| Squilliam said: ^ Someone can say that the PS3 will be on the market less time than the Xbox 360, by those standards nobody can say its true or not. However there is evidence like for example many previous generations had the lowest selling consoles on the market for the least length of time. Theres no precedent to infer that the PS3 will be on the market for longer than the Xbox 360 but theres at least past precedent to say that it would be on the market for less time. Between those two positions the strongest position would be based around the 'less time on the market position' as there is more evidence to back it up. |
This generation is different compared to former console generations. The PS3 is about to outsell the life-time sales of the runner up of the previous generation (it for example already outsold the Amiga 500 life-time sales multiple times over as well, despite the Amiga 500 lasted longer on the games development market than the original XBox) and the software line-up of what is known to be under development is second to none.
If historic evidence is anything to go by Sony's take is more than credible regarding their underlined anticipated lifespan for the console. Sony has proven they are able to support their platforms with great first and second party software. With the PS1 and PS2 they have a topnotch track record, IMO enough to give Sony the benefit of doubt (at least more so than its rivals).
Specs wise the PS3 was designed to last longer than the other consoles, that's a very important reason why it has Blu-Ray, the Cell, a default harddrive, etc. Sony's first parties are oozing with talent, just look at Uncharted 2, only Naughty Dog's second effort on the platform so far.
Regarding the profitability argument, we already knew before the PS3 launched Sony invested a lot of money and it would take a long time for them to become profitable. Sony was able to take the beating (other companies in the past in similar situations weren't as strong as Sony is) and it is a large part of why the PS3 is such a great deal from the technology standpoint. So of course once they turn profitable on the hardware + software sales they need to keep the platform alive and kicking for as long as possible, to earn back these investments and in the end generate a profit (of course mostly through software sales).
