Microsoft Celebrates Xbox 10th Anniversary with Interactive Timeline
As the Xbox turned ten today, Microsoft is celebrating the anniversary with the launch of an interactive timeline showing the platform history. The platform first debuted on March 14, 2002.
The timeline is available on Xbox.com and takes you on your own personal journey from your first Xbox experience through the hardware, software and entertainment launches over the last 10 years.
It commemorates the original console launch through to the controller-free revolution with Kinect, and the host of live TV, music, movie and social media partners on Xbox Live who are helping us change the way people enjoy entertainment in their living rooms.
As seen from the screenshot above, some interesting figures showing that total console sales surpassed 108,000,000. You can access the interactive timeline by visiting this link
The footage you are going to see was created by Heavy Rain developer Quantic Dream. It’s not a pre-rendered cutscene but made entirely in real time. CEO and founder David Cage showcased the studio’s new tech at GDC on the PlayStation 3.
Quantic Dream
Kara Demo was created by the the studio’s new engine and according toEurogamer:
Kara‘s not just the product of new tech and a better understanding of the PlayStation 3’s architecture – she’s also the result of a new approach to motion capture at Quantic Dreams, and an investment in the more sophisticated techniques that have become the norm in Hollywood’s CG industry as the studio moves across to using full-performance capture.
David Cage had this to say about Kara and what they are trying to accomplish,
What we call full-performance capture is shooting the body, the voice and face at the same time. Most studios right now in the game industry use what we call split performance, which means you shoot the face and voice on one side and then you use the body, and not in one take
It works okay – there have been some great games made using this process, and Heavy Rain was done this way. But we felt that if we wanted more emotion, and more performance from the actor we needed to have everything from the same take, and we needed to shoot everything at the same time.
So we invested a lot in our motion capture studio. Heavy Rain was shot with 28 cameras, and we’ve upgraded the studio to 65 cameras. Now we can shoot several actors – their body and their face – at the same time. It’s not a small change, but at the same time this is how Avatar and Tintin were shot, and it’s how the CG industry works because they know how much you gain from shooting face, voice and body at the same time.
Kara voice performed by Valorie Curry. Watch the clip, and tell us what you think:
The teaser you are about to see was spotted by the guys at PlayStationGang, and it’s actually grainy and the sound is somewhat distorted. The quality of the voice acting and the God of War IV logo displayed at the end is a little suspicious so we’d take this with a grain of salt.
However, the teaser opens with a voice can then be heard trying to awaken someone. Watch it below:
“Brother, the phoenix has-been drinking your blood, full of your anger, your strength, and during her rebirth she also has let you in life. Now I ask you: what are you going to do? Would you leave me here in hell? wake up, wake up!” says the voice.
The voice suggests the speaker is Deimos, the ill-fated brother of Kratos. Deimos was taken by Ares as a child after hearing a prophecy about the destruction of Olympus at the hands of a ‘Marked Warrior’, believing him to be the child of prophecy the gods confined him to the Domain of Death.
Evidence of God of War 4 being in development is rumored a lot as it appeared in number of CVs, composers profiles, and listed by some retailers.
The chipset for the XBOX 360 successor, XBOX 720, was put into production earlier this year, and will be going into mass production by the end of 2012 according to a technology news report by Fudzilla.
Recent speculation that the new main System on a Chip (SoC) for the Next Xbox (or Xbox 720, if you like) began production is apparently accurate; the SoC did indeed start production in late December of 2011. Sources tell us that the code name for the chip is Oban, and it is being produced by both IBM and Global Foundries for Microsoft.
ATI 7 Series
The report also goes on to add “the power behind the next Xbox will be a PowerPC CPU that is married to an ATI Southern Islands GPU, or modified 7000 series.â€. This overall boost in power will make the 720 almost 6 times more powerful as it’s predecessor.
The Xbox 720 will probably not be announced at this years E3. But the chances are, it will be in stores by Christmas 2013 onwards. Furthermore developer kits will be distributed later this year, so the public won’t be getting it anytime soon.
The Wii U is still scheduled for release December 2012. However, will Microsoft attach a Blu Ray player onto the new console even if they have to pay royalties to Sony?
