The Xbox 720 or How Next-Gen Could be Defined by Sound

Posted 5 months ago By Vince - Vincent Deshaies

So, Nintendo’s Wii U has arrived, but the new generation of gaming won’t truly be upon us until all of its competitors arrive on the market with their new systems. That’s when we’ll see a real shift in the industry as big games will get attracted by the gravitational pull of the new machines. Will better graphics be enough, though? Do people in the general public really want new consoles or are they content with what they currently have? For the first time in recent memory, this question seems to get asked a lot by people around the industry. Many even go as far as making ridiculous predictions about how gaming could be doomed, others say the long current-gen cycle is hurting the industry. It’s hard not to see some truth in all of that, though. In the past, graphical advancements were enough to push everyone to buy new systems, but how much farther can we go with this mentality? When is the technology of our consoles gonna be enough for most people? With that in mind, I started thinking about what meaningful innovations manufacturers could put into their next-gen consoles to truly wow everyone.

Sure, more raw power is going to be needed, and new ways to interact with our games are pretty much expected (and sometimes unwanted) in new systems, but what if there was still one technical innovation that was possible? Last time around, HD visuals were the biggest reason why one would buy an Xbox 360 or PS3, but how many of these people who own HDTVs also own 5.1 surround sound systems? Sure, the most hardcore people out there already have these, but many still don’t or simply don’t have the space to get equipped, that’s why directional sound could be the next big leap in gaming technology.

According to recent rumors that came out of Xbox World’s penultimate issue, the next Xbox could use directional sound to offer immersive sound experiences to people who don’t have advanced sound systems in their home. In short, the technology allows the console to output high quality surround sound directly into your ears without the need for headphones. That means you could sit down on the couch, turn up the volume and immerse yourself into a game without having to wake up your neighbors, since you’d be the only person who could hear it! How cool is that?

Not only could directional sound be an impressive technological advancement for next-gen consoles, but it could also be used to improve gameplay in meaningful ways, even possibly introducing new ways of playing with other people locally, as the console could send audio to specific people in the room, while others wouldn’t be able to hear the same thing. Does this new evolution seem interesting to you? Sound off in the comments!

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