More rumors have surfaced about the Xbox 720–which isn’t actually the official name. It could end up being the real name, but more than likely it will end up as a nick name for the console at the most.
One rumor is that the Kinect based IllumiRoom feature, which was officially announced without release date by Microsoft, promises to expand your screen. Sadly there isn’t much more to the IllumiRoom other than pure rumor and speculation.
Since there’s so little known about the IllumiRoom and the Xbox 720, it’s possible there will be a reveal in April, along with another major Microsoft announcement / release.
Of course, this is wild speculation and you’re better off asking barnyard animals for more definite facts at this time–but for now rumors seem to suggest that March, April, and this year’s “holiday season” are going to be very, very important.
Now for what I know about this. If you wander over to IGN, you’ll see a video. Watch that video, but don’t hope for much. I don’t know if it’s the genre of game with which they chose to display this feature, but it’s pretty jarring and not at all immersive in my opinion.
Sure, having the screen expanded so you can have a more realistic range of vision in game is nice but seeing everything 8 feet to your right and to you left is kind of funky to me. Also, if you’re going to show that you can see a little of the floor (like you can in real life) in the game, it would be better not to show where your character’s arms stop rendering. The video looks bad to me, but the idea sounds cool. I really hope Microsoft makes a lot more progress with the IllumiRoom than we see in the video, because to me, the video shows a gimmick that’s sure to bring down one of the more amazing aspects of the Kinect rather than take advantage of and enhance.
Image from geeky-gadgets.com
