Though Microsoft's Xbox 360 retains its top spot as the best selling gaming console in the US, the company's 2012 third quarter statistics reveal that sales dropped 48 percent from a year ago.
Looking at the declining sales and the fact that Sony and Nintendo hastily plans to release the PlayStation 4 and Wii U, Microsoft may reconsider making the Xbox 720 units available earlier or look for ways to sustain Xbox 360 sales until the release.
Rumors of Microsoft's next-gen console specs may have prompted buyers to hold out until the 720's release. The new Xbox console is to feature a 16 core CPU powered by IBM, making it a hardware behemoth even amongst high end PCs. This would provide revolutionary graphics, speedier gameplay, and more power for Kinect motion sensor games and accessories.
Xbox 720 would target a wide range of users as the Redmond based company declared its plans to utilize the console beyond gaming into a fully fledged entertainment system. Among this is utilizing Microsoft's acquisition of the voice and chat company Skype. Microsoft may be already taking steps to integrate Skype's services on the current Xbox 360. If that is the case, it may be most likely that feature will roll over to the new 720 console.
A job listing that was posted described a need for a "Software Development Engineer" who "will be designing and developing next generation scalable services for millions of end users."
"We're building the next generations of our products and technology right here in London, and Skype is looking to hire a Software Development Engineer to contribute to the development of our experiences on Xbox," stated the Microsoft's job posting.
The project has been kept under wraps but there is no doubt that Skype and Xbox will be integral parts to the company's plans.
"Skype will be a big benefit across the company, as we've talked about how it plays across all of our businesses," said Peter Klein, Microsoft's CFO.
A poor video gaming market is a major factor for the Xbox 360's poor sales. It may also be an indication that the industry is ready for an upgrade from old hardware. The next-gen console war is looming ahead and Microsoft's Xbox 720 may not just be facing challenges from other consoles but mobile devices as well.
NVidia, one of the premier GPU-makers, reported that by the year 2014, the mobile system-on-a-chip (SoC) GPUs will be capable of delivering higher end graphics than the Xbox 360.
"SoCs are supposed to give us performance equal to or greater than current generation gaming consoles (e.g. Xbox 360, PlayStation 3)," said Anandtech in a report on mobile gaming graphics. "In a presentation today, Qualcomm took that message one step further and proclaimed that as a result of the improvements in mobile SoCs going forward we'll see a move from console and PC gaming to mobile based gaming."
The Xbox 720 is expected to make a debut preview at 2013's E3 video gaming conference. Microsoft may be looking for ways to counter the upcoming threats and hold up Xbox 360 sales until their next-gen console arrives.
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