Xbox 360 News: Console to Have 100 More Games Before Phase Out in 2016

With the Xbox One now confirmed for a release date of Nov. 22, many gamers are officially looking forward to the release of the new console and preparing to upgrade from the Xbox 360. However, Microsoft is fully prepared to continue supporting the Xbox 360 for quite some time, even after the Xbox One is launched and games start appearing in droves for the next-gen console.

Yusuf Mehdi, the man who announced the release date for the Xbox One, spoke at the Citi Global Technology Conference about the profit margins Microsoft is expecting from the launch of Xbox One. He was quick to point out that Microsoft is fully ready to continue supporting the Xbox 360 until 2016, so that the company can use the profits generated by the Xbox 360 to cover the expenses that the new console will bring to the company.

"You've seen us over the years constantly be focused on profitability and improving year over year. There are different points in the cycle of when you invest in new hardware. If you look at 360 that platform lasted for seven to eight years and it's going to go for another three years. It's incredibly profitable now in the tail. Some of these things take some time in the launch year in which you invest, and then they they play out over time," Mehdi explained at the conference. 

Microsoft is backing up this commitment to the Xbox 360 by releasing 100 new games on the console during this time, ensuring that those who don't initially jump onto the Xbox One bandwagon will still have new games to check out on the Xbox 360. Mehdi also gave some new figures showing that the Xbox 360 is continuing to grow despite the impending launch of the Xbox One:

"We've seen our Xbox Live subscription service continue to grow. We're up to 48 million members now. We're shipping more games than we've ever done before. Those are things I look to say, 'hey we can grow not just top line revenue but also profitability'... We're going to continue to invest in Xbox 360, and the two devices can work in concert. So it's not like the day we ship Xbox One your 360 won't work. We'll continue to support it."

It looks as though the Xbox 360 will continue to be a big part of the video game landscape for the foreseeable future.