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Xbox 720 details leaked with Kinect 2 and Kinect glasses

Xbox 720 details leaked with Kinect 2 and Kinect glasses

By KS Sandhya Iyer | Updated: 18 June 2012 15:08 IST

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According to a 56-page document leaked on document sharing site Scribd (which has now been removed at the request of Covington & Burling LLP,"an international law firm that lists Microsoft as one of its clients), the next gen gaming console from Microsoft will be called Xbox 720. Set to launch in 2013 with some major upgrades over its predecessor. The presentation includes mentions of a Metro dashboard, SmartGlass, and Xbox TV apps. Here's a look at what the Windows giant has in store for Xbox loyalists.

Xbox 720: All Your Entertainment. One Box.

Since pricing is the first thing that comes to mind when gaming hardware is concerned, the document suggests that the console should be priced at $299, bundled with the Kinect V2 (as the presentation mentions). The console will include Blu-Ray support capable of playing 1080p HD movies, 3D viewing and an 'always on' state mode for faster start up speeds. Power is expected to be beefed up 6 times as the current Xbox along with debates on eight ARM or x86 cores each clocked at 2GHz with 4GB of DDR4 memory and three PPC cores clocked at 3.2GHz each for backwards compatibility with Xbox 360 games.

The console seems to promise a new dashboard with NextGen interface and NextGen Service experiences exclusive to the Xbox 720. Speaking of games, the Xbox 720 will launch 'next gen AAA titles' that will be up to six times better than those offered by the current Xbox. Games like Halo 4, Fable and Gears of War will be available for the console along with Kinect titles. It will also offer linear TV service, HD/3D movies and XTV applications in the TV app store for the console.

The Xbox 720 is being positioned as "All Your Entertainment. One Box." This means it would provide TV recording functionality and a Windows 8 base suggests easy development of apps across the console, PC and Windows phone as well. The company predicts a 10-year life cycle for the console along with sales of over 100 million units.

One slide that was interesting to see was Microsoft's discussion on its current gen Xbox regarding its shelf-life in the market. The company predicts declining sales for the Xbox 360 starting next year. Not just that, the company is also tracking competition, especially Sony and Nintendo, who will be launching their next gen consoles by next year and is eyeing possible threats from Apple TV and Google TV. Apart from this, Microsoft also put out certain limitations of the Xbox 360. These included:

No full fidelity AAA Games + Kinect V1 sensor
Will not support full range of XTV platform scenarios (e.g. 1080p video + Video Chat +HTML5 Apps)
Lacking modern entertainment capabilities (e.g. Blu-ray, Native 3D output, 2x1080p in/out)
Can't run "always on"/low power states
Can't run multiplexed or concurrent applications and service

Kinect V2

The next generation Kinect, termed as Kinect V2 is expected to include a host of new features such as better accuracy, stereo imaging, improved voice recognition, a better RGB camera and dedicated hardware processing. The key highlight among these seems to be support for four player tracking and Kinect props. Players will experience closer, wider and deeper 3D play space.

Kinect Glasses: Codename 'Fortaleza'

Microsoft plans on introducing Kinect Glasses, depicted in an Xbox 720 roadmap titled 'The Road to Fortaleza'. The project still seems to be under research as it isn't revealed in too much detail. What does seem like a possibility is that the glasses will be Wi-Fi or 4G enabled and will feature augmented reality technology similar to the Google Glass project. The Fortaleza glasses, which will also incorporate cell radio, are planned for a 2014 launch. As one slide claims, it will be a revolution in the mobile space and is also expected to bring about cloud integration which will allow users to access Xbox games and media "instantly from any screen".

While Microsoft had confirmed that it won't release its next gen console at E3 this year, various speculations on the Xbox 720 have cropped up every now and then, the latest one being that Flextronics, the Austin Texas branch was manufacturing next gen consoles for the company. Microsoft later offered a $99 bundle to users available with a two-year subscription.

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