Microsoft's Chris Lewis has made the bold move of claiming that the Xbox Kinect will give the Xbox 360 an extra five years of life at the very least.

The Vice President for Interactive Entertainment Bussiness in Europe was eager to stress the potential that the Xbox 360 still has, suggesting that gamers could see a wave of new features and peripherals, like Kinect, enhancing the current console rather than releasing a sequel to the Xbox 360.

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Chris Lewis: "Kinect really gives us, I think, a very genuine additional five years, what Kinect does is broaden us out to users that we weren’t addressing in the past."

Of course it certainly helps that Xbox Live now sees a new user come online every five seconds and has almost certainly surpassed the $1 billion revenue mark this year. That and the inclusion of Live on Windows Phone 7 are all sure signs that Microsoft has a lot more pegged for the 360 and for the Xbox franchise.

Lewis and Microsoft aren't alone however, with Sony making a similar claim of the PS3 insisting it could also see a 10-year shelf life thanks to the recently released Move controllers.

Links: Business Week