Next-gen Xbox to be unveiled at May 21 event

Microsoft will unveil the next-gen Xbox on May 21, according to Paul Thurrott of What The Tech fame. The event was originally planned to be held in April, but the date seems to have been pushed back.

It was speculated that the next-gen Xbox would be revealed at an event in April because of Eventcore registering the URL www.xboxevent.com . Eventcore has earlier aided Microsoft in events like E3 2012.

Some details on the next Xbox were revealed back in March through some leaked documentation. The highlights of the Durango include a low-power mode, a low latency controller with “improved ergonomics”, a Blu-ray drive, and only digital out on the console.

Interestingly, the console will be ready instantly when users want to play and will always maintain a network connection so that console software and games are always current.

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The console will also need a Kinect to stay connected all the time. A Kinect will be bundled with the console and the motion controller will have a wider field of view, better tracking and no motors. Thanks to the Blu-ray drive, games will have to be installed on the HDD. The console will not be able to stream data from the optical disc. It will have a system that will allow gamers to begin playing while the game is being installed to the HDD rather than having to wait till the installation is complete.

While we wait for the event, check out this other concept for the next Xbox

We had a lot of drama recently because of tweets from Microsoft’s Adam Orth about the always-online requirement. In the tweets, Orth said just because some things aren’t completely reliable, they shouldn’t be unused. He used some analogies for this. “The mobile reception in the area I live in is spotty and unreliable. I will not buy a mobile phone,” says one tweet. Another says “Sometimes the electricity goes out. I will not purchase a vacuum cleaner.”

Orth tweets, “I want every device to be ‘always on’.” He follows up on this by saying that, “Those people should definitely get with the times and get the internet. It’s awesome.”

The tweets sparked a furore on Reddit, Twitter and most of the social network space, and in light of the controversy, Microsoft had to issue a statement apologising for Orth’s tweets. Microsoft’s Major Nelson said, “We apologise for the inappropriate comments made by an employee on Twitter yesterday. This person is not a spokesperson for Microsoft, and his personal views do not reflect the customer centric approach we take to our products or how we would communicate directly with our loyal consumers. We are very sorry if this offended anyone, however we have not made any announcements about our product roadmap, and have no further comment on this matter.”

We contacted a Microsoft representative about the possibility of requiring a constant internet connection to play games on the next-gen Xbox, but the answer was a simple, “No comment.”