Linkedin Ad Wants Designer to Build Next Xbox '720'
Someone To 'build The Next Generation Of Premium Xbox Entertainment Hardware'
More hints at the next Xbox 360 iteration have arrived. A LinkedIn job ad is seeking 'Industrial Designer, Senior-IEB-Entertainment Experience Group (EXG) (741921) Job'. Doesn't sound like much, until you look at the requirements and department.
Says the advert, "The Industrial Design team in the Entertainment & Devices division offers an extraordinary opportunity for a highly motivated and skilled individual to help us build the next generation of premium Xbox Entertainment Hardware Experiences for Microsoft. If you have a passion for games, hardware, software, and services, and want to help challenge conventional thinking and take the entertainment industry into the future, then we want you."
Those are our italics.
The Primary Responsibilities items are also interesting:
"You will be joining a centralized design group overseeing the end to end design of Xbox hardware and accessories programs...
"This position will contribute towards strategic vision and establish the industrial design direction Xbox Hardware and Accessories including the integration of cross discipline design and scenario development. The ability to deeply understand user behavior and complex technical considerations and propose and deliver simple and elegant designs is critical."
This complements other items of info that have cropped up such as the piece from ZDNet, which posted the video you can see at the bottom of this story relating to the working concepts from the Microsoft Windows Gaming Group and its plans for unified gaming across PC and Xbox 360.[/b]
First up, the video:
According to the Xboxresource site, it is apparently a "concept video has been uploaded recently showing some ideas which Microsoft hopes to bring to gaming experiences on Xbox Live , Windows Mobile and Games for Windows Live.
In the video you will see various ideas put into visual format such as Avatars interacting with such games as Farmville and Bejewelled - tying in heavily to social networks. The caption of the video reads:
Why an internal video - albeit one that looks genuine - ends up on Youtube is fascinating in itself.
Now, the Xbox '720' news.
ZDNet says that it's found a screenshot on the Web portfolio of a chap called Ben Peterson. Now, ZDNet doesn't know who this guy is, and neither do we.
The shot of two black rectangles is captioned:
"Confidential / Collaboration with Microsoft's IEB design group investigating future user experiences and hardware for 2015. *Work samples only permissible in person.* (March 2011)"
So, not too confidential then.
This hasn't stopped ZDNet's Stephen Chapman from speculating:
"We can glean from the noted March 2011 date above that this is a completely new project just getting underway. As for the black devices we see, obviously he did not want to disclose more than a huge tease. The top half looks like a stand of some sort with something attached to the top if it while the bottom half looks like a zoomed-in section of a Kinect-shaped device, but that’s merely guess work on my behalf, of course.
"The main question currently burning in my mind is if Microsoft is simply aiming to utilize the Xbox 360 platform in 2015 and just keep introducing new devices, or if they’re going to go big and release a whole new console with a game-changing user experience accompanying it. Personally, I’m thinking the latter. One reason I say this is because 2015 is 4 years away. That would put the Xbox 360 at almost 10 years on the market. I can’t see the Xbox 360 platform lasting beyond another 4 years."
Drawing a long bow leaps to mind.
Says the advert, "The Industrial Design team in the Entertainment & Devices division offers an extraordinary opportunity for a highly motivated and skilled individual to help us build the next generation of premium Xbox Entertainment Hardware Experiences for Microsoft. If you have a passion for games, hardware, software, and services, and want to help challenge conventional thinking and take the entertainment industry into the future, then we want you."
Those are our italics.
The Primary Responsibilities items are also interesting:
"You will be joining a centralized design group overseeing the end to end design of Xbox hardware and accessories programs...
"This position will contribute towards strategic vision and establish the industrial design direction Xbox Hardware and Accessories including the integration of cross discipline design and scenario development. The ability to deeply understand user behavior and complex technical considerations and propose and deliver simple and elegant designs is critical."
This complements other items of info that have cropped up such as the piece from ZDNet, which posted the video you can see at the bottom of this story relating to the working concepts from the Microsoft Windows Gaming Group and its plans for unified gaming across PC and Xbox 360.[/b]
First up, the video:
According to the Xboxresource site, it is apparently a "concept video has been uploaded recently showing some ideas which Microsoft hopes to bring to gaming experiences on Xbox Live , Windows Mobile and Games for Windows Live.
In the video you will see various ideas put into visual format such as Avatars interacting with such games as Farmville and Bejewelled - tying in heavily to social networks. The caption of the video reads:
This is an internal Microsoft team video showing concepts and principles of what the WGX (Windows Gaming Experience) team hopes to accomplish. Ubiquity of games on Windows, on Xbox, and on their mobile platform is what we see as a goal here.
"Why an internal video - albeit one that looks genuine - ends up on Youtube is fascinating in itself.
Now, the Xbox '720' news.
ZDNet says that it's found a screenshot on the Web portfolio of a chap called Ben Peterson. Now, ZDNet doesn't know who this guy is, and neither do we.
The shot of two black rectangles is captioned:
"Confidential / Collaboration with Microsoft's IEB design group investigating future user experiences and hardware for 2015. *Work samples only permissible in person.* (March 2011)"
So, not too confidential then.
This hasn't stopped ZDNet's Stephen Chapman from speculating:
"We can glean from the noted March 2011 date above that this is a completely new project just getting underway. As for the black devices we see, obviously he did not want to disclose more than a huge tease. The top half looks like a stand of some sort with something attached to the top if it while the bottom half looks like a zoomed-in section of a Kinect-shaped device, but that’s merely guess work on my behalf, of course.
"The main question currently burning in my mind is if Microsoft is simply aiming to utilize the Xbox 360 platform in 2015 and just keep introducing new devices, or if they’re going to go big and release a whole new console with a game-changing user experience accompanying it. Personally, I’m thinking the latter. One reason I say this is because 2015 is 4 years away. That would put the Xbox 360 at almost 10 years on the market. I can’t see the Xbox 360 platform lasting beyond another 4 years."
Drawing a long bow leaps to mind.
Companies:
Microsoft
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