Microsoft has assured buyers that the Xbox 360 console should have a seven year lifespan. This news follows rumours of a new Xbox 720, and a slimmed down Xbox 540.

We said from the beginning that we expect the Xbox 360 to have a long tail," he said. "Clearly we didn't do that with the original Xbox, which was a strategic decision we made. Admittedly, we don't have any experience doing this, but we're pretty confident 360 will have a long tail." Sony has already gone on record that it has a "ten year plan" for the PS3, so it's not entirely surprising that Microsoft is also planning for the long haul with Xbox 360. When quizzed on what this means for the Xbox 360 hardware, which will probably start to age down the line without a hi-def disc format and mandatory hard drive, Kim said Microsoft would continue to tinker with technology.