According to VG247, there is a new update on this whole next-generation XBOX story that suggest some extreme measures will be put in place to combat piracy in the future console. In addition to that the XBOX 720 will come with a Blu-ray player and Kinect and one of their sources says “It’s like two PCs taped together.” It was reported last week that the PS4 was on it’s way and that there is even a codename going around, so it is obvious that both of the console giants are preparing for the next generation.

Confirmation on the actual hardware is yet to be confirmed, but VG247 suggest some pretty interesting stuff and you can read that below.

We’re waiting for final confirmation of specs, but the graphics cards are thought to be equivalent to AMD’s 7000 series GPUs, but “not CrossFire or SLI”. The GPUs aren’t structured as they are in a normal dual PC set-up, in which the two chips take it in turns to draw lines of the same object: Xbox 720′s graphics units will be able to work independently, drawing separate items simultaneously.

In these situations we always post these on the rumor bag, which means that we’ll have to wait and see what happens. VG247′s sources suggest that this future XBOX 720 or Durango will be available around the holiday season of 2013. As always be sure to continue checking with us as more details emerge. For the latest  coverage on the the future of XBOX be sure to check out our official XBOX 720 coverage page.

[VG247]

Instead of posting these rumors as they are fresh, we decided to analyze things and then go from there. It is obvious that Microsoft is working on a successor to the XBOX 360, but many of you have probably asked yourselves is when is it coming out? and how powerful the will the console be?

In the video below, IGN reports of the Durango.

To answer those questions we would like to go back on a tip that we received a while back and then go on to the rumors that have been going around. In the tip that we received a couple of weeks back our tipster gave us some details that were hard to believe and this is the reason that we didn’t post it. Being that there have been new reports that connect with what our tipster had to say, we felt it was only fair for you to know.

In the email that we received our tipster told us that this new XBOX will move out of the whole numbers thing and that it would have a name. He didn’t mention the name, but Kotaku reported about two months ago that the new XBOX will be codenamed “Durango”. This does confirm what our tipster had to say, but again it’s just a tip.

If you are expecting to see this new console in action you will probably be disappointed to know that according to our sources the console will not be seen at the E3 2012. This doesn’t mean that it wont be announced at the expo it just means that very little information will be shared by the people over at Microsoft. When it comes to release date and the console specs well that information is unknown as of now, but our sources tell us that 2013 to 2014 will likely to be the release years.

Then of course there’s that Tweet coming from Sean Tracy (@Cry_Sean1) over at Crytek, which all of the sudden ended up deleted and now you can’t even find his Twitter account.

Of course you should always continue to check with us as more details emerge on this. Be sure to check us out on Twitter as well as on Facebook.

Valve has recently been talking about the idea of getting into the hardware business, but it may not be all talk after all.  According to sources from The Verge, the respected developer behind Half-Life 2, Portal and the acclaimed digital distribution platform Steam, is making a video game console.

The “Steam Box,” as it’s being called, will be able to run PC games and gaming services like Steam’s rival Origin. The console’s basic specs reportedly include a Core i7 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and an NVIDIA GPU.

“Part of the goal of establishing a baseline for hardware,” The Verge reports, “is that it will give developers a clear life cycle for their products, with changes possibly coming every three to four years.”

No devkit or licensing fee would be required for video game developers looking to bring their games to the Steam Box. Also, different manufacturers would be allowed to make the console.

Additionally, the Steam Box will utilize Steam’s already-revealed “Big Picture” mode, and the console itself may be shipped with a modifiable controller in which parts could swapped out for different games. Reinforcing the existence of such a controller is this patent Valve submitted last year, notes The Verge, who adds that the controller, or even some other Steam Box peripheral like a bracelet, could make use of biometrics.

During meetings at CES, a version of the Steam Box was purportedly demoed to “potential partners,” and the console could be revealed either at this year’s GDC or E3.

There appears to be some technical problems with the newly-released PlayStation Vita in Japan.

As Shacknews and Kotaku report, some users of Sony’s gaming handheld, which went on sale in Japan on Saturday, are experiencing freezing issues and unresponsive touchscreens. Others reportedly can’t even boot up their Vitas, while one owner apparently has a stained screen.

Some of the freezing issues reportedly occur when installing a system update or when playing games like Dynasty Warriors Next (Shin Sangoku Musou Next). Sony’s Vita help page advises to hold down the power button to resolve this.

It’s uncertain how widespread these issues are, or if they’re simply due to user error, but hopefully there won’t be any problems when the Vita launches in the West on February 2012.

[Unedited pic]

The weekend has been crazy in deals and for those looking for a bargain we have for you the official Twisted Junk deal finds that covers Black Friday & Cyber Monday. These expire really soon, so take advantage of them as you will probably not see them until next year. We are going to start with the Steam sale, which has a few specials that end today and continue on to other places that have gaming and tech deals that might tickle your fancy.

