Touchscreen Tablet Controller Planned for Next Xbox?

Rumour has it that the next Xbox will have a touchscreen tablet controller not all that dissimilar to the Nintendo Wii U's controller, which also has a touchscreen embedded in its chassis with the sticks and buttons relegated to the controller's edges.

Xbox World Magazine [via NeoGAF] has heard on the grapevine that Microsoft is experimenting with a far sleeker version of the Wii U-style controller, with an HD touchscreen surrounded by your analogue sticks and face buttons, with triggers presumably still on the back.

According to the report from "sources", the screen will adapt to content, so it'll be a remote for your television, it'll be an internet browser and it'll be a menu screen or portable interface display with extra buttons. It'll even make you a cup of tea (or not).

In other next-gen news, Epic's VP Mark Rein revealed that the developer has Unreal Engine 4 running on "systems we can't name yet". Xbox 720/Loop/whatever? Maybe. And as ever, rumours are still abound that the next Xbox will be releasing in 2013. Still nothing is concrete yet, so it could all be a load of old balls. We'll see.

[Via Eurogamer]