I read this last night.

http://www.notsocommoncents.com/essays/game-theory-how-sony-gave-ps3-another-year-of-profits-with-a-simple-ces-announcement/ 

Why Sony’s Strategy Makes Sense

By communicating to the entire industry that Sony’s stance is that 2012 is not the year for ‘next generation discussions’- Sony hopes to convince Microsoft to extend, at least for another year, the profits of the current generation hardware. As every hardware refresh traditionally brings uncertainty, intense competition, and red ink for the first few years. Sony believes it is likely to succeed with this gambit for two reasons:

Both Sony and Microsoft have taken particularly heavy losses in this generation’s console wars. Sony having subsidized the purchase of its high cost of goods console, due to the addition of a blu-ray player; and Microsoft having written off $1B in loses associated with it’s console’s high failure rates in the early years of release.

In addition, because Microsoft is leading Sony in profits and with Kinect breathing new life into the console, it does not have the same competitive need to announce a next generation console before its competitors- as it did with the Xbox 360.

Sony’s Tactic: Beautifully, Common Cents

With more to lose than gain, by starting the next round of console wars, Sony beautifully executed a common cents strategy to reduce needless ambiguity for consumers, industry trade press, and most of all its competitive environment. Depending on how Microsoft responds this should enable Sony to recuperate more of its PS3 investments.

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It made some sense to me and I thought "Hey, what if this guy is right?"

Then we got this.

http://www.gamezone.com/news/no-xbox-720-e3-announcement-planned-at-the-moment-claims-microsoft

“What we have seen with the Xbox 360 is that the Kinect has extended the life of the console," he added.

“Historically in the 6th or 7th year console sales start flattening or going down because it’s kind of the end of life,” Pinero explained.  “With us launching Kinect a little bit over a year ago, what we saw was a resurgence with Xbox 360.  It makes 360 a brand new console if you think about Kinect and you think about the new dashboard and the new UI that we launched this past November.  It’s like having a brand new console”

With a mindset like that, it's beginning to look clearer that Microsoft has no plans to reveal a new Xbox now, at E3, or anytime in the future of 2012 - and possibly 2013.  Their goal seems to be to transform the Xbox 360 into the all-around entertainment hub.

“We want that box to be the ultimate entertainment device in your house, giving you games, movies, tv shows, music, sports, and all kinds of entertainment.  So I think there’s a lot more that we’ll see on Xbox 360," Pinero concluded.

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I personally hope it did since I am not ready yet for new and expensive console. I would rather let the Wii U release and let this gen ride out a bit longer.

What about you all? Do you think SONY's strategy will pay off?

When was the last time a Sony strategy was right? ... there we go...

I think MS will execute it's plan regardless of Sony's strategy, if MS is ready to release a new console, they will do so at the time of their choosing.

It's not like the 360 will be fully dead when the Next-Box releases.

There's no way that either Microsoft or Sony should let Nintendo get a huge headstart on the next generation - especially if they are going to be fairly similar in power (with WiiU presumably a bit less powerful). It could have a devatstating impact on how the 8th generation turns out.

Microsoft have the power to knock Sony out of the industry if they release really soon - Sony will have to follow them really, and they can't afford to do so.

That's funny - I used to hear people say the same thing about Nintendo when the 3DS/WiiU were the most doomed things ever :o

I don't care if Sony goes 3rd party to be honest - I don't just not buy Sony because I dislike them as a company, I just don't find their games appealing. Sometimes people can't understand that different people have different tastes.

In other words, Sony is in a bad position, Nintendo has some proving to do, and Microsoft is in an excellent position...

:) I have my doubts ;) When the 3DS staggered I was a little worried. And 3rd parties still haven't proven to be onboard with games that cater to the more adult on Nintendo's home consoles. I have yet to see it happen. When it does, and Ninty does release the WiiU with its killer apps as promised, I'll be fully convinced ;)

Note: And by adult I don't mean MadWorld, I mean Uncharted, Resident Evil, Metal Gear and the likes.

i have an english question^^

many americans (basilzero this time) write something like "but even than I doubt Nintendo..."

isn't it "then" in this case? i read this so often and i always wonder if this is wrong?
sure one sentence later he uses "than" as well but this time this should be right :)

do i just fail in english or do you americans write this wrong many times?

and why does every third or so write "than" instead of "then" on the internet? i mean, i write without capitals when i write but i wouldn't write words with another meaning in my language. sure i will fail a lot in english but i'm just a little guy from a country with another language.

makes no sense just because it's the internet. but hey, not that i care a lot, it was just a question for myself and nothing against you.