November of this year will mark the five year anniversary of the Xbox 360"s release and according to Microsoft executive Chris Lewis the Xbox 360 still has another five years left.
Gamesindustry.biz did a question and answer session with Mr. Lewis and he said, "I think 2010 will be a very big year for us, it is in many ways for us mid-lifecycle. What you"ve seen is with this new sleek design and Kinect for Xbox 360 we"ve got at least another five years of this generation where we continue to offer great experiences for people."
The new slim Xbox 360 and the Kinect seem to be Micrsoft"s way of reinventing the Xbox rather than replacing it. Lewis also said, "Kinect for 360 is big for France, Italy, Germany and Spain, where there is a market for the casual gaming appetite that we can now address without the physical barrier of the controller." Which means there is a large market they are trying to attract to the system before they replace it with a new one.
A ten year console life isn"t out of the ordinary, according to Forbes, Sony president Kaz Hirai said in 2006 that the PS3 will be around for atleast ten years as well. The Nintendo 64 was out for nearly five years before it was replaced by the GameCube and after five more years the Wii was released, the PS2 was out for about seven years before it was replaced by the PS3 and the Xbox had only been out for four years before it was replaced by the Xbox 360. So it seems as consoles advance so does their shelf life.