Two Xbox 720 console models reportedly planned

StonecoldMC on 24 Nov '11 said:

Sounds plausible, but as do the other 42 rumours ive read about the NextBox over the last couple of weeks.

jim_k on 24 Nov '11 said:

I think its stupid to do two SKU and divide their user base

Stan_Goodspeed on 24 Nov '11 said:

The cheaper model acting as a set-top box/Kinect hybrid? I might have missed something, but how would they actually play/stream games without a HDD and/or a disc tray?

coolpro on 24 Nov '11 said:

So one to buy on the day of release & one to buy three days later when the first one goes bang because its shoddily built but they rushed it to market anyway! At least with two models they shouldn't run out of stock! Well done Micro$oft!

FixBeatGames on 24 Nov '11 said:

lol cool pro, took the words out of my mouth.

the fact microsoft rushed the 360 out too quickly to beat sony, then paid a heavy price (70% failure reports at the time) due to cheap and nasty components... then they're openly admitting this time to releasing a 'cheap' version (obviously if this rumour turned out to be true) should be ringing massive alarm bells in your heads people.

monty_79 on 24 Nov '11 said:

lol cool pro, took the words out of my mouth.

the fact microsoft rushed the 360 out too quickly to beat sony, then paid a heavy price (70% failure reports at the time) due to cheap and nasty components... then they're openly admitting this time to releasing a 'cheap' version (obviously if this rumour turned out to be true) should be ringing massive alarm bells in your heads people.

You sad prick

lordirongut on 24 Nov '11 said:

I don't like the two-SKU approach. I didn't like it with the 360, I don't like it with the Vita and I won't like it with the next Xbox. It just reeks of a money-grab. Those who buy the cheap SKU will eventually be forced into upgrading, like what happened with the US 20gb PS3 and everyone who bought a 'Core' or 'Arcade' 360.

quain-chi on 24 Nov '11 said:

The cheaper model acting as a set-top box/Kinect hybrid? I might have missed something, but how would they actually play/stream games without a HDD and/or a disc tray?

Maybe itd work like the onlive micro console just attach it to your network and it streams all the content.

StonecoldMC on 24 Nov '11 said:

So one to buy on the day of release & one to buy three days later when the first one goes bang because its shoddily built but they rushed it to market anyway! At least with two models they shouldn't run out of stock! Well done Micro$oft!

Do you honestly think that MS will allow a similiar scenario as what happened with the RROD ?

If there is one thing you can be sure of, the NextBox will not have anywhere close to the failure rate of the 360, MS paid out around £1 billion in extended warranites and if there is one thing we all know. MS likes money.

DAEDALUS79 on 24 Nov '11 said:

lol cool pro, took the words out of my mouth.

the fact microsoft rushed the 360 out too quickly to beat sony, then paid a heavy price (70% failure reports at the time) due to cheap and nasty components... then they're openly admitting this time to releasing a 'cheap' version (obviously if this rumour turned out to be true) should be ringing massive alarm bells in your heads people.

Erm...

http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/galleries/2011-05-30/unwanted-e3-2011-announcements/unwanted-e3-2011-announcements_1306741236.png

svd_grasshopper on 24 Nov '11 said:

surely the set top box one would have a HDD in it too...

this is a bad idea in general. it confuses customers and hampers developers.

they are going to compete the set top boxes AND nintendo and sony?! that's just stupid.

don't divide your strengths. combine them. like a transformer. no-one f**ks with that big bastard once it's in truck-form.

and DAEDALUS79 - he said cheap, not cheaper you fanboy c*nt

FixBeatGames on 24 Nov '11 said:

lol cool pro, took the words out of my mouth.

the fact microsoft rushed the 360 out too quickly to beat sony, then paid a heavy price (70% failure reports at the time) due to cheap and nasty components... then they're openly admitting this time to releasing a 'cheap' version (obviously if this rumour turned out to be true) should be ringing massive alarm bells in your heads people.

