Xbox 720 ‘to employ always-on DRM’

Microsoft’s next generation games console will employ an always-on internet connection to safeguard it from piracy, a new report claims.

News site VG247 believes the system is due for release Christmas 2013 – a claim in line with what Develop’s sources have said on the matter – and will play game media through Blu-ray.

The claims remain unverified. Microsoft was not available for comment at the time of going to press, though has in the past declined to discuss speculation.

It is not known whether the alleged always-on internet connection will be used to curb second-hand game sales.

Further speculation within the VG247 article suggests the system will inhabit two GPU cards, both said to be the equivalent of AMD’s 7000 series.

“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,” the report added.

The machine will work with “four or six” processor cores, it is alleged, of which one is reserved for Kinect which “will be built into the device as standard”.

A wave of studios, from Lionhead to Bethesda, Crytek and Remedy, are currently hiring for “next generation” projects.