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Games And Gadgets: Next-Gen Xbox Rumor Round Up

Jordan Austin |
May 20, 2013 | 5:44 p.m. PDT

Contributor

 

The Xbox reveal is on its way (creative commons)
The Xbox reveal is on its way (creative commons)
On Tuesday May 21st, Xbox will be holding a press event at its offices in Richmond, Washington to reveal the next Xbox console. Rumors have been circling as early as last year about various features, games, and pricing that will be announced.  

READ MORE: Sony Reveals First Glimpse At PS4

While not much has been confirmed some rumors have proven true.  Some developer kits (prototype consoles sent out to game developers to begin creating games) were shown online and their specs were discussed in great detail.

The new Xbox will be running a 64-bit, 8-core, 1.6GHz processor made by AMD with x86 architecture and 8GB of DDR3 RAM, the GPU is an 800mhz DirectX 11.x, it will have a Blu-Ray player, and the usual HD components.  For those that are less than tech savvy, this is quite the upgrade over the Xbox 360.  

While not confirmed, it has been highly hinted at that the console will release this holiday season in time to compete with the Playstation 4.  Even a popular fan-made marketing design with the name ‘Xbox Infinity’ started spreading online to the point that people thought it was a legitimate leak, but as of now there are no concrete rumors hinting at the new console’s name.  

Another rumor-turned-fact is that Kinect 2 (the new version of the motion camera Kinect) will be standard and built-in to every new Xbox.  This also led to speculation of a controller redesign, which is indeed happening, but it’s not a complete overhaul.  According to insiders, it’s just going to be slightly smaller.

The last and arguably most controversial rumor circulating online is the rumor that the next Xbox will require a constant internet connection.  This was met with uproar across the board, and a leaked Microsoft memo has confirmed that the console will in fact still be able to play games when offline.

READ MORE: Sony Kick Starts The Next Gen 

We don’t have much longer to wait as the official unveiling will put any and all rumors to bed.  While some features have been confirmed, gamers the world over still wait in anticipation that their favorite rumor becomes true.  

Microsoft will most likely have some other features to reveal that they did manage to keep under wraps (Windows 8 integration?) and some new games to showcase, so we will definitely still be in for some surprises.  Check back tomorrow for details on all of the official announcements.

 

You can contact contributor Jordan Austin here.



 

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