Gather Your Party

Microsoft has been rather quiet about the 720, and doesn’t comment on speculation on the console’s release.

In a recent article, Rob Crossley of ComputerAndVideoGames.com UK reports that “a job vacancy for a senior role in Microsoft’s entertainment division suggests that the next Xbox will be released before 2014.”

The specific listing seeks a Central Marketing Group director – according to Crossley, the hint at the new console is within the job description: “over the next eighteen months Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products including Windows (Client, Server, Phone and Azure), Office and Xbox, along with completely new offerings like Microsoft Surface.”

Crossley also explains that development kits were issued to several third party studios in the UK at the beginning of 2012.

The job listing doesn’t mention Xbox Live or the OS, and Crossley explains that the only pertinent information is “over the next eighteen months Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products including Windows, Office and Xbox.”

That single line gives enough of a hint that the next Xbox may have an earlier release date than expected, especially when that information ties into the dev kits that were given to third party studios in early 2012, which gives plenty of time to expect a 2013 release date.