Ars Technica: Sony and the "ten-year" console: a look at the argument

[NJ5]

Loud_Hot_White_Box said:

NJ5 said:
The "10-year plan" was never a plan per se. It was two other things:

1- A "10-year hope", as in SCE's employees "hope" that the PS3 will last 10 years.
2- A marketing buzz term (to try and convince customers to invest on the PS3 as it's a future proof investment).

 

The 10-year plan was a plan: it's something one thinks one will do in the future.  Your point 1 is vacuous because one could say of any future "plan" that it's merely a hope.  Do you plan to go out to dinner tonight.  No you don't, you only HOPE you'll be able to.  If unforeseen events occur, it'll PROVE that you didn't have a plan to go out to dinner.  Right?  LOL.

As for point 2, yes, it was a marketing term as well as a statement that PS3 has more "future-proof-ness" than 360.  The optical drive, games that can take advantage of the universal, mandatory hard drive, the fact that the hard drives aren't proprietary and can be swapped cheaply for larger drives, and the hard-to-unlock-but-high-potential Cell all speak to this point.

A plan would be something like "we plan to make the PS3 viable for as long as it benefits customers and us to the best of our ability". Which every console maker does I believe. Starting to fix specific timelines which are out of your control is not a plan, it's just a desire or a belief.

It makes as much sense for Sony to have a 10-year plan for the PS3 as for me to have a 10-year plan for being alive. All I can do is strive for it to happen and hope for it. Anything else is ridiculous and wishful thinking.

PS: BTW I hope I'll get better than 10 years :P