Xbox 720 simply called ‘Xbox’, ‘X-Surface’ gaming tablet inbound – rumour

*popcorn*

1) This sounds highly credible. X-Surface would be an exact continuance of Microsoft’s current strategy.

2) I want one.

A reliable source told my friend who told me that the nextbox will have a built in tea kettle and toaster combination, and that it’ll have smell producing capabilities.

After liberally sprinkling salt, and a clove of cynical for good measure, I do like the sound of this. If it gives me a way to play games and still be reasonably sociable to wifey whilst she watches the usual array of crap on tv then this would work for me.

@3
As long as that smell is toast, burning toast or electrical products being covered in boiling water.

Definitely makes sense.

800MHz GPU.

Also, I don’t quite understand the tablet – it’s a “standalone portable gaming system” but yet “will not have any apps of its own”.
Don’t get it.

@6 I guess something like Nvidia Shield for streaming from xbox to tablet ?

If true the name certainly makes sense. 720 sounds a little too much like 720P.

Watch Dogs, 60FPS running on five cores? I take one, where can I pre-order?

Probs not the only pad.

Called this…

Now, Make it So!

1) This sounds highly credible. X-Surface would be an exact continuance of Microsoft’s downward spiral.

2) I don’t want one.

They should call it:

1) Eksbawks

2) DutyCallsBox

3) HaloBox

Good stuff, bro. X)

Doesn’t sound very awesome

Get on with it!

Not to bring Nintendo into it, but it sounds to me like Xbox will barrow a few features from WiiU.

Again time will tell what happens. Not going to get too excited. But it sounds kind of nice. One point of concern tho…price? Will the Xsurface be packed in? How much will the combined Tablet and console cost? What level of operation/service/function will the tablet actualy have? It sounds a lot more like an attachment to Xbox then it does a stand alone device(no apps/funny OS)?

@16

This was my prediction in your forum thread on next gen pricing OG:

MS:

7″ Media based Tablet with Smart Glass features. Plays XBLA games and releases before 720.

Everyone gets upset, another year of 360!!!

Idea being to get people to purchase this so MS has more monopoly over SmartGlass being on one of THEIR products rather than iPad etc…

Priced at about £150 – £200 maybe includes physical controls.

Announced in Feb 2013, releases end of the year and works with 360 aswell (although specs are similar / better, may use Tegra 4).

720 or whatever it’s called announced at E3 2013 but in showreel form, releases 2014 with Kinect 2 and compatible with Tablet controller with Smartglass.

Priced £299 – £399, runs games 1080p, 60FPS.

Im sticking too it!

a tablet? really microsoft its called console i dont go gaming on the move, c’mon stick with the xbox and just make it slimmer

Time to stop listening to rumours. http://x-surface.tumblr.com/

@19

Really funny.

What a shit ‘experiement’.

Flawed isn’t even the word.

We all know most sites run on ‘clicks’, new consoles are the hot topic at the moment and any leaks are reported.

What exactly does this prove. Fake stories and hoax’s are rife through all media.

It’s kind of how the whole ‘viral’ marketting thing was created.

Thats a fair cop. That blog does have a point though as it is frustrating about the amount of (mis?)information going on at the moment. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of solid information to take to the toilet for a quiet moment once E3 arrives.

@21

Agreed, I AM FUSTRATE!

@20 It certainly stands to expose a major weakness in the press. It’s not like this hoax was even remotely convincing considering the original e-mail.

Yet all it took was writing it on the internet to completely circumvent any sort of critical approach on behalf of a group that does use the title of journalist.

The first question when you’re dealing with a source should be “Is this verifiable or falsifiable in any way?” And if the answer to the question is no, then there’s no story, any more than there would be if it had been written in a bathroom stall.

Zero credibility should equal zero airtime. That’s obviously not so.

@DSB

Of course, but it’s always been like that on the interwebs.

Even whole companies ‘leak’ stuff like this, remember the iPhone 4 ‘accidently’ left in that bar before the big reveal?

Sometimes it’s hard to sort through things especially if you have to keep, up to the minute coverage.

@24 The thing about the iPhone 4 is that it was a very real story that satisfied all the journalistic requirements. This wasn’t.

But you’re right either way.

I guess I’m a bit on the Stuart Campbell side of things, in that I really want the games press to be something it can’t be.

There’s not enough money in it to fund proper journalism, and so the coverage of the games industry has become this sort of rigged game where there’s little risk of any real surprises, and even the most passionate journalist is at a constant disadvantage against companies with a fully funded PR department.

I still think a bit of mischief and mayhem is fine though. If a random e-mail can fool everyone, imagine what EA can get away with.

@25

I think when it was only monthly magazine publications, they had to be much more careful.

Also, the journalists would have had much more time to root out the bullshit stuff.

If they were only selling one magazine a month, they couldn’t afford to have too much miss information.

Now the web is such a fast moving thing, news storeis come and go in seconds, I suppose something has to give at points.

Also, sometimes site’s do it just to attract ‘clicks’.

My girlfriend write’s for a few online game sites and has been doing so for a year or so. Some opinion piece’s and some news based stuff which she didn’t like so much.

Thing is, you quickly find certain articles generate crazy hits if there slightly ‘pre-loaded’ or a bit risky. This is why I had a few problems with Brenna’s DMC article earlier (the 500plus big hitter).

You get alot of up and coming people writting articles that are almost trolling to generate hits, also false information and here say become big business.

Kind of shitty and I hope this site doesn’t go too far this way.

My girlfriend got upset at points as she’d write a really well thought out article or opinion piece that took a lot of time to research properly and then it would generate hardly any hits or comments.

Then she could say: ‘New Nintendo console doomed’ or something and POW!!! 100 plus hits even though it was just a provocative title!

Crazy really, and very annoying if your trying to break into the ‘scene’.

anyway, thats my 2 Euro’s worth

Edit : sorry, spelling was shit, was eating olives at the same time as typing!

@26 Personally I think console rumors are a lot more pandering than anything Brenna did.

The response to DMC is just hysterical bordering on the psychotic, and I have no trouble understanding why Brenna felt like throwing up looking at that reaction.

She may have offended people, but I think it was honest. The fact that it’s unpopular or harsh doesn’t invalidate an opinion.

If anything, I think that’s the last ace in the hole that the games press has left. The industry may be able to control the information available to the public without difficulty, but the writers can still give you a piece of their mind.

(Tangent time)

I wish a lot more would. Games reviews have pretty much become a parody with AAA-investment meaning an automatic 7/10 at worst, and I don’t see how that sort of spineless appeasement is explained by tight budgets.

I mean, a methodology as blatantly flawed as Metacritics shouldn’t really be able to influence anything without challenge, if the press was really on their guard.

@27

Good points all round.

I just feel the Brenna article was ‘cherry picked’ to cause reaction.

It did ‘out’ a few crazy fuckers, but then we always knew it would.

The death threat shit the devs had is unfortunatly standerd fare these days. Thats just the internet for you.

It’s like me saying im being robbed everyday because I recieve spam emails all the time trying to get my bank details.

Unfortunalty places like 4chan often choose targets too ‘attack’, sometimes for good, mostly for childish reasons (i.e. game devs).

Now i’m not for a minute saying that behaviour is right, im just saying it’s an unfortunate off shoot of the internet and global communication.

You can’t have it both ways. Brenna knew this full well before publishing that article. I don’t think for a second she is that niave.

The article didn’t however tackle a lot of the real problems people had with the game, frame rate, gameplay etc…

It was very much directed at a population that didn’t habitate VG247, it drew them in. Now that may have changed the community for better or worse based on one article. I think opinion pieces are good, but sometimes you have the responsibility to stick around after the smokes cleared and see what effect they have had to a site/magazine in the long term.

Articles like that have power even if they were intended to be ‘throw away’.

Like I mentioned before, I think Dave strikes a good balance with his opinion pieces.

I don’t trust any site for reviews now and this is one of the last sites I bother to go to, mainly because of the fairly balanced and fun community!

I think games journalism is going to a different level now, and to be honest, im not that sure I like it atall.

Like anything and any industry that gets too big, corruption and attention seeking become only to familiar.

MS can at least call their using plausible names, Valve on the other hand.. Half-Shit Box, oh well the demented nerds are still going to believe they play an intelligent toy despite buying games using parents’ money.

It’s called 720 because people see it, turn around twice and walk away from it.

I kinda get the sense that the VG247 staff has abandoned the comment sections in a last ditch effort to preserve their sanity.

I don’t think Brenna was out to target anyone on the site, I think she was just pissed off and wrote a piece based on that.

A lot of what she wrote is what I’m quietly thinking when I watch the way some people are reacting to a game that has never called itself anything other than a reboot.

Had it been a remake I could see the false advertisement angle. It’s not, though.

In comparison, X-Com is my most loved videogame of all time, and while XCOM isn’t what I wanted personally, I don’t think it’s inherently bad.

It’s just a different game, by a different developer, meant to do different things, in a different time. It does a few things I don’t like, but I don’t see why I should ever consider campaigning against it.

#30 – LOL!

Unfortunately this is COMPLETELY made up. Here’s the proof http://x-surface.tumblr.com/post/41282771026/x-surface-dont-believe-everything-you-read

@31

Yeah but people do that all the time now it’s just the way it is.

There were numerous stereotypes in the article that if it had been a male writer talking about female gamers it would never of got published.

