There has been a lot of speculation lately related to the period the three big console makers would begin talking about the development of a new gaming device. Analysts have stated that the current economic situation, paired with the research costs associated with the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, means that the three big manufacturers will not reveal new consoles until at least 2013.

Now, Microsoft's Shane Kim has bluntly stated that “We firmly believe that the Xbox 360 has a life cycle through 2015,” basically announcing to the world that all speculation should cool off for the next three to four years. Sony has made similar statements, talking about a ten-year life time cycle for the PlayStation 3. Nintendo is the only company not putting forward any estimates for the Wii and some even believe that an HD ready version of the console is being worked on.

It's interesting to take a peek behind the motivations for Shane Kim's categorical statement. It was made in relation to Project Natal, the new motion tracking interface that Microsoft unveiled at this year's E3. It came as a surprise, as the implementation is very different from what people have been expecting from Microsoft in terms of fresh technology. Natal has been created using both in-house breakthroughs coming from the Research & Development division of the Redmond-based company and acquired technology from the acquisition of firms like 3DV.

And the software giant is looking at Natal as transforming the nature of the Xbox 360 enough so that it could be considered to be a whole new console. Once it is released, probably in 2010, Natal will enable developers to create other types of games and will make the gaming device feel fresh, some sort of version 1.5 of the Xbox 360. Its lifetime is set not to end before 2015.