Microsoft’s Xbox chief marketing and strategy officer Yusuf Mehdi stated at Citi Global Technology Conference that the Xbox 360 will still be active for the next three years, despite the release of the next-generation Xbox One on the 22nd November 2013.
Mehdi noted, ”You’ve seen us over the years constantly be focused on profitability and improving year over year. There are different points in the cycle of when you invest in new hardware. If you look at 360 that platform lasted for seven to eight years and it’s going to go for another three years. It’s incredibly profitable now in the tail.
“Some of these things take some time in the launch year in which you invest, and then they they play out over time.”
Microsoft will be shipping over 100 new games for Xbox 360, Mehdi announced. ”We’re going to continue to invest in Xbox 360, and the two devices can work in concert. So it’s not like the day we ship Xbox One your 360 won’t work. We’ll continue to support it.” In addition, third party developers will continue to release Xbox 360 games for a while thanks to the large user install base.
He also went on to point to the growing Xbox Live Gold subscription service as a factor.
”We’ve seen our Xbox Live subscription service continue to grow,” Mehdi noted. “We’re up to 48 million members now. We’re shipping more games than we’ve ever done before. Those are things I look to to say, ‘hey we can grow not just top line revenue but also profitability.’”
The original Xbox was discontinued due to licensing issues with the processor.