Xbox 720 and Wii 2 Announcements At E3?
By Rothtana Ouch
Last week, Epic unveiled a tech demo showing off Next-Gen graphics in a seemingly Blade Runner-inspired setting. Tech demos are usually a sign of larger things to come and recent rumors are pointing towards a shakeup to the current home console lineup and the future of gaming.
Nintendo is known for delivering innovative features and the Wii 2 looks to be no different.
The Guardian reports the Wii 2 will include a “Blu-ray drive, a quad-core processor and built-in LED projector.” The projector would be used to display gameplay. An announcement at E3 would be an opportune moment as Nintendo is known for releasing a console at an interval of five years: the N64 in 1996, Gamecube in 2001 and the Wii in 2006.
But perhaps more insightful is a recent job offering from Microsoft looking for hardware engineers to work on a project “defining and delivering next generation console architectures.” It might seem a shock with the recent release of the Kinect, but Microsoft did deliver the Xbox 360 fours years into the life of the original Xbox.
The Kinect itself might just be a trojan horse to become a test bed at a future system with better and more capable voice and movement recognition system. Imagine an Xbox 720 designed around the idea of an integrated Kinect and not the other way around. Or just watch Dead Space’s Isaac stomp Necromorphs and you’ll get the idea of a future Xbox 720.
As for the PS4, it is certainly under some top secret development just like the recently announced NGP. Expect Sony to continue and expand the development of the PSN and downloadable content, but remain silent about “details.”
That’s what we’ve heard, what have you? What do you want in Next-Gen home consoles?
