Microsoft: Seriously, No Xbox Hardware at E3
They really meant it.
The last few months have brought us tons of juicy rumors about the Xbox 720. We know that it's codenamed Durango, and last week we heard that it would be losing the disc drive in favor of an alternative form of interchangeable solid storage. There's also been a lot of talk of Microsoft announcing the console at E3 in June this year. While Microsoft is not expected to release the console this year, many have speculated that Redmond will at least give us a glimpse of it this summer. Microsoft said back in January that it didn't have anything to announce, but that hasn't stopped the rumors.
Sadly, it seems it really is not meant to be. Microsoft has once again quashed rumors that it will have new Xbox hardware on hand at E3. In a statement sent to Kotaku, the company has reiterated that there won't be a new Xbox at E3. Microsoft said that the Xbox 360 is having it's best year ever, following an amazing year in 2011, so they're going to focus on building the Xbox 360 momentum with Halo 4, Forza Horizon, Fable: The Journey, and more.
Check out the full statement below:
"While we appreciate all the interest in our long-range plans for the future, we can confirm that there will be no talk of new Xbox hardware at E3 or anytime soon. For us, 2012 is all about Xbox 360-and it's the best year ever for Xbox 360. The console is coming off its biggest year ever-a year in which Xbox outsold all other consoles worldwide. Xbox 360 didn't just outsell other consoles, it also outsold all other TV-connected devices like DVD players, as well as digital media receivers and home theatre systems. And in our seventh year, we sold more consoles than in any other year-defying convention.
This year, we will build on that Xbox 360 momentum. With "Halo 4," "Forza Horizon," "Fable: The Journey," and other great Kinect games on the way, our 2012 Xbox lineup is our strongest ever. This year, we will deliver more TV, music, and movie experiences for Xbox 360-as we'll make it even easier to find and control your all entertainment. And this year, Xbox games, music, and video are coming to Windows 8 so people can enjoy their Xbox entertainment wherever they go."
Microsoft said in January that Kinect had refreshed the Xbox and made it a brand new console, and considering this latest statement, the company obviously thinks the 360 has some mileage left. Do you think the 360 is getting a bit tired? Is it time for Xbox 720? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!
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To sum up: MORE HORSEPOWER = MORE GAME-PLAY OPPORTUNITIES.
Stop saying we don't need more powerful consoles, because with more power comes greater fidelity AND greater opportunities.
----> Reason I couldn't care less, no optical drive is an automatic count me out. I don't care how much potential it may have, I'm not investing in something where (concerning the games) I cannot resell, buy used on the cheap, rent, or lend or borrow from a friend. It may or may not end up this way, have to wait and see, but I know Microsoft's intentions for doing this.
The way these consoles were made were meant for flexibilty in the addition of features....which in console terms is much much more important....
Us PC gamer's love to complain, but that's more because our machines already do all those features, and a whole lot more....so really, the only thing to look foward to is improvement in actual game development.
Consoles are more overall media centric.... so stop your whining already.
Times have changed from , the days where new consoles were pushed to market, solely with the promise of better hardware, more realistic gaming and graphics....it goes a lot deeper than that now.
I'm sorry but what a stupid and narrow-minded comment. And I say that as a lifelong PC gamer. The sooner these new consoles come out, the better the graphics will be in our PC games. Not everything in life has to be reduced to some zero-sum "us vs. them" mentality.
But I wonder how well we can emulate 360 hardware nowadays....
I personally use my PS3 as both a gaming console and Bluray movie player, if MS truly wanted to compete, they should at the very least keep a disk drive.... but NOT as an option, but as part of the console.
i boutght 3 of them, all because of read rings and general crapy construction...
its the exclusives that i want the thing for... but this time.. if it fails, im going to wait on emulators.
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yay, now here is where i get the downvotes from...
real gamers dont care about graphics, i seriously do not care what any of you have to say, and especialy not the people who complain they they dropped 2 grand on a quad sli and nothing runs like crap on it.
most of us want better game play,
most of us want better sorry,
most of us want music to be good
most of us want more then 2 sound effects for running
but the most vocal of us complain that their 5000$ computer isnt being pushed to the point that you cant play the game...
look at crysis 1 and crysis 2, the graphics engines, crysis one was such a crappilly optimized engine that it took years before it was a viable gaming experience on the high end, yet when the game was ported to a better optimized engine, it was suddenly playable on the consoles.
i for one LOVE that the consoles hold graphics back, it forces developers to better optimize their engines, it forces them to make better gameplay to compensate for poorer graphics, or god forbid, better ai.
now downvote me for shoveing truth in your faces,
lets not forget that with better graphics, comes higher costs, but im sure people who complain that their pc can play any game out there care that new games will cost more because they cant live without a game that brings their systems to a crawl.
I wonder if they have more than the usual reasons for that?
I could not disagree more, I believe that REAL gamers should and DO care about good graphics. Are you suggesting that you would be okay with N64 graphics to this day so long as all the good games still came out? If so then you are lying to us and yourself (a lot of those games ran at a native 360p res btw, look it up).
In regards to your comment "most of us want better sorry", I DO agree with this because my old Sorry board game is crap. They could make it better with more colored pieces to choose from you know?