It’s been over two weeks since the last Xbox 720 rumor and that’s way too long, so today, another! Rumors have placed the potential release date for Microsoft’s successor to the Xbox 360 in a range beginning as early as this fall, ending sometime in 2014, but most speculation and “inside sources” seem to agree that the fall of 2013 is when such a release makes the most sense.
With Sony denying everything regarding the PlayStation 4, that leaves the year of 2012 to Nintendo to launch the first next-gen home console. With the Nintendo Wii U’s innovation coming in the form of a tablet-based controller with a built-in touchscreen, how fitting then is it that the latest Xbox 720 rumors having its controller also feature a Wii U-like touchscreen?
The following transcription is from the upcoming March 2012 issue of Xbox World magazine where they claim to have learned some important, revealing bits of information regarding the input devices for the Xbox 720 – and we’re not talking Kinect 2:
“The next Xbox will be a matt-black media hub with a mission to bring games to life in your living room with augmented reality, directional sound, and a four-player finger-tracking Kinect. We told you all that last month. This month, our sources tell us it will have a touchscreen, too.
Microsoft are experimenting with a tablet-like controller with a shape closer to Sony’s sleek Vita handheld / Apple’s iPad than Wii U’s bulky unit – it’s an HD screen surrounded by the traditional 360 buttons and sticks.
On 360 that touchscreen will be second only to Kinect in how you operate your console. It could be a remote control when you’re watching TV, a browser when you’re on the internet, extra buttons and information when playing a game or a portable display when you want to take your game with you.”
Does a Vita/iPad style controller open up the possibility for downloadable mobile games on the Xbox platform? Could such a device run its own Windows Phone type of operation system to be taken on the go? If Nintendo is doing it, expect Sony and Microsoft to do it as well (a la motion controls).
So, let’s add a tablet control to the previous Xbox 720 rumors where the console may ship with Kinect 2 (good), be able to act as a DVR (good), support Blu-rays (good) and block used games (very bad).
Rumors have this summer E3 as a potential launch pad for announcements regarding the PS4, Xbox 720 and 3DS Lite, all alongside the full details of the Nintendo Wii U. With the amount of games coming between now and then, the wait won’t be too long.
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Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Source: Xbox World (via Gaming Everything)
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As long as its not as big as the Wii U controller I’m cooh. But it’s so much talk going on I’m not believing anything until an official reveal.
You’re what? You’re pooh?
How small is it going to be then? the WiiU controller isn’t really that big…
hell you could use the touch screen and a key board and make typing up messages a lot easier and faster… that is if this is true
Wouldn’t be surprised, Microsoft and Sony bite Nintendo’s innovations anyway. I’m interested in all 3 consoles.
Innovations like what?
@SV
Um… you realize that the whole motion gaming thing was started by Nintendo’s Wii right? Remember when the Wii first came out with the motion controls and games targetting casual gamers, Sony and Microsoft both made fun of Nintendo saying that motion controls and casual gaming will never catch on… Now they both have motion gaming targetting casual gamers… Now Nintendo is going to release a console with a tablet controller, and Microsoft is doing the exact same thing…
Seriously, are you paying attention at all??? lol
@Ken J
You do know that sony was working on motion controls just like move in the early 2000′s don’t you?
That glowing wand look reminiscent of move to you?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FpNdkm9s8AY
Seriously, are you paying attention at all??? lol
@RogerB
Oh, so that was before Nintendo’s Power Glove right??
lol
Vita and wii u devoleped at the same time only microsoft is biting nintendos innovations
@ATG
Oops, I pretty much said exactly what you said in a comment before I read that you wrote pretty much exactly the same thing, haha. So technically I kind of bit off of you, lol.
This is stupid its just gonna make everything more complicated.
“On 360 that touchscreen will be second only to Kinect in how you operate your console”
That sounds awful XD
Touch screens and motion controls are more novelty than anything else at this point. This is probably just a nothing rumor, but if it’s true, Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot.
Needs info not rumors ask the people who make the Xbox 720 and get cold hard information
Why would anyone call the Wii U’s controller “bulky” compared to an iPad when the iPad is MUCH BIGGER than the Wii U controller.
The only people who are calling the Wii U’s controller bulky havent’ used it yet. Everyone who has says its very comfortable.
If gameplay is going to be BASED around the screen in a controller in additon to the TV, I’d hope for that screen to be as large as can be comfortable held in ones hand, not so small my hands dwarf it.
If this is going to be the generation of tablet/console connectivity, Sony and Microsoft should just go the whole hog and link to real tablets already running their hardware and software.
I just hope this doesn’t go half-baked like Motion Control did in this current generation.
LMAO, Nintendo innovates, the rest follows, haha. At least this time they didn’t make fun of it before copying it like they did motion gaming for casual gamers…
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
If all rumors prove to be true, I am only interested in the next Playstation. When will developers get it through their heads that motion gaming was a fad that is over?
