It's 2012, and after six years with the same three core consoles and a whole lot of E3's, the rumours are flying as to when the next generation of Xbox and Playstation will truly begin alongside the soon-to-be launched Wii U. Earlier this morning, a lengthy unconfirmed business document leaked on Scribd, which revealed details of Microsoft's plan for the next-gen Xbox, which includes a new Kinect sensor at launch, an in-built Blu-Ray disc drive and much more bundled in a $299 package for release in late 2013.
The August 2010-dated business document extensively covers a range of areas for the supposed future of the Xbox, which includes the target hardware for the Xbox 720, titled under "Yukon Architecture"; a 6-8 core ARM/x86 CPU running at 2GHz with a 1GHz ATI GPU, 4GB of memory, 32MB or more of EDRAM, mass Flash storage in addition to a hard drive, USB 3.0 a Blu-ray drive, HDMI with full support for 3D, and 802.11n WiFi.
The same page of the document indicates the IBM Power PC CPU that is currently in the Xbox 360 will also be in the next-gen console to support backwards compatibility. However, considering the age of the document, it is safe to assume if it is valid that many of these hardware details could, and have changed.
The upgraded Kinect sensor is featured in a few particular pages, showcasing plans for simulteanous 4-player functionality and improved 3D support, camera quality and voice recognition.
Perhaps most notable is the "Fortaleza" slide which details Augumented Reality glasses which gives players a "revolution in the living room". For those that don't know, Fortaleza is a state capital in Brazil, as is Natal, the former codename for Kinect prior to the device's release in 2010.
The latter half of the document extensively covers Microsoft's focus on creating "transmedia experiences" with the Xbox 720 being the "ONLY box you need for premium living room entertainment", listing out its gaming features, recording capabilities, streaming remote play "to any device" as well as emphasis on tablet and mobile functionality with the device, shedding some light onto where the exactly the idea of SmartGlass spawned from.
Since hitting the web, the document was quickly removed at request by Covington & Burling, a law firm that advises Microsoft. Whether this is because it is a true document of the company or a forgery remains to be seen.
What do you think about these alleged leaked documents and their validity? Is this our first look? Share with us below. Take a further look at the 360 photo gallery for an uploaded collection of the document's highlights.
Source: IGN
By Nathan Misa- Writer Bio