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Xbox 720 and PS4 announcement at E3 2012?

by Steven Williamson on 6 January 2012, 15:35

Tags: Sony Computers Entertainment Europe (NYSE:SNE), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), PC

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The successor to the Xbox 360 and PS3 will be revealed at E3 2012, claims MCV.

We already know that Nintendo plans to unleash its new video game console, Wii U, at the biggest industry event of the year, but if MCV’s source is to be believed we could be set for a stunning triple bill of announcements.

Tentatively named Xbox 720 and PS4, MCV believes the hype for Microsoft and Sony’s respective consoles will begin at E3 in June, though firm launch details and pricing won’t be revealed until a later date.

Usually we’d treat rumours – especially those involving new consoles - with a hefty pinch of salt, but MCV, who hosts the annual Game Media Awards, is known to have very close links to some of the top people within the industry and isn’t usually involved in rumour-mongering unless it has good evidence.

Mock-up of next-gen Xbox

Indeed MCV is very confident that this much more than a rumour and doesn’t just state that the new Xbox and PlayStation console might be announced at E3, it claims that they WILL be announced, citing an “ultra high level” source who offered the information.

You have my personal word on this – the source is exemplary, 100% concrete, ultra high level,” says MCV Editor Ben Parfitt.

While rumours about Xbox 720 have been doing the rounds for some time, far less is know about the new PlayStation console, though a PlayStation 4 blueprint was apparently leaked earlier this year, claiming Sony will concentrate heavily on reducing production costs,  after suffering heavily with losses on the PlayStation 3 hardware.


Far-fetched mock-up of PS4

In line with our predictions throughout 2011, we still believe the new Xbox and PlayStation consoles won’t see the light of day until 2013, but E3 2012 is looking more and more likely to be the place where Microsoft and Sony will start the hype ball rolling.

All eyes will be on E3, which runs from June 5-7 at the Los Angeles Convention Center.


HEXUS Forums :: 25 Comments

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Interesting. However, I'd have thought MS and Sony could get away with leaving it for another year. A growing number of high-end PCs may trump consoles now, but the majority of machines do not, and they cannot offer anything close to the consistency of experience that a console does.

Maybe throw some money at improving game engine performance on these platforms to help keep new games fresh or provide middleware that opens up new possibilities for features in-game.
Two priorities for me if I'm to get another games console:
1) Reliability on release - My PS3 has YLOD and I'm aware the release xbox were also RROD easily.
2) Price - I spent £500 on my gaming PC 3 years ago. Since then I've upgraded the GPU but nothing else and really feel it was money well spent. I've spent £300 on Xbox hardware (including kinect - all new) and about £200 on the PS3 (second hand) and don't feel I got anything like the same value.

I'm just not bothered about motion control (kinect doesn't work in my average front room) and the move controller has just gathered dust. I'm also not bothered by media capabilities as I've got a £90 blu-ray player that does it all (and I'm not paying monthly for iplayer et all microsoft!). All in all I'm not really convinced I'll get another console except maybe a WII U as a casual games device as thats basically what my xbox has become…
Game developers are really starting to struggle with the current consoles, there's been money for optimising game engines for years and if one side decided to release a new console, the other wouldn't want to arrive late to the party. There's only so much throwing money at existing hardware can do, after which it's probably cheaper to design a new platform with lessons of the previous platforms in mind.

I agree they probably could have waited another year but with devs breathing down their necks and the threat of competition, they both want to get in as early as economically possible.

I hope they don't dedicate too much to 3D/motion control!

And I know it's been referred to as the 720 in lieu of a real name, but if they actually call it that…
Whilst I'm still suprised Nintendo didnt call the ‘Wii U’ the ‘Wii HD’ (which IMO would have made waaaay more sense)- Im really looking forwward to the release of all of these consoles.

Why? Partly because I'll buy all of them, but alos - and most importantly - because when the new consoles come out PC GAMES WILL GET BETTER.

How so? Because 99% of most games these days are console ports… so the pc effectively gets a dx8/9 based game with *maybe* a high res texture pack.

So if consoles come out that are capable of full 1080p quality textures etc, the equivalent pc ported games will get better.

Consoles hold pc games back. So in a nutshell - Consoles get better so pc's can move further along!
Maybe I'm being cynical but surely if they announced in June then there'd be an expectation of availability around Christmas time? And if that was the case, then surely Microsoft/Sony would really have to start thinking about starting production real soon now? Or have I misunderstood and it's a “launch” in June with a planned availability sometime in (early?) 2013?

I'm going to agree with cheesemp and watercooled - don't mind what they do, just as long as they don't insist on Kinect/3D respectively. Actually I'd like to see the equivalent of DX11 on XBox (whatever DX is on Windows8 would be even better), and of course compatibility with existing peripherals.

I game on the XBox a good deal more than I do on PC (although BF3 has had me flocking back to the PC), but Kinect turned out to be a poor buy since there's only one room in my house where I can use it, and since it's not where the XBox sits normally, using it means some setup work first. :(