You sad prick

i'm not sad at all lol. i bought 2 360s (at a cost of over £400) in the space of a year, and got the worst customer service ever when i dared to complain about it to ms.

then the ps3 came out, i bought one, 5 years later have the same one, albeit with a more noisier fan nowadays, and it works absolutely fantastically still.

my brother bought 4 360s. littest brother had 2 bought for him. my uncle bought 3. and search the internet, many many many people had to rebuy 360s cuz they kept breaking (right up until the latest model built this year).

i don't think it's sad to complain about that, sorry if you feel it is.

Stan_Goodspeed on 24 Nov '11 said:

The cheaper model acting as a set-top box/Kinect hybrid? I might have missed something, but how would they actually play/stream games without a HDD and/or a disc tray?

Maybe itd work like the onlive micro console just attach it to your network and it streams all the content.

That would make sense, from a technical standpoint. But from a user perspective, wouldn't "hardcore" gamers be more inclined to buy a service-focused system rather than the casual/Netflix crowd? That'd make the other, more expensive SKU kind of irrelevant for many early adopters.

StonecoldMC on 24 Nov '11 said:

@FixBeatGames

Guess how many I bought?

http://blog.leasetrader.com/images/blog_leasetrader_com/WindowsLiveWriter/Edm.comwillgive1MillionDollarstoanyonewh_B268/Edmunds%20%20will%20give%20$1%20Million%20Dollars%20to%20anyone%20who%20can%20fix%20unintended%20acceleration%20problem!_thumb.jpg

FixBeatGames on 24 Nov '11 said:

5 ?

StonecoldMC on 24 Nov '11 said:

Close, but no cigar im afraid.

You were just a wee bit out.

quain-chi on 24 Nov '11 said:

That would make sense, from a technical standpoint. But from a user perspective, wouldn't "hardcore" gamers be more inclined to buy a service-focused system rather than the casual/Netflix crowd? That'd make the other, more expensive SKU kind of irrelevant for many early adopters.

Maybe afew years ago but look at all the people buying games and software from the different app stores/itunes etc on phones, tablets and whatever else who would have never bought games before, im sure theres a large enough market now to sustain it.

toaplan on 24 Nov '11 said:

Sounds reasonable. Basic model for price-sensitive buyers, deluxe model with a large hard drive and backwards compatibility for core fans.

But which model should have the possible built-in Kinect? I hope the deluxe model, or both, as I like the idea of a built-in Kinect - although I'm aware that many core gamers dislike the Kinect.

Both models should use the same optical media format, otherwise MS risks severely splitting the installed base.

Noobsaibot on 24 Nov '11 said:

lol cool pro, took the words out of my mouth.

the fact microsoft rushed the 360 out too quickly to beat sony, then paid a heavy price (70% failure reports at the time) due to cheap and nasty components... then they're openly admitting this time to releasing a 'cheap' version (obviously if this rumour turned out to be true) should be ringing massive alarm bells in your heads people.

You sad prick

You are in need of serious enlightenment.

FixBeatGames on 24 Nov '11 said:

You are in need of serious enlightenment.

me? if so, please do rather than say.

KK-Headcharge78 on 24 Nov '11 said:

So which sad gits actually had RROD and didn't get the machine replaced FOC? Unless it was years out of warranty in which case your retailer rights trump the case, or did you buy it off a mate? I've had RROD 3 times and it never cost me a penny, my present Xbox has performed like a star for 3 years now and well outlasted the Wii and PS3 for me.

Oh well I think it's a great idea if they do two, may keep some of the chumps off the more expensive system, until they start stealing from grannies to pay for it of course.

Stan_Goodspeed on 24 Nov '11 said:

That would make sense, from a technical standpoint. But from a user perspective, wouldn't "hardcore" gamers be more inclined to buy a service-focused system rather than the casual/Netflix crowd? That'd make the other, more expensive SKU kind of irrelevant for many early adopters.

Maybe afew years ago but look at all the people buying games and software from the different app stores/itunes etc on phones, tablets and whatever else who would have never bought games before, im sure theres a large enough market now to sustain it.

