Xbox 720 Could Be Delayed by Manufacturing Trouble

Rumors suggest that manufacturing trouble could delay Microsoft’s next Xbox. According to tech site SemiAccurate, the ‘Oban’ processor that powers the system is facing shortages that could prevent Microsoft from manufacturing enough consoles for the oft-rumored 2013 launch.

SemiAccurate reports that manufacturing yields on the new processor’s production wafers are “painfully low.” As explained by OXM, that means ”for every wafer, or sheet of silicon chips, created, only a tiny percentage are actually usable. Think of it like a sheet of baseball cards. If one sheet makes 30 cards, but only one card comes out without any issues or defects, that's a bit of a problem." Microsoft has reportedly increased Oban manufacturing to “very high quanitities” that SemiAccurate notes are “too high by more than an order of magnitude to simply be for dev kits.”

Microsoft will reportedly try to get parts from two or even three sources in order to increase its odds of success, but SemiAccurate reports that Microsoft doesn’t have long to set things right if it wants to hit a target date of fall 2013. “It takes about 8 weeks to run a hot lot through a fab and analyze the results,” the site notes. “If production wafers are really going in this year, the last time a foundry can run a test wafer is about November 1. Anything after that day will not come out of the fab in time for the results to be fed back in to the production chips. That is the technical term for ‘The XBox Next is going to be delayed.’”

Anonymous sources suggest to SemiAccurate that there’s “some slack” in Microsoft’s production schedule, and that even a six to eight week delay wouldn’t be enough to push back the next Xbox’s launch. “Microsoft insiders tell us that the planned launch date is September 2013, and that is not changing without heads rolling internally,” SemiAccurate writes. “Given the very hard limits imposed by the fab technologies involved and the self-imposed start date, time is running out. If there is two months of slack in the supply chain, unless the yield problems are solved by late February 2013, Microsoft can’t hit its desired September 2013 launch date.”

We heard in January that the Xbox 720 chipset was already in production, though the first run may have simply been for the development kits that are already being distributed. IGN sources suggested in the past that the next Xbox will be six times more powerful than current generation consoles.

We’ve reached out to Microsoft about the rumored manufacturing delays and will update with any comment we receive, though given Microsoft’s reluctance to mention the new Xbox, it’s unlikely we’ll hear any additional information. For now, read what we know about the next Xbox so far thanks to a Microsoft patent from earlier this summer.

Andrew Goldfarb is IGN’s associate news editor. Keep up with pictures of the latest food he’s been eating by following him on Twitter or IGN.

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Nokia Officially Announces Lumia 920

At today's event with Microsoft in New York, Nokia announced its new top-of-the-line Windows Phone 8 device, the Lumia 920.

A cut above the Lumia 900 (Nokia's current top-end Windows phone) in just about every way, the 920 looks to be competitive with the rest of the US smartphone market, not just other Windows phones. So before we get into the details here's the bottom line: if you're looking for a Windows Phone 8 handset this fall, then (pending a price announcement, and maybe HTC's Sept. 19 hail-mary) the Lumia 920 should make your decision easy.

Nokia has packed the 920 with a bevy of novel, exciting features; but first let's talk about speed. With a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor and 1GB of RAM, the 920 leaves previous Lumia generations in the dust. More importantly though, it's as fast as the Samsung Galaxy S III and HTC One X, at least according to Gizmodo's hands-on report. And unless the rumor mill has been underestimating Apple, it's not unlikely the Lumia 920 will be able to keep up with the iPhone 5 too. All that power requires, well, power, but Nokia assures us the 920's beefy 2,000mAh battery is up to the task.

The Lumia 920's NFC chip and Qi-standard wireless charging support should make for some pretty awesome accessories, and ought to keep the device (foreseeable-)future-proof as mobile payment infrastructures expand and wireless charging becomes more commonplace.

The phone's 4.5-inch screen, which boasts a resolution of 1,280 x 768 pixels, is super responsive in more ways than one. Hands-on reports are reporting no detectable touch latency, and Nokia's Kevin Shields demonstrated the 920 this morning while wearing a pair of fuzzy mittens.

The 8.7-megapixel PureView camera will likely be one of the Lumia 920's top selling-points. Integrated image-stabilization and 1080p video is all well and good (okay, it's awesome), but what got us most excited is the Cinemagraph app, which promises to make it just as easy to waste entire days making your own animated gifs as it's always been to waste entire days looking at gifs.

For the smartphone mortals among us, Nokia has also updated its mid-range Lumia 800. The Lumia 820 looks to be the 920's scrappy younger brother. A slightly smaller (4.3-inch) display with half the pixel-count and no PureView upgrade for the camera are the chief differences, though on the 820 wireless charging becomes an optional feature.