Steam Sale

• Worms Reloaded  for only $6.79 – GO
• Get a copy of Limbo for only $2.49 – GO
• Payday: The Heist for only $9.99 – GO
• Tom Clancy: Conviction for $6.24 – GO
• Kane & Lynch Franchise sale very low – GO
• Get a copy of Rage for only $29.99 – GO

We don’t like to start rumors and this is certainly not what we are about, but the year is nearly over and 2011 is almost here, which means that new things are coming for gamers. Now I have been busy playing Black Ops, Little Big Planet 2 beta and simply enjoying the holidays with family to put this up, but we have many predictions of what is expected next year. In the upcoming year you find many new games for the Playstation 3, XBOX 360, Nintendo Wii and the PC and we at least want to link you guys back to our predictions before they become a reality. This is a first for us to predict what happens in the future and these predictions are simply speculation on our part, but through insider information we can sort of tell what is coming next year for the gaming industry as well as technology in general.

So, let’s get started!

Uncharted 4
The folks at Naughty Dog and Sony are probably going to start bringing the Uncharted series every year or at least every two years. With Uncharted 3 coming out late 2011 you may hear of rumors that there will be a Part 4 of the Uncharted Series. Our prediction is not going to come from Sony or Naughty Dog, but it will probably be leaked by someone that works there.

Tropico 4: Expansion [PC Games]
If you enjoyed Tropico 3 and simply want more of that city building that you will play once the game comes out you probably should know that Tropico 4  might have an expansion that will probably add new features to the game. In Tropico 3 you saw it happen with Absolute Power and chances are that you will see news of the expansion by the end of 2011.

Google TV is going to kill Cable!
Watching TV is changing and this is a great time to see how the web is going to modify the way we are entertained. With Google TV you are going to see TV shows directly from their suppliers as well as a Hulu, Amazon and Netflix connections. Google TV is going to become less expensive and people are likely to start using it even more and this revolution has already started with Roku, which will probably get bought out by Google. Google TV is also bundled with many new televisions and it will be a huge trend as they are pretty much making it easy for TV makers to include Google TV with their televisions.

The PSP 2 might fail
In case you didn’t know, the Playstation Portable 2 is probably something you will hear about soon. The technology will be amazing, but the problem is that with Android and iPhones taking over the mobile gaming market, the PSP 2 will probably not do as well unless it is a phone that comes with the Android market. It will have it’s challenges selling  because the will probably be really expensive, so unless Sony decides to sell it at competitive prices the new PSP will probably be a bad decision.

A Nintendo Phone!
Nintendo is probably going bring out a new handheld that the kids could get, which will probably have a calling feature. Being that the good folks over at Nintendo have tried just about everything the question here is why not?. The problem with phones is that companies tend to buy sell the exclusive rights to companies similar to what Apple did with the iPhone, which is killing it because only at&t customers can have it. If Nintendo is to be successful with a phone they have to make it available to all major carriers.

True Crime: Hong Kong
For fans of Grand Theft Auto IV and all these sandbox style games with cars in them there is True Crime: Hong Kong. What will probably make this game huge is that for one thing it looks great and it is the second next generation game of it’s genre that is based on a city outside the United States. This True Crime has a new developer and the awesome part of this is that if you are a fan of GTA you will probably be happy to know that some of the people that have worked on GTA are working on this game as well as some of the people that worked on Saints Row. This will probably make it an awesome game as it will be influenced by experts of that genre and because of this we predict that it will be a huge success.

The Playstation Move will fail
For 2011 we see the Sony’s motion controller, Playstation Move as a hardware that will probably fail. We can’t say that we blame Sony, being that they tried their best, but the PS Move is simply not selling and the ones that did sell are probably collecting dust. The problem with the technology is that for one thing it’s really expensive and people that have a Nintendo Wii are not going to buy it, because they kind of already have it with the Wii. The Playstation move may do better in 2012, but for 2011 things look bad.

A new Medal of Honor Game
Close sources to us have revealed that Electronic Arts has already started working on the next installment of the Medal of Honor series. MOH was a huge game back in the day and although it sucked especially the multiplayer aspect of it, this time we can expect that EA is doing a better job with Medal of Honor 2 or whatever they plan to cal it.

Information on a New Grand Theft Auto game for this generation
It is no doubt that Rockstar Games has to release some information or at least some screenshots of their next installment of Grand Theft Auto. In our our prediction, we expect that Grand theft Auto will be a game based around the future of San Andreas. This means that you will probably see San Fiero, Los Santos and finally Las Ventura in a 2011 or 2012 version, which means new cars and many other cool things. San Fiero will be interesting as it is based on San Francisco, which means hybrids like the Karen Dilettante. To see the new Casinos will be interesting in Las Ventura as well as today’s Los Santos, which is based of Los Angeles, Ca.

News about a New Red Dead Redemption 2
Undead Nightmares was great as an expansion, but Rockstar Games said it themselves and they want to stop depending on only Grand Theft Auto as a franchise. That and other information leads us to believe that there will be news about Red Dead Redemption 2 in 2012. That news will probably not be coming from Rockstar, but it may come from someone leaking this information.