That crowd got wider in the past few years, that's undeniable. But they (mostly) buy cheap apps and games, whereas the pricing structure on the next MS console would probably be far steeper considering the Xbox Live tarifications.
To me, that kind of model sounds like it's speaking more to the "hardcore" (whatever that means) audience. And the fact that this rumour points out to another pricier model aimed at the very crowd that's willing to shell out $60 a month and $10-15 for a downloadable game is quite puzzling to me.

Agent75 on 24 Nov '11 said:

Micro$oft cocked up big time with the amount of Xbox 360 models, never in gaming history has there been so many models which got quite confusing, more so for the casual gamer and parents. I never buy a console at launch anyway, I give it a year to settle down, get the games cheaper, more games are out, plus new consoles usually have design faults. I'm 50/50 wether the Xbox 720 will be out at the end of 2012, but maybe 2013, 2014 is stretching it a bit. Sony stretching the PS3 to 10 years is bulls**t, it's never going to happen. They need to get the PS4 out before or at the same time as the Xbox 720, plus the Wii U will be out soon. Last in, first out is what Sony don't want again.

TheMid on 24 Nov '11 said:

The cheaper model acting as a set-top box/Kinect hybrid? I might have missed something, but how would they actually play/stream games without a HDD and/or a disc tray?

Cloud

photoboy on 24 Nov '11 said:

i'm not sad at all lol. i bought 2 360s (at a cost of over £400) in the space of a year, and got the worst customer service ever when i dared to complain about it to ms.

then the ps3 came out, i bought one, 5 years later have the same one, albeit with a more noisier fan nowadays, and it works absolutely fantastically still.

my brother bought 4 360s. littest brother had 2 bought for him. my uncle bought 3. and search the internet, many many many people had to rebuy 360s cuz they kept breaking (right up until the latest model built this year).

i don't think it's sad to complain about that, sorry if you feel it is.

There will always be some faulty consoles, but the 360 solder manufacturing flaw has been fixed for years now, ever since the Jasper model was released, so to keep perpetuating it is just blatant fanboyism. And why did you and your relatives keep buying new Xboxes when Microsoft would have repaired or replaced them for free? They've had a three year warranty for faults for nearly 4 years now, so you shouldn't have had to re-buy a console more than once in that timespan.

FixBeatGames on 24 Nov '11 said:

i'm not sad at all lol. i bought 2 360s (at a cost of over £400) in the space of a year, and got the worst customer service ever when i dared to complain about it to ms.

then the ps3 came out, i bought one, 5 years later have the same one, albeit with a more noisier fan nowadays, and it works absolutely fantastically still.

my brother bought 4 360s. littest brother had 2 bought for him. my uncle bought 3. and search the internet, many many many people had to rebuy 360s cuz they kept breaking (right up until the latest model built this year).

i don't think it's sad to complain about that, sorry if you feel it is.

There will always be some faulty consoles, but the 360 solder manufacturing flaw has been fixed for years now, ever since the Jasper model was released, so to keep perpetuating it is just blatant fanboyism. And why did you and your relatives keep buying new Xboxes when Microsoft would have repaired or replaced them for free? They've had a three year warranty for faults for nearly 4 years now, so you shouldn't have had to re-buy a console more than once in that timespan.

because the first ones wasn't being replaced by microsoft near launch date, they totally fobbed us all off saying we must be keeping it on top of a radiator or in direct sunlight. it took microsoft 6 months to finally admit the widespread problem, so we just got 2nd hand replacements off ebay / from shops etc. the 2nd hand ones weren't covered unless you paid more money to get a replacement re-conditioned unit. it was a disgrace.

i have no idea if it's fixed / they just replace them nowadays as i've not owned a 360 for nearly 4 years (since the 2nd one died). if they have, fairplay to them. i'll still never go back after the way me (and especially my little brother) was treated by microsoft at the beginning when the first ones died. (within 2 months of buying them, from new, btw).

i'm a gamer, not a fanboy. i've owned all consoles this gen, and everything from sega to nintendo to atari in the past. i develop for multiple platforms etc.

that you are quick to write someone off as a 'fanboy' really just suggests that you're one yourself, no? as childish as all this sounds.

coolpro on 24 Nov '11 said:

[that you are quick to write someone off as a 'fanboy' really just suggests that you're one yourself, no? as childish as all this sounds.

