Microsoft will drop a megaton bomb at E3? Well.....

I'm making the prediction right now, MS will announce an updated X1 console. This console will come equipped with a 2TB HD, 16 GB RAM, 4 GB HBM memory, a modified Radeon Fury nano and a CPU with roughly double the performance. The price point will be $499.99.

This will launch later this year with a new Gears game and a super version of Quantum Break and you will need either a high end PC or this upgraded X1 to max them out @ 1080p. Of course if you want to keep your existing X1 then you can still play these games but at low to med settings and 720p.

The cool thing is even if you decide to just buy it for the X1 version, the same game will work for the upgraded X1 if you upgrade in the future only with modified graphics. Also, when you buy those games, you will get the PC version for free. So for example you decide to get the new Gears for the X1. Well then you will get that game plus the PC version for free. Then when you upgrade to the X1 in the future, you can not only play that Gears but your updated X1 will auto detect and you can max the graphics. :o

lol...

First off, even if it were true, price will easily be over $5,000.

Secondly, this would piss off all Xbox loyalists and make them switch to the PS bandwagon. Microsoft should be fighting to keep every last fanboy they have, because they have no one else besides diehard fanboys like CrapGamer and MisterXMedia.

Third, SONY can easily counter Microsoft's console with their own custom-designed hardware by the genius Mark Cerny, who single-handedly outsmarted Microsoft's entire engineering team. I guarantee you, if MS decides to play hardball, SONY will outengineer them 10000000000x harder than they did with the PS4. I'm talking about 200 petaflop performance CPU + GPU at only a $600 price point while Microsoft would need to sell consoles at $5 million each to reach that performance.

Not happening

Also Sony mentioned the possibility of hardware upgrades way before Microsoft did. The Xbox news is just getting more traction because it came from Phil Spencer. I don't think it will happen any time soon, but if it does it is not something that Sony is not prepared for. They have a counter for anything Xbox does.

Game. Set. Match.

Since we are predicting stuff that will obviously be true:

GTA VI will be announced at E3 as a NX exclusive staring Mario and Star Fox.

Is that you MisterXMedia?

I don't think MS is interested in losing more money

Worst buying decisions ever

Sony would be helpless against this since they're pouring what little cash and resources they have into their crappy VR gimmick which is going to bomb hard

The only people Mark Cerny has ever outsmarted were Sony's own dumbass fanbase, then again a wet paper napkin could outsmart the Playstation fanbase so that's not much of an accomplishment.

Xbox mini will probably be a thing this year.

This whole idea is far fetched in my opinion but the idea that Sony can answer a move like this and sell the console cheaper than MS is absolutely living in denial of financial facts about these companies. Sony (SNE) has a market cap of 31.04B. MSFT has a market cap of 419.75B. Now as I started I certainly do not believe MS will do this thing TC is suggesting. But if one company could afford this move it is not Sony who are loving the revenue from the PS4 that is helping dig them out of the debt hole the company is in. MSFT is not in debt as a company. Sony doesn't want to lay out the billions it would take to do something like this in their current state, and frankly I don't believe MS do either, even though they could spend the money easier.

Princess peach is a meth head prostitute.

@cainetao11: Neither company is about to put out a product that loses money. It should be quite obvious to everyone by now that Xbox does not have access to Microsoft's "warchest". At this point Sony is likely spending a lot more on gaming than Microsoft is so overall wealth of two entities is not much of advantage for Xbox at all.

Digital only Xbox one.

I kind of understood the whole upgrade system as a way to future proof future consoles.

Gears of War 4 is 1080p on X1

That's only if you buy the upgraded X1.

While I'm not sure Microsoft will be the ones to do this, I don't think this idea is as crazy as people think.

We've had patents from Nintendo for an SCD (Supplemental Computing Device), which effectively acts as an upgrade for a console.

This honestly to me seems like an interesting idea. Rather than releasing a brand new console every 5-6 years, instead you release a new model of the current one, and alongside it an SCD to allow people who owned the original to update their systems without having to pay full price again.

In fact, I think this might be the next necessary step honestly, and we could even be looking at a future where actual new consoles will no longer be a thing.
I mean it makes sense, people always want their consoles to be backwards compatible (even if it's rarely used), doing this would mean the library of games just stays with them forever. It also means we'd no long have to wait over 3 years after consoles launches for big games to finally start coming to them.

Consoles are already so PC-like, it just makes sense that this would be the next step.

Will m$ finally gonna use all their gazillions of dollars lems are talking about for gaming? We've been waiting since last gen,

And just like the past three E3s the only bombs being dropped will be from everyone collectively shitting themselves in laughter.

what upgraded X1?

Microsoft hasn't had a bomb do damage in many years.

The fury nano itself is like 600$

That sure is a mega bomb that will blow in their face if they do it.

@razik: They already said Gears 4 campaign will be 1080p/30fps. MP will be 60fps, bit they did not state a resolution.

Microsoft drops Megatons every year. They have a fleet of B-52s.

16GB of ram WTF for? Radeon Fury Nano paired with a CPU roughly double in performance to the XBO Jaguar? For what to see it bottleneck to hell and beyond.?

Some people can't build a system even if they had a complete computer part store at their feet.

All that is conjecture. Xbox is not a separate entity from Microsofts funds as neither are Sony's camera or insurance divisions. I believe I said quite clearly I do not believe MS would do this sort of thing but the bottom line of this is IF one company COULD, MS could much easier than Sony. Denying that simple fact of financials of these companies is as absurd as TC's prediction to begin with.

I'm predicting the lamest E3 ever for MS. They'll talk about cross platform, cross play, cross buy. It's going to be a mess.

@FoxbatAlpha: Megaton flops you mean. The last flop was Floplo 5 and the one before that was Titanflop.

You are talking about IF, while I am talking what they are actually doing. IF Microsoft was going to going crazy and try spend their way to domination they would have done it by now. I'm not denying their financial superiority...I'm saying hasn't helped then beat Sony and probably never will.

Why aren't they dropping the Xbox One to $199 and buying their way back into competition? Because companies want to make money on investment no matter how they have.

And you are replying to me about WOULD when I answered someone about COULD because that poster made a point about which company could do this move with Xbox needing to charge more for the console than Sony if it happened. If one company is digging itself out of a financial hole and the other is flush in the black it's quite obvious which could do it. You're trying to make this into an argument I never posed.

I don't see what they can even announce at this point. They barely have any studios and the ones they do have are stuck working on 1 franchise each and 3rd parties won't be giving them anymore timed exclusives.

Who wants to bet it turns out to be not a mega ton announcement.

That's the thing. They won't announce much when it comes to new games. It'll be all about the new universal platform and how current and old games will be a part of it. Then they'll show new footage of games already in production.

The problem with your asinine argument is that Microsoft (And every company worth billions of dollars) is run by people who value money over fanboy wars.

Do you really think Microsoft is going to spend $70 billion on a small, very insignificant division because they want to feel superior to SONY? Get real. The Xbox division probably has an annual budget no bigger than $25 million a year.

In any big company with multiple divisions, each division is treated as a separate business. If it's not performing up to snuff, then the division gets canned. The only advantage having a parent company gives you is no debt from capital borrowing (Since you are using the parent company's cash to operate). Aside from that, you are assigned a budget based on your performance and get canned if you're a loss-maker (Recent studio closures ring a bell?).

Right now, Microsoft has been subsidizing Xbox losses, because they believed that the division would eventually become extremely profitable once they knock-out SONY and become the defacto name in gaming. This is becoming less and less believable among both executives and investors, and the possibility of MS leaving the console market is increasing by the year. SONY has learned their lesson with the PS3 and a reasonable man would bet that SONY won't be making the same mistake EVER, denying MS the chance of making in-roads in SONY's turf like they did last gen.

Contrary to current cow beliefs, I don't think Xbox ONE will be Microsoft's last console. Microsoft will try 1 last time to win the market next gen, but that will only happen if SONY screws up like they did with the PS3. If SONY doesn't mess up with the PS5, which they probably won't, then the next xbox won't do any better than the current xbox and that is when Microsoft will call it quits.

Even their cash cow Xbox LIVE seems to be hurting. Microsoft opening up their network to competitor networks is proof that there weren't that many players on Xbox LIVE and they are worried the remaining players will leave to more populated networks. A friend of mine who owns the Xbox ONE keeps complaining that it takes forever to find matches because hardly anyone is on Xbox LIVE anymore.

Furthermore, I sincerely doubt the overinflated 20 million current sales estimate from VGChartz. I suspect Xbone sales to be closer to 15 million. This isn't fanboy wars. This is just business.

Lol, sounds awesome!

Better yet: XboxOS can now be run on any PC and can play any and all Xbox One games.

Imagine the fallout of a move like that...

This 100%. They're going to push unification between their platforms similar to Apple's products.

They're going big into the XBox app. They'll show some DX 12 stuff. Maybe announce/show off a game running on DX 12 looking and performing well.

That and some of the usual E3 guff.

Now go back and read your first post. Asinine? Stating MS would have to charge more for this ridiculous theoretic mid gen console upgrade than Sony when financially they could take the capital loss easier than Sony. You ask do I really think MS would do this? Are you retarded or just haven't retained a word I have posted? I have repeatedly said I don't believe they would do this.

Microsoft engineers aren't as smart as SONY engineers. That doesn't even include Mark Cerny, whose genius rivals Newton and Einstein. It would take them 10000000000x the amount of money to make a console half as strong as SONY if SONY isn't trying hard.

The current Xbone cost over $9 billion in R&D while SONY only spent $1 million in R&D. That's a $9,000 to $1 ratio.

If it isn't a publishing deal to bring Portal 3, Left 4 Dead 3, Team Fortress 3 and Half-Life 3 as console exclusives on X1/W10 & Steam, then it won't be big enough to be a Megaton.

I predict Halo 6 will be shown and it'll be release in 2017. It have to since they have nothing but Gears and Halo. Sad but it's truth. They probably won't even be exclusive.

2015 Halo 5

2016 Gears 4

2017 Halo 6

2018 Gears 5

Really man lol? I don't think so....

My more realistic expectations of Microsoft at E3 are for them to announce a new IP and another awesome collection of games releasing later this year (like Halo MCC and Rare Replay).

@notafanboy: Okey doke your off in space now. Say hi to L. Ron Hubbard

Not going to happen. They are still focusing on updates for halo 5 if you follow the community blog and they will probably focus a bit on halo 5 still and definitely halo wars 2 at E3. There may be a tiny sneak peek into what's next for the halo universe at E3, but I expect they will save that for the E3 after E32016 or sometime before then.

@FoxbatAlpha: remember when backwards compatibility was going to convince everyone with a 360 to get a bone?

Teh megatunz.

Quantum Break looks miles ahead of any other console game ever made. They don't need to make such a drastic change. I expect an Xbox Slim, slim to minimal chance of being upgradeable.

Kinect 3.0