There's a very tough war going on starring the top console manufacturers, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, the main weapons being statements, offers, and mocking the features of rival products. While fighting, the three have often neglected focusing on a pretty important aspect of consoles - their life span.

While Nintendo has reinforced its confidence in the Wii, as it said that only when new ideas in terms of entertainment appeared, a new console would be developed by the Japanese company, other gaming device manufacturers didn't tackle this subject.

This was true up until now, as Microsoft's Chris Lewis, the VP of the Interactive Entertainment Business for the company, has addressed the issue. According to him, due to the new features and improvements made by console producers, customers should expect a very long life span for this current generation of gaming devices, even longer than the previous one. He added that things such as the recently launched New Xbox Experience exemplify the trust manufacturers have in their products.

“When you look at NXE, that is a complete revision of the interface and the look and feel and every aspect of the system. So if you think of that scalability and the opportunity to enhance and develop what we do with this platform, then I think it’s very, very possible - and indeed appropriate - that this generation will be longer. But we’re not specific about when that will happen, and we don’t have a particular timeline that we share right now. But as I said, there’s a lot more still to come.”

This lot more may be hinting at the statement the UK boss of the entertainment division of Microsoft, Stephen McGill, made, revealing that users needed to prepare for some pretty big surprises from the North American company during the next year. While these surprises may come in the form of games, new features for the NXE might also be in state, as the film sharing option, which allows you and up to seven of your friends to see a movie, is under development by Microsoft.

Let's just hope that customers will benefit from this generation of consoles, and that new products won't appear too soon.