Bach: Innovation doesn't require new hardware

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Robbie Bach, the big boss of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division, believes that console lifecycles are no longer limited to the traditional five-year period. And that's good news for your wallet.

"I think in many ways we're still on the upside of the console lifecycle," he told CBC News. "Historically, the content cycle has been driven by graphic technology. There's still plenty of power available in the Xbox 360, there's still plenty of power available in the [Sony] PlayStation 3. Nintendo probably can't say that. They may have a capacity and a power problem on the graphics side that they need to deal with. But when I look at the [overall] cycle, I think there's still plenty of upside given what we have today."

Graphics and spanking new tech are no longer the main driver of a new generation, Bach adds. "The console world has changed fundamentally in a very important way: Innovation doesn't require new hardware. The fact that we can deliver a new Xbox Live service every year is a very powerful thing and completely changes the experience without changing the console, without requiring the industry to reboot every five years.

"The fact that we can introduce something like Project Natal and have it work on every Xbox 360 and create an entirely new way to interact with the system speaks to all of that. For the industry, I think this is a tremendously positive thing. For consumers I think it's tremendously positive. The thing you have to be careful about, and the thing we will watch intensively, is you have to keep producing innovation.

"I know we've started down the back side of the cycle when I say 'hey, there's innovations and ideas we have that we can't implement on the system.' That's when you have to start thinking about what's next."

Begs the question, what do you want from your future games console (aside from awesome visuals)?

Gavin Ogden