Microsoft's Xbox 720 to "block" used games, GameStop stock drops

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The upcoming Xbox 720 may block used games, news that has many gamers frustrated. “It is believed that games purchased on disc will ship with activation codes, and will have no value beyond the initial user,” Edge reported. The report prompted a sharp fall in shares of GameStop, a used-games retail giant. The used game resale market is huge, as many gamers trade in their finished games and opt for used titles rather than paying full price.

Sources close to development of Microsoft’s next generation console told Edge Online that although the next Xbox will be "always online," physical games will still be made available on 50GB-capacity Blu-ray discs. Microsoft is switching to Blu-ray following its unsuccessful backing of the HD-DVD format.

A Microsoft representative offered no comment. “We do not comment on rumors or speculation,” the spokesman said. “We are always thinking about what is next for our platform, but we don’t have anything further to share at this time.”

Microsoft is expected to unveil the new Xbox at the E3 video games show in June. 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.

Microsoft's new Xbox may also beat Apple TV to the voice-command punch; Techcrunch reports that the Xbox 720 will also feature Siri-style language input. New voice options may include a command for waking the Xbox up, being able to ask Xbox what games friends are currently playing and even telling it to pick up playing a movie where it was last left off. The 720 may also feature a system that can use Kinect to detect people in the room and offer up multiplayer game suggestions.