There were several advantages for Microsoft being the first to launch what is now the current generation of consoles. Their one year lead over both the Wii and PS3 allowed them to burst out of the gate, capturing the audience of gamers who were ready to make the jump to next-gen. Also, their status as the only one on the landscape allowed them to rope in some developers and create some very impressive titles that the competition could not yet touch. While Microsoft was late coming out with the original Xbox, the launch of the 360 was critical in a lot of areas according to Robbie Bach.

"It has given us a leg up with game developers. It has given us a leg up from an economics perspective. It helped us expand Xbox Live quickly. At a strategy level, if you asked if we wanted to be first again, I would say yes."

While Bach wouldn’t go so far as to confirm that Microsoft is planning to launch a new console in the near future, it sounds like the company is leaning toward putting out their next machine sooner rather than later. Of course, the 360 likely has several more years in store before it is replaced by a newer model, as we haven’t even heard the earliest grumblings on concepts for the next Xbox yet.

With Sony already committing to a 10 year lifespan for the PS3, the only real wildcard as far as Microsoft is concerned is Nintendo. While the company is still basking in the success of the Wii, it’s hard to tell when exactly gaming’s most revered company will launch its next console. At this point though, pretty much everyone working at Nintendo is too busy counting their money to even worry about what they are going to create next.

At any rate, we can now begin speculating on what cute nickname we’ll give to the new Xbox’s rampant failures. Since I doubt there will be "Red Ring of Death" for the new console, hopefully we’ll get something equally catchy; maybe the "Blue Octagon of Suffering" or the "Orange Light of a Thousand Woes."