Now you took the words right out of my mouth!

The whole red ring of death thing & how Micro$oft were about it to their frustrated customers can not be commented on unless you suffered at the hand of it; as you obviously did FixBeat! It's just selfish dumb, ignorance to say it wasn't a problem & why did you buy so many other consoles etc ... they weren't sat there with a £300 red disco light brick under their TV ... you're alright jack, because your console is ok ... well bully for you!

MrPirtniw on 24 Nov '11 said:

Meh, still have my launch 360 and it's never been sent off for repair- but I have upgraded the HDD to 120GB (which I got for free). God damn, I must be awesome.

djm99 on 24 Nov '11 said:

I think its stupid to do two SKU and divide their user base

Couldn't agree with you more. It was stupid with the 360, why do it again.

Black Mantis on 24 Nov '11 said:

Sounds reasonable. Basic model for price-sensitive buyers, deluxe model with a large hard drive and backwards compatibility for core fans.

But which model should have the possible built-in Kinect? I hope the deluxe model, or both, as I like the idea of a built-in Kinect - although I'm aware that many core gamers dislike the Kinect.

Both models should use the same optical media format, otherwise MS risks severely splitting the installed base.

I doubt Kinect will be "built-in", given the way it tilts and adjusts. I guess it'll be packaged in the same box, but a separate unit like it is now. Having it built-in would cause some buyers placement issues as well, my 360 doesn't sit directly under my tv for example, but I place the Kinect on the tv base. Not saying it can't be done, just unlikely. It would make an interesting looking console though, Wall-E style!

AvatarIII on 24 Nov '11 said:

I think it's foolish for ms to release 2 720 SKUs, they should do the 720 and replace the 360 with the set top box thing, have it do everything a 360 does, play netflix, have kinect, whatever, make it as small and cheap as possible, which would obviously be a lot cheaper than a set top 720, and it would keep the 360 market around for the casual fan base, and would encourage 360 owners to upgrade, rather than own a casual gamers system.

Agent75 on 24 Nov '11 said:

The cheaper model probably means the price, not the actual quality of the console, unless it's made out of yoghurt carton plastic. Use your brains more, thickos!

Buddha on 24 Nov '11 said:

So which sad gits actually had RROD and didn't get the machine replaced FOC? Unless it was years out of warranty in which case your retailer rights trump the case, or did you buy it off a mate? I've had RROD 3 times and it never cost me a penny, my present Xbox has performed like a star for 3 years now and well outlasted the Wii and PS3 for me.

Oh well I think it's a great idea if they do two, may keep some of the chumps off the more expensive system, until they start stealing from grannies to pay for it of course.

I got royally screwed!

MS replaced my RROD console with a visibly shoddy refurb (mine had been immaculate and unscratched!) which wouldn‘t read all my games. They then refused to rectify this error with the argument that it wasn‘t a RROD error so wasn‘t eligible!

I got my revenge by going to GAME and px‘ing it for a PS3! Ironically I now have a launch 360 which I bought off my mate for £30. Sounds like a bloody hairdryer!

alan666 on 24 Nov '11 said:

who cares how many versions of the xbox 720 there will be, us CVG members will always go for the hardcore option !

Keyran-Solo on 24 Nov '11 said:

Guess we'll have to wait until January to see what happens with this.

pRM8 on 24 Nov '11 said:

So one will be a media player and the other an actual games console as that's what this rumour is suggesting.

NEO_SUPERMAN on 24 Nov '11 said:

So one to buy on the day of release & one to buy three days later when the first one goes bang because its shoddily built but they rushed it to market anyway! At least with two models they shouldn't run out of stock! Well done Micro$oft!

People still use "micr$oft?"

