The Xbox 360 is nearly six years old and the tech inside of it, is even older. For a console some thought would only live five years initially, the unit is still going strong and thanks to upgraded version of the consoles and the advent of digital content and motion controls, Microsoft continues to plan for a 10-year lifecycle.
That does not mean however, that another console can't be launched during that lifecycle, let alone announced. After a day of Xbox 720 news regarding the next Call of Duty game (post-Modern Warfare 3), Alan Wake 2 and Saints Row 4, there's another more direct mention of the Xbox 720 that comes from Hollywood.
The biggest movie in weeks debuts this weekend and stars Hugh Jackman - We're of course talking about Rock'em Sock'em Robots Real Steel. In the latest trailer for the film, a brief shot showing one of the fighting arenas reveals an Xbox 720 logo among the banner ads in the background.
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What does this mean? Nothing much but it's smart marketing on the part of Microsoft who are guaranteed to have people talking. All it takes is one internet-goer to spot the Xbox 720 logo and it spreads like wildfire, simply built off of speculation of the Xbox 360 successor and what its name might be.
Moviegoers may remember Michael Bay's The Island from 2005 which featured the Xbox logo and a holographic fighting room. It's not quite Kinect, but it was just another fun way to include Xbox in the future, much like they're doing with Real Steel here.
We do however, expect an announcement regarding the Xbox 720 next year during E3 2012. With the Wii U expected to have a full unveiling and Sony living large off of the PS3 price drop and their exciting new handheld, the Vita, Microsoft needs to show new hardware, especially since they had none to show this year.
With earlier rumors of Xbox 720 dev kits already in the hands of major developers and now rumors of a pile of games in development for the next gen, including the next Call of Duty, Alan Wake and Saints Row, it's only a matter of time now until we get a look into the next generation of console gaming.
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