Shane Kim the head of Microsoft Game Studios has gone on the record today that Microsoft's X-Box 360 will have a minimum lifespan of 7 years. (Source) Shane said "“Clearly we didn't do that with the original Xbox, which was a strategic decision we made. Admittedly, we don't have any experience doing this, but we're pretty confident 360 will have a long tail.”

Seriously Microsoft intentionally and strategically shortened the X-Box's lifespan. Does anybody actually believe that Microsoft intentionally failed to keep the X-Box platform alive? We do know that Microsoft pushed for the release of the X-Box 360 before its competitors could launch theirs. However consoles like PS2/GameCube are still availible in some stores. But X-Box has been gone for a very long time, yeah some software is still availible but no hardware.

Could Microsoft have really kept the X-Box alive longer then its 5-years (4-Year life cycle)?

With the X-Box 360 only a few years old and a new generation expected about 2011 can we really expect to see the 360 live much longer then that? Once the next generation of consoles launch will the 360 have the user base to maintain its prescense into 2013-2014.

Considering 2010-2011 is when the next generation of consoles are expected to debut. The PS2 has been able to survive over 7 years but it has over 120-million units sold can the 360/PS3/Wii even possibly reach that number and survive a wave of next generation consoles in 2010? 

i don't know nothings set for 3-4 years.

As long as they make money... then sure

Well how long did you think the 360 would last?

Of course they can! They can shrink it and keep selling it as a low cost machine. The only reason why the Xbox1 was killed was because Nvidia stopped making the GPU for it, so they couldn't make anymore.

I think unlike the original xbox software sales will keep the 360 around at least a year into the next generation, since unlike the original xbox it does have a good share of the market this time around.

I am of course assuming that MS has reduced RRoD levels to the point where systems themselves will actually last until the end of the generation.

Xbox died due to the fact that their chip supplier quit making a vital chip for the system (i forget which). So i can see the 360 lasting that long.

When I heard this today, "7 years minimum" it made me feel very happy with my purchase as I believe there is a lot of life left in this console. I am not one for a new console every 3-4 years. If I wanted that I would just invest in a gaming rig.

Also now everyone can feel happy knowing they won't need to make a new purchase just to play Gears 3. :)

next XBOX will be out before december 2011, im almost 100% certain of that, PS4/Wii2 wont be out for another year or 2 after that.

As long as one of the largest corporations in the world is behind it, yes. It's profitable and the video game market in general is on a pretty steep upward trajectory. Plus, Microsoft, once thought of soley as a geeky OS and office aps company probably likes the PR cool points it earns from a demographic it never got any attention from previously: the young.