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Kotaku Rumor: Microsoft 6 months behind in game production for X720 [Pastebin = Ban]

CorrisD

badchoiceboobies
I believe this article. I don't have any evidence but my gut feeling tells me that MS had Durango in development with certain specs and when Sony came out and announced the PS4 with those 'high end' specs like the 8GB of ram, MS had to go back to the drawing board since their design is/was considerably weaker than those from the PS4. As a result of this, they probably had to scrap a few projects (software wise) and are behind schedule.

Yea, that is what has happened, they spent the last 3-4 years developing the console software and hardware, but now what is supposed to be 6-7 months before its supposed release they have decided to scrap it all and throw away what is no doubt hundreds of millions if not more.

At this point I think people are really mistaking that MS want to get into an expensive hardware spec war when really these companies, especially MS at this point, wants to become the center of the living room through general entertainment instead of high-end games. They aren't going to scrap years of work because Sony doubled their Ram, there is no more reason to believe these random pastebin posts than there were weeks or months ago when we simply ignored the nonsense in them.
 

StevieP

Banned
Despite what StevieP is posting, MS did have other plans that were scrapped.

...Or were they?

Usually when plans are scrapped, they are done in the pre-design stage. I won't speak for any specific companies here, but once something is greenlit to be engineered fully and in motion, you roll with it. The onus is on management to follow through with the plan you chose to put into motion. I mean this is extremely common both in and out of the videogame industry.
 

Reiko

Banned
Because only a 13 years old corporate executive would run product development like that. Maybe 11.

You mean like Sega did with the Sega Saturn?

Usually when plans are scrapped, they are done in the pre-design stage. I won't speak for any specific companies here, but once something is greenlit to be engineered fully and in motion, you roll with it. The onus is on management to follow through with the plan you chose to put into motion. I mean this is extremely common both in and out of the videogame industry.

Oh I know. I'm just saying that they did have alternate plans.
 

Maximilian E.

AKA MS-Evangelist
You mean like Sega did with the Sega Saturn?

Sega did something similar with DC, they had Black Belt from the US and Katana from their Japan office (BB had a 3Dfx card while Katana went with Power VR)..

Or something similar.. Sega had two design in parallel but I don't know how far along their were before deciding on one..
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Guys, please.

In what world do you think Microsoft's take-home message from this generation was 'we need to have more powerful hardware than the competition'?

Because it was not this world.
 

Satchel

Banned
Sega did something similar with DC, they had Black Belt from the US and Katana from their Japan office (BB had a 3Dfx card while Katana went with Power VR)..

Or something similar.. Sega had two design in parallel but I don't know how far along their were before deciding on one..

Microsoft also has a history of 2 designs. They did with the original Xbox. They had 2 teams putting forward 2 different consoles. That was much earlier on though if my memory serves.

Br seriously, the power of this thing isn't as important as many here would like you to believe. Sony "won" 2 generations in a row with the weakest console,, and then "lost" the most recent one with the most powerful.

It means 2 things. Jack, and shit.
 

FuturusX

Member
You mean like Sega did with the Sega Saturn?

Adding a second CPU in response to competition (rumored in the Saturn) is not in the same ballpark as releasing to developers and supporting fake hardware to throw off your competitors and then releasing the real completely different hardware at the very last minute.

"Surprise"

Unless your 10 years old and running product development at MS. Then it makes all the sense in the world.
 

Reiko

Banned
Guys, please.

In what world do you think Microsoft's take-home message from this generation was 'we need to have more powerful hardware than the competition'?

Because it was not this world.

They don't need to be the most powerful, but they need to have powerful enough hardware to run these next generation engines smoothly.

See Xbox 1 or the Xbox 360. Sony realized this with PS4, why shouldn't Microsoft?
 

Satchel

Banned
Adding a second CPU in response to competition (rumored in the Saturn) is not in the same ballpark as releasing and supporting fake hardware to throw off your competitors and then releasing the real completely different hardware at the very last minute.

"Surprise"

Unless your 10 years old and running product development at MS. Then it makes all the sense in the world.

While I don't buy the dual development rumour, you act like these companies never stop to juvenile levels, when even recent history is littered with examples of exactly that.
 
Microsoft also has a history of 2 designs. They did with the original Xbox. They had 2 teams putting forward 2 different consoles. That was much earlier on though if my memory serves.

Br seriously, the power of this thing isn't as important as many here would like you to believe. Sony "won" 2 generations in a row with the weakest console,, and then "lost" the most recent one with the most powerful.

It means 2 things. Jack, and shit.

It was proven to not be the most powerful, 90% of the multiplats were inferior and in terms of exclusives there isn't a clear winner over the 360 titles.
 

