Microsoft is preparing to officially reveal the Xbox 720 at its May 21 event in Redmond, Wash., but could it be possible that we already know much of what will be revealed? We all want to know what the release date, price, and features are, and one analyst is giving us a pretty good reason to believe he knows.
Microsoft analyst Paul Thurrot correctly said that the Xbox 720 would be revealed at an event on May 21, and now he's unleashing a flood of other information. If there's anyone worth paying attention to in the flood of rumors, it's probably him.
So let's start with the good stuff. Xbox 720 release date? Thurrot wrote in his blog post that Microsoft will launch the console in "early November 2013."
As for the price, Microsoft is allegedly planning to offer the Xbox 720 with two different pricing schemes. One standalone model will cost $499 while another will run you $299 with a two-year Xbox Live Gold subscription for $10 a month.
Unfortunately, the dreaded "always on" rumor gains more traction, as the post states the system will require an Internet connection to function.
Any plans for an Xbox Mini — or an Xbox-branded system that would strictly be used for entertainment purposes outside of gaming, like TV streaming — have been put on hold. Microsoft will only release a gaming-oriented Xbox 720 system this year.
As rumored before, the Xbox 720 will supposedly also come running a version of Windows 8, meaning it's possible that Windows Store apps will also be available for the Xbox 720. That could be pretty huge. Even though the Windows Store lags behind app stores from Apple and Google, it would feature a great starting point for Microsoft's gaming console.
According to Thurrot, a new Xbox 360 model will also be released this year at a cheaper price.
"The new Xbox 360 is code-named 'Stingray,' but it's not clear whether this device is required because the next Xbox isn't backward-compatible or because Microsoft simply wants a low-cost entertainment box alternative. (A third possibility - and to be clear, these possible reasons are all speculative - is that the Xbox 360 simply has life left in it and with dwindling component prices in the 8 years since the original launch, the firm can still make money selling such a device.)," he wrote.
There's still a lot Thurrot says he doesn't know (and, to be clear, he may be wrong about some of these things, too), such as the Xbox 720's real name, Kinect integration and backwards-compatibility. With the reveal event less than a month away, though, we don't have much longer to find out the truth.
