call me the odball but i think it will !!! seeing that u have 3 types of potential buyers

1- 7th generation gamers .
2- ps2 owners or as alotta haters like to call em "sony fanboys
3- blu ray player shoppers looking for the best deal on blu ray hardware which is the ps3

so fellow gamers dont be suprised when u see a sharp turn for the best on that sales chart sticking out from the ps3's axis in late 2009 and 2010!!!

90 million is the highest total the PS3 can realistically achieve.

 lmao lmao  i cant stop lol

I believe this is a common misconception.  There isn't an army of PS2 owners out there champing at the bit to buy a PS3 when it hits the right price point.  Most PS2 owners I know, myself included, have already purchased a PS3 or 360.  The remaining PS2 owners I know who haven't purchased a current-gen console don't appear to have a concensus on what they're going to get.  Some are planning to purchase a 360 when it hits $199.  Some are planning to purchase a PS3 when it hits $199.  Some are planning to buy a Wii when they can find one.  And some are planning to do some combination of the above.

This notion that the lion-share of PS2 owners who haven't upgraded are just waiting to get a PS3 is just that... a notion.

As far as the Blu-ray aspect, Best Buy is selling an Insignia player for $280.  Yes, it's not as nice or upgradeable as the PS3, but it doesn't take up as much space or produce as much heat and is $120 cheaper.  Expect the standalone player prices to fall rapidly as the Blu-ray player market matures.

100m+ -yes
150m+ -no

Isn't it like expecting developers to start squeezing out more from the Wii or the PS2, which will give comparable graphics to the 360 and perhaps also the PS3?

Sure, the PS3's high end games will probably be close to next gen's low end graphics games (unless Midway releases another cruisin' on the Wii2 ) but it will look as dated to the hardcore graphic whores as the Wii is to them today. It will then be a last gen console with weak processing power. The Wii has the advantage of never have been defined in terms of processing powers, which makes it obsolescence-resistant, but hte PS3 is already obsolete now (compared to PC's) and will be increasingly so.

As I do expect this gen to last longer for all three platforms (360 is doing better than Xbox and Ms has a chance of making money on it as it owns the design for all parts; PS3 is hurting Sony financially and Sony is in no hurry to replace it and restart the haemorraging anew and Wii is the winner and is obsolescence-resistant thus can last as long or longer than the more powerful HD consoles, like the PS2 did) it only means that the graphical and processing gap between the PS3 and next gen wil be even bigger which will make the PS3 even more obsolete. It will thus have a longer life this gen (due to the longer gen wanted by all parties) but next to no life after the next gen launches.

The rest of your post marks it as sarcastic but the bolded part needs responding to for those thinking along those line.

Sony made backward compatibility a "core value" of the Playstation brand (their word, not mine) but doing so did not prevent them from completely ditching it a year later when they thought it was better for them to ditch it so don't be surprised to see Sony ditch the PS3 before its 10 year birthday* if it is in their interest, just like Nintendo kept the NES and SNES for 10+ years because they were successful but canned the N64 and Gamecube much earlier.

*I don't consider releasing the PS4 as ditching the PS3 just to be clear, though some Sony executives have hinted at the ten years plan being 10 years before the next console

@Sri Lumpa: If they hinted 10 year before PS4 is released, I wouldn't believe them.
I can believe 10 year or more PS3 total life span, of which 7-8 years as top end model and the last 2-3 (or more) as low end model, priced under 120€, just like it's happening to PS2.

Haha, now some of the Thread's well wishers have resorted to taking pot shots at the 360 to try and draw attention away from the ridiculous of this P.R. Stunt Sony has pulled to try and instill faith in its loyal userbase.

People, can we just let this die.

Kaz Hirai said:

"We're not going to ask the consumers to suddenly buy another PlayStation console in five years time, and basically have their investment go by the wayside."

source: http://news.cnet.com/Let-the-PS3-games-begin/2008-1043_3-6110352.html

So while it doesn't necessarily mean a PS4 after 10 years it is a hint at it as it would be rather disingenuous to call five years between consoles release having your "investment go by the wayside" and just one more year (6 years like between PS1 -> PS2 and PS2->PS3) "good value".

7-8 years is more reasonable as it would be 40-60% longer life cycle but given that when he said that the PS3 was at least twice the price of the Wii and 50-66% more expensive than the 360 (300->500 and 400->600) it would still be a worse value than either (even worse when considering inflation) as the extra price at the time of the statement.

Now it is quite possible that he meant that due to Sony supporting their console past the release of the new one is akin to not asking you to buy the new one but it is poorly worded for that purpose as I am not the only one who read it that way:

http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3153264