the power behind the next Xbox will be a PowerPC CPU that is married to an ATI Southern Islands GPU, or modified 7000 series," the site writes. "Continued rumors of an x86 compatible CPU seem to be bunk, just based on where the chip is being fab'd."
IGN, meanwhile, claims that the console's processor "will be derived from the 6000 series, which was introduced last year. More specifically, it will be akin to the Radeon HD 6670, which offers support for DirectX11, multidisplay output, 3D and 1080p HD output. The chip currently has a market price of upwards of $79.99.
"In real terms, the Xbox 7202s raw graphics processing power is expected to be six times that of the Xbox 360 and will yield 20-percent greater performance than Nintendo's forthcoming console, the Wii U," the site estimates.
IGN thinks developers will get their kits by August.
We'll add all this to our teetering pile of speculative stories. Depending on whom you read, the next Xbox console will be shown at E3 2012, features DVR, will be available in two models and is a "true hybrid console" which puts much more emphasis on downloadable gaming.
21 comments so far...
BIGBUTTER on 25 Jan '12 said:
This is exciting news! Next year will be expensive....
CunningSmile on 25 Jan '12 said:
Ah the internet; one of the greatest scientific and social advances in the history of mankind, giving us nearly unlimited access to almost all human knowledge and we use it to replace the two gossiping housewives swapping rumours
Mr Badger Face on 25 Jan '12 said:
I hope there is some truth in this i want a new console
Bezza89 on 25 Jan '12 said:
I heard by a man, with a scar on his face so you know he's not lying, that the next xbox is 20x as powerful (4GB ram etc) with dev kits already in hands of launch teams and that it will have tassles on the side. It's also powered by a germanium core which lasts for 30 years of power and can outperform that IBM computer and Bezza89 at chess. Codename 'Argh my mateys!' 'Xbox Gold lots of Gold' will be out in june. It will cost seven sovereigns.
Captain_Chao5 on 25 Jan '12 said:
LOL! i just got a mental image of the old Les Dawson sketch with two 'housewives' gossiping over the garden fence.
CunningSmile on 25 Jan '12 said:
"Well, I'm not one to talk myself, but have you heard...?" Yep, that's exactly the image I had as well.
hujiki on 25 Jan '12 said:
Xbox will rock, i don't care if this will cost £500 I'm still gonna get it on release day... When ever that may be.
Hopefully with the all new upgraded Kinect they will finally start making some real games, hate all this Dance central and stuff like that. What ever happened to hardcore, gritty games.
Captain_Chao5 on 25 Jan '12 said:
You'll be exactly the kind of person MS are looking for... Personally I'll bide my time and see what the hardware is like and what games are available. Give it a few months to 'bed in', fix the bugs, decent games to be released and the price to drop and I'll consider it.
Dance Central may not be to your liking, but it has opened gaming up to a wider audience. I have many family members who would not touch Xbox previously, but now love to play Dance Central, Kinect Sports, etc. It's made the console more family orientated, and there are still the 'hardcore' shooters available for people that prefer those.
sonicmark on 25 Jan '12 said:
I don't think it'll cost that much, but expect it to exceed £350 upon launch, I know I'll defo BE TRYING to get it on launch along with some of the launch titles because I wanna be cool
.
I also hope there's a decent range of launch titles along with the expected CoD 94, I'd really like to see something like a new Castlevania on it's launch or even a Shadows of the Damned 2, or how about a new Final Fantasy launch title? Chances are that it'll be likely released around October-November 2013-2014 to get the most sales so we deserve a decent range of titles on launch because lets be honest, the range of launch titles for the 360 was rather dull.
Thos. on 25 Jan '12 said:
To be honest I'm considering moving back to PlayStation for the next generation. The PS1 was my last Sony console, and it seems Playstation have a lot more diversity and imagination in their exclusives - I missed out on Okami, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Uncharted
Xbox is pretty much release after release of FPS and RPG, which really is getting tedious, plus I imagine the next console will be pushing Kinect hugely, in which I have absolutely no interest.
