| RolStoppable said: Among a small group of Sony fans, it's commonly assumed that the PS3 will outlast the 360 by at least two to three years in the marketplace and thus will overtake the 360 in hardware sales in the end. But is this really going to happen? Here are five excellent reasons why the 360 will probably have a longer lifespan than the PS3: 1. The first Xbox was dropped fast because of contracts with Nvidia - Microsoft didn't get any benefits from the cost reductions Nvidia made and therefore the Xbox lost a lot of money on hardware sales throughout its whole life which was a good enough reason for MS to drop the support for an already dying platform quickly and focus on their next console. That's not going to happen with the 360 because Microsoft was smarter this time around and does benefit from all cost reductions made on the hardware. 2. Customers decide how long a console's life is, not the companies - If people start to stop buying a system and its games, retailers reallocate shelf space to more viable platforms and third party publishers reallocate their resources resulting in the death spiral for the console. Once that starts to happen, there isn't much a company can do anymore. 3. The 360 and the PS3 share the vast majority of third party games - With the high development costs of HD titles, multiplatform games became the norm. Unless Microsoft or Sony offer incentives, third party games will be available on both consoles. Should one system start to enter the death spiral, the other machine will be affected as well, because its number of upcoming games will also shrink. The fates of the HD consoles are closely tied together. 4. Microsoft's and Sony's first party games are about equal in terms of selling power - On one hand you have Halo, on the other hand you have Gran Turismo. Then there are plenty of games on both sides that sell around two to four million units, overall it's about equal. So with first parties not having the edge one over another and third party games being shared, there's no reason to think that one console can outlive the other by a couple of years, unless one company would go to the lengths to keep a dying platform alive at all costs (why should they though?). 5. The 360 had a one year headstart - The above things considered, it seems reasonable that both consoles will start to fade around the same time. The difference is that the 360 has been out a year earlier, giving it the longer lifespan of the two.
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1. Response: Costing less money to make 360s does not 100% mean Microsoft won't drop support for 360 when they develop a new console.
2. Response: Microsoft stopped making Xboxes, therefore choosing the end of it's lifespan. Sony contiinued making PS2s, which still sell.
3. Response: Probably true, but I don't really see how this relates to Xbox360 outlasting PS3.
4. Response: Seeing how you said there isn't any particular edge either way, I'm not seeing how this supports Xbox360 having a longer lifespan.
5. Response: True, Xbox360 has a one year head start in sales, but assuming both that Microsoft stops support for Xbox360 when they come out when a new console and that Sony does not drop support for PS3, it is entirely possible for PS3 to continue selling and even pass Xbox360's worldwide lifetime sales.
