CVG

The studio behind the much-loved Just Cause games has told CVG that it is "prepared" for any sudden announcement of a successor to the Xbox 360.

Microsoft job listings spotted last night pointed to the platform holder working on new hardware - long dubbed by fans as 'Xbox 720'. The firm is advertising for an engineer to "play a key role in the development and verification of the Xbox and future platforms".

Christofer Sundberg, founder of Swedish studio Avalanche, told CVG that his firm is working on a number of new, non-Just Cause secret projects. 

One of these titles is the licensed action game Sundberg revealed to CVG last year - thought to be based on the Mad Max franchise.

But if Microsoft announced a new static console tomorrow, would it throw Avalanche's development plan into disarray? No Siree Bob.

When we asked Sundberg if Avalanche was ready for new Microsoft hardware, he said:

"Yeah, absolutely. It's actually quite an interesting subject for us - because when we worked on Just Cause 1, the Xbox 360 came out [at around the same time]. We had to do the 360 version in six months. It's an interesting place again right now, where the projects we're working on today might be coming out on [Microsoft's] next technology."

Sundberg told CVG that Avalanche has a "central engine team" who believe Microsoft is "working on something" - but had seen "nothing confirmed in terms of specs and so on". Despite being in "very close contact" with MS, he reiterated that the platform holder had "confirmed nothing".

He added: "All we can do is guess and try to be as accurate as possible."

Sundberg's confidence in Avalanche's ability to deal with new hardware from Microsoft or Sony is boosted by the architecture of current generation technology. He commented: "Every good games technology these days is so scalable that once a new platform comes out, we feel prepared to deal with it."

Sundberg said that "everyone is speculating" over the timing and technological make-up of both Sony and Microsoft's next console, but opined that "everyone agrees" on one thing: - There will be no optimal disc compatibility.

What do they mean? No compatbility between Xbox and PS disc media next gen either?

I was wandering where the Xbox 720 rumor threads were!

Always love to hear about the Next gen systems, Cant wait to see what all 3 have in mind.

Same here. This gen is becoming quite stale. We need new hardware.

cant wait for next gen

i would wish microsoft would annouce it next gen hardware , i been wondering this between all of the nintendo wii 2 speculation i wonder if microsoft will annouce there next gen system first and be first out of the gate just like the 360 was first on the market

"there will be no optimal disc compatibility"

wtf does that mean?, im racking my brain.

does that mean, there will be at least one console with no optical drive at all (an all Digital dwnld console?)

does that mean they wont have to create games with dvd constraints in mind? (probably)

or does that simply mean that both consoles will NOT have the same disc format (yet again)

Anyone? Care to Clarify ?

...Bueller?

lol there's no way MS will go digital only. Theres a lot of disadvantages for it, I am sure they know this.

If it doesn't play old 360 games im actually ok with that.

What I'm not ok with is them not allowing backwards compat of the old XBLA games - It's just a emulation program and what not so it shouldn't be hard for them to allow us to re-download all our titles and play it on 720.

Either way should be interesting if older 360 games only worked digitally. Only game I bought that way was Dead Space 1.