Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has confirmed a new Xbox 360 variant for 2010. That’s excellent news. Problem is, as soon as he’d said it the Director of Productive Management for Xbox 360, Aaron Greenberg, was swiftly denying it all.

Ballmer was speaking at The Executives’ Club of Chicago, an august institution for America's business leaders and not the sort of place to be talking about videogames, we would have thought. Nevertheless the new console skinny was duly dished, with Ballmer describing the machine as carrying technology that is “really, really close to becoming a reality”, that will have a natural interface and come bundled with a camera that can sense motion and audio.

All good so far, right? Alas, it seems that Ballmer was speaking out of turn, as Aaron Greenberg tells Kotaku:

“We’re not going to be launching a new console any time soon. I really believe he was speaking about Project Natal. We want to make sure people know that we’re excited about Project Natal but we’re barely halfway through this generation. We’re happy with the Xbox 360, so there are no changes from that standpoint. For the time being, we’re really just showing a new category of gaming.”

Ach, it sounds to us like Ballmer was a bit previous with his announcement. Either that or he’s just confused about what Project Natal actually is. Ultimately, though, this confirmation/denial routine is entirely characteristic of all the big console makers. Sit back and enjoy the show, folks...