Microsoft expects new Xbox games through 2007

LOS ANGELES - New games for Microsoft's current Xbox video game console will debut through 2007, Microsoft said today, even as it prepares for the expected imminent release of an Xbox successor.

While Microsoft has not committed to a release date for the new console, code-named "Xenon," the industry universally expects it sometime at the end of 2005.

In a release on developers who will make games for that next-generation hardware, the company said "Microsoft is fully committed to this (current) generation and gamers can expect an amazing pipeline of titles into 2007."

A Microsoft spokeswoman told Reuters that 2007 is not a hard stop, but rather a guideline for the last releases of new games developed for the Xbox. Microsoft has not said whether its next console will be compatible with the current Xbox.

New games for Sony's PlayStation continued to come out through late 2004, even though the successor PlayStation 2 made its debut in late 2000. The PS2 is backward compatible with the PSOne.

Microsoft said every major name in the publishing and development industries has committed to make games for the new console. More details are expected next month at E3, the industry trade show in Los Angeles.

- REUTERS