Towards the end of last week, a document found its way to the site Scribd, which acts as a host to tons of online files such as press releases, manuals, books or pretty much any other text based file. This 56 page document detailed a supposed 5 year plan of Microsoft’s for the end of the XBox 360’s lifecycle and beginning of a new console generation in 2013. Since being leaked, this still unconfirmed document has been removed.
When you attempt to go to any links to the document, it says it has been removed by the request of Covington & Burling LLP, a business and corporate law firm. The removal of this document could be a sign about some of the validity to items within it.
In the document, some important things of note were both a date and price for the upcoming console. The document talks about a new console launching in 2013 (presumably in the fall since there was no mention of a console at this year’s E3 from Microsoft) at a $299 price point with an updated version of Kinect. This Kinect will supposedly have improved functionality and support up to four players if plans pan out.
There is also mention of a Blu-Ray drive which makes sense since there are already some games on XBox 360 which require so much storage that they take up multiple discs on the current console. Tablet integration is also discussed in the document which matches up to Microsoft’s Smartglass program that was announced at E3 this year. If the document was actually created in 2011, this would be a sign that some of the other items included in it may come to fruition as well.
The most shocking item discussed in the document is the creation of glasses that provide a heads up display for the user. This could possibly provide map, health and other data and keep the actual screen clear and allow for stronger immersion. The project is codenamed: Fortaleza.
Keep in mind that everything here is from an allegedly leaked document that Microsoft has refused to comment on up to this point. Still, that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.
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