When the time comes to make calls from your Lumia 920 or 820, both phones will support HSPA+ or LTE, presumably depending on carrier availability.

Whether you love the Windows Phone 8 UI or hate it, there's no denying that the current state of the Windows Phone marketplace will probably be the Lumia 820 and 920's main shortcoming. This is the catch-22 of device adoption: developers won't make Windows Phone 8 apps until everybody buys Windows phones; but lots of folks won't buy them until the app selection improves. Preloaded apps like Nokia Maps and Nokia's ESPN app are great; but Apple's App Store and Android's Google Play store will definitely have a leg up for a while.

Can sweet hardware compensate for a limited app market? Let us know in the comments.

Jon Fox is a Seattle hipster who loves polar bears and climbing trees. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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Next-gen consoles coming in “about a year’s time” - EA boss

Microsoft and Sony have yet to officially announce their next-gen consoles, but third-party publishers are already working out their launch gameplans. Speaking to Bloomberg this week, EA Games Label president Frank Gibeau said that when new hardware arrives “in about a year’s time,” his company won’t be making the same technological mistakes seen this generation. 

“It’s a big investment for us this year,” he said. “What you first have to do is start with the technology, the hardware, what’s coming out, and what it does really, really well, and understand what’s going to drive innovation there.” 

Addressing EA’s weak start on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Gibeau said that EA “made a couple of mistakes in how we built our technology,” explicitly noting such defining current-gen features as high-definition graphics and online platforms. He went on to note that for the upcoming generation, EA’s technology approach can be seen in the the Frostbite development engine, which powers such games as Battlefield 3 and Need for Speed: Most Wanted. 

EA is currently prepping three to five new intellectual properties for release on the new hardware within 24 months of their launch. Additional information on these titles was not provided. 

For more on what’s currently known about Sony’s and Microsoft’s next consoles, check out GamesRadar’s PS4 and Next Xbox breakdown.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Gears of War: Judment Free-for-All Mode Unveiled

Microsoft has unveiled a new multiplayer game mode for Gears of War: Judgment: it's called Free-for-All mode.

As the name suggests, the mode promises to throw team tactics out of the window and, in a first for the Gears of War series, it will ask players to take on every other player. It's every COG solider for himself.

Epic games will debut the new mode this week at PAX Prime where a playable version will also be present. Alongside this, two new maps will be on show: Gondola and Library.

The Gondola map promises to take place in a quiet, gated community located only a short gondola ride from the renowned shops and businesses in the prestigious Agora foothills. The Library level, meanwhile, will take place in an archive of important documents surrounding the life, career, and personal interests of Alexiy Desipich.

Gondola

Free for all is the second new multiplayer mode introduced in Gears of War: Judgement. The first is OverRun, the class-based competitive mode that pits Locust and Cog soldiers in a head-to-head battle.

Daniel is IGN's UK Staff Writer. You can be part of the world's worst cult by following him on IGN and Twitter.

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Halo 4 Forward Unto Dawn "Enlistment" trailer released

Following in the footsteps of many of the previous games in the Halo series, Microsoft has introduced a set of live-action trailers and advertisements intended to get players thinking about the men and women behind the uniforms of the UNSC.

http://www.gamesradar.com/halo-4-forward-unto-dawn-enlistment-trailer-released/

We love these types of advertisements. As opposed to many trailers or adverts which try to show you how amazing the gameplay is (also a good approach) or how cool the main character is, these trailers enhance the narrative and help you get emotionally invested in the storyline. They're nearly as important to the Halo universe as some of the established multimedia like the comics or anime. More please. 

Halo 4 is gearing up for release on November 6, 2012. You can check out the rest of our coverage here.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

Happy Wars F2P brawler coming to XBLA, first trailer released

Tokyo-based developer Toylogic announced today that their adorable free-to-play brawler, Happy Wars, will be coming to Xbox Live later this Fall, published by Microsoft Game Studios. This will be one of the first (non-ad-supported) free-to-play games to grace the Xbox 360.

http://www.gamesradar.com/happy-wars-f2p-brawler-coming-xbla-first-trailer-released/

If you ever had any doubts that free-to-play games are destined to make their mark on the console game business, let this serve as a reminder that their arrival is imminent. F2P games have struggled to gain release on the Xbox 360 in the past due to Microsoft's strict regulations and expensive patch requirements, but that appears to be changing. 

Clearly, Happy Wars' utterly adorable soundtrack and cell-shaded graphics warmed up their cold, retail-only hearts. We're just still not sure if this is a good thing.

