Chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp. said during his speech at the University of Washington that going forward the software giant may release different form-factors of Xbox 360 video game systems tailored for different price-points and usage model.

“In the case of the TV we've got both strategies. We actually have a TV implementation in some senses built into Windows. It works really well for small screen TVs that you might call a PC, but for that big screen device here's a piece of hardware that we build, there's no diversity. You get exactly the Xboxes that we build for you. We may have more form-factors in the future that are designed for various price points and options, but we think it's going to [be] important,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, reports Gearlog web-site.

The head of Microsoft did not elaborate much about the form-factors and did not reveal the company’s plans. However, likely scenarios seem to be a release of a slimmer and more affordable flavor of the Xbox 360, a version of Xbox 360 for movie fans with a Blu-ray disc drive and/or a mobile version of the console, which will naturally run different software than the Xbox 360.

Microsoft’s current game console has not changed its design since the launch and may be considered rather bulky compared to Wii or even PlayStation 3 slim. Moreover, new form-factors could boost competitive position of the Xbox 360 in general provided that the software giant builds in certain new functionality.

Unfortunately, Steve Ballmer is known for rather imprecise comments about the Xbox 360 hardware, therefore, there are still chances that he did not mean to promise any new form-factors, but meant new software services, for example.

Tags: Microsoft, Xbox