FuturusX

Member
While I don't buy the dual development rumour, you act like these companies never stop to juvenile levels, when even recent history is littered with examples of exactly that.

There's juvenile and then there's insane. But hey what I do I know. I applaud MS for their well played efforts when they reveal completely new hardware on the 21st.

Fooled us all good.
 

BigJoeGrizzly

Neo Member
Guys, please.

In what world do you think Microsoft's take-home message from this generation was 'we need to have more powerful hardware than the competition'?

Because it was not this world.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/14/making-of-the-xbox-1/

This is a great column about the development of the Xbox brand. One of the things that stuck out to me about the development plans of both the original Xbox and Xbox 360 was that Microsoft always strived to have one of the most powerful consoles on the market. Based on their history, it seemed a bit surprising that they would now potentially concede to Sony for the title of the most powerful console.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
It was proven to not be the most powerful, 90% of the multiplats were inferior and in terms of exclusives there isn't a clear winner over the 360 titles.

It is more powerful, it was just complex architecture that wasn't easily accessed in order to gain a performance advantage.

There's plenty of other examples of the company with the best hardware losing, his point is still valid -- it doesn't matter that much and doesn't determine who wins.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
They don't need to be the most powerful, but they need to have powerful enough hardware to run these next generation engines smoothly.

See Xbox 1 or the Xbox 360. Sony realized this with PS4, why shouldn't Microsoft?

The difference in power between these two machines is akin to one running at 1080p60 and the other running at 1080p30. This is not a Wii to 360 and PS3 situation. The majority of people are not going to notice or care.

http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/14/making-of-the-xbox-1/

This is a great column about the development of the Xbox brand. One of the things that stuck out to me about the development plans of both the original Xbox and Xbox 360 was that Microsoft always strived to have one of the most powerful consoles on the market. Based on their history, it seemed a bit surprising that they would now potentially concede to Sony for the title of the most powerful console.

Regardless of their intention with the 360, they did not have the most powerful console on the market this generation.
 

Reiko

Banned
It is more powerful, it was just complex architecture that wasn't easily accessed in order to gain a performance advantage.

There's plenty of other examples of the company with the best hardware losing, his point is still valid -- it doesn't matter that much and doesn't determine who wins.

The thing about PS3 and Xbox 360 was that both consoles could replicate similar effects.

PS3 through it's more powerful CPU, and 360 through it's more powerful GPU.

There was no clear and obvious winner like Xbox Vs. PS2. The simple answer is that they were a wash.


The difference in power between these two machines is akin to one running at 1080p60 and the other running at 1080p30. This is not a Wii to 360 and PS3 situation. The majority of people are not going to notice or care.



Regardless of their intention with the 360, they did not have the most powerful console on the market this generation.

It doesn't work like that.

No but it had the most powerful GPU, like the Xbox 1.
 

Satchel

Banned
It is more powerful, it was just complex architecture that wasn't easily accessed in order to gain a performance advantage.

There's plenty of other examples of the company with the best hardware losing, his point is still valid -- it doesn't matter that much and doesn't determine who wins.

This. In terms of raw performance, the PS3 is the more powerful, but like the PS2, the architecture was a piece of shit bitch that required complicated tools, and a tonne of help to get anything out of for third parties. With PS2, the dominance meant developers had to put up or shit up, which is why I think they flocked to 360 early on when they saw Sony's arrogance all over the PS3's internals.

It's good that Sony has this time learned to listen to developers. Having 2 consoles with extremely similar architecture means reduced development costs, which hopefully leads to less devs closed down and losing their jobs. Hopefully it also means devs have more room to move when it comes to implementing cool features they want in their games as opposed to working out how to port games to other platforms.
 

StevieP

Banned
http://venturebeat.com/2011/11/14/making-of-the-xbox-1/

This is a great column about the development of the Xbox brand. One of the things that stuck out to me about the development plans of both was that Microsoft always strived to have one of the most powerful consoles on the market. Based on their history, it seemed a bit odd that they would now potentially concede to Sony for the title of the most powerful console.
Most of those folks are long gone and the focus of shareholders' expectations of the gaming division is one of profit. Mind you Sony is more focused on profit now as well, because this generation was a lesson that was learned for the model used to sell the current crop of consoles. Let me put it this way: documents that go to developers aren't faked or used to fake out. Developers would have such documents detailing what they expect to be the final release state of the console long in advance of the console release, not mere months. This isn't to say small things can't change (memory amount, clocks can go up or down based on cooling and yields, etc) but some of the folks in this thread have ludicrous expectations.
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
There's juvenile and then there's insane. But hey what I do I know. I applaud MS for their well played efforts when they reveal completely new hardware on the 21st.

