Forbes’ Chris Morris says that it’s “insanely early” to start talking about the next generation of videogame consoles. I agree, but that hasn’t stopped anyone from talking about it here lately.
At E3 earlier this month, I heard the name “Xbox 720” dropped about a half a dozen times over the course of about a week. Of course, you have to throw about half of it out as speculative bullsh*t, but there has to be a reason why it’s being mentioned so much lately.
One UK-based developer told us that he’s heard some “pretty incredible things” about the upcoming console from his Microsoft UK contacts. That tells us absolutely nothing other than he’s excited about something. We need more, people!
But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, it seems. Epic Games President Mike Capps says that we shouldn’t expect the next next-gen until somewhere between 2012 and 2018. Wow, I hope my Xbox 360 lasts that long.
Brian Farrell, CEO of THQ, thinks there’s still room for growth in the current gen. “Those engines have a lot of steam left in them. We think it could be seven or eight years before new machines start to roll out.”
Of course, this doesn’t mean that console makers aren’t working on their next unit. Nintendo boss Satoru Iwata admits it. “We are always preparing for the next hardware,” Iwata says. “We are under development.”
And Microsoft won’t openly admit it, but from what we hear, they’re already hard at work. And I’m sure Sony is, too. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think our current consoles have hit their peak yet. They’re doing better things every day, on each console. I say take your time, Big Three. Give my bank account time to catch up.
