Definition of lifespan (according to Wikipedia and this op): The time between the first officially released game (any region), and the last officially released & licensed game (any region).
in other words, no new games = dead console.It should be noted that homebrew and unofficial games are still being developed for the majority of these consoles.
I used wikipedia game lists as my source, and sometimes checked their sources when things seemed odd (for example, Sega Gensis). I was surprised by what I found in many cases.
2nd gen
Atari 2600: 13 years
3rd gen
NES: 11 years
Sega Master System: 11 years
4th gen
SNES: 10 years
Genesis: 13 years (14 years according to Wikipedia's source)
Turbo-Grafx 16: 7 years
Neo Geo: 14 years
5th gen
Sega Saturn: 6 years
Nintendo 64: 5 years
PS1: 9 years
Atari Jaguar: 3 years
3DO: 3 years
6th gen
Gamecube: 6 years
PS2: 8+ years (almost 9) and still counting.
Xbox: 8+ years and still counting. (Most recent official game: Madden '09)
Dreamcast: 10+ years and still counting. (Most recent official game: Wind and Water: Puzzle Battles)
After researching console lifepsans, a couple myths I held were dispelled: Higher sales = longer lifespans. Not true. Better technology = longer lifespan. Not true. It seems people's devotion to a console as well as a company's inability to produce a worthy successor is most important.
PS3's 10 year lifespan doesn't sound ridiculous to me anymore - then again, neither does a 10+ year lifespan for Wii or 360. It's a lot harder to predict than I first thought. What happened with the 5th gen? Why was it so much shorter than the 4th and the 6th? And the big question: What's going to happen this gen?
