Next Xbox Already in Planning

[Rivas]

Microsoft EMEA veep Chris Lewis says the company is already working on its next next-generation console because "we have to".

"You can't sit back on your laurels in this business - the consumer won't let you, the developers certainly won't let us. So that's happening right now," he said.
The research and development practices of the console division are "no different than any other part of Microsoft" though, he insisted.
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Full Story: http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=68767

[uniformbad]

Haha, I knew it. Like every year they come out with a new version of a console. Pretty soon Xbox 720 or XPP (Xbox Portable Player). Technology is moving TOO fast. Money wastes - all the new games come out on the newest version of the console. You hardly see any games coming out on nintendo gamecube anymore.

[Jim]

Haha, I knew it. Like every year they come out with a new version of a console. Pretty soon Xbox 720 or XPP (Xbox Portable Player). Technology is moving TOO fast. Money wastes - all the new games come out on the newest version of the console. You hardly see any games coming out on nintendo gamecube anymore.
I'm still surprised at how few people realize this, but research and development for many products takes years. Honda doesn't start designing their 2008 Accord in a couple of months, it was drafted many years ago, with the first prototypes also having a couple of years of road time by this point. Even if they aren't at the local dealership yet, they've already sent hundreds of thousands of them down the assembly line at this point. I wouldn't be shocked if the 2012 prototypes are already hitting the pavement somewhere.

By the point in time that the 360, PS3, or any game system has already hit store shelves, someone is already working on its successor. This isn't some sort of "*hrk hrk* i new it ms iz guna replaese there sistem in 2 yaers gredy basterdslololz", it's just the nature of the technology business. The 360 will have a longer lifespan than the first XBOX, if for no other reason than the fact that Microsoft already has their foot in the door in the US console industry. One of the main goals of the original XBOX wasn't to "win" any sort of console war, but be seen as a viable contender, as opposed to the joke they were when they first announced it. After all, who could possibly challenge the mighty Sony (or Nintendo, or Atari, etc.).

And the Game Cube is dead. That has pretty much been the case since Nintendo shifted most of their first party games from that system to their new one.