Xbox 720 confirmed by Microsoft Executive

If you had any doubts at all that Microsoft would be releasing a next generation console, you can put them to rest.  Microsoft Windows GM Brian Hall recently mentioned the next generation Xbox in a podcast, where he discusses the product synergy between the next-gen console and other Microsoft products.

“We just decided it was time to do something new and bring the best of those and put them together and release it right in time for the new wave of products that we have coming out with Windows 8, the new version of Office, New Windows Phone, and the new Xbox,” Hall said when speaking about Microsoft’s Hotmail and Outlook functionality on the Verge podcast.

“Right in time” could signal that the next generation Xbox will arrive in 2013. It is currently believed that Microsoft will follow a similar pattern as the current generation, with Microsoft announcing the next generation console at E3 2013 with a release the following fall.

When asked about these comments from the Microsoft executive, the company stuck to its standard statement about defying the life-cycle convention that they’ve used in the past.