In the middle of the night, a 56 page report apparently coming from Microsoft and written in 2010, was leaked onto the internet. It details their next console dubbed the Xbox 720, in pretty good detail. The time of writing this the document has been removed from the server. Lets take a look at what was inside.
The most intriguing part of the release was that the 720 will feature a Blu Ray disk drive and full 1080P output, with a “Low Powered Always On Mode” it also will have the ability to act as a DVR. If a Blu Ray is in fact standard issue, then we can definitely expect some BIG sized games. Lets take a look at the raw specs from the document.
The compelling info lies with the backwards compatibility. With three PowerPC cores at 3.4Ghz used to mimic the 360 architecture. This lets all previous games play natively without emulation.
The 720 doesn’t seem to be skimping on power. With up to 8 ARM CPU cores set at 2Ghz, we can expect powerful content of all kinds. It is kind of required for constant 1080P output though.
The big peripherals that are included in this report are what make me believe this report to legitimate. The console will come with Kinect V2 bundled. It has the ability to track 4 players and new “Kinect Props”. Kinect Props are just that, props you use when playing with the kinect. If we look at one of the illustrations, we can clearly see someone using a baseball bat with their Kinect.
That has disaster written all over it. When the WiiMote was flying off wrists and busting TVs, it was called a terror to living rooms. Add 1:1 scale BATS or GOLF CLUBS or whatever to the equation and you have a recipe for destroyed TVs.
Then we have these Kinect Glasses called Project Fortaleza. That sounds like a type of Ferrari. These are Microsoft’s answer to Google Glasses. These will offer 3D viewing of games or movies. The report mentions 4G, so they could be used outside the 720 system.
Top that all off with a Holiday 2013 release at $299, you can expect that the Xbox 720 to be the first foray into the next generation of game consoles.
Check out the entire document here.