Friday, October 21, 2011
Glen
Rumors regarding the next generation of consoles have been ramping up lately, and perhaps the biggest yet is a supposed leaked timeline for Microsoft covering the next few years.
Originating at MS Nerd, who have a fair track record with Microsoft rumors, the leaked list seems to indicate that Microsoft plan to announce the Xbox 360's successor, codenamed "loop", at E3 2013, with a launch later that year.Between now and then, the list states that Microsoft will release the commercial Kinect SDK next year, which we have been expecting, as well as an Xbox SDK and the third generation of Kinect games at E3 2012. Following that, the Xbox Store will launch alongside Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8. One unified store, perhaps?
If the rumored list is to be believed, Microsoft will continue to support the current Kinect as well as updating the SDK past the launch of their new system, leading to the unveiling of Kinect 2.0 at E3 2014.
Also of note is "Windows 8 PU" and "Xbox PU" which are said to launch in 2013 and 2014. PU could stand for 'Portable Unit', refering to Windows 8 tablet devices and a new portable with a focus on gaming. Whatever they may be, it's likely part of Microsoft's grand plan to connect the 3 screens together under one unified umbrella -- Windows 8, Windows Phone 8 and Xbox "Loop".
Check out the full timeline below:
CES 2012
Win8 + WinStore beta
<ONM> CTP
Tango1 launch
MWC 2012
Tango2 SDK
MIX 2012
Win8 RC
<ONM> beta
Tango2 launch + Apollo announce
Kinect commercial SDK
E3 2012
Xbox SDK, 3G Kinect games announce
Apollo SDK
Win8 RTM
Aug 2012
Win8, <ONM>, WP8, Xbox Store launch
Build 2012
XAML+XDE platform
Win8 PU DP
<OSN> announce
CES 2013
Win8 PU Beta
MWC 2013
Apollo+1 teaser
MIX 2013
HTML platform (IE11)
Win8 PU RC
<OSN> Beta
Apollo+1 SDK
E3 2013
Xbox”loop” announce
Win8 PU RTM
Build 2013
Win9 DP
<OSN> RTM
Xbox”loop” launch
CES 2014
Win9 Beta
MWC 2014
WPN teaser
MIX 2014
Win9 RC
WPN SDK
Kinect SDK update
E3 2014
Kinect HP2 announce
Xbox PU announce
Build 2014
Win9 RTM (IE12)
Win9M RTM
<OSN+1> CTP
Xbox PU preview
Nov 2014
Win9, Win9M, Kinect HP2 launch
Xbox PU RTW
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