NEWS
Microsoft Give Insight Into Next-Gen Xbox, Likely To Release Around 2015/16
Some new revelations on the future of the Xbox and Microsoft in general came out of their Worldwide Partner Conference on Tuesday. Microsoft emphasised their intent on manufacturing a single ecosystem between PCs, phones, tablets and the Xbox.
At the conference, Andy Lees delivered a speech which focused on the new direction that Microsoft were heading. Lees noted that the Windows on ARM demo motherboards were smaller than mobile phones, which opens up the opportunity to unite PCs, phones, tablets, and consoles on a "single ecosystem".
Instead of having entirely different operating systems for the various user platforms, the concentration will be providing “coherence and consistency” across different devices, “particularly with Xbox”. Interestingly, he noted that the different media platforms would not merely be sharing the user interface, but actual core technologies such as Internet Explorer. Although the PS3 and Wii already run internet browsers, this could mean that the next-gen Xbox could do this and much more, making it more akin to a PC than any other console before it.
Experts have been quick to note that the term "ecosystem" is deliberately vague, but it does indicate one of two possibilities. Either Lees was making a vague reference to the idea of a shared app-store across phones, PCs and gaming consoles, as Mary-Jo Foley notes "something that could possibly launch as soon as next year when Windows 8 launches". Or he could have been discussing a unified operating system development platform, which would be a lot harder to achieve and would put the release of Windows 9 and the next-gen Xbox at about 2015/16. The former seems a likely direction, but the latter would certainly be a more sought after goal for the company to aim for.
But why would Microsoft want to hold out that long before releasing their next-gen Xbox? Well it makes sense if there goal is to create a single global operating system under a completely new brand. Indicated in the conference was the dismissal of the Windows brand in favour of something more encompassing and in tune with with an 'everything under one roof' strategy.
Convincing us even further that a new console would not be released until the middle of the decade is the natural time cycle. By then Windows 8 would have had its 3 year run and the Xbox 360 would be very due an upgrade after its 10-year shelf life. This opens up an opportunity for Microsoft to roll out a new Xbox and Windows 9 (for now) running on the same code.
You may have also heard rumors about Windows 8 running Xbox games, if true this would certainly fit in with this ideal.
Microsoft seem to have big plans, let's just see if others will keep up, or actually outstrip them. Put it this way, the next generation of consoles is going to be something other than just a simple hardware update.
To see Andy Lees' spech about this subject, skip to 6:04 on the video below: