The next Xbox is likely going to make a big push to adopt cloud gaming across all of its platforms.  What this could mean is the end of saving games, even game purchases, your physical hard drive.

Instead, what Microsoft could opt to do is to allow your Xbox Live account to sync up with your own cloud, similar to what they have already started to do with game saves on the Xbox 360.

This is going to allow Microsoft to do a few key things.  The first thing that it is going to allow Microsoft to do, is to push the fact that when you purchase a digital download such as an Xbox Live Arcade game on Xbox Live, you will have access to it no matter which Xbox console you log into.

The next fact is that this could also help push sales of not only Windows 8 PCs, but the Microsoft Surface tablet, which Microsoft is weighing a lot on in terms of their future plans.

With Xbox Live games in the cloud, what gamers would have the power to do is to enjoy games on the Surface, or any other Windows 8 platform without having to download games all over again on each machine.

This will create an environment allowing gamers to ditch requiring a physical hard drive with the game download to allow the gamer to play them.

The Xbox 360 created an environment where gamers needed a hard drive in order to download games.  The next Xbox will still need a hard drive in some form to handle game installs and things of that nature, but putting Xbox Live Arcade games up in the cloud may be a better option for Microsoft to help use the power of Xbox Live to grow its platforms.

The original Xbox had a successful run out of the gate because of one game and one game alone, and that game was Halo.

Halo was the game that made the Xbox brand, it was the Microsoft version of Mario, Crash Bandicoot, Sly Cooper, Kratos, and those other fantastic first-party characters that have defined gaming for years now.

Without Halo at launch on the original Xbox, the system would have had a much harder time garnering any ground in terms of performing alongside the juggernaut that was the Sony PlayStation 2, and even the Nintendo GameCube for that matter.

Halo has been an absolute beast for Microsoft with the hardcore gaming crowd.  The series has grossed over $3 billion for Microsoft with its various iterations, with Halo 4 raking in over $200 million in one day when it launched.

So now Microsoft is gearing up for the release of the next-generation Xbox 720, the successor to the Xbox 360.  They are going to be releasing during virtually the same time as Sony with their PlayStation 4, at most eight weeks apart by all accounts as of now.  This sparks the question of just how much Microsoft needs Master Chief himself.

If Microsoft released the next-generation Xbox with largely third-party support in the form of a new Call of Duty, Battlefield, Need for Speed, your typical range of sports games from Electronic Arts, and so on, they are going to find themselves at a major disadvantage.

When the Xbox 360 launched, Microsoft had a year advantage on Sony, they did not have to go head-to-head with them.  This allowed them to released with third-party support, plus average first-partye exclusives such as Perfect Dark Zero.

This year is going to be very different though, as Sony is reportedly clearing the deck and could launch day and date with a new God of War, Uncharted, Killzone, or any other exclusives they have in their arsenal.

When you think about Microsoft, their big gun is Halo, and they really have no other major franchise that is quite as popular or can create as much of a stir in terms of notariety.

The next-generation Xbox launches in November 2013, and if Microsoft does not have a new Halo or a re-make of an old Halo with next-generation visuals, they may have a very difficult time going toe to toe with the PlayStation 4, and that is just the reality of what Microsoft is going up against.

The original Kinect launched on the Xbox 360 as an add-on peripheral a few years ago, and brought with it a lot of critical praise.  Games like Dance Central and Kinect Sports enjoyed a lot of success on the console.  The fact of the matter though is that the piece of hardware never really took off in terms of full-blown mainstream success.  Much of this was due to the fact that since the entire Xbox 360 user base did not own a Kinect, developers were hesitant to put a lot of resources into the technology.

That is going to change with the next-generation Xbox, as Microsoft is expected to ship every next-generation Xbox with a brand new improved version of the Kinect.  This means that everyone who owns the next Xbox is also going to own the new Kinect, making the installed user base exactly the same.

With that said, if Microsoft is going to spend the extra money to make sure a Kinect is packed in with every next-generation Xbox, you know they are going to work hard to make first and third-party developers create software for the console.

Microsoft is making it pretty clear that they are betting big on this new next-generation Kinect technology, so much that it is likely going to be a focal point of the new Xbox when it is released.

We see this as a major risk on the part of Microsoft.  By placing so much weight on this peripheral, you may end up with a situation similar to what Nintendo went through with the Wii, where third-parties are releasing a lot of junk games just to have gamers paying $40 or $60 on a bunch of mini-games thrown together.

On top of that, hardcore gaming experiences may force gamers to make use of the Kinect when at the end of the day, they may just want a more hardcore gaming experience without this addition.

Microsoft is going to have to walk a fine line with the next Xbox and the Kinect, to the point where they strike a good balance between pleasing the hardcore gamers, as well as potentially attracting more casual gamers than they did with the Xbox 360.

When the original Xbox released, the controller that shipped with the console was laughed at by many in the gaming industry.  The controller was extremely large, far too big for someone of younger age or with smaller hands to hold comfortably.

