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Are next-gen console rumours true?
Fri, 8th Feb 2013
FYI, this story is more than a year old

I hate to keep on saying it, but even more next-generation rumours are being heralded as “true” by, well, people who believe rumours.

Usually accurate edge-online.com is reporting Microsoft’s next-generation console will be always online, have no second-hand games, will utilise 50 GB blu-ray discs and will feature in-built Kinect functions.

These facts come from “sources with first-hand experience of Microsoft’s next generation console”.

Sources have also confirmed the current rumoured Xbox specs – “an AMD eight-core x64 1.6GHz CPU, a D3D11.x 800MHz graphics solution and 8GB of DDR3 RAM.”

The report also makes the claim that “unlike Nintendo, Microsoft is continuing to invest heavily in motion-control interfaces, and a new, more reliably responsive Kinect will also ship alongside the next Xbox.”

Whether or not you place faith in this information is your call, however the thing I most doubt is the second-hand games suggestion.

It seems unlikely Microsoft would lock themselves out of what is a large draw-card for console gaming.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s other big rival Sony is also in headlines today as a Japanese newspaper has reported the apparent cost of the PS4.

Asahi, an established newspaper, reports the next Playstation console will cost upwards of 40,000 yen, a figure equal to around $428 USD and approximately 317 euro; in real-people money, that’s around $510 NZD.

Bear in mind most of the time prices in other territories don’t translate perfectly – games on the Playstation Network, for example, never do.

A game that costs $15 USD can and often does cost more like $28 NZD, despite the exchange rate dictating it should be worth $18 NZD. Confused? Me too. In any case, the 40,000 yen price is most likely wild speculation than anything else.

Believe these rumours? Let us know in the comments below, or give us your own speculations – odds are, they’ll be just as accurate.