Stuff like that really. I don’t really care either way, just not trying to make out it was some amazing thoughtful piece and a commentry on gaming culture.

It was just snarky attention seaking in my opinion. Nothing more, nothing less.

Thats not a bad thing, im just not going to dress it up as anything else.

Like I said, it was very one sided and focused on a huge area that was irrelevant by the time the game launched and people played it.

Then all the people with true concerns got lumped with all the crazies she was trying to lure from the get-go. Then it all just went tit’s up.

The disscussion of the game was comprimised from the off.

@31

Sorry, also:

“A lot of what she wrote is what I’m quietly thinking when I watch the way some people are reacting to a game that has never called itself anything other than a reboot.”

This is kind of true but mildly dangerous way of thinking. A lot of time, these super passionate ‘fans’ can also be the only people organised or bother to make a stand against things that are hurting the games industry.

Micro transactions, gaining signatures for PC ports (Dark Souls) etc…

Grouping stereotypes together can be harmful.

Nah, I strongly disagree with that.

You can only be so much of a fuckwit before you lose the right to be taken seriously, and a lot of people are way past that point. Being loud and intolerable doesn’t lend credibility to anything.

That isn’t to say that the game isn’t perfectly open to criticism in general, but rotten apples do spoil the barrel.

It seems to me (and it seems to be supported by the sales data) that there are a lot of people who feel that they don’t need to play the game before they hate it, referencing things like YouTube videos as the foundation for their argument.

I mean really. Why would you take a person like that seriously?

I’M AS MAD AS HELL AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE

http://www.gatheryourparty.com/articles/2013/01/23/gamer-proves-how-easy-it-is-to-game-journalists/

@36

I know what your saying. But I’d be more on your side if the finished product wasn’t actually so juvenile and pandering to such a marketing view of cool.

It’s like they created the most childish game ever, them complained when some Internet kids kicked off…

Sorry, you reap what you sow in this case.

Anyway, again, it’s all marketing guff. All publicity is good publicity etc… Etc…

If journalists had actually confronted ‘real’ issues, maybe more sensible people would have responded. Start a childish argument, get childish responses no? Seems pretty cut and dried to me.

@39 Yeah, right. People have been going on about this ever since they saw the game for the first time. Brenna didn’t touch anything that hadn’t already been festering for a good six months. At least.

I also fail to see how that description doesn’t go for the previous games. Melodramatic teenage antics are apparently high art if you have a Japanese last name. But then the same thing pretty much goes for pedophilia.

Very poor vg247 more validation required on your behalf dave this article seems to the the laughing stock in the video game world today

@41 It is impossible to validate an anonymous source. We never received the X-Surface scammer’s email either. I simply reported on what Pocket Lint said, cast my own doubt on it above, and then asked readers to decide for themselves below.

I never once stated any of this as fact.

@Dave,
You added Rumor in headline, that was enough.

@43 Not enough apparently.

regardless,as an avid reader of this site I think more precautions should be taken when running these articles as your liable to this type of scruitney and ridicule as this site along with others have been named and shamed worldwide. Eurogamer a site thats had its own difficulties this year I’m sure could have ran the story but obviously judged it correctly and didnt run it which reflects poor judgment on your behalf I’m afraid

@45 Well maybe. Live and learn I guess, but I think it has to be made clear that we didn’t receive the scammer’s email. His blog suggests that we did. We had no communication with the guy and no way of checking who he was.

So yes, poor judgement indeed. Rest assured I’ll no longer be reporting on anonymous sources again.

well I dont know which is worse that all info was completly unverified and taken from another website without any comfirmation…..

may I make a suggestion, if indeed VG247 is ging to continue to REPORT on rumors etc in order to generate clicks or revenue etc how about putting them in a WEB RUMOR section rather than under the heading of MY NEWS stories. However I tip my hat to your response

@47 Suggestion noted sincerely, but I have to clarify that we don’t get revenue from clicks, so that isn’t the mind-set I was in when writing the piece above. Our remit is to be a comprehensive news site that catches everything out there, and my thought process was genuinely, ‘Hmm, this sounds a bit weird, but maybe I should report on it in case it turns out to be true’.

That’s the honest truth, there was no attempt to cash-in on this piece as, well, we don’t make cash from clicks. We never have. As you say it was a daft one to report on and although I say in the piece that it is probably bogus, you’re right – it was best left alone.

Again, live and learn. I won’t be covering this kind of crap again without iron clad proof.

Thanks for reading

You covered it with the word rumour in the title, and a nod to the fact it might be complete shite in the first paragraph so you had it covered fine in my book. There are plenty of rumours that turn out to be true to I wouldn’t let this put you off doing what this site has done well for a lot of years. My 2p =)

Agreed. It was quite clearly labelled as a rumour so I don’t see what the problem is. If stupid people want to take it as fact, that’s their problem.