A
AirRaid 1500
heh pun intended
EGM: "Last year we asked you about the successor to the Xbox 360, and
you told us, "The platform development team is taking a well-deserved
break, and they should come back in a year refreshed, looking for the
next challenge." OK, it's been a year. What are those guys working on
now?"
Peter Moore: "As with any platform group, they're always looking ahead
once they deliver a system. They start looking at scenarios, four, six
years from now--where will we be, what will the consumer be looking
for, what will be the capabilities of silicon [chips] in 2011, 2012,
whenever it is that the next next generation starts. These things take
years to develop; you have to work with partners to be able to build
the ncessary infrastructure to make sure the next-generation console
is truly a next-generation console. We're going to be ready for the
next generation if and when it arrives."
EGM: "What would have to happen at the end of this current Xbox 360
cycle for you to want to support it longer and more heavily than you
did Xbox1?"
PM: "While we're talking hypothetically about, I don't know, four to
six years from now, our plans are to continue to support the Xbox 360
for as many years as consumers want to buy it. I think that first-
party plays a large role in that. When you think of Halo, Gears of
War, Fable, Forza, and Project Gotham, to name just a few, you now
have franchises that we can continue to extend longer and deeper into
the lifecycle than we [were able to] in the first generation. [On Xbox
1] you could have said there was Halo and not much else, for better or
for worse. We've continued to build on a five- to 10-year plan with
first party that you're now starting to see the benefits of."
_________________________________________________________________________________
2011-2012 sounds just about right. I suspect we'll see a
significantly larger leap from Xbox 360 to the next Xbox, compared to
the leap from Xbox1 to Xbox 360 in terms of gaming performance,
features, etc.
EGM: "Last year we asked you about the successor to the Xbox 360, and
you told us, "The platform development team is taking a well-deserved
break, and they should come back in a year refreshed, looking for the
next challenge." OK, it's been a year. What are those guys working on
now?"
Peter Moore: "As with any platform group, they're always looking ahead
once they deliver a system. They start looking at scenarios, four, six
years from now--where will we be, what will the consumer be looking
for, what will be the capabilities of silicon [chips] in 2011, 2012,
whenever it is that the next next generation starts. These things take
years to develop; you have to work with partners to be able to build
the ncessary infrastructure to make sure the next-generation console
is truly a next-generation console. We're going to be ready for the
next generation if and when it arrives."
EGM: "What would have to happen at the end of this current Xbox 360
cycle for you to want to support it longer and more heavily than you
did Xbox1?"
PM: "While we're talking hypothetically about, I don't know, four to
six years from now, our plans are to continue to support the Xbox 360
for as many years as consumers want to buy it. I think that first-
party plays a large role in that. When you think of Halo, Gears of
War, Fable, Forza, and Project Gotham, to name just a few, you now
have franchises that we can continue to extend longer and deeper into
the lifecycle than we [were able to] in the first generation. [On Xbox
1] you could have said there was Halo and not much else, for better or
for worse. We've continued to build on a five- to 10-year plan with
first party that you're now starting to see the benefits of."
_________________________________________________________________________________
2011-2012 sounds just about right. I suspect we'll see a
significantly larger leap from Xbox 360 to the next Xbox, compared to
the leap from Xbox1 to Xbox 360 in terms of gaming performance,
features, etc.