It will be along time before everyone has that good of a connection, the next xbox cant go download only, not viable at the moment or in 2/3 years time, hell if its out in 2/3 years they make their decisions based on what connections we have next year. There are other boundaries to download only other than download speeds. The kind of speed you have is probably more akin to premium PC users which the xbox wouldnt be targeting. The main xbox customers is probably younger than most PC user that has no control over what their parents pay for I really cant see them res-erecting HD DVD
They don't need a connection that good, if managed right a 20 meg connection can be plenty. Beyond that Microsoft doesn't care about selling to "everyone" and shouldn't, just an acceptable critical mass. But you may be right, which is why I listed several options and my reasoning why. I don't see MS paying Sony a royalty for each and every Next-box sold. But they do need a higher capacity distribution method in my opinion. If the next generation of consoles isn't doesn't expand on the XBox arcade downloadable games I'd be surprised, if the generation after that isn't download only i'd be even more surprised. The advantages of anti piracy, and cutting out the middleman stores as well as removing the secondary Market shouldn't be underestimated.
It would be pretty amazing if they tied in WMC to the xbox so it's the only box you need under your TV. Heck, they should put in an app store too for 3rd partys can use it as the front end for either products (think streaming the video from your security cameras) It annoys me really since they have all the components they need just sat their, but no one has joined them up yet.
You also have to wonder will third party developers be happy using xbox's distribution system to sell their games. If it does happen They would have alot of swing if they kick up a fuss Agree with you there, they will be deciding based on their main target audience, who ever that happens to be
Personally I can't see MS doing anything else but making the next console DL only. As long as a there is a significant market with appropriate download speeds they will be happy. Steam manages to do this at the moment. Speeds and coverage will have improved in the next couple of years anyway. Besides, just about the only thing that will drive a push for better broadband is consumer demand. If customers require a better service to use a desired product then the industry will react.
It'll have a (small) SSD. Everyone will say how amazing it is that it starts up instantly and games load so quickly. Its GPU will be roughly equivalent to a mid-range (£150) PC graphics card at launch, so roughly a GTX 570ish sort of power. Digital Distribution is still not ready for world wide deployment. It'll still use physical media, but will have a larger digi-dist component. Integrated Kinect Donut dispenser.
It will look like this : Seriously, i can't see them integrating an SSD in a mass-produced piece of consumer electronics (I remember hearing stories of how Compaq removed screws in their laptop designs to bring down the basic manufacturing cost). ps: The image is from 'Ultimate Computer Cabinets Ever'
I just had a thought... Bindi leaves Bit about the time these job adverts appear then he's on here asking what we think the new xbox will be like. Are you designing the next box Bindi?
The SSD drive idea will probably look a lot more viable, cost wise, in 2 years . Since Epic games got MS to up the Xbox Ram http://www.1up.com/news/epic-games-cost-microsoft-billion it's likely now they've really seen the benefit of that choice ,that'll be the area that gets the most attention . 1Gb vram in a console would no doubt leave Devs smiling from ear to ear.
A bit OT, but when did Bindi announce he was to leave bit-tech? I did notice he's no longer a mod, but I seem to have missed the announcement of his departure. Either that or I'm even more dense than I thought...
Since the current gen consoles are basically on the first rung of the "HD" gaming ladder, the next console generation will have GTX 570-ish GPU power. Because of this, console gamers will be utterly blown away by native 1920x1080 high AA, high texture games with none of the compression or any of that stuff. PC gamers will release a collective "meh" because they've been playing games that looked that good for years. Multiplatform development will push graphics to the next level and we'll finally see a generational improvement on the software end of the deal. I'm thinking an SSD will be standard but history tells me that the console manufacturers will sell them in 64gb capacity and allow an upgrade to 128gb for 3x what it's actually worth.
As it's Microsoft, they'll buy 64 1mb USB keys, tape them together and call it an SSD. And as a result of a strategic value-added business partnership, it will definitely look like this :
I think it's adorable when people wildly assume that DirectComputer in DX11 somehow equals a physics library, or that a CPU-based physics library can just be ported like that to be GPU -accelerated. Also, XBox consoles do not use DX. They use a DX-derived API which in no way or shape equals DX. It does make porting easier, though.
Sorry, but I have to chime in with: lol 20meg I wish! My internets are stable at about 2meg, 3 at an absolute push. They've been up to 4 but were totally unstable. (Should say thanks to Be* because my last ISP wouldn't let me go above 1meg, yet I had to pay the same as someone on the 20meg package). There's no other choice for me where I live, no cable out here & satellite isn't an option. I don't live anywhere near as out in the sticks as a lot of the country too, I'm actually relatively close to London. So if things do go download only, a lot of us will be left behind. That said I do agree that there will be more made of digital distribution, I just hope it doesn't solely go that way. Because if it does, I'm buggered until this country gets its telecomms sorted and I'm not on a copper line length that's almost twice the actual distance from my house to the exchange. Not bitter obviously...
Im on 3meg with a 30gb cap and I cant see that changing anytime soon in my area and at a 30gb cap the next xbox games will probably about the 10/15gb range and I cant afford to use half my monthly allowence on one game and have to wait 12 hours plus to download it. Its okay for those who have high speeds but your in the minority and MS arent interested in gambling on the minority. I can see them focusing on downloads more but i think they will offer both for a long time yet
