Microsoft claim ownership of leaked Xbox 720 document

Earlier this week a leaked presentation of what reportedly detailed Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox 720 console leaked online. Though two years old, it was full of juicy details of what may lie in store for gamers in the near future. Now Microsoft have claimed ownership of the document, asking websites to take down the offending files, seemingly verifying that the document did indeed reveal pertinent information about their next gen plans.

The leaked PDF file named “IEB Roadmap” is now being removed from hosting sites all over the net, including being removed from Dropbox folders containing it. The Czech website Ihned.cz received the following notice from Microsoft:

“Microsoft has received information that the domain listed above, which appears to be on servers under your control, is offering unlicensed copies of, or is engaged in other unauthorized activities relating to copyrighted works published by Microsoft.”

So what’s in the document? For starters, a release date. The document lists that the Xbox 720 will land in late 2013. In terms of features, it’d be six times more powerful than the Xbox 360, with a Blu-ray drive and an improved Kinect sensor that can track four players at once and work better in smaller rooms. We’d be fine with a Kinect sensor that tracks just one player properly…

Most interesting is the mention of augmented reality glasses, called Fortaleza glasses, for ever-more immersive gameplay.

However, the document is showing its age in a few places. Firstly, the prediction that the “Wii 2” (since revealed as the Wii U) will cost just “$249” seems to show Microsoft at the time of the documents writing were not aware of the expensive-looking tablet controller. There’s still a chance that the Wii U will land at a comparably affordable price, but that seems a bit of a stretch now. Likewise, the prediction that a next-gen Sony console would make use of Google TV seems unlikely considering how poorly received the technology has been.

Still, the document did mention an Xbox Smartglass like dual-screen feature. Seeing as a near-identical feature is now coming to the Xbox 360, lets not rule out anything listed here.