Xbox Focus - Clarity Awaits You

Microsoft: Xbox 360 to have a "long tail"

by Steve Wysowski May 14th 2008 7:44 PM EDT1 Comments

Despite the numerous rumors that have been floating about, Microsoft confirmed yesterday that there will definitely not be a new Xbox coming out in 2009 in any shape or form. Just one day after that, they have now responded to some unanswered questions pertaining to the length of the Xbox 360's life span (sadly, it is not immortal).

Speaking at the Microsoft spring media summit in San Francisco, Kim Shane, Microsoft Game Studios' head honcho, said it was the plan from the beginning that the 360 would have a "long tail" (we can only assume that means "long lifespan" in English).

"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."

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When questioned further about such things as the lack of an HD-format disc reader (*cough* we want Blu-Ray *cough*) and the 360's techinical limitations, Kim responded with a rather vague answer:

"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.

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."

Really? So you don't think it was a mistake to side with the losing side of the HD-war? Interesting; is Microsoft even going to show a bit of humility? He continued on:

"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.""

Well, not yet Mr. Kim. There is still some time to run out of room (four and 1/2 years as you put it). Developers are jamming more and more content into single discs with no sign of slowing down, and it would be pretty naive to say that they won't run into storage problems by the end of this generation. Plus, a new and improved version of Xbox 360 would definitely be welcomed if it came without the RROD problems and the extrememly loud noises the current Xbox 360 model produces. Oh well, this could just be Microsoft hiding their plans for corporate reasons, but there seems to be a sense of honesty from Kim here. Perhaps there won't be any radical changes coming to the Xbox 360 for a long, long, time after all. Make with that as you please.

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