Xbox 360′s successor to have Siri-like voice control feature

Fresh Xbox 720 rumours indicate that the successor to Xbox 360 has made it compulsory for the user to keep internet connection functioning every time the user plays and registers games to their account, so as to block out second hand gaming option. The Xbox 720 rumours also suggest the inclusion of a voice control feature similar to Apple’s Siri. The rumours reported by Edge, a video games magazine, also say that the Xbox 720 could be sold on a physical media and also would include a Blu-Ray drive, although the main source is likely to be an online store, allowing for more flexible pricing.

If the latest Xbox rumours are true, the second hand gaming market which in Britain was worth £90m to retailers in the fourth quarter of 2011, would experience a lull. Edge also reported that the Xbox 720 will ship with an advanced version of Microsoft’s groundbreaking Kinect motion controller and an AMD eight-core x64 1.6GHz CPU.

Popular voice activated personal assistants like Siri and Google Now require a connection to the cloud, where the voice recognition and processing is actually performed. Next Xbox games will be manufactured on 50GB-capacity Blu-ray discs, Microsoft having conceded defeat to Sony following its ill-fated backing of the HD-DVD format. It is believed that games purchased on disc will ship with activation codes, and will have no value beyond the initial user.

Earlier rumours on the Xbox 720 indicated the inclusion of communication technology of Skype in place of Xbox live chat. Xbox 720 is likely to feature AMD eight-core x64 1.6GHz CPU, a D3D11.x 800MHz graphics solution and 8GB of DDR3 RAM.

The latest round of Xbox 720 rumours come in addition to the earlier ones which imply that Microsoft is expected to unveil the Xbox 720 at the E3 video games show in June after Lawrence Hryb, the director of programming for Xbox Live, posted a timer on his blog counting down to the event.