Newsbrief: Microsoft will be unveiling the successor to its Xbox 360 console at a special press event on May 21st.
The unveiling --which comes with its own official hashtag, #XboxReveal-- will be held at Microsoft's Xbox Campus in Redmond, Washington, as well as simultaneously streamed over Xbox Live and broadcast on Spike TV, starting at 10:00 am Pacific.
The event is set just a couple weeks before E3, where Microsoft says it will "continue the conversation" in rolling out its showcase for the new system.
Have you recently tried to watch a trailer on youtube? Only to be forced to watch another ad first. And then when you get to the thing (the ad) you were gonna watch, you get a bunch of pop-up ads over the top? Arrgggh, it's contagious. I've taken to stopping the thing I want to watch in protest. I hope google's analytics are picking up on my disapproval.
- Similar, but slightly inferior baseline specs to PS4. Very close CPU-GPU and ALU design, but different customization.
- Decision to use 8GB DDR3 RAM, with the zippy eDRAM GPU assist that Sony passed on. Will still result in lower overall system memory bandwidth than PS4's shared 8GB GDDR5.
- (Performance gap won't be tangible in first round of titles for both consoles. Separation may occur at 2-3 year mark of consoles' lives, or slightly earlier in first-party games.)
- Enormous focus on Xbox Live and services going forward.
- Significant focus on Kinect ver.2, with several new approaches to facial/body recognition, and of course 4-player Kinect gameplay support.
- Slightly misplaced attempts at cross-device integration; refreshing openness to wide-spectrum smartphone/tablet smartglassing combined with overtly-focused push to Surface and Windows 8 compatibilities.
I'll be interested to see what they have to offer but I think I might be done with this brand after seeing the direction they took it in the later years of the 360.
- Similar, but slightly inferior baseline specs to PS4. Very close CPU-GPU and ALU design, but different customization.
- Decision to use 8GB DDR3 RAM, with the zippy eDRAM GPU assist that Sony passed on. Will still result in lower overall system memory bandwidth than PS4's shared 8GB GDDR5.
- (Performance gap won't be tangible in first round of titles for both consoles. Separation may occur at 2-3 year mark of consoles' lives, or slightly earlier in first-party games.)
- Enormous focus on Xbox Live and services going forward.
- Significant focus on Kinect ver.2, with several new approaches to facial/body recognition, and of course 4-player Kinect gameplay support.
- Slightly misplaced attempts at cross-device integration; refreshing openness to wide-spectrum smartphone/tablet smartglassing combined with overtly-focused push to Surface and Windows 8 compatibilities.
- Lots of loud music and excited executives.