Source : gamesradar[dot]com

What Do You Think of Microsoft's New Logo?

In preparation for its Windows 8 launch, which is being lauded as one of Microsoft's most important launches of all time, the Redmond-based company has been revamping many of its logos.

Just a few months ago they updated their Windows logo with a clean, crisp san-serif font called Segoe UI, and today they showed off their new Microsoft logo, which follows suit.

The logo contains a slightly bolder version of the same font, but forgoes the bold letters and italics of its predecessors.

There's been plenty of arguments already over the new logo - chiefly whether it's excessively square, beautifully simple, or just plain boring.

Microsoft has uploaded a video showcasing the launch of the new logo.

With Microsoft's new emphasis on rectangularity, like the tiles in the Xbox dashboard, is it certain that the next Xbox will ditch the 360's circular logo in favor of a square one?

You can read more about the logo transformation on Microsoft's blog, but more importantly - what do you think of it? Let us know in the comments.

Nic is the Editor of IGN Tech. He loves technology almost as much as Brand New, Boyz II Men, and TMNT Tournament Fighter. You can follow him on Twitter and IGN.

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How Sony Won Gamescom Before It Even Started

Microsoft should be afraid of Sony. Before the PlayStation publisher’s pre-Gamescom press conference this week, Sony’s foreseeable software future seemed weak. The PlayStation Vita seemed only to have a handful of promising titles for the remainder of 2012 – LittleBigPlanet PS Vita, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, a Call of Duty game we knew next to nothing about, a Persona 4 remake, and a poorly timed Assassin’s Creed tie-in were the PlayStation brand’s best and brightest. But after displaying a strong lineup of exclusive games on both PlayStation platforms, a brilliant new business strategy, and confidence in risky game ideas, Sony’s future couldn’t look better than it does now.

Gamescom will be Sony’s show. This is bad news for Microsoft, who didn’t even bother to show up.

Sony’s Cross Buy announcement undoubtedly earned it a great deal of gamer goodwill. Buying Battle Royale, the new Ratchet & Clank, and Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time on PS3 scores you a free Vita copy. This is an incredible move for Sony. These are three of its most popular and promising titles, and you can play them anywhere, any time, for one price. Cross Buy puts PlayStation fans ahead of the curve, and rewards them for purchasing PS3 games they were likely to buy anyway. It looks amazing on the back of the box, it’s something people will tell their friends about, and it makes a Vita worth owning for every single PlayStation fan. That’s just smart marketing.

“

Cross Buy puts PlayStation fans ahead of the curve

Until Dawn, Rain, and Puppeteer all represent something astounding about Sony’s initiative toward supporting innovative ideas. Following Papo & Yo, Journey, and many other clever concepts, this trio of games look unlike almost anything you’ve played. Each of them certainly has a niche appeal, but Sony’s willing to risk a limited audience if it means putting exclusive, original games on its platforms. Add in the casual mentions of Beyond: Two Souls and The Last of Us during the conference, and you’re looking at a large stack of Sony-only goods. Oh, and let’s not forget Media Molecule’s cute and creative Tear Away, either.

For the first time since I bought it, I want to play my Vita. A quirky indie game like Sound Shapes reassures me that more great stuff is on the way, and Sony really came out of the corner throwing haymakers. I want Black Ops Declassified because it looks like a true Call of Duty game. Killzone Mercenary is the Sony sequel I want most on the platform I’m aching to play.

Before I came to Gamescom, I played my Xbox more than any other platform. That changes the moment I get back to my living room. All of a sudden, the future of gaming in my life is dominated by a platform I traditionally ignored for my Xbox 360. The level of imagination and accessibility in these original, exclusive games is so much more interesting to me than another Halo game. Make no mistake: I’m thrilled about Halo 4, but it’s the one and only Xbox exclusive I plan to play this fall; the only other two exclusives I can think of in the next few months are Gears of War: Judgment and Fable: The Journey – of those, I only have faith and interest in the former.

Microsoft missed a great opportunity at Gamescom to tell the world about why it should care about Xbox 360, Xbox Live, the fall update, and how it all connects to Windows 8. More importantly, maybe, just maybe, it could have given us a game worth thinking about, investing in emotionally, or getting excited to play with on Surface, Windows Phone, Windows Live, or any other gaming platform it may have on the way. I love my Xbox 360 -- I just want as much a reason to play it as I now have for my PlayStation devices.

Gamescom belongs to Sony, as does my heart. This is a brilliant sign of things to come, and it was all done before the show had even begun.

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor for IGN's Xbox 360 team. He’s also quite Canadian. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

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