We all know that Microsoft is pushing a combined ecosystem with their move into Windows 8. This is something that has both good and bad parts to it (we have covered the bad at length so we will not go into too much detail here). On the good side there is the interoperability that may want from their collection of devices. People really do want the same experience on their mobile products (tablets, phones etc.) as they have on their desktop. Both Apple and Microsoft have been working towards this, but as of right now it looks like Microsoft will get there first with an operating system that has a similar look and feel across multiple platforms. So far Microsoft has shown us Windows for x86 and ARM along with Windows for phones. All three of these use the MreoUI so that they have the same feel across the platforms. In Microsoft’s mind they are giving what about 67% of people reported they wanted; the same experience across all platforms. There is still one part of the eco system that we have not seen yet though; the Xbox.
Although Microsoft has commented on the interoperability of the Xbox with the new Windows 8 platform we have yet to really see this in action. Microsoft has been building on this though by showing off their Surface tablet and, of course, smart glass. Still we are talking about hardware that is several years old at this point. Microsoft has to have something in the works by now to replace the again Xbox360 console. We do know that some Microsoft documents leaked out that showed a startling new console that integrated with something that appeared to be Smart Glass and that also incorporated voice command, 3D gaming (and other augmented reality games) along with an improved form of the Kinect. The question is; is any of this real and if so when will we see it?
Then there was a rumor that Microsoft had bought up a bunch of domain names (Xbox8.us, etc). However, upon further inspection none of the domain names are actually registered by Microsoft they all appear to have been registered by the same person(s) though (cheng juan) who is a resident of China. From what we have seen before Microsoft usually registers their domains through MarkMonitor or CSC Corporate Domains, INC. But back in May Microsoft filed a complaint against Cheng and recently won the rights to the domains (although they have yet to have been transferred. What is odd is that Microsoft has not filed a complaint against the owner of Xbox8 yet.
Cheng had more than just the Xbox8 domains though. He also had registered XboxLiveTV and a few others. This could mean that the Xbox8 names are secondary to getting the others out of that group. We suspect that Microsoft wanted one or two of these but thought that grabbing the whole lot would work just as well. Does this mean that the next Xbox console will not be named Xbox 8? Well we cannot tell that just yet. Microsoft could still file a complaint against the owner of Xbox8.com, but we really think that if they wanted it they would have filed it with the others. What we do think is that they want names like XboxLiveTV, XboxMusic and others with a similar theme and not the Xbox8 name in particular.
Thanks to Robby who sent this one in.
Discuss this in our Forum