Next you'll be telling me were gonna start using pagers again.

Laughlyn on 24 Nov '11 said:

To make it a viable 'one-stop-shop' microsoft need to tuck its tail between its legs and get bluray on it because until then most folk will still want to buy and own hd films on a physical media and sony will have it all wrapped up in the PS4. Sure downloading movies is great but as the article last week shown, renting a film in hd is almost as expensive as a months love film sub or even the bluray itself.

At the momment i personally think MS are the weakest moving into the next gen, closely followed by nintendo with sony apearing to have as many bases covered as possible for the next 'war'

Xbox is let down by lack of a good HD media and also seeing as sony and Nintendo are moving towards a 2nd screen interaction MS are currently out of that game, Nintendo are severely let down with Wii U by what will probably be this gens power and also a lack of decent HD media and very limited multimedia options, no bluray compatability for films and a streaming only service due to no/small hard drive (yes can be upgraded by external but nothing been said on storing media files to play on it as yet).

It seems only Sony is covered for pretty much everything, motion controls and they can improve PS Eye to be competetive with Kinect, good media streaming backing, blu ray player and can connect PSP2 (yes yes still refusing to call it vita here) to do the same as Wii U and will probably have learnt from the mistakes of the PS3's iffy RAM to give players more of what they wanted in the PS3's online gaming. Pretty sure MS will be able to buy their success again like they've continued to buy the 360's lifeline recently but they cant keep denying that they're starting to fall behind a little.

oh and i'm sure someone may perk up and start yelling i'm a Sony fanboy when tbh i'm a huge nintendo fan (slowly diminishing in recent times) i've never been a fan of MS co sthey money hungry b******s so they fit pefectly with activision and lets face it, who has ever bought an MS product on day one and had it work perfectly? As for sony i only got my PS3 2 yrs ago after the Bluray/HD-DVD war was done and i wanted a HD player. I'd like to see the Wii U so well but with decisions nintendo been making recently i have my doubts

Noobsaibot on 25 Nov '11 said:

You are in need of serious enlightenment.

me? if so, please do rather than say.

Thought I posted that link. Can't remember if it was you (and yes, I really am too lazy to check) but i'm sure this will interest most who read it. Either way, yours truly did this article while working for Xbox support last year:

http://www.thirdschism.com/articles/noo ... thday-xbox

Working there and seeing how horrible Microsoft really are (both to staff and customers) inspired it.

360_Fan on 25 Nov '11 said:

Seeing as in australia we don't get half the features the rest of world does, I don't see any point releasing the cheaper version over here.

The next xbox will only be a graphics and performance upgrade in my opinion. Controller, dashboard and live are all pretty much spot on. I don't see why they would want to change any of that, and apart from the controller, they have shown that they are always looking at ways of improving the service, and if you look at what it was at the begining to what it is now, you would think it's already a generation ahead.

I still want to be able to see 64+ players running around the map in a battlefield game at 60fps and 1080p on my console, but apart from that there is very little I would change on the xbox.

Finally, it's funny seeing all the shots taken at the xbox service centre provides. I have always found them more than helpful, and even recently when I had to call to have my credit card details removed, they sent me a follow up email saying they had awarded me with 500 points for being a long term customer. Coming from a customer service background, I can tell everyone here that there is not a company in the world that would set out to be difficult with it's customers. If you are recieving bad service from M$ you need to take a long hard look at yourself. If I had some snotty nose 16 year old call me and start abusing me, I would not be in any hurry to help them either. The guys on the end of the line are just like you, couldn't really give a s**t about you and justs want to go home with as little stress as possible. If you help them do that by being polite, you will be suprised on what you can get.

horngreen on 25 Nov '11 said:

It wouldn't matter how much later you launched Sony if you actually made a machine that could be programmed for and was actually MORE powerful than the "720". I mean the PS3 seems more powerful than the 360 on paper only. Show us the advantage of Blu Ray Sony? Where are the games with the HUGE worlds? Sad really that they still have such a devoted fan base after all this.

