Microsoft Consoles and Updates

[Sly Reflex]

http://spong.com/article/26961/Rumour-Shock-as-Microsoft-Manufactures-Next-Xbox-Dev-Kits

According to an "IGN source," Flextronics 'created a new testing group separate from the rest of the company' to work on the new machines. 'This team was solely dedicated to comprehensive marketing, software and hardware tests of the next Xbox.'

While manufacture of retail consoles would certainly be a surprise, IGN then speculates on a much more likely, and much less surprising possibility - that the consoles being built are simply development kits. Well, what a way to get us all worked up!

Microsoft, for its part, completely deflected any mention of the next Xbox in a statement, with the words: "Xbox 360 has found new ways to extend its lifecycle like introducing the world to controller-free experiences with Kinect and re-inventing the console with a new dashboard and new entertainment content partnerships.

"We are always thinking about what is next for our platform and how to continue to defy the lifecycle convention. Beyond that we do not comment on rumours or speculation." Flextronics didn't even want to comment.

So, developers beware - you should be getting development kits round about the time you're actually expecting to receive them. Surprise!

I think this is probably legit, although I reckon they have been distributed to certain partners for a while now. It wouldn't be possible to knock something nice up for E3 in the short time between now and June.

[Hendo]

I'd still be very surprised if they don't mention something about the next machine at E3. It's been, what, 7 years?

[Sly Reflex]

You're looking at 2003/4 for the research and development of the current Microsoft console. It was released late on in 2005. I was around on par with some PC's at the time, although it didn't take it long to get left behind in a trail of dust, you know what PC development is like, it marches on so fast that it can be hard to keep up.

[TopGunKnacker]

I think this is probably legit, although I reckon they have been distributed to certain partners for a while now. It wouldn't be possible to knock something nice up for E3 in the short time between now and June.

just seeing current system-punishing games or tech demos running maxed out on the devkits would be nice! a taste of the capabilities.

[DANGERMAN]

I've heard this theory more often applied to Sony because of their money problems, but the next gen consoles dont need to be bleeding edge. When you consider how far things have progressed in the past 7 years, building a console that matches a 2 year old top range pc rather than one today would still be a huge leap. Both can afford to skimp a bit, especially as the WiiU isn't going to out do what is currently around

[TopGunKnacker]

i guess the argument for bleeding edge from a business standpoint would be the extra lifespan afforded is very lucrative.

personally id love a bleeding edge console, the bleedier the better!

[Sly Reflex]

http://spong.com/article/26993/Inside-Xbox-UK-has-been-Discontinued

Inside Xbox in Europe has been cancelled. The incredibly popular first-party video content service, produced in the UK and presented by Dan Maher and Andy Farrant, has suffered the same fate as its US counterpart last week.

While the news of discontinuation has obviously angered fans of Inside Xbox programming such as Sent U A Message and The NeXus, what's wound up the community even more is the fact that the message was delivered by US representative Larry 'Major Nelson' Hryb.

In an amendment to last week's blog post regarding US video content, Hryb wrote that, "the team in Europe has been investigating what makes most sense for them and the Xbox LIVE community as they continue to strive to deliver the latest gaming and entertainment news for users across the region.

"As such, they have decided to move away from the current first-party produced content model and transition to a third-party content model, which will provide timely and locally-relevant content to users across more of the EMEA markets."

The response has not been kind. "Insulted that the UK guys of InsideXbox had to wait for Major Nelson to announce it on his precious blog in US time and keep them waiting for the confirmation of the axing of the content," reads one comment. "The shift from community driven content to more "lets get it for free and sell some ad space for cars and McDonalds clearly is the evolution of the Xbox."

Another comment adds, "I have to say that it's sad to see our xbox community ending like this. It's been one thing after another… Our forums have degraded to bitch fests, our friends lists are running dry, and our favorite games are collecting dust. The bottom line is our community is dying a slow painful death."

Microsoft's own @XboxSupport Twitter account is getting a similar pounding from audience dissent.

I didn't mind Inside Xbox at all. It used to suck when it was first introduced. I think Andy Farrant had a natural ability to talk to the camera, Dan Maher was a bit too tryhard, which probably is OK when you are talking in front of a live audience, but it looks a bit shit on camera.

[Sly Reflex]

Yeah, they got a bit hidden, before you couldn't really avoid them as you were scanning over them as you went between you profile and friend sections of the dash. If anything the new dash has made me take less notice of what it has to offer. In fact, while I've been over here, almost all of the adverts don't even load in. There's so much shit on the dash now I have no idea how they make anything stand out.

[Tomahawk Rob]

That's a shame... Gonna miss SUAM I didn't really bother watching any of the other Inside Xbox stuff though...

Yes, they were a pair of knobheads, but they were a funny pair of knobheads...

This just proves the fact that you're a cunt if you don't have a vowel in your surname!

