Yesterday, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer publicly mentioned that a "new Xbox 360 will hit the store shelves in 2010" with a “natural interface.” This sent Internet forums into a fervor that the Project Natal camera would be launching with upgraded hardware.
Speaking to Kotaku, Microsoft's Director of Product Management for Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Aaron Greenberg shot down the idea of an "Xbox 720" coming in 2010. "There will be no new console," he said. "We're not going to be launching a new console any time soon. I really believe he was speaking about Project Natal."
"We want to make sure people know that we're excited about Project Natal," Greenberg added, "But we're barely halfway through this generation. We're happy with the Xbox 360, so there are no changes from that standpoint. For the time being, we're really just showing a whole new category of gaming."
Greenberg denied that any decisions had been made with regards to integrating Project Natal into the Xbox 360 and noted that the motion sensing camera will complement Microsoft's current generation console, rather than start the next one. "We are saying that the Natal will run on the Xbox 360, so there's no new hardware to purchase," Greenberg continued. "What we're doing that's unique is, instead of asking you to invest in a new generation of hardware, a generation that's already well established, extending the experience even longer by adding this whole new category of experiences with Project Natal."
So there you have it. It seemed unlikely that new console hardware would be coming with very little hype from Microsoft and everyone insisting that this console generation would last longer than the usual five years, even if the timing seemed to work out for such a move.
