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Boss of Microsoft Games Studios Shane Kim has
that Microsoft is confident the Xbox 360 will have a seven-year lifespan.
That would mean the console continuing to thrive until 2012 – seven years after its first launch at Christmas 2005.
Speaking at the Microsoft spring media summit in San Francisco, Kim said it was the plan from the beginning that the 360 had a "long tail".
"We said from the beginning that we expect the Xbox 360 to have a long tail," he said. "Clearly we didn’t do that with the original Xbox, which was a strategic decision we made. Admittedly, we don’t have any experience doing this, but we’re pretty confident 360 will have a long tail."
Kim added that Microsoft would continue to modify the 360’s hardware in that time.
"You’re going to continue to see technical innovation, it might be additional capabilities to the current format – but honestly we haven’t made those kind of decisions yet,” he said.
"As far as technical limitations? We’re not seeing those. I think there’s the potential for more multi-disc titles, we’ve already shipped a few of those already. But I don’t think this is so drastic that people will start saying that Microsoft missed a trick with not using Blu-ray. I just don’t believe that.
"What we’ve been able to see with the vast majority of titles on Xbox 360, is the range of experiences that haven’t been restricted with the lack of a hard drive and a larger capacity disc."
