Xbox chief talks up next generation

Speaking at a Churchill Club event there, Robbie Bach, senior vice president and chief Xbox officer for Microsoft, gave Sony credit for designing a slick handheld game player. But he said whatever success the PSP achieves is unlikely to boost sales for the next version of Sony's PlayStation living room game console.

"It's a beautiful device, great industrial design," he said of the PSP. "But I think people will see them as separate entities."

Sony and Microsoft are set to launch the next offensives in their battle to dominate the $10bn video game industry when they introduce new versions of their game machines next month at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Microsoft will pre-empt Sony by a few days with a 12 May MTV special that will showcase the next version of the Xbox.

Bach said the decision to give the next Xbox a public unveiling on worldwide TV, as opposed to the usual press briefing, is partly a recognition that games no longer appeal to just a niche audience.

"For the first time, the industry is saying we want consumers to see this first," he said. "It's a recognition of this as a broad consumer market."

While advances in video game hardware will probably continue to run on the current four to five-year cycle, Bach said consumers can also expect more gradual enhancements through updates to software and the Xbox Live online gaming service.

"Sure, there'll be a next generation at some point," he said. "But you'll also see enhancements happen along the way more and more frequently."