Fooled us all good.

Remember superDaE and his leaks? All part of Microsoft's ruse!

Joking aside, it would actually be pretty epic if Microsoft do pull something off.
 
The difference in power between these two machines is akin to one running at 1080p60 and the other running at 1080p30. This is not a Wii to 360 and PS3 situation. The majority of people are not going to notice or care.

It's also worth mentioning that developers wouldn't take advantage of a faster framerate on the PS4 over the next Xbox even if it was capable of it. And the same goes for if the next Xbox turned out to be more powerful than the PS4. At most we'd see improved textures and lighting, but the end goal will be the same as we saw this gen, which was for both consoles to be at parity. Any power gap will be reserved for first party games and the rare "real" exclusive (not those that are timed).
 

Satchel

Banned
Remember superDaE and his leaks? All part of Microsoft's ruse!

Joking aside, it would actually be pretty epic if Microsoft do pull something off.

Lets say, for arguments sake, that Microsoft have been secretly producing a fucking monster of a console that eats PCs for breakfast. It really wouldn't mean much in the real world. Joe 6 pack just wants to play the new CoD and the Soccer mums want to buy the latest Kinect game for their kids. This power horse shit only matters here, as it always has.

Like I've always said about Sony, I'd rather Microsoft worry about making money that can fund great games and services/features rather than take part in fanboy dick waving.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
It doesn't work like that.

If you really think that there is going to be some kind of Wii-esque major issue with porting games to Xbox 3 from PS4, I don't know what to say. There wont be. The PS4 version will have marginal extra bells and whistles, that's all. Perhaps the Xbox 3 version will run sub-1080p or at a lower framerate.

If your habit of putting your eggs in every new rumour basket is driven by what you think is a need for MS to hit parity for reasons of running engines, I don't really think you have anything to worry about.

No but it had the most powerful GPU, like the Xbox 1.

It had, I think, a marginally more powerful GPU, but nothing that would make up the difference between the Xenon CPU and the Cell.

The 360's advantage over the PS3 this generation was in ease of development, not in having a more powerful GPU. As I recall, most early games didn't even bother to use the Cell's coprocessors because of the complexities of writing code for 7 extra cores.
 

Reiko

Banned
What I don't understand is the want for more powerful consoles and then at the price reveal they throw a fit.

If you really think that there is going to be some kind of Wii-esque major issue with porting games to Xbox 3 from PS4, I don't know what to say. There wont be. The PS4 version will have marginal extra bells and whistles, that's all. Perhaps the Xbox 3 version will run sub-1080p or at a lower framerate.

If your habit of putting your eggs in every new rumour basket is driven by what you think is a need for MS to hit parity for reasons of running engines, I don't really think you have anything to worry about.

I think you're under the assumption that MS sticks with the 1.2TFLOP figure at the reveal. If it doesn't, any increase in specs would mean minor differences between the 2 consoles.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
The Wii U is doing great, isn`t it? You`re right, low end + gimmick still works like a charm.

Yes, and the Vita is making a killing with its cutting edge hardware.

I think you're under the assumption that MS sticks with the 1.2TFLOP figure at the reveal. If it doesn't, any increase in specs would mean minor differences between the 2 consoles.

I don't see why they wouldn't. I can tell you categorically that a 6GFLOPS difference will not decide (or even influence) which console I buy and I suspect more people are like that than GAF makes it look. People are slinging mud about it now because Console Warz. Once next generation arrives and the games with it, the 6GLOPS difference will become meaningless. People will buy it based on the software and services.
 

SMT

this show is not Breaking Bad why is it not Breaking Bad? it should be Breaking Bad dammit Breaking Bad
I only hope for Glass compatibility.
 
Guys, please.

In what world do you think Microsoft's take-home message from this generation was 'we need to have more powerful hardware than the competition'?

Because it was not this world.

We live in a post 8GDDR5 world. Power is the end all, be all. Without power, you're doomed.....

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!!!
 

BigJoeGrizzly

Neo Member
Regardless of their intention with the 360, they did not have the most powerful console on the market this generation.

If you read the story, it describes that when Sony announced the Cell (and that it would be in the PS3) the team at Microsoft nearly shit themselves, but realized that it would be an absolute bitch to unlock its full potential. They banked on Sony not realizing Cell's full potential, and created a console that focused less on theoretical horsepower and more on actual throughput. They bet correctly, and overall there wasn't much noticeable parity between the consoles.

