Well jsut on a side opinion I have thought about this before. So let's run some scenarios. If Wii dominates this generation in similar fashion than what happened with the original NES, as both Wii and NES are similar in many ways, then yes PS4 will still come out. But if PS3 hit last with the 7th generation then there is a strong chance that PS4 will be Sony's last console. If 2nd then no it'll be hear for a few more. If MS hit's 3rd then I don't even think there will be a 720. Close to $6 billion in losses with more than $20 billion invested. Why stay a losing battle with now going down a place after a generation. MS I don't think will return and if they do it will be a mediocre outing. Bungie will probably still be with MS but will allow Bungie and Rare to still develop on Nintendo platforms as MS has done Nintendo handhelds. Cause we all remember MS was in this to shutdown Sony not Nintendo. I think you've seen this a lot in MS's mentality towards Nintendo as being very "friendly". Now if MS hits second then they are definetly in with 720 and continuing beyond that. And with this soon will knock off Sony and MS will have accomplished their goal. And with still a very nonchalant war with Nintendo I think you'll see another developer enter. Who I don't know. Best guesses. EA, Square Enix, Capcom? EA is the only American dev that could enter because I don't think man American companies will enter do to worldly bias as seen with the Xbox series and MS. So this would bring us to the 8th generation. If Nintendo wins then motion sensing is the standard and all 3 will have switched over. Except Nintendo will be the brandname and they will not only innovate on controls again but most likely up to next gen standards that were upped to for the last generation. Luckily though for the 8th generation graphics are going to start splitting out. We are getting really close to as high as we can and ever will go. Photorealism is impossible. We all know this. And we are just getting to that point where we'll be under photorealism but still almost there. So then you'll se a huge physics and depth revolution for the hardcore gamers. So 8th generation will have 720, PS4, and N6. If PS3 lost then PS4 is Sony's last attempt mainly in a fashion that you saw with Dreamcast. Release really early but it will most likely just can out sooner or later. Sony will sale all their properties and stick to entertainment. If Sony had come in second then PS4 will be a huge direct competitor to N6 and we'd see quite a duking out but brandname would still probably give the N6 the win. And then you'd have a long battle of these guys. While MS will simply fade out. I think generations have really shown that only 2 competitors are able to compete at the same time and I think this is why one of them will fade out in the 8th and 9th generations. Now if 360 comes in first and Wii in second and PS3 in 3rd then it will be similar things for Sony but changes for Wii and then to come N6. I'm not going to get into that cause we are simply talking Sony. If Sony gets second and Wii gets 3rd well we all know Nintendo is not going anywhere. Win or lose NIntendo is the only one that won't be affected. Mainly due to the success of everything else including software and handheld hardware. I mean if they lose well then they are still making huge profits off the DS an N software. So N6 is inevitable and will be stable. It's just NIntendo's plans will definetly be different. So definetly a lot of possibilities but Sony has to get 2nd here at least. They can't really afford to get last. They can't take billions of losses like MS can. Meaning PS4 will be an entirely different strategy as we saw even how PS2 followed suit in a lot of ways to N64 even though PS1 won. As for the handheld market for Sony PSP has lost. We've seen this. PSP2 sounds like a simple upgrade which will most likely make it the lite that we've heard about. But nothing can save the PSP. DS will outlikely sale PSP1 by a 80-90 million when it's all over. DS is most likely goign to set huge hardware records. Possibly larger than that of the PS2 which I believe in actual sales is at about 105 million. If PSP2 releases then DS will most likely still outsell that as the dominance of the market for Nintendo is really just too strong to make. Nintendo will most likely come out with a new handheld in 2012-2013 timeframe as DS success will be for a very longtime. Comparable timeframe to that of the GB. The next one will most likely be just as successful. So a loss with PS3 could pretty much seal the deal for Sony being gone by the 9th generation. A loss for MS pretty much seals them gone by the 8th or 9th generation as well. A loss for Nintendo means they will still be here. Definetly made but nonetheless still here. So really Sony needs to be thinkinga bout this. I've heard rumors of a Summer pricedrop and although it would help sales it would continously keep pushing back that debt that could kill Sony before PS3 kicks off. Sony needs to keep it at $600 til at least 2008 so when they drop it they'll be losing not as much when they do. Drop it this summer and we could see close to $400 losses per console. But Sony can do it and there is only one way. Take the European market. They can't take the American one and they sure as hell can't take the Japan one. Sony has to focus on the European market if they want to be a contender. So kinda jumbed around but if Sony falls with PS3 then 9th generation I see Sony totally out of both gaming markets, have sold all their properties, and completely out of the gaming world.
