Microsoft Ramping-Up, Hiring for New Xbox Release in 2015?

While it’s safe to say that Microsoft were actually working on the next Xbox iteration on the day of the 360’s release back in 2005, speculation is once again running wild as more evidence surfaces supporting speculation that Microsoft are finally tooling up for a new system release in about four years.

This morning ZDNet writer Stephen Chapman found a deliberately cryptic image amongst other designs in an online portfolio of one Ben Peterson, marked clearly as “Microsoft Xbox” and dated March, 2011.

(EDIT: As of about midday, The portfolio entry in question on Peterson’s site has been removed)

The close-up shows the results of … well, something he and the team at Microsoft’s Interactive Entertainment Business (IEB) design group have been working on while “investigating future user experiences and hardware for 2015.”

While it’s unclear exactly what the image is of, Peterson’s portfolio (http://www.benpeterson2.com) highlights his product design with various companies from 2008 onwards, and might indicate exploratory design work related to the next generation of Microsoft’s console is underway.

This also comes to light just after EuroGamer.net reported the recent discovery by a Beyond 3D forums member of a number of crucial job openings on Microsoft’s LinkedIn page, March 4th.

Caught amidst thousands of other positions available, the now inactive listings sought engineers to join the Xbox Console Architecture team “responsible for defining and delivering next generation console architectures from conception through implementation.”

The original Xbox launched in 2001, with the 360 following in 2005, so the exciting rumors would certainly seem to fit the regular four-to-five year hardware cycles we used to see with consoles, prior to the global economy going belly-up and helplessly standing us at the current level of tech, of course.