Most of those folks are long gone and the focus of shareholders' expectations of the gaming division is one of profit. Mind you Sony is more focused on profit now as well, because this generation was a lesson that was learned for the model used to sell the current crop of consoles. Let me put it this way: documents that go to developers aren't faked or used to fake out. Developers would have such documents detailing what they expect to be the final release state of the console long in advance of the console release, not mere months. This isn't to say small things can't change (memory amount, clocks can go up or down based on cooling and yields, etc) but some of the folks in this thread have ludicrous expectations.

Very true about the lack of remaining visionaries that worked on the last two consoles. I don't expect a completely different list of specs compared to what has been rumored, but I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft wasn't able to close the game a little (if they even care to do so is another story).
 

THE:MILKMAN

Member
Lets say, for arguments sake, that Microsoft have been secretly producing a fucking monster of a console that eats PCs for breakfast. It really wouldn't mean much in the real world. Joe 6 pack just wants to play the new CoD and the Soccer mums want to buy the latest Kinect game for their kids. This power horse shit only matters here, as it always has.

Like I've always said about Sony, I'd rather Microsoft worry about making money that can fund great games and services/features rather than take part in fanboy dick waving.

When I said pulling something off, I just meant something that hasn't leaked (outside CPU/GPU/RAM) A killer feature that nobody see's coming for example.

I think the basic specs we know are pretty solid at this point. Just like PS4's were before Feb 20th.
 

Satchel

Banned
When I said pulling something off, I just meant something that hasn't leaked (outside CPU/GPU/RAM) A killer feature that nobody see's coming for example.

I think the basic specs we know are pretty solid at this point. Just like PS4's were before Feb 20th.

Fair enough.

At this point, any wishes for Microsoft beefing up the rumored specs would be purely for entertainment value on GAF. Watching goal posts shift in front of your eyes is pretty funny stuff.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
If you read the story, it describes that when Sony announced the Cell (and that it would be in the PS3) the team at Microsoft nearly shit themselves, but realized that it would be an absolute bitch to unlock its full potential. They banked on Sony not realizing Cell's full potential, and created a console that focused less on theoretical horsepower and more on actual throughput. They bet correctly, and overall there wasn't much noticeable parity between the consoles.

That's cool, I get that, they wanted the most powerful console. But they didn't have it and they did fine. If their strategy with the Xbox brand was to just beast the competition (a la Xbox vs PS2), they hit a hurdle this generation with the PS3.

My point still stands: Microsoft would be taking home the wrong message if they decided that they needed to have the most powerful hardware in order to have a successful product. They clearly do not. They only have to get close enough for multiplatform games to come to both systems, and then offer compelling exclusive games and features.
 

iMax

Member
I love it when people say "Oh there's no WAY they've changed the specs. That would take YEARS!"

Unless you're Steve Ballmer, you don't really know what you're talking about.
 

StevieP

Banned
I love it when people say "Oh there's no WAY they've changed the specs. That would take YEARS!"

Unless you're Steve Ballmer, you don't really know what you're talking about.
In the world of this thread, I could very well be Mr Balmer. Hang on, let me get to pastebin.

Edit: and let me make it clear - I am not speaking of the OP or being critical of the original topic of discussion. Just the last few pages of implausible pastebin posts and rumour clinging.
 

FuturusX

Member
Yes, and the Vita is making a killing with its cutting edge hardware.



I don't see why they wouldn't. I can tell you categorically that a 6GFLOPS difference will not decide (or even influence) which console I buy and I suspect more people are like that than GAF makes it look. People are slinging mud about it now because Console Warz. Once next generation arrives and the games with it, the 6GLOPS difference will become meaningless. People will buy it based on the software and services.

Speak for yourself, I refuse to buy a system without GDDR5 ram. Anything else is just filthy. MS has to make the switch.
 

jond76

Banned
Like I said in the reveal thread, I think the software (OS, UI) will be where MS will shine. They have a giant plan for their ecosystem, and I think it'll blow some minds.
 
Guys, please.

In what world do you think Microsoft's take-home message from this generation was 'we need to have more powerful hardware than the competition'?

Because it was not this world.

That's why the discussion of memory and flops is so funny. It doesn't matter. The console that "won" this gen couldn't even output HD. What sells consoles is content. If Nintendo hits on the next huge thing, the Wii U will go from the toilet to the throne.
 

KidBeta

Junior Member
I love it when people say "Oh there's no WAY they've changed the specs. That would take YEARS!"

Unless you're Steve Ballmer, you don't really know what you're talking about.

Microsoft has no pixe dust that would allow them to whip up a new SoC faster then others, we know it takes years and this won't change, shiny head bald man or not.
 

sunnz

Member
This seems more plausible than the other ones

You mean that fits your agenda better?

I don't think MS is in trouble, neither is SONY. No way would they spend as much money as they have AS WELL AS announce ( or prepare to announce very soon) the consoles if there was such a big problem.
 
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