In an interview for a French website, Cedrick Delmas, marketing director of Microsoft France, addressed rumors of the Microsoft's follow-up to the Xbox 360:
"Afterward, what will happen at E3, it's still too early to say. What's certain is that there will be nothing new in 2012. If we wanted to counter Nintendo, we would have to be in a position to release something immediately, and that is not at all the case."
Aside from that, Delmas also said something of the industry at large:
"We're in an industry that talks a lot, that likes telling stories. I am not convinced that things will happen this year. The Xbox 360's cycle is not over at all. The proof is that we haven't price cut this year."
"We're not here to counter Nintendo and they're not here to fight the other manufacturers. Nintendo has put itself in a different cycle, it's going forward to its own rhythm, with success as we have seen with the Wii, and now it's their turn to present their innovation."
Delmas was referencing Nintendo's recent Wii U's Worldwide Holiday 2012 release. And while Delmas confirmed there will be no new Xbox in 2012, he said nothing about announcing the next Xbox, which could still take place at E3 this June.
It's also rumored that there will be multiple SKUs on the next Xbox:
- a "pared down machine" to be released as cheaply as possible. Think of it as your Kinect-ready casual machine.
- a "more fully-featured machine" with optical drive, hard disk and backwards compatibility. This would definitely be geared towards the hardcore gaming crowd.
It's also rumored that Digital Foundry will be bundled with both SKUs.
