No new Xbox for at least another 3 years?
That’s what one might understand when hearing what Mindy Mount, chief financial officer for Microsoft’s entertainment and device division, had to say at a BMO Capital Markets Conference.
The Microsoft executive spoke about rival’s Sony strategy with the PS2 and its ongoing success: “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.”
This statement leads us to believe that Microsoft is rethinking its strategy regarding console lifespan. So far, Bill Gates’ empire chose to pull the plug on the original Xbox after just four years, only to get a one year advantage in the next generation consoles war, maybe now, after seeing Sony’s announced “ten year lifecycle” plan for the PS2 and PS3 they’re thinking about changing their approach.
Referring to technological advancement in the video-game systems industry, Mindy Mount had this to say: “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.” This statement also makes us believe Microsoft is not thinking of dumping the 360 until 2010 at the earliest, when the typical 5 year console lifecycle ends.
microsoft will be forced to release their next console in 3 years at the latest. by then it will be more than apparent the inability of the 360 to compete with ps3. sony will not need to release another new console until 2015 at the earliest. ps3 is a sleeping giant that is only beginning to awaken. games for ps3 are currently only tapping into about %20 of its power while 360 is running at close to %90. watch and see. 360 is a good system today but lacks the room to grow. the reason many developers were having trouble coding for ps3 is a new architecture designed with the concept of growth and expansion in mind. expect sony to hit its stride in 4 or 5 years. at this time, we see little difference between the 2 systems except for 360 having a better library of games since its been around twice as long. expect to see improvements every few months and soon it will become obvious to all.
Comment by ed | January 14, 2008