Microsoft is not considering an imminent launch of a next-generation Xbox, saying Kinect is effectively the company's new console.

Ben Board, who works in the Xbox division as the European Developer Account manager, dismissed any talk of Kinect being a stop-gap peripheral and said it was being afforded a similar marketing drive to that of a fresh machine.

"Kinect is hugely innovative and it reshapes people's expectations of the way in which they control a game," he said. "We don't see it simply as an add-on. It is our view that Kinect is our new console."

Talking at the Develop conference in Liverpool, Board admitted there would be a team looking at the technology of a Xbox 360 successor but said it would likely be "years" before a new console was launched.

He added: "What we have with Kinect is something that goes beyond what our competitors are doing. It's goes way beyond the Nintendo Wii."

The past has seldom been kind to add-on console peripherals with stark commercial failures including the Mega-CD which was launched in Japan in 1991 and was intended to be a stop-gap solution for the Sega Mega Drive.

But Kinect sold a million units in the first 10 days of sale.

"We are extremely happy at the success of Kinect," says Board.

- THE INDEPENDENT