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The original Xbox launched late in its hardware cycle—a year-and-a-half after the PlayStation 2's first sales, and three years after the ill-fated Dreamcast'south introduction. Determined non to be belatedly to the party the side by side fourth dimension around, Microsoft planned to introduce the Xbox 360 in late 2005, putting information technology 5 years later on the PS2 and right in line with where the side by side generation, historically, should brainstorm.

Naturally, this would give the late-launched Xbox a short life span, but such is the price of being "on time" for the next round. If Sony had kept to their Spring 2006 launch promise, it would have been in relative lockstep with the start of the new generation. Instead, Sony's substantial delay gave Microsoft a year's head kickoff (more than in some regions).

Xbox 360 Jasper

The result of all this is that the electric current Xbox 360 is probably going to be around a whole lot longer than the original Xbox. A typical five-yr bridge before the side by side generation would mean a launch of what I'll call "Xbox Next" late in 2010, just with the PS3 and Wii hitting the market tardily in 2006, one could safely button that to 2011. What's more, games of the current generation are bigger and more resources-intensive than before, taking longer to bring to market place and requiring longer-term sales to be profitable.

When volition the side by side generation begin? When volition the next Xbox arrive? Only a small team inside Microsoft, surely working on the specs and blueprint of the Xbox Next, have any idea. And they're not talking. If you lot ask me, I would say a launch in time for the vacation season of 2011 is reasonable, and a launch a year later in 2012 is equally possible, but anything across that is unlikely.

And so, given that launch timeframe, what volition the hardware be that powers the time to come Xbox, and why? I don't have any inside information, simply I exercise have a few ideas that make sense. Who knows, maybe Microsoft is listening… Connected…

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