Microsoft: "We want to be first again with Xbox 3"

At a "strategy level" Microsoft wants to be first to the market again with its next-generation Xbox, Entertainment & Device Devision boss Robbie Bach has said.

Speaking during an interview with Venture Beat, Bach said that if you asked him whether being first to market with Xbox 360 was the right decision, he'd say "definitely yes," and the platform holder has a desire to do it again with the next console.

"The last cycle for the original Xbox was a little shorter than typical (at four years). We started way late,"he said. "If you take the question of whether it was the right thing to try to be first [with Xbox 360], the answer to that is definitely yes. It has given us a leg up in a number of places that are super important.

"It has given us a leg up with game developers. It has given us a leg up from an economics perspective. It helped us expand Xbox Live quickly. At a strategy level, if you asked if we wanted to be first again, I would say yes."

But the E&DD boss said it was "too early to tell" when quizzed on his expectation for the next console's release plans. "Our view is we will be selling Xbox 360 for a long time," he said.

"People ask me how many people I have working on the next generation. On the one hand, it's everybody. On the other, it's nobody. People are continuously working on new technology.

"We start thinking about the next generation before we shipped the Xbox 360," Bach continued. "It doesn't start with a date. It starts way upstream with silicon development.

"From that comes a series of data points. You start making early technology choices. It's an evolving thing. Stuff doesn't become concrete until you get inside a window of when you have to ship, more than 18 months or so out."

If we see anything before 2010, we'll be very surprised.

Courtesy of CVG.

Jun 16, 2008