Rumors about the release of Microsoft’s next-generation gaming console, currently known as the Xbox 720, have been flying around lately, but that does not mean that a launch is imminent. In an interview with French publication LePoint, Cedrick Delmas, marketing director of Microsoft France, said that he is sure that no new Xbox will be released this year.
This contradicts reports that Microsoft will finally unveil the successor of Xbox 360 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2012 (E3 2012), followed by its release in late 2013. Rumor has it that the new console will sport a Blu-ray drive and come with a AMD 40 nanometer Radeon 6000 GPU.
“We are in an industry where it talks a lot, it likes to tell stories,” Delmas said in the interview. “I’m not convinced that things are happening this year. The cycle of the Xbox 360 is far from over. The proof we are not at all parties on the logic of price drop this year. Then what will happen at E3, it is still premature. What is certain is that there will be nothing new in 2012.”
Nintendo, the company’s Japanese rival, meanwhile, is preparing to launch the Wii U, its latest gaming console offering that is set to be released in the second half of 2012.
The Microsoft France marketing director said that Nintendo is walking a different path from Microsoft and it is “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.”
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