New Xbox announcement would be ‘Baffling’ says analyst

Amidst rumours of an announcement at this year’s E3 for an upcoming Xbox console, analysts have begun raising doubts.

EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich has said in an interview with IndustryGamers that it’s too early for new hardware considering the continued success of Xbox 360.

“The Xbox 360 has incredible momentum and it would baffle me as to why they would make a new hardware announcement at E3 and announce its launch by the end of 2012,” EEDAR’s Jesse Divnich told us. “I think we can all agree that new hardware is due, but 2012 may be a tad bit early to launch a true new piece of hardware. But I’ve been wrong before.”

DFC Intelligence’s David Cole is less sceptical about the potential announcement.

“I would be surprised if MS launched a totally new console in 2012 or even 2013. However, I would not be surprised if they make some new announcements around a system to build anticipation and keep consumers from jumping ship to Nintendo.”

Cole views this as a way of staying relevant in a changing market.

“Just announcing they have something ‘in the works.’ I believe you asked me this before about if the industry would be better following the Apple model of showing a ready to launch product. The issue is the ongoing competition and the need to ensure consumers that you have something cool in the pipeline.”

Admittedly even with the murmurs of the new Xbox console being on desks at EA, “baffling” is a good choice of words to describe a potential E3 unveiling. Considering the emphasis Microsoft has put on the importance of a longer console cycle it would be surprising to see it as soon a Nintendo’s new offering. But if it does rear its head as quickly as is rumoured you can only wonder how many new features Microsoft will actually be able introduce to the new console. Controllers with displays seem unlikely.