The general consensus in the industry seems to believe that this gen period is going to go past the more traditional 5 year cycle.

Development costs still are too high.(how many studios have closed this gen)

Recession

Consoles still highly priced

Sony would have to bow out,PS3 is already making them bleed money like a sliced artery.

If Nintendo learned from the past, it probably wouldn't do this. They drew out the life of the NES for far too long, and the SNES suffered as a result.

yeah, but Sony is winning in Japan with both the PS3 and PSP and when FFXIII, GT5, and FF Versus XIII come out there as PS3 exclusives, you'll be able to add 3 million more consoles to the amount of PS3's they've already sold there.