Xbox 720: New Xbox to release within 18 months?

A new job listing from Microsoft suggests a new version of the Xbox, perhaps the Xbox 720, will release within the next eighteen months.

If true, this means a new Xbox console could arrive before 2014, which many industry analysts have come to expect anyway.

The job description for the Director Marcom reads: "Over the next eighteen months Microsoft will release new versions of all of our most significant products including Windows (Client, Server, Phone and Azure), Office and Xbox, along with completely new offerings like Microsoft Surface."

"This wave of product launches will define the course of the company for years to come and thus provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to refresh and evolve our strategic brands," it continues.

Is the job description referring to the Xbox 720?

We can't say for sure, but given the lack of specificity Microsoft will surely try to smooth things over – similar to how they handled the recent "new Xbox" comment made by Windows Live General Manager Brian Hall. Microsoft responded to that situation by calling it a "misunderstanding" and claiming Hall was referring to the fall Xbox update. It could be possible that the new "version" of Xbox is the fall update as well.

In all honesty, it likely is referring to the update, but that's not to say a new Xbox won't arrive before 2014. In fact, we've already seen images of the Xbox 720 development kit, meaning game developers have already started working on creating games for the next-gen Xbox. In fact, it was just revealed that Eidos Montreal is working on Thief 4 for next generation consoles indicating the future is closer than we think.