A Microsoft business document purportedly showing the company's road map to the Xbox 720 has leaked on Scribd, spilling the beans on the next-gen console's pricing, hardware and release date.
If the 56-page document is to be believed, the Xbox 720 will drop in 2013, priced at US$300 – in response to "new threats from Apple (AppleTV) and Google (Google TV)."
The document features a placeholder design for the Xbox 720 that's thinner and more squared-off than the Xbox 360 – looking somewhat like a Blu-ray player. That slimline frame will serve up a Blu-ray drive, a Kinect V2 sensor with 4-player tracking and an improved camera, along with a new Xbox Live dashboard. Core titles are expected to include new Halo, Fable and Gears of War games. They'll be "4x 6x" better than current-gen titles, the document claims.
According to the document, Microsoft is developing AR glasses, similar to Google's Project Glass and codenamed "Fortaleza" – which you'll be able to use to play AR games on the Xbox 720.
Now, it's worth taking the document with a pinch of salt – it apparently dates back to 2010, so even if it's authentic, Microsoft's plans may have changed since then. Details of its contents first appeared in early May on Nukezilla. Microsoft's lawyers had the original Scribd leak taken down – which suggests it contains at least a grain of truth. GameInformer has it to view here, if you want to make up your own mind. Leak or fake? Whichever, it's certainly an interesting read.
