Robbie Bach: No plans for Xbox 720 in forseeable future.

[bdbdbd]

@jcp234:
Do you know why the console generations change? It's because at a certain point of time the market saturates and stop buying those games and consoles. Releasing next generation system, you'll offer (atleast virtually) something new, a reason to keep buying games, even if it's only a graphical upgrade. For M$ nobody releasing a new console, of course, would be the best option possible, if nobody ever would release a new system, it would leave PC (which largely equals Windows) as the only platform for games. Of course, there's always the possibility, that 360 will be the last M$ console, but if there will be 720, M$ doesn't want to give advantage to competition. Just take a look how crucial the year headstart was between 360 and PS3.

1. Yes it is. But like i just said, market demands an upgrade to new systems after a while. If Nintendo wants to keep making record profits, they need to put out new systems. Besides, releasing a new console doesn't mean the old one would die instantly. Nintendos incentive to keep continuing the current gen exists only as long as their systems sales keep growing. The first year of decline means Nintendo will start looking at a date to release new hardware.

2. Keeping games on their platform is also expensive. To make 360 more appealing than Wii, M$ needs to moneyhat the publishers and the bigger the Wii software sales grow, the more M$ needs to pay for them. The best way to ensure 3rd party support, if you're not the leading one, is to get your next gen console out before the competition. 360 gained alot for having a year advance, just like Sega with Megadrive back in the day.
Unless M$ does something, 360 will end up to a situation where 3rd parties don't care about their relations with M$ (think about Nintendo last gen).

3. M$ isn't going to make the money they have lost in consoles back this gen.
What really worries investors is, that is M$ going to go forward. If you're not planning to keep up with the future, the investors know that the whole business venture is a dead duck in the water.

4. They definately remember. But, to prove that the Xbox platform is viable, M$ just doesn't kill 360 when 720 comes out. When M$ killed the Xbox, it proved to investors that they actually aren't just pouring money around, but want to make some too. Keep in mind, that during the Xbox, the games division had only one profitable quarter, the one where Halo 2 came out (and right in the next quarter, they lost that money and some extra).

When you think that PR, what they actually are saying, is actually contradicting their other PR. They say they focus on "hardcore", while this PR says that M$ isn't going to be the (first) one to deliver to the "hardcore" and that after 3 years, with 360, you're playing with the most outdated system.
Look at it, when someone tells they're working on the next gen system, they tell the consumers that "we are going to deliver" when Bach implied, that "we won't deliver". Why would you buy a platform that has uncertain future?

Sure every one of the three has their incentives to keep this gen going as long as possible, but each also has a number of reasons why they would want (have) to upgrade (early).