This plagued the system from launch day, and was a hinderance until Microsoft finally swapped out the large, clunky controller with the Xbox S Type controller.  This was an admission on the part of Microosft that their original controller was inadequate.

Then came the Xbox 360, which provided us with a tweaked version of the S Type controller, moving the start and select buttons to the middle, and adding the Xbox Home button, among other additions.

Now, with the next-generation Xbox getting ready to be unveiled, the questions are now popping up in terms of how much Microsoft should even bother tweaking the new controller for the console.

We have seen Sony stick with similar types of controllers for multiple generations of consoles, the Dual Shock has been around since the original Sony PlayStation.

With the next-generation Xbox though, Microsoft is surely going to tweak the next Xbox controller, but by how much?

One idea that is being actively thrown around is replacing the Xbox Home button with a touch-screen.  This touch-screen could service as the same function as the home button, but could also do more.  The touch-screen could display messages received from friends, game invitations, your friends list, and so on.

Although we do not believe that the touch-screen would really add any value to games, it would remove the Xbox Live pop-ups from your gaming screen, and put them down on your controller.

The other addition that could be likely here is the addition of a built-in microphone into the controller.  This would take basically the Siri-like functions from the Kinect and put them into the controller.  The idea being that you could input Xbox Live chat text with your voice, control your console, and so on.  This could even expand to in-game chat, starting to do away with headsets.

Only time will tell what Microsoft does with the next-generation Xbox controller, do they keep it he same, tweak it, and so on?

What do you think gamers, how much, if any should Microsoft tweak the new pad?

Back when the original Xbox was on the gaming scene, games were releasing at a standard price tag of $50 each.  Things are changing in a big way though in terms of just how much money it costs companies to develop these games.

The cost to develop a blockbuster release such as Halo, Call of Duty, and others is right up there with the cost to produce one of the biggest Hollywood blockbusters out there, perhaps even more in some cases.

With the increasing development costs associated with working with this incredibly powerful technology, the belief among many is that the cost of next-generation games is going to increase yet again.

The next-generation Xbox will likely feature games at a price tag of either $65 or $70 depending on what market research shows gamers are willing to pay.

We will stress that this has yet to be confirmed by anyone within Microsoft, but all expectations are that the majority of games will release at one of those two price points.

The hefty development costs come in due to the fact that big companies need to develop new gaming engines to build the games off of.  If developers use engines from prior consoles generations such as an Xbox 360 engine, then they will not be taking full advantage of the power of the console.

We are going to see an increase in development costs with the transition to next-generation consoles, but there is no telling just how much this is going to impact the price of games.

If companies do opt to stick to the $60 price tag for games, then it is going to likely mean a huge influx of downloadable content and add-ons that you can purchase online over Xbox Live, far more than we are currently seeing.

So what do you think gamers, how much are you willing to pay for a next-generation game?  Would you be comfortable paying $70 for the next Halo or Call of Duty on the next-generation Xbox?

The next-generation Xbox is fully expected to launch this coming Fall, most likely with a launch around the middle of November, just in time for the holiday shopping season to fully kick into gear.

With that said, it is also expected that with this type of timing, that there will also be a brand new Call of Duty game ready to once again rock the holiday shopping season.

Activision CEO and CFO Dennis Durkin has come out and has confirmed that there is a brand new Call of Duty in development, and that it will be released in Q4 2013.

This is no surprise to any gamers out there, but what was not confirmed was that what consoles the next-generation Call of Duty would be released on.

If you remember back to the launch of the Xbox 360, Call of Duty 2 launched day and date with the console, and was utilized to really show off what the console was able to accomplish from a visual perspective.

All signs as of right now are pointing towards Activision releasing the game on the original Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, but also releasing it in next-generation form on the Xbox 720 and Sony PlayStation 4, with improved graphics and likely some added game modes.

The next Call of Duty release is expected to be none other than Call of Duty Modern Warfare 4, and we would be shocked if Activision did not release the game on all of the consoles.

We would not be surprised in the slightest if the game hit the Xbox 360 and Sony PS3 in October 2013, only to then be released again on the next-generation Xbox and PlayStation with the improved visuals.

The Call of Duty franchise is a cash cow, and there is very little chance that Activision would allow a holiday shopping season to go by without releasing the game on every home console possible.  Even the Nintendo Wii U, with its extremely limited install base, got a Call of Duty game at launch, so we almost guarantee you will see it on the next-generation Xbox on launch day.

The success of the GameStop stock is tied to the gaming industry in a major way, there is no doubt about that.

This is exactly why when a rumor was released earlier today surrounding the next-generation Xbox, the successor to the Xbox 720, the stock dipped in a big way.

The rumors involved the idea that Microsoft is reportedly looking at getting rid of the ability to play used games on its successor to the Xbox 360.  This would mean that GameStop would not be able to buy or sell any used games for the next-generation Microsoft console.  This would, in turn, take a huge chunk of business away from GameStop.

