Looking At Microsoft’s Leaked Next-Gen Dossier: Xbox 720

Taken down, but we’re still analyzing the leaked Microsoft dossier detailing the upcoming Xbox 720

Of the many things Microsoft talked about in its leaked document (it’s real), the next-gen Xbox was one

Of course Microsoft talked about it’s next-gen Xbox in its leaked document, which has since been taken down from Scribd and other services such as Dropbox. Microsoft is pushing the devices as a super powerful console, so what can we expect?

Microsoft will continue to push Durango as the all-in-one media device, which isn’t surprising. Microsoft talked about the ability to record programs in the background, rivalling those TiVo boxes, and will be based on Windows 8. That means, just like Windows Phone, applications can be built for Microsoft’s three main platforms: Windows Phone 8, Windows 8 and the next Xbox (Xbox … 8?).

There are some drawings of Durango looking like a set-top box, which wouldn’t be a surprise and would further drawn the line between games consoles and media devices. It also looked nice, which isn’t something that can be said of the original Xbox 360.

Interestingly, Microsoft says the console will cost just $299 with Kinect 2.0 bundled in. Speculation of the Wii U’s price – a less powerful console, almost certainly – is around the same point. Many thought Nintendo didn’t talk about the Wii U’s price because it wanted to gauge the reactions, and price accordingly. Putting my neck out, I’m going to say $279.

The 10-year life cycle that we talked about yesterday will result in 100 million units shipped. Microsoft is at around 60 million six years in the Xbox 360’s life, so it’s not that unrealistic.

It depends how Microsoft tackles third parties. The Xbox 360’s success is built on gaining third-party support, such as the Call of Duty DLC timed exclusives, so that has to be a focus from 2013/14 onwards. It would be great if Microsoft created new IPs, too: outside of Halo – an 11-year-old franchise – we’re not seeing products from Microsoft. Banjo? Blinx? Kameo?

Hardware

The document suggests the console will use between six and eight x86 or ARM processors, clocked at 2GHz with 4GB of memory and backwards compatibility. Microsoft also spoke of streaming content, and having an always-on state. I imagine that means content can be downloaded remotely, over the cloud.