[Manicm]

Was going to post inside xbox dead, but beaten to it, i will admit its a guilty pleasure i quite like a sunday afternoon just watching SUAM or some trailers or just something to pass the time sometimes. I am probably one of the few that will miss inside xbox.

[dekard49]

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/10/3012013/internet-explorer-browser-xbox-360-kinect

Microsoft to bring full Internet Explorer browsing to Xbox 360 with Kinect controls

By Tom Warren on May 10, 2012 01:30 pm 108COMMENTS

Microsoft is currently testing a modified version of Internet Explorer 9 on its Xbox 360 console, according to our sources. The Xbox 360 currently includes Bing voice search, but it's limited to media results. Microsoft's new Internet Explorer browser for Xbox will expand on this functionality to open up a full browser for the console. We are told that the browser will let Xbox users surf all parts of the web straight from their living rooms.

Microsoft has also integrated Kinect gestures and voice control heavily into the experience, allowing Xbox owners to quickly search using the existing Bing functionality and pull up relevant web pages. Kinect support is not mandatory according to our sources, but the browser is said to be tuned for Kinect usage. There's no word on a launch date for Internet Explorer on Xbox, but with E3 on the horizon we'd expect to hear the official details from Microsoft in a matter of weeks.

If they get this right, could work really well for certain lean back experiences.

[Craymen Edge]

Duh. Ignore me I put this in the wrong thread.

[DANGERMAN]

the state of browsers on consoles is appalling, I think the 3DS one is the best I've used. If microsoft can get this right then even with IE it'll be better than Wii and PS3

[Sly Reflex]

The 3DS one is horrible. It takes forever to load anything, plus it can't do video or anything like that. The PS3 one is the best one, but that's like saying a punch in the dick is better than a poke in the eye.

[Sly Reflex]

http://spong.com/article/27030/Robbie-Bach-Xbox-360s-Success-Down-to-Sonys-Mistakes

Former Xbox executive-turned philanthropist Robbie Bach has been talking about the success of the Xbox 360 under his tenure as the head of Microsoft's Entertainment and Devices division. He puts the winning formula down to making friends with developers and publishers - but also says that Sony's mistakes had just as much a part to play.

"[sony] mismanaged [its] 70 per cent market share," Bach said at the Northwest Entrepreneur Network, outlining a number of "not so smart" decisions that the Japanese giant made during its generational leap. "The transition to PlayStation 3 was really, really bad. And really hard.

"They mismanaged their partners, they mismanaged their cost structure. They made their next platform so complicated that developers couldn't develop for it." On the other hand, Bach explained that Microsoft received perhaps a bit more support from partners than it should have. Part of that is being the "only" competition out there.

"You need friends. It's just the way life works. It turned out we were able to convince retailers and publishers like Activision, Electronic Arts and others, that it was a good thing for Microsoft to be successful, because if we were not successful, the only game in town was Sony.

"Being dependent on somebody else was bad for them, and so they supported us disproportionately to what they should have, mathematically."

Competition is good. That's why we have it so good right now. Apart from all the stuff we hate.

[Craymen Edge]

Software/tech patents are just fucking ridiculous these days. See below, I guess.

[Sly Reflex]

think Motorola are just looking for some cash. They stand to lose nothing, it's just a case of biting at MS's heels looking for a goodwill gesture due to supposed patent overlaps.

[wholehole]

Microsoft will have to roll over on this and stump up the cash if the ITC lets this stand (which I can't see happening tbh). I'm a bit MS let this happen in Germany, the US is a massive market to lose in comparison.

[Craymen Edge]

I did some reading up on this Motorola patent dispute thing the other day. It seems a bit ridiculous, and Motorola seem unreasonable.

It's about the H.264 video codec - which is developed and owned by many companies.

The MPEG group license most of the H.264 patents (2330 or so patents from 29 companies) . Microsoft pays them $6.5 milling a year in fees for use of those patents.

Motorola has 50 or so patents related to the codec. Their deal with Microsoft expired recently, and in negotiations for a new deal they demanded something like 2.25% of the value of all products that implement the patents (incl all PCs, Laptops etc.) Apparently that's $4 billion a year!

H.264 was created to be an industry wide standard, and so falls under a set of rules called FRAND (Fair, Reasonable, and Non-Discriminatory) to stop patent holders being able to extort licensees.

This seems to be some kind of power play, as Motorola and Microsoft have an unresolved dispute over MS patents in Motorola handsets.

I can't see how judges have agreed to these injunctions, but as i've said before, tech and software patents are ridiculous.

[Sly Reflex]

It look like the next xbox will be called xbox8 to tie in with Windows 8. Yeah, didn't see that coming. Purely a rumour as it stands now, but MS have snapped up a few URL's tying into the whole 8 thing. It wouldn't surprise me if it was real.