EA denies it has next-generation Xbox console

By Tom Warren, on 8th May 11 12:39 pm with 12 Comments

Electronic Arts has denied it has next-generation Xbox consoles.

Rumors of a new Xbox console kicked off on Friday when gaming site Develop claimed that an unnamed Electronic Arts studio had taken delivery of a new Xbox console. It’s claimed that the new hardware was sent to EA last month and is packaged and stored inside a PC shell. EA developers are allegedly getting to grips with the hardware to create first-generation software says Develop.

Microsoft has declined to comment on the story but EA spokespeople claim the story is false. “This story is a total fabrication – 100 percent not true,” said EA corporate spokesman Jeff Brown. Develop still maintains that an announcement about the future console will be made, in some form, at E3.

Microsoft has previously posted several job listings to hire staff for the next-generation Xbox. The software giant is currently in the early stages of pre-production for the next-generation Xbox. The company advertised for a hardware verification engineer in March. The role is part of the development and verification of the Xbox and future platforms. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 gaming console dominated U.S. charts in 2010. Microsoft revealed at CES in January that the company has sold over 50 million Xbox 360 consoles worldwide since launch. Microsoft also has 30 million active Xbox LIVE members and has sold 8 million Kinect sensors in just 60 days on the market.

  • GP007

    MS might talk about the next Xbox at E3 2012, but not this year, not with the kinect, the 360S before it and now the new DVD format that adds another 1GB of space for devs to play with. All 3 things point to extending the 360′s life, so at best I don’t expect a new Xbox till 2013, holiday 2013 that is.

    Besides even if nintendo does release a new system next year it won’t be at the start, I don’t expect it to be anyways. And MS could be fine with being around a year behind nintendo this time instead of a year ahead if the new Wii2 has a high price tag. MS can just cut $50 off the price of the 360 and add some good new features to live and just undercut Nintendo till the time’s right.

    • http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon

      That 1 GB is nothing… honestly, How many GB’s can blu-ray hold? Xbox 360 copy of L.A Noire needs 3 discs, while the PS3 only needs 1… for me them 3 discs are a selling point but for others not really

    • GP007

      Few PS3 games even take up half of a single layer BD, even less (and maybe none) even need a dual layer BD.

      Look at torrents for pirated PS3 games as an example of sizes, and keep in mind that many devs use extra padding to get the game data on the outter part of the disc where read speeds are faster, since the PS3′s got a slow ass 2x drive, even the 360s read spead is a bit better.

      The “need” for BD is a bit overexagurated in this regard. Would it be nice? sure, but does swapping a disc after say, 20-25hr’s of gameplay a problem? Not really. Oh and for another thing, lots of PS3 games also tend not to compress stuff to help with loading and bandwidth etc, thus it also infaltes the games size even more.

    • la_bruin

      Well said. People that rant about Blu-Ray on Xbox360 need to stop making up facts.

      1) The average title is less than 5GB. With the new HCDF, there’s now an additional 1GB of headroom for Xbox 360 games. Meanwhile, you can’t event count the number of multi-disk games on one hand. Folks – let’s not fake demand for additional capacity that doesn’t exist. LA Noire? Annnnnnd what other games require disk swaps, hmmm?

      2) Usage of the Blu Ray disc format would require a tithe to Sony for everything from BR dev tools to mastering to production which’ll increase per game costs which will undoubtedly come out of the consumer’s pocket. And Microsoft would want to embrace this… why?

      3) Blu Ray movies produce revenues for Sony & none for Microsoft. Blu Ray player development & testing create risk, support requirements, distribution channel work, & increases in R&D investment for Microsoft alone. Meanwhile streaming services demand are skyrocketing on Xbox Live & Xbox HD streaming at 1080p is the best in the industry… while creating actual revenues for Microsoft. And for those that just want Netflix or HuluPlus – there’s that too.

      There’s little incentive – or need – for Microsoft to invest in Blu Ray when streaming is doing so well and the entire industry is headed that way. Meanwhile the usable 7.95GB in the new HCDF format provides more than enough headway for developers to publish their titles on.

    • http://profiles.google.com/jaml89 Jesus Moya

      @Sebianoti:disqus yeah the 3 discs are the selling point for me too, just thinking that I’ll recieve 3 discs for the same price is awesome

    • http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

      @96be486a69a8d218840c4f2ee33590b1:disqus “even if nintendo does release a new system next year”. Nintendo is launching the successor to the Wii next year – they said so themselves. There is no “even if” about it.

    • GP007

      My point still stands, Nintendos new system will probably come in at $300 at best, maybe even a bit more, MS can cut the price down and keep pushing kinect to undercut them till they have the next system ready for 2013 or so. There is no rush for MS to release something along with Nintendo or to release something first this time around like with the 360, which also burned them in the end with the RRoD issue.

  • http://doctorwhofan98.wordpress.com/ doctorwhofan98

    The next XBOX really needs Blu-ray. As @Sebianoti:disqus said, 1GB is nothing for storage and Blu-rays can hold a lot more, meaning longer and better games! I hope the next version of Kinect is more accurate and speedy.

    • http://www.Nave360.com Sebastian Gorgon

      Kinect can be more accurate if Microsoft updates the Xbox 360, this was proven not too long ago. Kinect has the power to be so accurate it can detect your fingers, but that would increase the delay (because of the hardware inside xbox 360) so unfortunately it ain’t happening

  • Alombelino

    BD load time are slower as well.
    MS could use HD DVD tech, making it harder to pirate.
    And it would hold a lot.
    But next gen, games will be played off the HDD anyway, just like PC’s.
    I just hope LIVE doesn’t get hacked like PSN.

  • Bburke33609

    I’m kind of hoping that the os is based on some kind of windows 8 kernel to make it easier to release games for both PC and Xbox. I really don’t want PC gaming to suffer more than just getting ports from Xbox. There are alot of titles I would like to see on PC that are xbox only.

  • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

    I am very certain that the next Xbox will indeed ship in late 2012. unlike those that said it will not appear until 2014. I am certain because of several little bits of informations i have stumbled with over the last months and the nature of the rumors around already.

    What is interesting about the new rumors is those that said the next Xbox will be pulling out a wii in some sense. This means it will not be 10 times more powerful than the xbox 360 and instead could only be twice as powerful as the current xbox360 CPUwise, so that instead it will have 4 times more ram,rom and a/v capacity and power (motherboard-gpu). the reasoning on this is because this would help in making the system cheaper to produce and sell. And also because it would concentrate on making the games all have no less than 60fps and up to 90fps while delivering as best textures, definition and general video and audio as possible.

    I think it could be interesting to see, because while it could only be twice as powerful CPUwise, with the focus on making the motherboard and gpu 4 times better. It could end meaning it would be 3 times more powerful than the current xbox360. And that sounds about right, as it would be impossible anyway for it to make a 10x power leap this time around like it did from the xbox one to the xbox 360.