The Xbox 360 has topped 70 million units sold, though this past quarter hasn't been very profitable for Microsoft.

Microsoft’s latest quarterly financial report has been issued and it includes drastically contrasting news for the company. On the one hand, the Xbox 360 division has reached an impressive sales milestone, while on the other Xbox 360 sales have seen a significant decline in the recent past.

First, the good news: According to Microsoft, the company has sold over 70 million Xbox 360 consoles since the machine’s debut in November of 2005. That’s enough to put it in the number eight position, just behind the PlayStation Portable, on the all-time list of best-selling video game machines. Not too shabby, though it should be pointed out that the Xbox 360 has enjoyed a longer relevant lifespan than the vast majority of earlier video game consoles. Historically it has been rare for any one machine to survive more than five years without being replaced by a newer version, but here we are almost seven years after the Xbox 360 launch and Microsoft has yet to announce a successor.

And that brings us to the bad news: Those same financial reports also point out that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 division hasn’t been doing so well lately. Over the last financial quarter, the company sold only 1.7 million Xbox 360s. That seems like an impressive number, but it’s actually a 29-percent decline over the same time period last year. Further, the Xbox 360 division posted total revenues of $1.95 billion, which again would be impressive if it wasn’t a one-percent decline from 2011.

The reasons for this revenue dip are myriad, but chiefly the console has been suffering from a lack of blockbuster titles in recent months. Here in October, where we just witnessed the release of both Dishonored and XCOM: Enemy Unknown in a single day, it seems like the console is overflowing with promising, lucrative games, but if you’ll recall this summer you’ll likely remember that it was something of a relatively dead period for the machine. Microsoft can’t really be faulted for this, as it seems the result of developers and publishers holding back their best titles until they might reap those big holiday shopping season dollars, but it does seem to have a solution. The November 6 release of Halo 4 is likely to change these numbers quite a bit, and while we don’t see it directly causing as many Xbox 360 sales as Halo 3 did way back in 2007, we imagine Microsoft is looking forward to the month of November with cartoonish money signs in its eyes.

When BioWare inevitably gets around to creating the next game set in the expansive Mass Effect universe, you shouldn't expect to see Commander Shepard in a starring role.

Picture Mass Effect in your mind. Got it? Okay, so it seems like a safe bet that what you’re currently imagining is either EA’s default iteration of Commander Shepard (seen glaring above) or your own personalized version of the character. One way or another, you’re imagining the protagonist of the Mass Effect series to date, and why shouldn’t you? In a franchise full of weird aliens and space-age technology, Shepard has always been the most relatable, reliable, human element of BioWare’s series.

Unfortunately, it seems that with the release of the Wii U iteration of Mass Effect 3 on November 18, Commander Shepard will have led his last mission to the stars. According to BioWare, the next Mass Effect game will feature an entirely new protagonist.

Fabrice Condominas, a producer at BioWare Montreal, was recently asked by VG247 where the developer goes next with the Mass Effect series. Obviously it’s a very successful money-making franchise, so neither BioWare nor publisher EA would want to see it just drop off the radar completely, right? While the developer may not have solid plans in place for new Mass Effect game, Condominas did offer a glimpse at what the firm is currently thinking.

“There is one thing we are absolutely sure of — there will be no more Shepard, and the trilogy is over,” Condominas said. “This is really our starting point. Now, the Mass Effect universe is vast, and very, very rich. So at this point in time, we don’t even know what kind of time frame we’re going to be in. All we’re doing is more gathering ideas from the teams, gathering feedback to see several things.”

“So first, we don’t want to make ‘Shepard 2′, or Mass Effect 4 with like, ‘Oh there’s no more Shepard but you’re a soldier in the universe’. So this will be a very, very different context for sure, and nothing has been decided on the rest,” he adds.

Alright, so BioWare is in the very early stages of production on this thing — specifically, the studio is still brain-storming ideas — but as of yet has not decided on who might be the lead character for the next Mass Effect title. That’s to be expected, but more crucially it offers fans a window of opportunity to speculate on who/what should be the hero of the next game. 

Obviously there are myriad reasons to make the next Mass Effect lead a human. Familiarity is a useful trait in the exotic Mass Effect universe, and we doubt that many players would be able to feel much emotional attachment to a creepy, insectoid alien. That said, we’re growing increasingly excited about the possibility that the next Mass Effect game might star an extraterrestrial. Sure, the writers would have to do a bit more work to convey emotional resonance, and the game’s lack of a recognizable human star might impact its sales, but think of how cool it would be to explore the complex alien cultures Mass Effect’s creators have built over the past decade as one of the aliens themselves. 

Regardless of which direction BioWare takes with this hypothetical game, it is still very hypothetical. You wont likely see a new Mass Effect game for the next few years, so try not to get too involved in planning this thing out within your own minds. We’ll let you know when/if BioWare opts to release further details on this title.