Halo dev: Xbox 360 still has lots of untapped power

The Xbox 360 still has a lot of untapped power despite coming to the end of its lifecycle, claimed Halo 4 developer Frank O'Connor.

Industry experts point towards next-generation consoles appearing in the next year, while many developers have called out for new hardware to work with to freshen things up.

O'Connor believes that the current-gen consoles have been around for so long because they are still powerful, pointing out that the Xbox 360 has a lot of 'untapped power'.

"...I would actually strongly contest the fact that the Xbox 360 is at the end of its lifecycle, this has already been one of the longest generations and there's a really good reason for it, which is that current consoles are incredibly flexible and still really powerful," he told GamesIndustry.

"The reason Halo 4 looks good is that that machine has an awful lot of untapped power still and it's going to continue to."

He predicted that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 would still serve a purpose in years to come.

"I think that looking forward into the future I can see years from now, even after next-gen platforms are out, that you'll have lower priced versions of the existing consoles happily living side by side and serving really valuable functions," he added.

"Not just becoming the little brothers like cast offs, but still being your Netflix player, still being your DVD player, your Blu-Ray player in the case of the PS3, and still doing really vital things around your house.

"And that means if people are still using it they're still going to want gaming experiences on it."