GameStop had a stock price that peaked today at $25.23.  When the news about the successor to the Xbox 360 was released though, the stock price immediately dipped 10% in early morning hours trading.

As the stock market typically goes, the stock did bounce back after that initial dip due to the fact that those traders saw an opportunity to buy back into GameStop at a cheaper price.

Once some of the turbulence subsided though, you began to see that overall, GameStop was going to take a hit here in terms of their stock price once everything settled down.

The news that the Xbox 720 may not be able to play used games caused the GameStop stock to decrease by 6% overall by the end of the trading day.  This is a fairly significant dip for one day for the stock price for GameStop.

In the event that Microsoft actually goes the route of not allowing gamers to play used games on their next-generation Xbox console, the stock price is only going to dip further.

The GameStop stock has a 52 week high of $28.35 and a 52 week low of $15.32.  With the success of the company so reliant on used games though, owners of the stock are surely going to be awaiting official word from Microsoft.

The new details come courtesy of Edge who have cited a “reliable” source who is working very closely with the successor to the Xbox 360 and its overall development.

We have to preface this information by stating that these are nothing more than rumors at this point.  Nothing has been confirmed from Microsoft or anyone else that we have as sources inside of Microsoft.

We still want to report on what Edge has stated though from their sources as it is very interesting information.

According to the source, Microsoft is going to require the Xbox 720 to have an active Internet connection in order to function.  It is going to be an always-on system that is going to be fully integrated with an online operating system.

The next rumor is that the system is going to have software that is actually going to prevent users from playing used games on their consoles.  What this means is that when you place a disc in your console, it is going to have a unique identifier that is going to be tied to that console.  The game from that point forward will not be able to be played on any other console.

These are some very big rumors for a few major reasons.  Talking about the Internet requirements, you have to consider that if you need a connection at all times, you may not even be able to play a single player game somewhere where you do not have Internet.

On top of that, without the ability to play used games, gone are the days of being able to buy games used from sources such as GameStop or eBay.  This also means that you are not going to be able to share games, use services such as GameFly, and so on.

We are going to have to wait and see if these rumors and news end up being confirmed or completely shot down.  Only time will tell, but hopefully Microsoft begins to release some new information prior to E3 in June.

Source: Edge

Grand Theft Auto V was originally due to release this coming May on the Xbox 360 as well as the Sony PlayStation 3.

The Grand Theft Auto developers though announced today that the game is going to be delayed by roughly four months.  The official release date for Grand Theft Auto V is now set for September 17, 2013.

This is not a huge delay by any stretch of the imagination, but what is it for?  According to Rockstar, the delay was necessary due to the complexity of the game and just how deep it is truly going to be.

Rockstar has always been known to release some tremenedous games in terms of quality and polish, and no one expects Grand Theft Auto V to be any different.

Still though, one has to wonder if the delay is necessary in order for Rockstar to perhaps think about the possibility of porting Grand Theft Auto V over to the successor to the Xbox 360, the next Xbox.

Rockstar may be considering putting work in to port the game over to the next Xbox to perhaps beef up the visuals a bit and try and capitalize on the releases of the next-generation consoles from both Sony and Microsoft.

None of this is confirmed to this point, but it does seem a bit strange that Rockstar would delay Grand Theft Auto V by four months to a time where they are going to have to compete with far more high-profile releases than they otherwise would have if they had launched in May as they planned originally.

When you think about the way in which gamers are currently playing games today, the fact of the matter is that many of them are playing on-the-go.  Gaming on devices such as an iPhone, or a Google Android tablet are far more common than ever before.

We have seen these smartphones and tablets such as the iPad take a huge chunk of business away from the portable gaming giant in Nintendo with the Nintendo 3DS not living up to the expectations of the big N.

So now with the next Xbox ready to be unleashed, Microsoft will also be competing with these platforms which offer gamers gaming experiences for as little as 99 cents or even free for many titles.

One thing which many gamers are overlooking though is the fact that with the Surface tablet as well as the next Xbox, there is a real possibility that you will be able to play a lot of your next Xbox games completely remotely.

Microsoft is building an ecosystem for its software and the software of third-party developed.  The unification and availability of Xbox Live Arcade games on both the Surface and the next Xbox are more than likely.  On top of that, it would not surprise us one bit if some of the next Xbox games could actually be loaded up and played completely remotely, over Wi-Fi, from the next Xbox to the Surface.

This could open up a slew of possibilities for gaming on-the-go for gamers, perhaps utilizing the Surface to be utilized as even a display, with the next Xbox controller hooking up to the Surface via Bluetooth.

There are many different possibilities when you think about how the Surface and how the next Xbox can interact.  One thing that you can rest assured on though is that Microsoft is certainly going to leverage the popularity of the Xbox brand to help grow Surface sales, and this could create some unique gaming experiences.