samedi 31 mars 2012

Sony and Microsoft's Next Consoles: PS3 Successor "Orbis" & Xbox "Lite"

By Fausto Mendez


Sony and Microsoft are working on their next console releases, and you may be stunned about some of the things we've learned. Sony's project, that the company internally calls the Orbis, is more generally known as the PlayStation 4, and it will feature tight, feature-rich incorporation with the PS Vita, claims gaming blog Kotaku. We believe Sony may use its conventional naming scheme, but the company may give it its own, original name. Microsoft's project, the other hand, isn't targeted on next-gen hardware. Taking a bite from Apple and Nintendo, the company aims for a more casual approach to gaming with a console some are calling the Xbox "Lite".

Firstly, Sony's inheritor to the PlayStation 3 continues the more complicated, in-depth style of gaming that made the platform so damn successful. Expect powerful hardware and all that jazz. What has us intrigued about recent developments is that the next PlayStation is known as Orbis internally at Sony, which may be related to the term "orbis vita" or "the circle of life". Does the PS Vita signal the end of life of the PlayStation name? Will Sony's console take on a completely different name?

We do not know, but we wouldn't be surprised either way. There's a fair chance the name won't affect sales at that point (you know, so long as Sony doesn't mess up its video-game empire).

Next up, the Xbox "Lite" is Microsoft's secret plot to take over your lounge or bedroom (wherever you watch Television, basically). Priced and built to battle the Nintendo Wii U and the Apple TV at the very same time, this composite console/media-center set-top box will allow casual game players to enjoy Nintendo-like Kinect titles cheaply. Users may also purchase, lease or stream music, TV episodes, flicks and other media through Microsoft's own stores and maybe third-party services like Netflix and Hulu Plus.

This is a bold move on Microsoft's part, there is however obviously a consumer demand for an iTunes-like experience in the TV room. And Microsoft is watching Apple run away with the whole money pie as Sony messes up its advantage of owning music, flick and game studios that produce excellent content that can be sold through digital-media stores. Even Apple doesn't have that advantage.

Hopefully, for Sony's sake, it can leverage its deep reach into industries that Apple and Microsoft don't touch. But now that Apple's the largest company in the world , it may buy flick, music and game studios, so that advantage may not last particularly long.




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