Rumors, rumors, rumors. We love them, nourish them, and hope
that they turn out to be true. This week, all everyone is talking about is
Microsoft’s upcoming Xbox 720. To help you out, I’ve decided to compile all
rumors for you guys.
The rumor started with gaming market research website, MCV,
getting a tip from an anonymous source that both Microsoft and Sony will unveil
their new consoles at E3 2012, later in June. We featured the whole story and our thoughts in a
previous article, earlier this month.
Although we never heard any updates, or confirmations from
Microsoft, the rumors got bigger with reports from IGN.com and Fudzilla. The
latter stated that the new Xbox would be empowered by an IBM PowerPC CPU fused
with an ATI 6000 series of the Southern Islands GPU, codenamed at the moment
Oban.
On the other hand, IGN’s report is different when it comes
to the GPU, stating it will be based on the ATI Radeon HD 6670 GPU, offering
support for DirectX 11, 3D and Full HD output. This means that processing wise,
the Xbox 720 will have six times the power of its predecessor. Nevertheless,
the Oban chips are now being produced for developers, which logically means
that the next Xbox release date is far from being 2012.
Other gaming industry sources told Kotaku that the next Xbox
will have dual DVD and Blu-Ray support, Kinect 2 with an on-board processor,
and measures against used or second hand games. This means, you won’t be able
to lend your copy of Forza Motorsport 5 or Gears of War 4 to your friends if you
played it on your shiny Xbox 720.
Well, here you have it; this is your At7addak Xbox 720 report
for the day. In the meantime, check our debate on what we want to see from the
next generation consoles, and give us your thoughts.
Ozimandus has been reviewing games and gadgets since 2003. He's not afraid of speaking his mind, and loves to share his love of everything geeky.