Xbox 720 release date lags as Kinect thrives, PlayStation 4 lags more

by Beatweek Staff

Xbox, also known as the only major Microsoft product which isn’t losing marketshare, is thriving in gaming circles. The Xbox 360 is gradually having its way with the formerly dominant Sony PlayStation, and Xbox Kinect has leapfrogged Nintendo’s Wii insurgency. Still, Xbox enthusiasts are left wondering just where and when the fabled Xbox 720 might be lurking. Various corners have pegged its release date as being anywhere from 2013 to 2015, not exactly encouraging news a mere one month into 2012. Microsoft says the aging Xbox 360 still has some life left in it, but what the company might really be saying is that it can move as leisurely as it wants thanks to the fact that Sony still thinks the current PlayStation 3 has a ten year lifecycle in it and has little chance of getting the PlayStation 4 out the door before Microsoft finally launches the Xbox 720. How the console gaming market came to be dominated by two glacial companies, one known as a subpar copycat artist and the other having done nothing of note in a generation, is another story…

Once upon a time, Sony was the most revered company in consumer technology. The late Steve Jobs routinely praised what Sony used to be. But the company’s products appear to sell well based on long term brand name goodwill alone, and no one in the tech industry considers Sony to be a leader or an innovator. Microsoft built itself (and unwittingly its reputation) by copycatting every move Apple made, and typically coming up with ripoffs with where a combination of inexpensive and awful. That combo translated into dominant marketshare with Windows, Office, and Internet Explorer. But all three products are now bleeding marketshare, leaving Xbox the only major Microsoft division which isn’t in freefall. Xbox, while bringing its own set of flaws, came as a breath of fresh air for gamers who were growing weary of Sony’s slow PlayStation progress. But with the Xbox 720 at least a year away and the PlayStation 4 at least a few years away, the door is (theoretically) open for another tech player to step in with a next generation console device in the mean time. However, giants like Apple and Google have shown no interest in console gaming devices, with both companies instead pushing tablets and smartphones as the gaming devices of the future.