Microsoft hiring staff to design next Xbox

And suddenly, they’re all at it. Hot on the trail of Wii 2 rumors comes news that Microsoft has started hiring for staff to work on developing the next Xbox, which I pray to God will not look like this.

Of course, Microsoft planning a new console is as likely as bears doing their business in woods, but still, it’s nice to know they’re thinking ahead. Users at the Beyond3D forums discovered Microsoft was advertising on LinkedIn for a Graphics Hardware Architect to help with “defining and delivering next-generation console architectures from conception through implementation.”

The Seattle firm is also looking for a ‘Senior Architect and Performance Engineer’ for the Xbox Console Architecture Group. The ad DEMANDS that: “You will be responsible for the design verification and qualification of the Xbox console at the component, motherboard, and system levels.”

This tells us little about what the console will be, but DigitalFoundry notes how this hints the third Xbox is very, very early in development: “The evidence seems to suggest that the system is so early in development that the graphics hardware at the very least hasn’t been locked down.”

See also:Gross: The Xbox 720 in pictures

[LinkedIn, via Beyond3D, via DigitalFoundry]