Xbox 720 release date, news and rumours

The Xbox 720 is the internet's name for Microsoft's new Xbox console.

While gossip surrounding this gaming machine has been churning around inside the rumour mill for a good few years now, we're only weeks away from learning some cold, hard facts.

We fully expect the Xbox 720 to launch in time for Christmas 2013. We know that Sony is launching the PS4 in at least one territory in time for 'Holiday 2013' and Microsoft will surely want to make sure it doesn't give away a head start.

There are also very strong rumours that Microsoft will reveal the new Xbox at an event in May.

Xbox 720 release date

Many industry experts predicted that we'd finally get some hard Xbox 720 info at GDC this year but Microsoft confirmed to TechRadar that this isdefinitely not the case.

Instead, we can probably expect a bespoke event in April/May this year and then a full roster of launch excitement at E3 in June.

All indications are that the next Xbox will arrive in time for Christmas 2013. Microsoft briefly stated that the new Xbox is imminent in an interview with the Verge before swiftly backtracking and issuing a moderately embarrassing denial.

This is further backed up by a Microsoft job advert which confirms a new Xbox launch is imminent.

Further rumours of an Xbox 720 release date of pre-Christmas 2013 was backed up at the end of November 2012 by a Bloomberg report which cites sources at Microsoft and says we are likely to see the Xbox 720 make its debut at E3 2013.

But then! In January, a report from Game Informer suggested that we'd actually see Microsoft bust out an all-singing all-dancing event to launch the Xbox 720 around Game Developers Conference in March.

Why no E3 reveal? Because Microsoft wanted to make a splash away from the noise of the mega-show. Unfortunately, the report indicated that Sony had the same idea for the PS4...

Xbox 720 specs

If the Xbox 720 is to be as popular and last as long as the Xbox 360 – without the frankly appalling hardware failures which blighted its early days – it's going to need some reliable and powerful components.

From what we can tell, the Xbox 720 will come packing very similar specifications to the already-announced PS4. However, it is rumoured strongly that the Xbox 720 will come with reduced graphics potency.

The Xbox 720's CPU will be an AMD Jaguar-based CPU clocked at 1.6GHz - possibly very similar to that of the PS4, possibly identical in every way. That would certainly be a boost for game developers as it would make cross-platform development much easier than it is currently.

Graphics-wise, rumours suggest that the console will contain a revision of AMD's 7000 series graphics, which is based on its 28nm Graphics Core Next (GCN) Southern Islands tech.

The PS4 graphics are provided by a bespoke AMD chip from this family somewhere along the lines of a Radeon 7850 card with 18 GCN processing clusters, each with 64 cores.

It is thought that the Xbox 720 will have just 12 processing clusters which could well mean that Microsoft is using a version of the (rumoured/forthcoming) AMD Radeon 7790 chip. That means less power and cheaper bits, basically, but it's not all doom and gloom.

The PS4 comes packing 8GB of unified GDDR5 memory which combines system and graphics memory for super-fast gaming. But the Xbox 720 is rumoured to contain 8GB of general system memory and separate graphics memory.

That means that the Xbox 720 might not be as potent a gaming rig as the PS4, but will be more efficient at other tasks, making the Xbox better and faster outside of gaming environments.

That certainly tallies with some gaming devs who say the Xbox 720 is a lot less about gaming than the PS4 is.

Xbox 720 price

That leaked document mentions a $299 (£190) price point which sounds gloriously ambitious. Expect the Xbox 720 price to be a bit more than that but assuming the PS4 launches around the same time, expect some competitive pricing.

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