There have been lots of rumors going around the internet in the past week about a new Xbox in the works. I did tweet my opinion on the story a couple of times, and it looks like what I said is looking out to be true. According to a post just out on Kotaku, Microsoft's Director for Project Manage of the Xbox 360 just might have settled all the rumors floating around.
Xbox - Project Natal [click to enlarge]
Earlier today, rumors all around the internet started popping up that Microsoft's CEO (that's what they call circus masters these days) Steve Ballmer has said that a new Xbox 360 would be shipping next year. The alleged announcement was made during a speech on recession he was delivering to the audience of the Executive's Club of Chicago.
It would have been stupid on Microsoft's part if they would have released new Xbox hardware, following the claims of the Xbox 360 team that "we're not even halfway done with [Xbox 360] it right now..." at E3 earlier this month. Thankfully, Kotaku did manage to get hold of some more details that confirmed that we wont be seeing a new Xbox anytime soon.
Though, Microsoft's Aaron Greenberg did say that Microsoft is continuously looking for ways to improve the user experience with the currently available hardware. Sometimes this means adding more functionality to the software, like they did with the New Xbox Experience. And sometimes introducing revised configurations for the console itself.
The later part totally leaves open the possibility of an Xbox 360 with the Natal camera and sensors included in it, which Greenberg also confirmed by saying that "We have looked at that, but we haven't released any details about it yet" - which is just another way of saying that get your wallets ready for a 2010 Xbox 360 + Natal combo (possibly under one retail package).
And to really see what I'm talking about, see the following video.
