2013-2018 = 5 years. (WiiU even longer)

But tbh  I would never ever pay 60 bucks for a PS3 or Xbox360 game because the dev mentality on those 2 systems was  "better visuals! who cares about framerate etc".   GTA5's framerate was a joke even the first mission was an insult to gamers because of the framerate (at least the PS3 version) The Last of Us had shitty framerate.  BeyondTwoSouls had (but that was unimportant because its a slow paced game) Castlevania on 360 had what? 12fps? etc..

Id rather buy a new $400 console every 5 years then paying 60 bucks for the 10th game that uses the same engine because there was no need for a better one etc.  or for a game that has completely unplayable framerate. And dont forget all the people that throw 600 bucks out of the window for the next redundant version of their apple phone each year. Dont buy patches (FIFA etc) for 60 bucks but wait for a price drop and the next hardwre is practically for free.

Long generations have way less advantages than they have disadvantages because making a game that looks like the best PS3 game is easier to make on PS4 than on PS3.  (EDIT: oops I had it "PS3 than on PS4" before which would not make sense) On PS3 you have to waste alot of money to make it look good  on PS4 you just waste processing power without optimizing the game and it will still look better almost for free. (The games have higher res etc. assets anyway devs just compress them so they run on the target hardware)

Are we talking about games or movies?

6 years sound perfect to me. With a 6 years cycle for handelds starting in the middle of the homeconsole gen so that handelds are approximatively on the same technologyb level.

Shorter.  I say six years, that way years seven and eight we can get the ports to the next system out of the way and hopefully I won't buy as many on the PS4.

Longer! Let's be honest, this current gen could/should have been held off for a year! Absolutely nothing of worth that couldn't wait has been released yet.

An Oct/Nov 2014 release with Destiny, TLOUR, Oddworld, Minecraft & maybe even GTAV would have been much better. Then there's be more to come in the very near future, and the machine would have had a cheaper release price.

I want this gen to be shorter, but in all honesty I would not mind it being the same length as last generation.

Personally, I want it to be as long or longer. I'll be graduating from the university at around 2018. In the meantime, I obviously cannot afford to buy 8th gen consoles and games.

If they last as long as the 7th, I'll graduate and them will be able to catch some great years of the generation (2011-13 for the 7th gen) =P

shorted since last gen dragged on way to long

From a profitbility point of view, the gen has to be as long as the last one. Its not even a question of if.

The only way this gen will be shorter is if Microsoft is losing so bad they are willing to rush in a new gen to try and get back in the game, much like they did with the 360. It means they will lose alot of money though.

A new gen is going to be an even harder sale than the current one. To have a long gen means that the next one will be able to show a more significant improvement that may justify its existance. If its just a small improvement that is hardly noticeable, it will most probably mean the death of the market. They have to be careful here.

Well, they've only been out a year. Let's be patient. 

Remember last gen's launch games?

Resistance, Kameo, and Wii Sports.