Xbox 360 Not Even At Halfway Point, No Slim Planned

“We feel like our system has done very well for us in the current form,” said Greenberg, director of product management for the Xbox 360. “We have no plans for a slim.”

Instead of reinventing the outside of the console, Greenberg says that Microsoft is intent on continuing to reinvent the way people use their system.

That includes things like adding the ability to stream movies through NetFlix, the upcoming addition of Facebook, Last.FM and Twitter connectivity. Greenberg also points out that Microsoft’s motion-detecting Project Natal, an interface he calls very next generation, is coming to this generations console.

“We feel that we’re not even at the halfway point (of the Xbox 360’s life cycle),” he said. “That is something we believe in strongly. People have invested in these consoles, and we have massively connected communities and we have storage. I think what we did with the New Xbox Experience is a sign of what we want to do with the console.”

“The Xbox 360 has plenty of future.”

It’s been nearly four years since the Xbox 360 released. If we’re not even at the halfway point of the console’s life cycle it sounds like the Xbox 360 will indeed be around for ten years.

I can imagine that eventually platform holders will get to a console that never needs to be replaced. It will be a system that can rely on firmware updates to bring new interactions to gamers.

The question is, is this that generation? My guess is no. But I think that the extension of this cycle certainly points to such a platform eventually arriving.