If Nvidia is not the best producer of video cards for the PC, it is certainly the most popular. Most games carry the “The way it's meant to be played” catch phrase and are pretty much optimized for this particular chipset. But consoles run on a different track, so it's no wonder they have different insides. Both the Xbox 360 and the Wii are working on ATI components and even if games look a lot better on the PC, we'll just pretend this is a coincidence and has nothing to do with the actual GPU. Still, Microsoft seems to be satisfied enough with what ATI has been supplying that it's decided to stick with its partner for the next generation of consoles.

The Xenos GPU has lived up to Microsoft's expectations and the company doesn't plan on letting a good thing go to waste. So it has decided to keep using it for its future development in the console universe, mainly because the processor maintains comparability with older games. Considering the schedule the Redmond software giant has planned for itself, it seems like the chip will be a 28 nm part.

Originally, the next generation of consoles should have arrived on the market next year. But with all the financial distress all companies have suffered due to the economical crisis, it seemed like the market just wouldn't be able to support their weight. As such, both Microsoft and Sony had to delay their projects and cut some funds from the research and development department. The next expected date for the two next consoles is now 2012, as long as no other things come up to interrupt the process.

These expectations do seem a little unfounded, or at least unsupported. Microsoft embraced a “ no comment” policy while Sony still clings to its ten-year plan for the PlayStation 3. Then again, rumors, be they true or false, and speculations always appear well before any official statements from companies.