The Current Console Hardware Is Competitive Enough

While some think that the current consoles are nearing the end of their life cycle, the official stand from the Xbox 360 is that the hardware is more than competitive enough and that it will take a long time before a replacement for what's currently on the market will be needed. Robbie Bach, the head of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, doesn't believe that the console lifespan is limited to five years anymore. If anything, it has extended far beyond that. "I think in many ways we're still on the upside of the console lifecycle," he said while talking to CBC News.

"Historically, the content cycle has been driven by graphic technology. There's still plenty of power available in the Xbox 360, there's still plenty of power available in the [Sony] PlayStation 3," he continued. But while he thinks Sony is more than capable of continuing the console war with its current lineup, he doesn't have such an optimistic view of Nintendo.

"Nintendo probably can't say that. They may have a capacity and a power problem on the graphics side that they need to deal with. But when I look at the [overall] cycle, I think there's still plenty of upside given what we have today," he explained. As for his company's own Xbox 360, it's only natural that he only had good things to say. "The console world has changed fundamentally in a very important way: Innovation doesn't require new hardware. The fact that we can deliver a new Xbox Live service every year is a very powerful thing and completely changes the experience without changing the console, without requiring the industry to reboot every five years."

Natal also came up in the conversation, as it was only natural. With Microsoft's big project approaching fast, and the company having great expectations for it, the motion controllers need a public awareness that can generate the sales that SmallGentle expects it to. "The fact that we can introduce something like Project Natal and have it work on every Xbox 360 and create an entirely new way to interact with the system speaks to all of that. For the industry, I think this is a tremendously positive thing. For consumers I think it's tremendously positive. The thing you have to be careful about, and the thing we will watch intensively, is you have to keep producing innovation."