Ali_ on 25 Nov '11 said:

lol cool pro, took the words out of my mouth.

the fact microsoft rushed the 360 out too quickly to beat sony, then paid a heavy price (70% failure reports at the time) due to cheap and nasty components... then they're openly admitting this time to releasing a 'cheap' version (obviously if this rumour turned out to be true) should be ringing massive alarm bells in your heads people.

It wasn't cheap and nasty components, it was a fundamental design flaw in the original case. They rushed the quality control to get out earlier than Sony and released a console whose motherboard wasn't properly supported and physically warped as it heated up.

Padua on 25 Nov '11 said:

I think its stupid to do two SKU and divide their user base

Couldn't agree with you more. It was stupid with the 360, why do it again.

It might be the greatest idea if what they are planning is to pursue two markets at the same time - interactive TV that can play "some" games or hardcore console that can do the same AND then some

I can see a cheap TIVO like device with 500Gb HD/1TB drive with a refined version of Kinect that can play many XBOX Live/Kinect titles taking over the world like the Wii did All they have to then is provide an expensive upgrade path to the "full" console and that is going to be one golden trojan horse baby!

sonic_uk on 25 Nov '11 said:

It could be true, but if it is shame on you Microsoft. If I wanted crappy Kinnect I would have bought it. Being forced to pay for something I don't want, will never use and am not interested in in the slightest is ridiculous. I hope this is just one of the thousands of rumours that go around at the beginning of a new generation of consoles as it seems a pretty shoddy way to do business if it is indeed true.

bjjcjc on 25 Nov '11 said:

It wouldn't matter how much later you launched Sony if you actually made a machine that could be programmed for and was actually MORE powerful than the "720". I mean the PS3 seems more powerful than the 360 on paper only. Show us the advantage of Blu Ray Sony? Where are the games with the HUGE worlds? Sad really that they still have such a devoted fan base after all this.

To be fair though, it really should have been an advantage, and it still is, kind of, as games like LA Noire and Battlefield are all on a single disc unlike the xbox 360 equivalent.

I read somewhere that the read speed of the blu ray drive in the PS3 is 2x, and reads data at about 8MB/s, wheras the 12x DVD drive on the 360 reads data at a maximum of 16.5MB/s. A 4x drive would have meant constant read speeds of 18mbps, faster than the DVD drive in the 360. However at launch, the 2x Blu Ray drive was the single most expensive component in the PS3, followed by the Cell processor, in a system which cost $800 or so per unit at launch to produce.

Buddha on 25 Nov '11 said:

It wouldn't matter how much later you launched Sony if you actually made a machine that could be programmed for and was actually MORE powerful than the "720". I mean the PS3 seems more powerful than the 360 on paper only. Show us the advantage of Blu Ray Sony? Where are the games with the HUGE worlds? Sad really that they still have such a devoted fan base after all this.

Go and play Uncharted, Killzone, God of War, etc, and then tell me the Cell ain‘t whippin the Xenon. Bloody troll!

gmcb007 on 25 Nov '11 said:

One week.

That's all I ask. One week without another bloody next generation console rumour.

MK7-katana on 26 Nov '11 said:

So MS are rushing to market again to get ahead of the competition...I am sure we have been here before

ladycroft142 on 26 Nov '11 said:

This would be a smart move by Microsoft as it caters to both the casual gamers, who will be drawn in by the low price and kinect features while not alienating the hardcore who expect a mammoth gaming machine and are willing to pay big bucks for it. It's win win for Microsoft really and given the vastly numerous versions of the 360 they released this strategy seems very plausible indeed.

snake2011 on 26 Nov '11 said:

just going for a PS4 next hope they make just one as well.

LordVonPS3 on 27 Nov '11 said:

Dual SKU? This sounds more like Apple iMac vs Apple TV. Not everyone is desperate to play games and you don't need a powerful machine just to stream HD movies! I'll ONLY believe Microsoft are adopting Blu-ray when you can actually buy it. Any set top box "SKU" will be a competitor for Apple TV and will ship dirt cheap.