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Some newer, slightly crazy rumours have emerged regarding Microsoft’s next home gaming console, with development people claiming it’ll ship with an updated Kinect motion sensor — and won’t work unless Microsoft’s eye is plugged in and activated.
The report, which comes via Kotaku, also claims that installation to hard drive will be mandatory when playing games on the next-gen machine, although tools will be in place to let games run their first few levels while the masses of game data is seamlessly copied across from disc in the background. The next Xbox will ship with a 500GB hard drive according to the source, and you have no choice in installing to hard drive with the console allegedly incapable of playing games from retail discs.
One very nice little feature is the hibernate/suspend tool, which is like an amazing super-pause. You can multi-task, basically, suspending gaming sessions to pop out to another app, or another game, then doing whatever the Xbox equivalent of alt-tab to head straight back into your paused game state.
There are plenty of other tech specs reported by the supposed insider, including an eight-core, 64-bit processor running at 1.6GHz, DirectX 11 graphics support, 8GB of DDR3 and the option of outputting in 3D at 1080p resolution. All quite exciting, if… true.
Meanwhile, the sales performance of the current Xbox has been thoroughly broken down by Microsoft. Speaking at a media event, the company’s interactive entertainment boss Yusuf Mehdi claimed it’s sold 76 million Xbox 360′s around the world alongside 24 million Kinect sensors, while 46 million users have Xbox Live accounts.
There’s also an unexpectedly high proportion of female users knocking about Microsoft’s servers — some 38 per cent of 360 users are women, said Mehdi. [Kotaku]
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I hope its a 500GB (not MB) hard drive- or there will be problems with holding many games !
A problem holding ANY games*
Unless they plan on letting us play really really old games super quickly
AM I missing something? I didnt understand the opening paragraph,
“the motion sensor will not work unless the eye is plugged in and activated”
isn’t that a given? something has to be plugged in for it to work.
no, you won’t be able to play the xbox unless the kinect plugged in and watching you.
I’ve already come up with a fix. Just point it at a screen running an animated gif of people dancing.
mines going to watch Apple Keynote speeches while i play games as it looks at my laptop!!
I can see why people might be aggrieved by this, but my Kinect is always switched on anyway so it won’t trouble me at all.
i cant see why people have a problem with it at all
its not like they have to buy the kinect seperate because all the new xbox`s will have the kinect in the box lol
so i dot see why people have a problem at all
Microsoft applied for a patent that used the Kinect to see how many people were viewing content on the Xbox, which would then end playback if too many people are watching it. Oh, and game developers could be forced to integrate kinect features in to their games. Both of these things are not good.
Plus i’m pretty sure any intelligent person doesn’t want to allow Microsoft all access priviledges to view life inside there home.
A trawl through some other message boards presented me with one argument in this regard: rumours like this are often started at this stage in order that the end product does not have the horrible functionality “as feared”. Makes a bit more sense in my view.
WOW.. turns it off if too many people are watching.. way to make VOD services that much more complicated and set them back a few years for distribution companies while they get their heads round this.
Awesome, yet more outdated hardware with little or no offering to support 4k.
“38 per cent of 360 users are women” – If this is judged by live signups then more than likely mummy’s credit card being used to keep little Timmy entertained!
If they want me to have it switched on and watching me, they’re going to have to make the Kinect unit smaller. It’s a bit of an eyesore with my TV set up so it’s currently gathering dust behind the tv stand
im not sure i would like my son to have a video camera always watching what he was doing to be honest. especially when we know that MS has been hacked before.
Pfft. Then I won’t buy a 720.
Company wants to make a product that directly opposes the consumer; fine. Don’t consume it.
i have to admit the ps4 is sounding better and better every day.
i have to agree.. as much as i love Xbox.. the PS4 is sounding better all the time as these stupid ideas and patent claims surface..
I agree with you completely, on this point & the other you made about your son. I have two kids, a 7 year old boy & a 12 year old girl. Though I’ve been a fan of Xbox for the last couple of gens of consoles. I won’t be buying a console that effectively spies on my children. Worst comes to the worst & the PS4 take equally draconian stance. I’ll abandon video games consoles & buy a reasonable spec pc & upgrade it as money & necessity requires
Ok it makes sense now, your saying the Xbox itself will fail to work without Kinect up and running.
It partially makes sense, they want Kinect to be a standard feature, not something you have to buy as an add on. It makes more sense all round to not have to develop games to work both with and without XX feature. Loose those constraints and you will see better games.
However, I can imagine scenarios where this will be an annoyance, for example when I play in my Movie room which has a projector at the back of the room, I couldn’t use my kinect in such a room.
@Gary Cutlack
The Kotaku article says the HD is 500GB not MB…most people will probably realise its an error but its a fairly obvious typo just the same.
Sorry; just amended it. Good spot!