If all rumors prove to be true, I am only interested in the next Playstation. When will developers get it through their heads that 3D gaming was a fad that is over?
fixed that for you. no need to thank me.
If rumors and patents are true the next Playstation will have a tablet controller similar to the Wii U’s in size and functionality.
I truly hope this rumor proves to be false. Touch pad gaming will likely never bee good. Game developers just need to accept this fact. No serious gamer, or even serious game for that fact, will ever play well on a touch pad. This goes double for a console. Why would a gamer ever want to take their eyes off of the tv screen to look at their hands? In what world is this not a completely terrible idea? Motion gaming is a gimmick at best. I mean look at the Wii, how many actual good solid games are there for the system that aren’t geared completely toward a casual audience? Even if you count the Kinect and Move, there aren’t any good video games attached to them. The controls are clunky, and no real gamer wants to move while playing a game.
I find the multitude of game developers that are embracing the casual gaming trend to be extremely depressing. While it’s true that they are in business to make money, should the true gamers suffer so that they can make inferior products? It’s unfortunate that casual gamers make up a large portion of the game market, as it allows game developers to get away with this. Every time I see the game industry take one more step in this direction, I die a little inside. Companies need to wake up, it’s not innovation, it’s suicide.
IDK about you guys, but I think the tablet/controller is actually a good idea. It opens up way more options. Kudos to Nintendo. I’m looking forward to next-gen.
Rumors, have already been circulating that the Xbox is going to be leaning more towards a family experience with a focus on interaction more than gameplay. The kinect is supposed to be a major focus. The reality is that Microsoft doesn’t care about gamers, only their profit and out of he last consoles Nintendo won hands down. If you are going to be looking for a true gaming experience with better graphics faster processing speeds and a control that isn’t rediculous then Sony will be the way to go. Also a Microsoft touch pad screams red ring of death since Microsoft can never get anything right the first time around.
I will very much like to see the new Xbox system with an improve version of the current controller.
Microsoft again prove themselves to be masters of innovation.
Just think, where would we be without them.
MS is a Love-Hate relationship with me.
I hate them, because their Os’s suck. They’re greedy.
I love them, because without them, I’d be using a Apple product.
I guess they are just a Apple in a other sense. They didn’t have Jobs to help take credit for stuff he didn’t invent, just made popular to own. but thats just me.
+Bill Gates.
-Steve Ballmer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsboPUjrGc
Um, Windows 3.11, Windows 98, Windows XP, and Windows 7 are all great OS’s… Their other OS’s are not that great, and Windows ME and Vista did suck…
But right now I’m using Windows 7 and it’s amazingly stable like XP was and I like it a lot.
I dunno about 3.11. 98 was good. XP was fantastic. Vista garbage. 7 looks nice and as long as you don’t try to do anything too complicated 7 is good.
7 has numerous issues though. It’s whole Permission system is crap. It’s “Auto-driver-install” more often then not will install bad drivers which limit or make your system unstable at worst.
Have you tried to transfer files between 2 computers with 7? it’s stupid slow. I download stuff online faster then windows will let it transfer computer to computer. It’s funny too because, those same 2 computers with XP will transfer files 90-110Mbps, where as with 7 you’re lucky to break 3-4Mbps.
?? I am using Windows 7 and has been for quite some time and have never experienced bad drivers being installed for anything… And my tenant and I have shared folders and transfer rates don’t seem that slow, but I’ve never measured it, but we share big files like big movie files all of the time… Weird…
Yeah. I’ve had to go into some registery settings to get it not to install a corrupt driver that was causing me to BSOD.
Do a search on good about slow files transfers. I spent a week screwing around with it, trying to get them to transfer faster.
wow. Um I meant, Google. Not Good***
Again, never had a single BSOD or corrupt driver installed on mine and neither have my tenant who is also on Windows 7… So don’t know what’s going on with your’s…
If nothing else, we can say that Bill Gates is a pretty generous philanthropist, where Steve Jobs never really seemed to be; and that Microsoft, so far as I know, hasn’t worked anybody to death on an assembly line. But MS is still my least favorite of the three current console manufacturers.
hi there you want too talk about biggest touch screen controler thats the apple ipad at a whopping 9.7 inch touch screen wii u has a 6.2 inch touch screen and wii u controler touch scree be the size of psp vita at 5 inches and apple sold 200,000,000 ipads thats 200 million ipads touch screens
You frogot to get rid of playstation logo (lower left) and to change the shapes to leters on the buttons (upper right) on your picture
You frogot to get rid of playstation logo (lower left) and to change the shapes to leters on the buttons (upper right) on your picture
its fake all its is a psp with 720 photoshoped on it