Image via Wikipedia
Rumors are flying out of Redmond at a pace usually saved for Washington or Cupertino. And XBox 720, the code name for the next generation of Microsoft's gaming-entertainment system, is like a massive new legislation with potentially controversial riders. Yesterday, the talk was an anti-used game verification system, possibly similar to iTunes. Bundled with that potentially explosive leak to Kotaku were friendlier bits such as Blu-Ray integration and Kinect 2 development.
A few days earlier, the speculation was about graphics processing power. Some rumors were running on the super-charged (and expensive) side, while others were reporting the processor will be a serious power upgrade, but not so much so that the console will cost a fortune.
Microsoft does not respond to rumors. I've read that a lot. Hopefully the company will respond to the source of its most recent success.
As I've written before, XBox has the potential to be the first really great multi-entertainment system. Its ongoing addition of apps that supply high-level television around the world, the successful software-based improvement to the current Kinect, and another rumor that XBox will use real money instead of Microsoft Points to purchase content -- these are all important steps toward leading the Connected TV market.
And, yes, there other ways to do it, but the combination of high-end gaming with this cord-fraying (if not cutting) puts Microsoft in a powerful position. This is the prize on which Microsoft needs to keep its eyes.
They have a meaningful head start. While Google and Apple, who would dominate the Connected TV market, missed with their first solutions, XBox methodically created something workable and now is pressing toward something awesome. But it's no secret that Apple is going to go big with its next attempt and Google is far from finished.
Apple's TV could be a technological wonder. Or it could just look like your iPhone writ even larger than the iPad. Either way, people will scream for joy. Apple will likely have the apps and partnerships needed for a vibrant viewing experience. It may have the interactive technology to match or even surpass Kinect. But it likely won't have the gaming power of XBox 720 and it will be more expensive.
If it's going to be an interesting race, Apple TV needs to be much more expensive than XBox. That's why talk of massive processing power for XBox 720 worried me. Better graphics matter to gamers, but it better be downright holographic for the unit to creep into the high hundreds. And blocking used games would kill a long-standing tradition of exchanging and sharing, which won't hurt nearly as much as the new expense for playing a wide variety of games. XBox, thus far, has cut the middle between being high-end without out-pricing itself to a wide group of entertainment consumers. The $99 Kinect was brilliant. It's $199 loaded-memory console for Cyber Monday nailed it too. Keep on keeping on, MSFT.
Apple has become such a juggernaut that it's easy to forget Microsoft spent years vexing them by offering more options (in the form of software) at much more reasonable prices. Android has done a fairly good job replicating this for phone. XBox needs to do the same thing with Connected TV. Adding too many Apple-esque riders to their next XBox may just drive Microsoft out of a potentially massive market.
