Xbox 720 will launch next year without a disc drive

[thevulture]

'..............also mooted that Microsoft brought Harrison on board because of his experience with cloud gaming while at streaming service Gaikai. Is it a sign that the platform holder is preparing to go down a similar avenue with its next console?

"I now suspect the next-gen Xbox will launch toward the end of 2013. The fact that Phil H was on the board of Gaikai is interesting since I think the next-gen Xbox will have a strong cloud focus and so his arrival may also be about laying the groundwork for next-gen connected console services in Europe.'

Pure speculation at the moment of course, but MS laid the infastructure for XBL with original Xbox, maybe they are planing to start laying the ground work for a streaming/set top box with the next generation Xbox? ready for streaming only the generation after?.

[thevulture]

'Microsoft’s Brian Prince at GDC China talked a little bit about the future of the Xbox. He ventured into the possibilities of cloud gaming and said that services like Gaikai and Onlive are the distant future of online gaming and the services have certain limitations.
......... problem is that your gamers need high speed internet access. That’s fine if you live in a city, but most of America doesn’t live in a city, for example.”.......'

Might be fair to speculate that the next Xbox will make more use of the Cloud, but MS very aware that a set top box that you'd just stream games etc to (or indeed download only) is at very least another generation away.But if they are getting the talent on board now, they'll want to be the ones ready with a superior service when it does hit , witness how Sony and Nintendo now playing catch up with Xbox Live, as far as online goes.

[retrojc]

Not going to lie, but a download only console from XBox would be great for me.

Out of interest is that because you've been downloading games for around £1-15 at the moment? What if hypothetically the majority of major releases are priced at full RRP, at around £40-50?

Nope, pay full price quie often, paid top dollar for halo reach of the download service, as well as Cod's, and many others. Like i've said before, I don't mind spending £50 ona new game I want, i mean, ps1 games used to be £50+all the time, never bothered me much then either.

It's going that way anyway. I expect to pay the same rate as a cinema for a game, i'e £3 an hour. but that's an average, some games more per an hour, like Uncharted = imax so £10 an hour, whereas A tran HX = piurate coy so 50p per an hour haha. Hourly price reflects how mcuh I pay!

However is episodic gaming takes over, i may be les inclined

[retrosofer]

All i can say about this is, i wont believe it until i see it tbh! But on a side note, i would hate things to go download only, but i couldn't care less about the next Xbox console right now, MS have already censored up, they lost me as a next gen customer 6-12 months ago, they just cant get it right anymore.

[retrosofer]

Or does this mean it will be cartridge based?

[pratty]

Out of interest is that because you've been downloading games for around £1-15 at the moment? What if hypothetically the majority of major releases are priced at full RRP, at around £40-50?

Nope, pay full price quie often, paid top dollar for halo reach of the download service, as well as Cod's, and many others. Like i've said before, I don't mind spending £50 ona new game I want, i mean, ps1 games used to be £50+all the time, never bothered me much then either.

Fair enough. I'm pleased it works for you.

The thing is for a lot of people they have been accustomed to paying well below RRP for their games (due to competition amongst retailers, trading in old games etc), and subsequently buy more games as a result. I suspect a lot of these people would become more selective with their purchases if they were now forced to pay the RRP for every game. As I say the culture shock of this might put people off the XBOX 720 altogther.

[thevulture]

'Microsoft has moved to manage expectations ahead of its E3 show in June and announced that it will definitely not unveil an Xbox 360 successor at the event - "or anytime soon".

A statement handed to Kotaku explained that Microsoft's focus for the rest of 2012 is its current-gen machine.'

Cannot see a 2013 launch myself.

[retrojc]

Fair enough. I'm pleased it works for you.

The thing is for a lot of people they have been accustomed to paying well below RRP for their games (due to competition amongst retailers, trading in old games etc), and subsequently buy more games as a result. I suspect a lot of these people would become more selective with their purchases if they were now forced to pay the RRP for every game. As I say the culture shock of this might put people off the XBOX 720 altogther.

SHould of said, it works for me, but for so many it would not work at all. You;re right!

[Matt_B]

You've got to bear in mind that the average console gamer doesn't buy a lot of games; for the 360 the tie ratio is about 9; you can consider yourself "hardcore" if your collection runs to double figures. On other machines it can a lot lower than that; the 3DS is currently running at about 2 games per console, after about a year on the market, although that should improve over its lifetime.

As such, with most people only buying a couple of games a year, I doubt they'd be that worried about whether they can get them at a discount; £35 vs £50 for a new game that you'll get months of fun out of makes little difference. It's only the relatively small number of gamers who insist on picking up hundreds of games, where the savings accumulate to something appreciable, that it has much of an impact.

As something of a connoisseur of the sub-£5 market, I'd be sad to see that level of discounting go too. However, I'd recognize that they are only really selling boxed games at that price in order to get shut of their unsold stocks to save on the warehousing costs, and that it'll realize no money at all towards development. However, downloaded games can be sold at even lower price points and still turn a profit; that's evident on iOS and Android, and to a lesser extent on Steam. So long as the likes of Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony can avoid the temptation of price fixing, it could work on their platforms too.

[thevulture]

Matt_B makes a very good point.Couple of PS3 owning friends of mine will buy latest MW/COD and map packs there after, then 1, possibly 2 or 3 games in between releases of next dose of said franchise, once they tire of playing the online side.(Niether will bother to play SP campain from start to finish).

One has bought the MGS HD collection, as he loved MGS 2+3 on PS2 and the other just bought Skyrim, as he loved Oblivion and latest Fifa (as his brother plays that a lot) but both said it's only to tie them over until Black Op's 2 comes out.

Black Op's 2 or MW4 could clock in at £70 with map packs say £25 for 2 and i know they'd buy on day 1 and consider it VFM, as they'd pour hours in and play nothing else.Would download only phase them?.Not at all, they'd probably welcome it, as they would'nt even have to go to the store to buy the game (both only buy games from Supermarkets).

Gamerscore, collecting, trading etc meaningless to them.