There are two parks, one that wants to capitalize on the market at the moment and one that wants to take risk and utilize new technology to show what they are capable of and create support. If played right, early gen is where you get recognition, attention among low competition, they can build a following. End of gen you have the install base, but you have a ton of competition. This kind of ties into my theory on Nintendo's Wii consoles. They are essentially maintaining the developer realm of established gen technology, easy to make and cheaper so a larger install base. We saw it with the Wii, we are going to see it with the Wii U. The Wii U is very similar to the Wii, using current gen technology instead of next gen provides a platform every developer can make games for, low risk. (just to add all this talk about Nintendo not concentrating on graphics and focusing on gameplay instead is complete and utter BS. They are not mutually exclusives qualities in games, and can even be very related to one another, it's all business approach, going after 2nd tier development technology which is becoming more and more relevant)

This should tell you all you need to know

"The video game industry capped off a rough year in the United States with a horrible holiday month that saw sales plummet year-over-year across all categories. Market research firm The NPD Group recently released its sales estimates for December 2011 and the full year, and neither set of figures paints a pretty picture. Last month, total industry sales plummeted to $3.99 billion, down 21% from $5.07 billion in December 2010. Hardware sales dropped 28% to $1.32 billion in December, and software sales were down 14% to $2.08 billion. “December was very rough for new physical sales of video games hardware, software and accessories,” NPD analyst Anita Frazier said in a statement. “Because of the great slate of content that came to market during the fourth quarter, I had expected December sales to represent a larger portion of total year sales than what occurred. This year, December accounted for just 23% of annual sales, while the average for the past ten years has been 28.” For the full year, hardware sales were down 11% to $5.58 billion, software sales dipped 6% to $8.83 billion and total industry sales slid 8% to $17.02 billion."

http://www.bgr.com/2012/01/16/video-game-sales-fall-21-in-december-down-8-for-full-year-2011/

That was despite CoD:MW3 having a reccord launch, Skyrim and BF3 doing ~10m each. If something doesn't change lots of smaller devs will go out of business trying to match the advertising and production values of megafranchises, devs and publishers see next gen consoles as a way of resetting the board and launching new IPs with less risk.

It is because game consoles can't get any more expensive or any hotter than they were at the launch of this generation, actually they need to be cheaper. They couldn't release these cheaper but still worthwhile consoles in 2011 because they wouldn't have represented enough improvement, we have to wait until 2013 for that.

This is correct. The huge install base of Wii, PS3 and X360 doesn't matter when people already own enough games for their consoles and aren't as interested in buying new ones. And the numbers prove that SW sales are declining. 2013 will be even worse.

Very true good point! 

You're only encouraging the points in favor of your view.

Other people have made great points as to why asking for a new gen is valid, and much of it has to do with consumer apathy. Unless we understand this, we can't come to the follow-up question, which is "Why is there so much consumer apathy? Why don't movies have this issue", which would tie in better with your PoV. So try to see the other side, and I'll explain why.

The reason there is consumer apathy is because this industry is sick (litterally). In contrast with the movie industry where smaller niche films get their appreciation in smaller festivals like the "Cannes film festival", this industry almost only has the "Hollywoodian" dynamics of the film industry. Whereas the film industry really has both, ours lacks emphasis on the value of the experience because it is a VERY consumeristic and money-driven, in excess imho.

That's why it's important to understand the real reason why devs are asking for this without blocking your understanding just because you only want to see your PoV. Once you understand the why, you can then explain why what you think is right for the industry isn't happening, ie making the most use out of potent systems.

It's a sad state of affairs, but sadly the video game industry is more often than not a place to make a buck rather than a place to create truly immersive and ground-breaking experiences.

imho

People have answered these questions... why are you still asking??

If you sincerely want to know (which I seriously doubt at this point), you should challenge the answers provided in this thread. A forum is not a place to repeat challenged ideas, it's a place to learn.

People gave opinions, the profitability of the market is a fact. That is why.

The market isnt growing but selling a game to a installed base of over 120 million consumers across PS3/360 is more likely to produce revenue than a new game with greater development costs on a new system with about 3 million units. This can also be due to the global recession.

The developers are only telling the manufacturers that they are ready for the next step because they need to start planning it and the manufacturers dont seem very interested in rushing out new systems as they are making good money with the current ones still. I do believe they also want all 3 consoles to be in similar ammounts of power so they can release multiplatform versions of their games covering the whole market. Its just marking terrain for the future.

Saying things like people just buy the same game 3 times on one generation is silly. Saying that a new system is less risky for new IP's is also silly. Its all in the advertisment and a quality product.Its more like: a bad new IP has a bigger chance to not do so bad if it has imba graphics despite beeing crap.

That's why I said, if you disagree with the points raised, challenge them. Don't quote me, quote them!

Everyone is entitled to their opinion. There is no reason to raise debate when their points are not based on anything but personal opinion.

We have fact = the numbers. They say the market isnt growing, but they also say games like MW3 and skyrim beat sales records.

With those facts, make up your logic.