Microsoft Dedicates 2012 to the Xbox 360

According to a recent announcement from Microsoft, 2012 is the year of the Xbox 360. They say they will not be talking about the Xbox 720 anytime soon, but that they have some exciting news for E3—wonder what it is?

Some people think it will be a Kinect 2. I think they are making one last year dedicated to the 360 before they announce the Xbox 720—why?

Well, we’ve already talked about how the Xbox 720 is in the works. Maybe people say they have worked on next-generation consoles in their profiles on certain websites, and we believe them. Many gaming companies also say they are hard at work on video games for the next-gen systems. So of course we understand why 2012 is the “year of the 360:” one last hooray before retirement!

…or so we hope. I am ready for a new Xbox, personally. I was pretty pissed off when I had to be a newer version of the Xbox 360 rather than the 720 recently, because mine broke. I’d rather have bought a new console entirely, because it’s about time.

I’m waiting to hear about it at E3 anyway. I don’t trust those sources!

The First Xbox 720 Advertisement

We were all a little surprised by what we saw when we watched the trailer for Real Steel, the futuristic movie about a boxing robot starring Hugh Jackman. I mean, who would have thought it would be Microsoft’s first advertisement for the next-generation Xbox?

That’s right: In the trailer, you will see advertisements lining the boxing arena. One of the ads says “XBox 720“–so, Microsoft seems set on the name; and that makes us wonder, when we will finally get to see this bad boy?

The first thing we researched: when is Real Steel set? 2020. That leaves nine years for the Xbox 720 to come out; by then, they may already be working on the next console. We–and many developers for Microsoft Xbox 720, including several LinkedIn profiles which claim to have worked on the next-gen platform–believe the Xbox 720 will release before the end of 2013, with a 60% chance in 2012.

Another thing: we’ve heard the Xbox 720 will run off of a Windows 8-based OS. Since Windows 8 comes out during the middle of next year, we can start setting aside some funds to pre-order this baby.

Here’s the trailer. Pause the video at :46 seconds and you’ll see it!

Should Xbox 720 Have Blu Ray?

We all know that Xbox needs to improve their graphics to compete with PlayStation, so we’ve been hearing that the Xbox 720 will “have graphics like Avatar.”

If they are going to do that, then we have to imagine the CD storage capacity will be a little small. Remember how LA Noire three discs? That’s because the graphics were so awesome that the discs could not contain the entire game on one.

We know that Blu Ray discs can hold more storage; does that mean Xbox will have to switch to Blu Ray discs for the Xbox 720? Most likely, if the patent from PlayStation allows it–that, we don’t know about.

But, personally, I don’t care for Blu Ray much. HD is fine. I wouldn’t use Blu Ray for movies, only for games, which makes it kind of moot. How would they store the games, then?

You guys have any ideas?

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