by Steven Musil
The new Xbox will be in production by the end of this year and arrive in late October or early November 2013, sources close to the project tell IGN. The new game console--often referred to as Xbox 720--will be based on Advanced Micro Devices' 6000 series graphics processor, with support for DirectX11, 1080p HD, multi-display output, and 3D.
The new processor, which was unveiled late last year, will give the new Xbox six times the processing power of Xbox 360 and 20 percent greater performance than Nintendo's forthcoming console, the Wii U, sources said.
In October, the game developer Web site Develop pegged the launch of the next console for 2013, something a source on the Xbox team confirmed.
Microsoft released the Xbox 360 in late 2005, and rumors about when a new console would arrive--and what capabilities it would feature--have been rampant in recent months. Xbox fans' appetites were whetted by word last month that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had granted the software giant a patent for an "integrated gaming and media experience," in which content could be recorded on a game console.
