Xbox 720 and PlayStation 4: Highly Secretive New Consoles Won't Debut in Late 2013

Impact

Just what does the next generation of consoles hold for us? Well, unfortunately, despite the Xbox 360 wrapping up and the PlayStation 3 likely to follow, we still don’t know much of what to expect from Sony and Microsoft’s next outing.

However, there have been a few rumors circulating that actually do seem to hold some credence. Therefore, until an official announcement is made, here is the information for the unreleased next gen consoles that seems to have found its way onto the internet.

The Next Xbox

According to an IGN report that surfaced earlier this year, the next Xbox will be up to six times stronger than the current one, which also seems to make it 20% stronger than the Wii U.

It has also been rumored that the future console will largely expand the role of motion controls, upgrading its current Kinect peripheral to employ increasingly accurate detection of body movement. It is also believed that, much to the chagrin of gamers, the system will discourage used game sales by requiring a code activation method that essentially locks each disk to one console. Other changes reportedly include a switch to Blu Ray and a greater focus on Cloud gaming.

Regarding games, the strongest indication has arrived for a new series by Bungie, the people behind the original Halo trilogy, which surfaced after some legal troubles with a fired contractor that essentially dropped the ball on their secret project, codenamed Destiny.

Also in the public eye now are job postings for future console development by Infinity Ward (Call of Duty) and Bethesda (Fallout). Former Max Payne developer Remedy has also revealed on its forums that it is hiring several developers for work on next-gen consoles.

According to a senior technical designer at developer Crytek, the console is codenamed “Durango” and no release date has been hinted, although the rumored date of late 2013 is supposedly out of question due to manufacturing troubles.

The Next PlayStation

The PS3 is expected to have a slightly longer lifespan than the 360, but they probably will not make the mistake of delaying their release too far behind Microsoft’s console.

According to a report by sources “close” to Kotaku earlier this year, the next PlayStation may be called “Orbis” (meaning “ring” in Latin). It it also reported to abandon the current PS3’s current cell processor, reportedly going in favor of AMD chips, allowing it a lot more power (resolutions going upwards of 4096x2160, as opposed to the PS3’s 1920x1080).

Also, just like the Xbox 720 or Durango, it is expected that Sony will attempt to curb used game sales by requiring some kind of online account verification first time you put the disk in, although whether it will emulate the PC system of requiring constant online connection remains to be seen.

The aspect that will likely disturb everyone the most, though, is the absence of backward compatibility, meaning PlayStation 3 games are not expected to work on the PS4. While this may seem like an outrageous a move, considering the fact that even current consoles offer this ability, remember that Sony has removed backwards compatibility before from its newer PS3s so it’s not entirely unimaginable.

The current release date is also in question but high-ranking Sony officials have shown no enthusiasm for a quick release on more than one occasion.

Therefore, there really isn’t much that we know right now other than to wait. Of course, for all us hardcore gamers biding the time until the official announcement, there’s always the Wii U.

I couldn’t even type that with a straight face.