Getting more out of 360 is "a matter of code magic, time and effort," says Bleszinski

Cliff Bleszinski is of the opinion there's more developers can do with Xbox 360, thanks to the six years studios have spent with the console's architecture.

Speaking with Edge, Bleszinski said that since developers have had time to get familiar with 360s' inner workings, it is easier to "squeeze" more out of the console despite its age.

"With creative programming you can squeeze anything out of any given platform," he said. "Go back to the demo scene where these guys would take a 286 PC and in 38k make a demo that rivalled the most triple-A game of the time.

"It's just a matter of code magic, time and effort. I don't know how much longer the 360 will be around, but I'm sure that if we have a product coming out before the end of [its] lifecycle we'll continue to try and squeeze more water from that stone."

This is exactly what the team behind Gears of War 3 did, according to Blezsinski, who said Epic pushed the console "even further" than it had before.

"We're kind of at that point where in the SNES [days] they started using Mode 7 in ways you never expected," he said. "We're now at at the point where it's not learning how to use the hardware, it's learning to trick the hardware into doing what you want it to do.

"The first thing I was ecstatic about was the new lighting…we're at the point where an artist can just let the artist breathe, a nice brick wall can just be a nice brick wall; it doesn't need 8000 pipes layered on it."

Xbox 360 was released in 2005, and there has been many a rumor, especially of late, regarding the next iteration of the console.

The latest rumor has the system being cheaper and smaller with a Windows 9-based operating system.