Thread: Don't Expect a New Xbox in 2012, Says Microsoft

For the past few weeks, a lot has been said about the next generation of consoles, but even though Nintendo is releasing its Wii U system soon, both Microsoft and Sony are not planning to make any announcements regarding a new Xbox or PlayStation respectively. First of all and according to the company’s French marketing manager, who was recently interviewed by French Website Le Point, Microsoft won’t be releasing a new Xbox in 2012 and is not worried about competing against the Wii U the next holiday season.

There have been multiple rumors and speculation about a new Xbox being announced, but apparently the Xbox 360 will have a few price cuts before a new iteration comes out. In fact, a recent rumor suggests that Microsoft’s upcoming console will play Blu-Ray discs and will have some sort of functionality that would be able to block used games. I personally believe that the latter statement is blatantly stupid, as even though the video game industry has always tried to encourage the sales of new games (through horrible DRM policies and the more subtle online passes,) I highly doubt that they are going to prevent used games from being played completely.

Nintendo, on the other hand, is already moving on with its Wii U console which is expected to be playable at the 2012 Electronic Entertainment Expo. It seems like the Japanese-based company is moving at a different pace than its competition and this is only natural as the Wii hasn’t been selling very well for the past few months, especially since there weren’t many games being released for it.

Sony also responded to these rumors and in an interview with the same French website, Sony Entertainment Europe Executive Phillipe Cardon stated that the company will probably be the last one to announce a new console. This makes a lot of sense as after all, the PlayStation 3 was the last console to come out for this current generation (at least in Europe, as in America the Nintendo Wii arrived a week later in November 2006) and Sony has always believed that its consoles had long cycles. Additionally, Cardon stated that the fact that the Wii has been selling a lot less for the past few months puts less pressure on Sony to start focusing on a new PlayStation.

Finally, I would like to believe that Sony is also thinking about cutting the price of the PlayStation 3 soon as this would encourage more people to get it before everyone’s ready to move on to the next generation.

Source: GameSpot