Xbox 360 Has 10-year Lifecycle Thanks to Natal
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: Xbox, 360, Project, Natal, 10yrs | Themes: Digital Entertainment
Microsoft said that it expects the Xbox 360 to have a lifecycle of ten years, partially due to Project Natal.
In a recent interview with VentureBeat, Shane Kim, corporate vice president for strategy and business development at Microsoft's game division, said that the company "firmly believes" that the Xbox 360 console has a life cycle of ten years, dating its final days by the end of 2015. Considering that the PlayStation 2 launched in October 2000, Microsoft's projected lifespan doesn't seem out of the ordinary. In fact, Sony plans to publish 100 new games for the older console this year alone, indicating that the PlayStation 2 still has some life in it... and it's accomplishing this feat without a full-body controller device.
As for the Xbox 360, Mr. Kim attributed the console's longevity to the inclusion of Project Natal, an upcoming add-on technology that will enable full-body control support in all Xbox 360 titles. Kim basically said the same thing in his interview with Gamasutra, only adding that it was the company's goal to make the Natal device compatible with existing Xbox 360 consoles. However, he brushed off any inquires on how the implementation would be applied to current and older games. “Yeah, all those details will come out,” Kim said.
The Natal device made its appearance Monday at Microsoft's E3 press conference. For the uninitiated, Microsoft's "Project Natal" blew away anything Sony and Nintendo had to offer, showing that consumers don't need a magic wand or a remote controller to interact with games, but rather lots of room in the den, living room, or wherever the Xbox 360 resides. Comprised of an RGB camera, a 3-D depth camera, and a multi-array microphone, Natal offers full freedom of motion, face recognition, and voice recognition.
"To me, the magic is more software," he told VentureBeat when asked if depth cameras are a key technology. "You’re talking about an extraordinary amount of data that has to be processed in real time. You saw the latency was very good yesterday. You can parse voices, recognize faces. It’s complex hardware, even more sophisticated software, and simplified for developers to use it immediately. All of that so that consumers can have the most simplistic and easy experience to get into gaming."
Mr. Kim also explained the "Natal" label, saying that it's the name of a city in Brazil where one of the key development team members originated. Natal also means "birth," an appropriate name for the project, according to Mr. Kim. "This is the birth of the next-generation of home entertainment." Along with the name, he also revealed that Microsoft Researched dumped a lot of hard work into the project for a very long time. The team even spent a lot of time working with natural user interfaces including voice recognition.
"I think we won," he told VentureBeat, referring to Monday's press conference and the reaction to Project Natal. "It’s not just me saying that. It’s pretty universal. We had something very special yesterday, starting with the games portfolio. We had a lot of content for a normal E3 briefing. But Project Natal doesn’t come along every year, and it is very difficult to match."
Despite the demos shown at the E3 conference, Mr. Kim said that there was a lot of work being done at Microsoft Game Studios that hasn't even been revealed thus far. But for now the company isn't revealing a time frame for Project Natal's eventual release. With that said, Sony is scheduled to ship its motion controller during Spring 2010. Will Microsoft be ready to compete? "Sony has made other promises before," he added. "We’ll see if this one comes true."
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maybe i should buy one
ugh, i thought consoles actually came out with fairly decent specs compared to pcs this time round. but if they plan to make em last for 10 years, it looks like consoles will be just as monolithically behind PCs as they always were. i mean there is SOME hope for ppl finding more performance in the labyrinth that is the PS3 (tho i'm skeptical) i'd say the easy to develop for 360 will reach its technical limits way before the 10 years is up. what microsoft should have done is exactly what nintendo did, release the 360 in a different box, with a different name, with natal so ppl would think its a BRAND NEW AWESOME CONSOLE!!!1!!1!1
still should be an interesting time for pc gaming in the next couple of years as they finally begin tear away from the console port and present much more technically amazing games than the consoles.
I don't know..on one hand you gotta hand it to microsoft to put a lot of thought into the hardware behind natal, it sounds like it would be the best performing item of it's type, but that being said, the idea of it has been done many times before, and for the most part, it's a fun gimmick, but little more than that
The 360 was outdated at the minute Crysis was released.
That's nice MS, you can stick with your old USB 2.0's while we and good old trusty Ubuntu go on to USB 3.0
Will a 360 last for ten years?
seems like a way for sony and MS to not make a new console. good news for nintendo.
it will last 10 years, only if it doesn't rrod on you.Seriously how many launch 360's that still work are out there?
Mine was a launch console and no issues yet.
No RRoD ever (hopefully never) but a 10 year lifespan? I highly doubt it.
I hate Linux thumpers...sorta like I hate hippies.
Nothing like that has been done hate.. Unless you're thinking of the stupid gloves and things of that nature. At least not for the average consumer base.
People *me included* also though the wii was just gonna be another nintendo crap gimmick like some of their past motion crap. But look and behold how well it is doing.
To me this should be a nintendo thing almost.. WII THE EXTREME.
