Does Microsoft Even Need to Build a Better Xbox?

Has the video-game industry hit a plateau? Is there even a reason to make better consoles? Are the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 the end of the line?

Frank Gibeau, president of the EA label at gaming giant Electronic Arts, says it’s hard to imagine how Sony and Microsoft could improve upon their current game consoles. In an interview with ComputerAndVideoGames.com, he said EA is not itching for a “PlayStation 4″ or “Xbox 720.”
“It’s hard for me to conceive what you would do on a PlayStation 4,” Gibeau told CVG. “The displays are already 1080p, you’re already connected to the Internet. … You could make it faster, you could have more polys and you could up the graphics a little bit … but at what cost?”

Indeed – look at some gameplay video from “Forza Motorsport 4,” coming out in October for Xbox 360. The racing game is nearly photo-realistic. It supports Kinect, the new Xbox 360 motion sensor, for voice commands and “looking around” inside your virtual car. And, like most games these days, it will be updated on a regular basis through the Internet.

Of course, there are always improvements to be made. But there’s also room in the Xbox 360 and PS3 for those improvements, Gibeau said.

“One of the things that we like is that the technology is consistent, and we believe that there are still things that you can do on these systems,” he told CVG. “We haven’t quite squeezed the last ounce of hardware horsepower out of these things.”

Microsoft has already said it plans to keep the Xbox 360 around for a while. First released in November 2005, it’s been refreshed a few times – Microsoft has released different versions with different storage capacities, and last year released the Xbox 360 S with a new motherboard, Wi-Fi support and a dedicated Kinect port (though Kinect still works with older 360 models).
At six years old, the Xbox 360 is ancient for video-game consoles … at least traditionally. But no longer are we in the days of fast-paced hardware upgrades.

The original Nintendo Entertainment System, for instance, was released in North America in 1985, followed by the Super Nintendo in 1991, the Nintendo 64 in 1996, the GameCube in 2001 and the Wii in 2006. Meanwhile, Sega released the Sega Master System to the U.S. in 1987, the Genesis in 1989, the Genesis CD add-on in 1992, the Saturn in 1995 and the Dreamcast in 1999.
Sony entered the race in 1995 with the first PlayStation and released the PlayStation 2 in 2000. In a controversial move, Microsoft jumped into the foray in 2002 with the first Xbox. The Xbox 360 came in 2005 and the PS3 was released in 2006.

At that cadence, the big three — Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo — would be releasing a next-generation console anytime now. But only Nintendo, whose Wii changed the industry with motion control but is now far outdated (it doesn’t even have high-definition video output), is refreshing its hardware with the Wii U, expected to launch in 2012.