The developers I'm most interested in, Bungie and Valve, are now releasing stuff multi-format, so there's really nothing (yet) to convince me to buy the next Xbox.
xXPiperAlphaXx on 25 Jan '12 said:
Have you given Alan Wake a try? In my opinion the pinnacle of 'alternative' with a great story. Cheap as chips now. I bought it for £7 in the supermarket.
Thos. on 25 Jan '12 said:
Not entirely sure why I disregarded this when it came out - I'll take your advice, and definitely pick it up. Thanks.
xXPiperAlphaXx on 25 Jan '12 said:
Yeah I was the same. It's a great game. The graphics tech is very nice and the way the story unfolds is like watching a TV mini series/Stephen King film. Highly recommended.
CunningSmile on 25 Jan '12 said:
It's one of my favorite games of the last few years, and well worth £7 but be warned it isn't perfect. The enemies can get repetative, the middle is a little flabby and the plot is about as clear as the end of Inception, but if you can live with all that it's a very inventive and original game with some gorgeous lighting and a really nice Twin Peaks/Twilight Zone style. I can't wait for American Nightmare and Alan Wake 2.
GHOSTY05 on 25 Jan '12 said:
I will wait a week after the launch, when they release the slim version that does not overheat.
msbhvn on 25 Jan '12 said:
Unlike the other article, I'm inclined to at least half believe this one, despite them putting in buzz-words like "system on a chip" while apparently not knowing what it means. The 360, while advanced for its time, is seven year old technology, I can believe that a current high-spec gaming PC can be six times more powerful. I am concerned about them putting in a top-end graphics chip. Have you seen the cooling systems on the top-end PC graphics cards? The 720 would have to be bigger than the original Xbox to incorporate it.
Stewb on 27 Jan '12 said:
High-spec gaming PCs are well more than 6 times more powerful at the moment. The 6000 series in question (the 6670) is about the equivalent of the second best AMD graphics card (the 4850, on below the 4870) available in June 2008. The top AMD (single) card of the 6000 series - the 6970 - is easily twice as powerful that then 4870, so more than twice as powerful than the 6670. Looking at benchmarks it's more like 2.5-3 times. That makes 15-18 times more powerful than the 360.
Now, also bear in mind that the 7000 series has released, so the 6970 is not the top AMD card, the 7970 is ~15% more powerful than the 6970. Then further bear in mind that the "720" is only releasing some time next year, so there will be another cycle, i.e. another 15% or so.
That means by the time the 720 is released (if it has this card) it will be about 4-5 times less powerful than the currently available fastest single card.
Those cooling systems you see are for people that have cards in SLI/Crossfire, that's up to 4 of these cards...
Now I may have slipped on the maths somewhere but you get the idea... I find it highly unlikely that the 6670 will be the card because by the time it comes to market it will already be significantly less powerful and two generations behind what will be available at that time.
jimbosolo on 28 Jan '12 said:
the ati radeon hd 7970 supports a max resolution of 4096x2160. so why are these rumours saying the next gen xbox will be 1080p, yes fair enough tvs at present support 1080p max, but surely for serious gamers you might have a monitor instead.
Clanger67 on 28 Jan '12 said:
I would also hate to think how much it would it cost to buy a monitor the same size as my current telly.I have less important things to worry about like feeding myself,lol.
Stewb on 28 Jan '12 said:
Also there is the minor issue that the 7970 is light years ahead of the 6670 in performance... And I mean light years...
EDIT: If you were so serious about your gaming that you wanted to play at that resolution you'd buy a PC
jimbosolo on 30 Jan '12 said:
Halo on Xbox ran at 1920x1080 on crt tv and 480p on HD TV, the x360 since the firmware update can run games/films etc at 1080p. America had HD tv`s & tv long before the UK. In the 12 years that xbox has been around the resolution has remained the same 1920 x1080 the original xbox was made by hardcore gamers for hardcore gamers, so it makes sence to continue that trend and up the max resolution and obviously power, features etc to move with the times.
Otherwise we could be left playing the same games, same control pad, different location etc and no progress made.