Echoing Nintendo president Saturo Iwata’s claims earlier this week that the traditional ‘four year console life cycle’ may be a thing of the past, Microsoft’s chief financial officer Mindy Mount has stated that the Xbox 360 will be around for far longer than its predecessor.

Reuters reports that Mount told a BMO Capital Markets conference: "Look at the PS2. They've gone long-time and seem to have pretty good legs on what they are doing. If we were able to do that, as CFO I think that's great, because every year you draw it out you increase profitability.”

Mount went on to add that whilst modern technologies such as high definition mean there are lots of opportunities for the current next-gen machines to tap into emerging markets, there are no such similar advances on the horizon that necessitate a speedy move to a new generation of consoles:

"At this point from the technological perspective, there are some real advances that make it worth having a next-generation console. Right now there aren't that many things on the horizon that you think ‘wow, that's going to be a game-changer’."

Microsoft abandoned support of its first games console, the Xbox, four years after release.