“I think it’s important to say that the Xbox 360 is the console of the long future for us,” David Hufford, senior director of Xbox product management, told the Guardian. “There is no need to launch a new console, because we’re able to give this console new life either with software upgrades or hardware upgrades like Project Natal.”

Project Natal is Microsoft’s upcoming motion sensor system.

“The Xbox 360 was designed for a long life,” Hufford adds, “and I don’t even know if we’re at the midpoint yet.”

This would mean that the Xbox 360 has a console life akin to that of the PlayStation 3 and its 10-year life span.

There’s no need for a new Xbox, says Microsoft [Guardian.co.uk via Edge]

This past week Kotaku put a comprehensive look into its crystal ball, breaking down what’s ahead for the major platforms, while also looking at the agendas and priorities of games’ top influencers and constituencies over the 365 days to come.

This is our equivalent of baseball’s hot stove league, when the season’s done but there’s still fun in pulling up a chair to opine and speculate. Please rejoin us and your fellow readers in the following features and discussions of 2010, the year to come in games.

2010: The Year Of Better PlayStation 3 Games?
2010: The Year of Better Xbox 360 Games?
2010: The Year of Better PC Games?
2010: The Year Of Better Wii Games?
2010: The Year of Better Nintendo DS Games?
2010: The Year of Better PSP Games?

What Won’t Be Coming To Video Gaming In 2010

You’re A Gamer In 2010 … What Will You Do?
You’re A Game Developer in 2010…What Will You Do?
You Run A Big Game Publisher In 2010…What Will You Do?
You’re A Video Game Retailer In 2010…What Will You Do?

“But let’s say in 10 years time what we traditionally call ‘console games’ simply won’t exist,” Wada told Develop. “The exact timing at which it will go away is hard to determine, but somewhere around 2005 the console manufacturers’ strategy shifted.”

In the past, he continues, the platform was hardware, but now it is network. “So a time will come when the hardware isn’t even needed any more.”

But won’t this hurt game companies and platform holders? “First of all the distributors and sales firms will see a big negative impact,” said Wada. “But as I say the format holders knew that this shift was coming.”

Square Enix is currently branching out to focus on PC browser games, which Wada sees as potentially big market especially in Asia.

Yoichi Wada’s online vision [Develop]

So after 20 or so minutes of very positive talk about the work of the Gates Foundation to cure disease and help the needy, is Gates’ response to Meet The Press host David Gregory about where computers might be heading.

Remember, Microsoft’s Project Natal is an Xbox 360-oriented device that uses advanced cameras, sensors and a microphone to detect users’ gestures, facial expressions, voice and even the colour of their clothing.

Here’s Gates:

Bill Gates, founder, Microsoft: We’ll also have computers we can talk to, computers that can see what we’re doing. So whether it’s making a gesture in a business meeting to zoom in on a chart or try and look at what a house would be like before it’s built, this idea of the computer seeing 3D displays and voice interaction leads you to where the keyboard and the mouse, which is how we think of the computer today, is not the only way we interact. It’s a far more immersive , rich environment….

David Gregory, host, Meet the Press: We can talk to each other?

Gates: Absolutely. You’ll be able to put onto the wall of your office a video conference with whoever you’d like and have the computer listen to what’s going on there and create a transcript and make it searchable. And so, natural interface, I think is the thing that people underestimate right now.

Yes, this is also a very Minority Report-ish future. And a Gamer: The Movie-esqe future. But that stuff is fake. Natal is real and could do some of what Gates is talking about.

Meet The Press 11/29/09 Episode

“I think it does hurt them,” said Stephen Smith, a partner specialising in entertainment and video game litigation with Greenberg Glusker, tells Variety. As Smith points out, Activision should strive to keep big names like No Doubt happy.

“The music community is notoriously insular,” adds Smith. “If you get a bad name with a couple of well-respected artists, you’re going to have trouble with all of them.” Musicians want to be cool, but bandied about like marionettes on stage.

This year, music game sales are behind 2008’s retail pace by 40 per cent.

No Doubt/Activision suit raises issues – Entertainment News, Technology News, Media [Variety]

“Most radical people even dare to say that retailers will be replaced by digital distribution in no time,” Iwata said at a recent Nintendo briefing. “But personally, I think it will still require a significant amount of time.”

By significant, Iwata means two decades. “In other words, it will require many years and months for the majority of video game purchase to become digital,” said Iwata. “In short, in 20 years or so I might say it will have probably changed. But in five years or so, I do not totally agree with opinions that no one will purchase titles at retailers by then.”

Habits of life, Iwata pointed out, don’t change such radically and quickly. “Especially for the expanded audience of various people,” he added, “to whom we are and will be trying to appeal, I believe their habits will change more slowly.”

Twenty years? Won’t we have flying cars then?

Investor Relations: Corporate Management Policy Briefing / Semi-annual Financial Results Briefing Q & A [Nintendo via GoNintendo] [Pic]

The future? The future.

The PS3 already has motion controls with the SIXAXIS, but will be getting more exact motion controls with the wand-like controller. Microsoft’s answer to motion controls is Natal.

Square Enix’s Wada thinks the impact of motion controls might be “small”. In an interview with The Financial Times, the exec said, “Present game machines already have a lot of functions: they are a network terminal, a Blu-ray or DVD player, and a gaming machine. Compared to these three pillars, the [new motion] controllers are quite limited, so the impact may be small. They are an extension of the gaming function.”

This being said, Wada calls Natal’s user interface “fantastic” and he thinks it will become standard.

According to Wada, the machine that started the recent motion controller craze, the Wii, will be getting a new version in 2011 and possibly a new controller — we’re thinking this new controller with combine the traditional Wii Remote with Wii MotionPlus into a single controller.

Games groups eye next level [FT]

A future in which music games could abandon consoles altogether. Harmonix’s Josh Randall explains, “I think you could foresee a future where maybe you don’t even have a console. Your instrument can have all these songs and you just plug it into your TV.”

Like a plug n’ play?

He adds, “I’m sure it [the genre] is going to start to move in weird ways that no-one’s even thought of yet.”

Like a plug n’ play?

When not predicting the future, Harmonix is currently committed to consoles, but is interested in doing stuff in the mobile space.

Harmonix: music games could abandon consoles [VideoGamer via EndSights] [Pic]

Bleszinski believes that the future of shooters is RPGs. Does that mean Gears of War 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be an RPG-influenced shooters?

It depends on where things go. I mean, one could wean that from the comments I made earlier about the future of shooters is RPGs and see where things are going with us.

We really hope that Bleszinski brings back the classic Gears of War style for Gears 7. That’s our own selfish wish. Sorry.

The future of shooters is RPGs – Bleszinski [Develop]