Even though Microsoft officially denied that the next Xbox is on cards (for now), a leaked presentation dated from 2010 suggests otherwise. But do not get too excited yet. It is not coming until 2013. 

The next Xbox will have support for Blu-ray, native 3D output at true 1080p and will be able to run apps concurrently. As reported earlier, the performance will be upgraded by 6 times the current level in X360. It is popularly called Xbox 720 but no official name is suggested in the document. Its hardware seems to be scalable, i.e.- its power and frequency can be adjusted. It is not clear how many and what type of cores will be used – though they will be six or eight in number and will either be ARM cores or x86. They will use 4 GB DDR4 RAM along with 3 PPC cores on the side. We did post earlier about some of the specs that were being speculated upon at that time. Check it out here.

Kinect revolutionized the gaming industry when it was introduced in 2010. It introduced gamers to a hands-free  gaming experience and also made it more immersive  at the same time. Kinect 2 will be launched along with the next Xbox by Microsoft next year. The newer version will be more accurate and will also have stereo imaging, improved voice recognition, an improved RGB camera and  support for up to 4 players. The slide also mentions that other peripherals/accessories will be added to make the experience more immersive.

A new accessory for Kinect 2, called ‘Fortaleza’ is being planned. It is a pair of glasses which may be provided for viewing the native 3D output of the Xbox. But the slides suggest it may be incorporated with augmented reality features which will offer a new HUD and also add more interactive elements to gaming! It is not going to be launched alongside the new Xbox and is set for a 2014 release. If it comes to fruition it will allow us to play in a wholly new virtual world and give a whole new dimension to gaming! It will also join the ranks of Google Glasses which allow the user to augment his vision and make communication easier.

Microsoft wants to make the new Xbox your all-in-one living-room multimedia device. It will have background recording functionality for TV content and will also work with Windows 8 and Windows Phone OS. It will unify the OS experience by providing similar apps on multiple devices (sic: Xbox, PC, Windows Phone, Tablet etc.). Its price is mentioned as $299/- which is the same as that of X360 available now. Still, it depends on the number of 3D glasses they supply with the unit!

Images courtesy: The Verge

P.S.- The original slides have been taken down at the request of Covington & Burling LLP, one of whose customers is Microsoft.