| Shadow1980 said: The problem with that is that there's no guarantee that continuous spec upgrades have any more capacity than other hardware revisions to keep a platform going indefinitely. A console's sales life typically follows a roughly bell-shaped curve, with a period of growth after launch, a period of peak sales, and finally a terminal decline phase where sales irreversibly diminish. It's that decline phase that prompts companies to release next-gen hardware. The console cycle is literally a cycle, similar to the tides except with sales. We've had hardware upgrades before, whether it was in the form of boosts to the specs or in the form of accessories that offer new capabilities, but they all failed to stop the inevitable post-peak decline in sales and had to be replaced by something that was a true generational leap. You can only squeeze so much out of an existing platform before a new one needs to come out to replace it. |
I see your point. I do feel things have changed though.
Back then, generational leaps were defiened by truly big obvious things. Like going from 2D to 3D. Or from SD to HD. Now we simply don't have that anymore. The difference between a $300 console and a $3000 gaming rig basically comes down to higher rez, higher framerates, faster loading....etc.
