Bill Gates says xBox 360 May Evolve

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According to Games Industry, Bill Gates has confirmed that Microsoft's next generation console, the xBox 360, may evolve as technology improves. In the past consoles have been released with identical hardware from month-to-month, and year-to-year, but Microsoft may change that model.

Microsoft is already developing plans for future revisions of xBox 360 which may include an HD-DVD drive, which would entrench the company in a battle against Sony's Blu-Ray technology. Such an upgrade would allow customers to watch new HD-DVDs on the xBox 360, but analysts doubt that game developers would utilize the extra capacity of HD-DVD technology to develop larger games due to compatibility issues with older xBox 360 consoles.

The idea of many different versions of the xBox 360 console has been around since some of the earliest rumors and news leaks. So despite the fact that consoles have not evolved in the past, this tidbit should not come as a great surprise. However, in this case Microsoft is counting on the fact that HD-DVD technology will win the next generation DVD format wars; otherwise they may find themselves SOL.