They didn't announce anything at this E3. That means nothing for 2009.

It's doubtful we will see a new MS system before 2011. They need to earn back some of that money they lost from 2001-2007. Besides, it wasn't their choice to end Xbox production. Nvidia forced their hand.

To a certain extent, their pricing strategy supports your theory ... Most companies would not replace a console before they have had their current console on the market at a price under $200 for (at least) a full year; with Microsoft's current pricing strategy, I don't think it would be reasonable to expect that the "Real" XBox 360 will be $200 or less until late 2010.

I could be wrong, but I suspect that Microsoft's target for the next XBox is late 2011 where they will start selling their new system at $400 and the XBox 360 at $150; they will continue with some first party support in 2012 but the lifespan of the XBox 360 will depend heavily on how much third party support it receives after the next XBox is launched. One of the benefits that the XBox 360 will have is it will (probably) continue to receive ports of whatever games appear on the PS3 (and possibly ports from portable games by 2011) which will extend its life as long as the PS3 is a viable platform.

But if Sony keep supporting the product then "we" the consumers will keep on buying. That's just the way it works.

Microsoft will let the 360 run longer than the original xbox, but as soon as the PS3 has overtaken the 360 and established a decent lead, that will be it for the 360.

And that Mattrick guy can suck my balls

If they are just making more consoles that no-one wants to buy, retailers will either not buy them or demand lower prices, which could mean selling them at a loss if they keep producing them.

IMO a console lifecycle should be 5-6 years. After 5 years the next generation will be announced, but games will be in development for one more year.

10 years is far too long IMO. I would have the feeling I am missing something. All these great PC games not making its way on my console, because it can't handle it or just a worse version of it... So 5 years is cool for me.

 Supply can make it's own demand according to Say's Law.

I don't think you want that guy sucking your balls.........the red carpet has teeth.

There's a little chart that disagrees with you. It's a pretty famous one, too.

Using your logic, Ford would never have stopped producing the Model A. If they would have just kept producing it, people would have kept buying it. And we'd all live in a utopia where we get to manually crank our cars to get them running.

To put it in more modern terms, why did Sony stop producing the PSOne? If they just kept producing them, we would continue to buy.

@rocketpig

There's a very big price difference between Video game consoles and Cars. Not to mention a huge difference in need vs. want for the consumer. Plus a single consumer is more likely to buy multiple consoles rather than multiple vehicles.

he really sounds weak. mayb japanese is always like this? try to act humble? while MS's tone is always so confident and aggressive just like typical westerners