Ballmer "sorry" for new Xbox remarks

By Robert Purchese Published 22 June, 2009

"I confused the issue," says MS boss.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer is "sorry" for saying that a new Xbox 360 will be on shop shelves next year.

"I confused the issue with my poorly chosen words," he told IGN. "There is no news in my comments. Things are as reported after E3. Sorry."

Ballmer told a room of suits that a new console with "a natural interface" and built-in camera was on the way. He, as Xbox bigwig Aaron Greenberg said over the weekend, was not talking about new hardware but Project Natal, which looks poised to be bundled with Xbox 360 for an effective console relaunch.

But direct confirmation has yet to be given, allowing developers, analysts and retailers to speculate about what Microsoft is up to. Perhaps not a new console, but one with minor tweaks and improvements?

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (29) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • coolbritannia #1 3 years ago

    Bag open, cats, everywhere.

  • Yossarian #2 3 years ago

    How is this still a news story? STOP MILKING THIS NON-STORY.

  • uglygamer #3 3 years ago

    Good for him if only he is telling the truth, but we will still wonder if his original comments are true.
    Edited by 1 at 22/06/09 @ 14:16

  • des #4 3 years ago

    Omg...how many articles are you going to post about this to pimp some hits?

  • uglygamer #5 3 years ago

    @ user des. Eurogamer have every right to post news like this. After all it could be important in helping people make decisions on whether to buy an XBox 360 now or wait.
    Edited by 2 at 22/06/09 @ 14:18

  • miiiguel #6 3 years ago

    It's obvious that Natal will be included in a new SKU in 2010, either you call it a new 360 or "a" 360, it's just a matter of rethoric.

  • theiceman #7 3 years ago

    Whatever. Same ol' MS spouting the usual BS. Wait until 2010 to see if pigs can fly...
    /turns off crystal ball
    /gets coat

  • theiceman #8 3 years ago

    By the way, liking the new comment page

  • wittynic #9 3 years ago

    @uglygamer

    It really shouldn't make a difference - its pretty clear MS arent going to release a "new" console, and i doubt the advantages of having Natal inbuilt will be very great, if they release the 360 with Natal bundled.

  • KrissAkabusi #10 3 years ago

    I don't give a balls about an actual new console, but I wouldn't mind someone fishing around to see if they are redesigning the current one. That would be nice enough. The current version is way too big and sounds like me constantly swinging my genitalia in a circular motion.

  • jjolley #11 3 years ago

    I wonder if there could be a setting for the previous comment styles. I am finding that, navigating with a screen reader is a bit harder. The original listings for comments were in a table that I can move down the comment rows, just reading the comment column. Is there any way of setting it back for individual users?

  • miiiguel #12 3 years ago

    @Kriss: yeah, it is a bit noisy, due mostly to the DVD on anfetamines, but it looks good, imo. I like the concave design, it does seem to be much smaller than it actualy is, due to its design.
    Idk if it's true or not, but in a design magazine I browsed through, it was stated in an article that the company that design Xbox 360 made about 5 sketches and ran an inquiry where they asked not what ppl liked most, but what was the one that looked like an Apple device.
    Edited by 1 at 22/06/09 @ 15:16

  • mcmonkeyplc #13 3 years ago

    Isn't he going to comment on how crap sonic team are now?

  • superdelphinus #14 3 years ago

    not quite as good at this as Apple are they...

    how can you neg rate that you bar stewards!?

    fuckers!!
    Edited by 3 at 22/06/09 @ 16:17

  • Skurmedel #15 3 years ago

    "I confused the issue with my poorly chosen words," he told IGN and threw a chair at them.

  • superdelphinus #16 3 years ago

    "i'm trying to create an air of mystery and fking up royally"

  • Azazel #17 3 years ago

    He should adopt the tried and true Peter Molyneux method of "I'm working on this really cool thing, but I can't tell you anything more about it as it is in fact so cool that it would KILL YOUR MIND."

  • Darren #18 3 years ago

    I'll eat my chocolate hat if all these rumours of a new model of the Xbox 360 don't turn out to have some truth to them. I'd put my money on Microsoft releasing a smaller cased, better internally designed 360 at the same time at Natal launches. Both Sony and Nintendo have been doing this for years with their consoles and handhelds so why not Microsoft?

  • groovychainsaw #19 3 years ago

    A small model, yes. Possibly bundled with MS plug in camera and even the natal chips on board, yes. New console with significant upgrade over existing one? Highly unlikely, unless MS expects one of the other guys to jump into the next gen first (and sony's not going to any time soon...). I see Natal being a £99 (this is a guess!) bundle with a couple of games that gives you wii-like functionality, either on existing xbox or new, tiny, all-in-one natal+xbox (maybe launched at £199 - pure speculation here chaps, but seems logical)
    Edited by 1 at 22/06/09 @ 16:57

  • Rodchenko #20 3 years ago

    Funny how Yossarian gets +17 and des -31 for saying essentially the same thing.

  • Yossarian #21 3 years ago

    I'm more famous and charismatic.

  • superdelphinus #22 3 years ago

    i wonder if bill gates even knows the x360 exists

    LETS RATE THIS COMMENT TO THE DEPTHS
    Edited by 1 at 22/06/09 @ 17:31

  • GamesConnoisseur #23 3 years ago

    "Funny how Yossarian gets +17 and des -31 for saying essentially the same thing. "

    ITS how you say it I think what will matters more, I would strongly suspect the grammar deficit posters will suffer the most! I would have loved to see how apologies etc would peform in the new comments section.

    Sure its a non news but a news that Ballmer is sorry for making this non news a big news that it was not! It was funny to see people like our beloved darren get too excited about the possibility of a new X360 as was getting jaded with the current one.

    Essentially a 'watch this space' for us to see how the actual refinements would work for the new X360 sku.

  • Ryze #24 3 years ago

    Balmer: DOH!!!

  • MARKIV #25 3 years ago

    I'm sure there is a new Xbox 360 coming, most probably an Xbox Slim ( apparently the PS3 slim will be annoucned at the Tokyo Game Show later this year ), so he's sure let the cat of the bag on that one.

    Now I'm thinking, why is the new Halo title to launch about the same time Steve mentioned the new console would launch actually is called Halo Reach!!?

    Could anyone imagine playing a version of Halo with their hands and or body!? :)

  • SniperZoz #26 3 years ago

    as said before no new xbox console for at least another 3 years - there will be h/w revision, and new sku's with natal and other stuff - but not a new console

  • coolbritannia #27 3 years ago

    aw dammit sniper, i know you put spoiler but i looked anyway. i've ruined the surprise now, i know exactly what's gonna happen.

  • schnide #28 3 years ago

    Ballmer: "I'm sorry guys, I honestly didn't mean to generate this much publicity for Microsoft and the whole Xbox 360 brand. I know this has kept pretty much anything PS3 [PSwhat? Entire world] related off the front pages when there wasn't even a story at the heart of this to begin with, but hopefully, you can forgive me.

    Next week. When I do the same thing."

  • superdelphinus #29 3 years ago

    define "front pages"