Small correction from last year to 2006.

The game is called Beggar's Prince - http://www.gamefaqs.com/console/genesis/data/931595.html 

^^ bah, its still decades give or take a year or two....

10 year lifespan is very optimistic and stretching it. A 7 or 8 year lifespan is more realistic.

He's saying it will have a 10 year life span in the same way the PS2 will have a 10 year life span. So it's not like the PS3 will be the top Sony product for 10 years, which is how Sony tends to spin it.

However, for reasons which I've outlined before, I don't think the PS3 will enjoy nearly the obsolete half of it's life as successfully as the PS2 did. Primarily among these reasons are my strong suspicion that the PS4 will be launched at a much lower cost to Sony than the PS3, and that the PS3 will not cost-reduce nearly as well as the PS2, nor will it enjoy the popularity of the PS2 (this is obvious).

Beggar Prince was released in 1996, FYI.

No, what's sad is that you are trolling by not contributing to the thread's aire by going off-topic with a blatant statement such as the one I quoted. Either contribute to the thread with an argument that supports the topic at hand or GTFO. People who don't contribute and troll like you are nothing more than a pest on the thread, so please act mature and not like some little kid with what you typed.

OT: It's just a simple PR spin. The PS3 was made as a 'future-proof' machine with high-tech technology. If you ask me, I'd say it would be a rather foolish mistake; the graphics are the best FOR NOW, but things can get better. Hell, we all heard that Lair was pushing the PS3 to its limits, and what does that game tell you? I'd say that when the next Xbox and Nintendo console are released, they will be far more superior than the PS3. Heck, with how things are going (Sony still being in a hole, with Microsoft with them), I'd expect them to try and mimic the Wii with a low-cost console that goes into another direction. Just think about it, people. You make a low-cost system that has good purposes (the Wii), it sells a lot and you gain MORE money for each system sold. You make a high-end system (PS3 and X360), you are burning your wallet and would gain few sales.

I say the Xbox360 will get a remodel sometime in the future. Perhaps an Xbox360 Slim or something that will be cheaper to produce and will be more visually pleasing (a la the Nintendo DS Lite). This should help temporarily boost sales and it can be the excuse MS has to fix that RRoD problem for once and for all.

@1 - According to Naughty Dog, which are for all intents and purposes a first party developer for Sony, when they made Uncharted, which looked as good, if not better then most games on the 360, they were only use 25-30% of the systems power. To me this says there is plenty of untapped power in the system. Also just look at 2nd or 3rd year PS2 games and then compair them to lets say... God of War 2. Theres alot of potential power to be pulled from a system when people get used to making games for it. Its a mater of streamlining your coding and building Rendering tools and Engines that pull more and more from the system using less and less of its power. For example, a 1940s V8 compaired to a 2008 V8, more power, more torque, more reliablity and better gas mileage with more room to expand. When GTA III came out, it maxed out the PS2 on every front, but Rockstar perfected their tools, and GTA San Andreas was bigger, badder and better looking. (as another example)

Im not using the PS3's launch for anything, every new system that comes out is far more expensive then it will be 3 years or more into its life cycle. The XBOX was 300+ dollars, the PS2 was 300+ dollars, the 360 was 450+ and so on. All these consoles are now selling for hundred/s less then when they released. But on that note, MS's next console will be as expensive, if not more expensive (due to the power under the hood) as the 360 when launched, and when you go to a store, and see a PS3 for 299.99 and a XBOX720 for 499.99, which one do you think will be first on consumers minds to pick up? For an example of this, just look at the Wii. 249.99 vs 399.99 and 499.99.

My claim that the 720 would only have 10 titles at launch is perfectly true. There will not be more then 20, and not less then 10 "720" titles on the market, that is games made for that system, that a developer will make money on  FOR that system. To say it will have BC with 360 is fool hardy, when the 360 will still be ON shelves. Why buy a 500 dollar system for 10 titles that use the tech (but would hardly look better then the 2nd and 3rd gen games on the compairable 360 and Ps3, which is key and why this differs from the PS2 BC on the PS3) and has BC for 360 games, when you can buy a 200 dollar 360 and play all those hundreds of games and just wait for the 720 to drop in price a couple of years on?

Every new system has a period of greatly increased production costs. Beleive it or not even the 360 had this period, and is still having it. Sure the cost isnt as astronomical as the PS3 was in its beginning, but its far higher then it will be 3 years from now. Engines need to be made that utilize power, Rendering tools need to be coded for that use the new GPU and just the CPU's design will be far different. All these things cost alot of money, and with (at that time) the PS3 (with all the tools already made and in place) and the 360 (same deal) on the market, developers will have the same problem commiting that they have had with the PS3.

@2 - The damned if they do part is clearly (I think) explained in my above post. If they release the 720 half way through the PS3's life cycle they will be up against a technologically simular (Or if not, then Developement costs would go even higher) machine for probably half the cost of the 720 and against their own system (the 360) which would still be getting ports and multiplats from/with the PS3 and against the Wii.

@3 - Im not sure what you mean, the rock is leaving a machine on the market for almost 10 years that does not have the power or future foward tech built in to sustain that time on market and compete, or to put a new machine on the market and compete with two systems that are going to (for at least the first couple years of its lifespan) look as well and run as well as it will and cost half as much, have a far larger install base and be a very comfortable developement space for developers. 

Also the idea of them releaseing a redesign is fine, and should be done, but they cant radically change anything in the machine, like add Blu-Ray (for games, movies would be fine) or up its graphical power or procssing power because then their user base would become cleanly split. When GTA V comes out you dont want to see that it only plays on the PS3 and the XBOX360 v2 and have your poor original XBOX360 be left out because you dont have the new 360.