Reports of the Xbox 360's death are greatly exaggerated. Sure, Microsoft announced Xbox One this week, but the company is still hoping to sell a total of 100 million Xbox 360 consoles.
"We believe over the next five years we can break a 100 million unit installed base," said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft's senior vice president of Interactive Entertainment Business to the Official Xbox Magazine.
These rough numbers would mean that Microsoft would have to sell another 23 million Xbox 360 systems, having last reported 77.2 million units sold worldwide in April.
"Half of those will probably come from replacements, but half will come from new buyers," he noted to the magazine.
Xbox 360 announcement at E3 2013
Microsoft is determined to keep the Xbox 360 and its massive power brick plugged into your home entertainment system.
To do that, the company, as previously reported, is promising a "huge" E3 announcement related to the current-generation console.
"You'll see the Xbox 360 continue to exist, even as we launch the next generation Xbox One," noted Mehdi.
It also doesn't hurt that Xbox One won't play Xbox 360 games, forcing gamers who have a library full of physical and digital Xbox 360 games to rely on the seven-year-old machine.
Next-generation sales predictions
At 100 million Xbox 360 units sold, Microsoft would quadruple the sales of the original Xbox.
Although analysts have predicted that console makers may have trouble reaching such numbers due to smartphone and tablet competition, Mehdi expects that growth to continue.
"Every generation, as you've probably heard, has grown approximately 30 percent," said Mehdi.
"So this generation is about 300 million units. Most industry experts think the next generation will get upwards of about 400 million units to potentially upwards of a billion units," he said, including Xbox One, PS4 and Wii U in that total.
- Next-generation sales haven't begun yet, but the battle of Xbox One vs. PS4 has, and you can now read about the matchup.