That's nice MS, you can stick with your old USB 2.0's while we and good old trusty Ubuntu go on to USB 3.0
Seriously, is there any console running linux that wasn't added as some type of hack? What was the point of this post, really? Whether or not the lifespan of the xbox 360 is 5, 10 or 15 years for that matter, I'm sure that the major players will be releasing new consoles within the next 1 to 3 years. Don't you think?
too bad no one's console will make it to 10 years with all these ring errors!! *sigh*
hmm...
The 360 has the ATI X1950 XT GPU. If it has a ten year life span it still has like what? 7 more years to go? I'll be enjoying the ATI 8870 or 9870 by that time with an 8 or 16 core CPU at 5 GHz
u guys are dumb, just because it has a ten year life span dosnt mean they wont move on to the next one. ps2 is on its ninth year but the ps3 has been out for what three years?
The PS2 is only around because the PS3 isn't doing that well. Do you remember the old PSOne Forever ads? Well, as soon as PS2 picked up steam the PSOne was canned. If the PS3 had that level of success we would have seen the last PS2 games last year.
Anyway I don't know about the 10 year life span thing. The first XBOX sure didn't last too long. We'll see.
i bought my xbox 360 at launch and i had to take the case off of it because it was overheating gogo m$
I have the PS2, PS3, and XBOX 360... For now, I like the 360 best but I've yet to go online with it since I refuse to buy the $79 wireless adapter - ripoff! So for now my PS3 is the console to go with when I want to play online.
I think they are crazy if they think the 360 will still be hanging around in 2015.
By 2015, the 360 will be like a PSOne is to us today. There would most likely finally be a small version of the unit that is 1/4 the size it is today, so it'll cost $50~75 to buy it at the Walmart.
Xbox#3, PS4 and Nintendo Game-Triangle will be out around 2012.
PS: With Nintendo making profit from the Wii, I am kind of expecting them their R&D to actually beef up the hardware quite a bit.
It's not that they won't be releasing a new console within the next few years, they're just saying that they're going to support the 360 for 10 years, which really should be standard. You'd think a company wouldn't need to make such a bold claim, but Microsoft pretty much cut off the original Xbox once 360 came out.
I can't believe people are excited about Project Natal and buying into it. It's obvious that it's a gimmick. It's a fancier EyeToy, nothing more. Some of its features are cool but none really have any practical use especially when it comes to games. You'll see some mini-games for it and that's it. Their claimed support for pretty much any game I bet involves navigating menus or something. There's no way they're going to implement this technology in games unless they were specifically made for it, which like I said will include pretty much just mini-games. One of the key controls in almost any game is moving. How are you going to move with a camera? Run in place? Ok, then how are you going to turn and change direction? I rest my case.
I have the PS2, PS3, and XBOX 360... For now, I like the 360 best but I've yet to go online with it since I refuse to buy the $79 wireless adapter - ripoff! So for now my PS3 is the console to go with when I want to play online.
Don't forget monthly fees to play online with 360. Which is why I think PS3 is a better value and better overall system. 360 would be better if it included wi-fi and free online, but it doesn't which makes it more of a ripoff. I like the controller though and the games usually seem to turn out better with less bugs than PS3. $80 wireless adapter and $50+ yearly online fees plus the fact that Xbox Live is horribly slow and tedious. I tried a free month of it and said there was no way I was paying for this crap. I gave up even playing for free when I still had a couple weeks left.
i know alot of people find this unbelievable, but i dont
simple because the 360 WILL last ten years, but by half way, they'll still probably release a new console. im pretty sure of that, and they'll make that last ten years as well. so they'll still support the 360 evne when the new console comes out, and probably make it $100 like the ps2
I have a launch 360 still chugging away.
How do all the sony fanbois explain the fact that the 360 has known hardware issues and still outsells the PS3? If anything, isn't that further evidence of the 360's superiority? People are willing to deal with the potential of total hardware failure rather than buy a PS3.
it will last 10 years, only if it doesn't rrod on you.Seriously how many launch 360's that still work are out there?
At least one does.
If natal truly peforms as in the adverts I'll be seriously impressed. 1:1 fully body control is nuts, if they can really pull it off (at an add-on price no less) then hats off to MS because this is no simple feat.
I gave up on console gaming... I just don't see the point of paying upwards of $300 on a console platform when you can upgrade your PC for less and achieve the same (or better in some cases) graphic quality. And companies say that they will support past consoles everytime a new one is announced. I think its just to please the press, because everyone knows when the new ones come out thats what kids and parents gun for.
It doesn't matter if the x360 is maxed out before the 10 year life cycle, it doesn't mean that MS won't release another console before then.
Obviously the Xbox360 will be upgraded or replaced in a few years since the power of computers continue to double every two years, but the 360 will still be around for another several years since there is tens of millions sold.
We see how much computer power and money is required to play Crysis in hi-res max, just think about what the future needs; and it has cost $400 for the consoles, not $4000.
Well, because Microsoft rarely gets it right the first time I bet that tis Natal thing would be another great device for the Angry Video Game Nerd to review.