Thanks to a 56-page leaked document that has since been removed by Microsoft from the social publishing site Scribd, we have a clearer look at next year's Xbox 720.
The presentation is almost two years old but references newly introduced features like the Metro dashboard and SmartGlass.
If accurate, the next-gen console will support Blu-ray, native 3D output, multi-tasking apps, Kinect ... [ read the full article ]
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I think all the 3 big hitters know they can't be selling a system too much over $300. It just wont sell as well in the current economy. I do find it hard that they can pack all that new and last gen hardware for backwards compatibility and still keep the price at $300. Actually they very well can because unlike Sony MS charges for there online service. MS pulls a lot of profit from there Xbox Live service, just look at the $99 Kinect Xbox bundle they lock you in at an inflated Xbox Live monthly subscription for $15 a month. Even if they don't have you pay the inflated price it's still around $60 a year for Xbox live and more if you go for the monthly charge rate.
Sounds to me that the "manufacturing cost" & "getting to market" might have been that $300 quote, not the MSRP. A full blown happy hard on, Merry ChrismaBirthCaPade like that thing mentioned is going to be in the neighborhood of almost 3 times that amount.
Drunken college roommates chipping in together with some of their student loans to get this will swing it. Independently wealthy parents won't care to drop the change, but kids of the rest of us will just have to make do with the $349-299 starter kit of the game machine & one controller like we always have & build the rest of the system over time.
There's no proof it was written by or even truly considered an official microsoft document; there's at least 10 other sites online from IGN to PC Magazine, that have yet to confirm that this is even true or factual. Never-mind that this should be taken as a grain of salt regardless as the $300 price is subject to change based on demand and market value.
Also consider people that this is more just a list of goals, a concept, starting point with what MS would want for their current-future goals. Anything on here is subject for change at anytime, and surely it will if this were authentic, because MS wouldn't want the competition to know more than they need to before launch of a new console. Perhaps this is why MS went silent at this year E3? So again, it hasn't been proven to be written by MS, and even IF it were, there's still plenty of time for MS to change their game.
Now it certainly looks like the direction they want to take, considering the presentation of Glass at this year's E3. Time will tell, until then, a waiting game as always.
