Microsoft: Dev Kits Revealed

I’m starting to wonder about Microsoft’s ability to keep their info under wraps. In the recent months, we’ve learned substantially more about the next Xbox than they probably wanted us to, which doesn’t seem that odd until you consider the fact that the PS4 has next to nothing leaked for it. Could it be a clever marketing scheme by MS to get word out about the next Xbox, just like Apple did with the “leaked” iPhone 4 video? Possibly. Either way, even more news has been unveiled about the next system, so let’s jump right into it.

Making their appearance yesterday, a few photos and loads of information/rumors (two words that can go hand-in-hand for this topic) have been leaked about the next Xbox’s development kit. For those who don’t know, a development kit is essentially
the software provided to devs that shows them how they need to make their games compatible for the given console. It’s like a virtual blueprint on how to design something that will work for the system.

Anyway, this is a big deal because it has brought up that odd word that we first heard so many months ago: Durango. The main screen of the development kit holds the title up top of Durango, which is a huge indication that this is almost certainly Microsoft’s codename for the next Xbox, much like Project Natal was the codename for Kinect. Side note – don’t you think Project Natal is a WAY cooler name than Kinect? I do, but that’s sort of off-topic.

The use responsible for the leak, named DaE, says that much of the software in the dev kit has to do with the next generation of Kinect. It seems that MS is really pushing this device with developers, and this just puts more evidence towards their goal of integrating Kinect with as many games and user interfaces as possible.

Also included in the information leaked by DaE are the system’s processing powers and components. Previously, we though that the next Xbox would sport an AMD GPU, but now it seems that it will actually be an NVIDIA card instead.

Either way, support for DirectX 11, a next-gen rendering device that is largely responsible for how a game looks, is a huge possibility and a welcome one at that. When the next consoles were first talked about it was thought that DX9 or DX10 at the most would be supported, which is technically still last-gen. So, this is great news for those of us who want MS to live up to the rumored “6 times as powerful than the 360″ claim.

While this is all fine and grand, we need to be aware that this is still just an early test model of the dev kit, and that’s assuming it’s even legit (but hey, it probably is). I love it when we see things that aren’t even finished yet, because it means that the complete, final product will be even BETTER than what we’ve seen. So, we might assume that some rumors we’ve heard are actually less advanced than what could be coming.

This is why I’m so excited for GW2, by the way. It will simply always get better and better.

Wow, the leaks keep on coming! I expect to see no shortage of info, as we usually get significant info leaked at least once every 2 weeks, or at least that seems to be the pattern. No matter, I’m excited for whatever they decide to throw at us.