Honestly I see 0 point in a new Playstation. I am perfectly happy with the Playstation 3s graphics. They are very on par with the best of the PC world still, its not like the 360 where you look at the 360, then look at the PC version and go WHOA that 360 version is gimped (ala Mass Effect or Gears of War). The Playstation 3 is significantly more powerful and FAR more scalable then the 360. It is also well placed for what the future of gaming is, multiple processor systems with distributed computing as the engine that drives the games. Look at Intel demos of Nilhelm (probably spelled wrong) 8 core systems that are not much more powerful then the PS3 driving fully dynamic graphics WITHOUT any GPU at all. The PS3 can continue to grow in capability as more developers learn how to efficiently use the extra cores. The 360 has hit a wall with its limited 3 processor design, there is no real way theoretical or otherwise that it will keep up with the potential of the PS3.
I know some of you are thinking OMG the PS3 games look the same!!! but you are looking at mainly multiplat releases made for both (which means the graphics in something like GTA4 were reduced so they could fit on a DVD, MS charges extra PER DVD if you go over 1 DVD, read a few developers comments on that). Games that really start to tap the power of the PS3 like Metal Gear Solid 4 look on par with anything the best PCs run, and that will continue to be the case for several years.
Also look at what you get today for 3-4000 dollars in a gaming PC that you cannot get with a PS3 level PC (probably around 1000 dollar gaming PC). You can turn AA up (it is often quite hard to really tell the difference AA makes), can add more complex shadow effects (again, not a huge deal 99% of the time) and do other little adjustments which are not exactly key selling points. What is the new 360 tagline going to be in 2010? Get a new 500 dollar console! We have 8x AA instead of 2x AA and better shadow effects! This isn't the PS1/PS2 generation where there are huge obvious gains to be made. Games like Uncharted and Metal Gear 4 are pretty close to photorealistic already, its not like a small increase or even "large" increase in graphics would be perceptable at this stage to most people even those with 42 inch 1080P TVs (the real high end of the mass market. I would bet less then 5% of all consumers have a 50 inch or larger TV with 1080P or better). Until something like VR comes along and the processor power beyond the PS3 is REALLY needed, I don't see the Playstation brand needing a big refresh any time soon.
Yes the 360 needs a refresh, especially as the PS3 pulls ahead thanks to blu ray/better capacity, but how do you do that? I mean to upgrade to something as good or better then the PS3 the 360 would need to sacrifice its ONLY advantage, which is its North America install base. The Wii will have a reason to upgrade, getting Nintendo characters in HD with better motion controls (probably a PS3 eqiv Wii in a few years at the same 200-250 price point), but the 360? Microsoft, unless they can SEVERELY leap frog Sony with something like VR, will go right back to the Xbox days where they were a little more powerful then the previously released PS system, but there wasn't nearly enough of a difference to drive sales. PS2 to Xbox is what the PS3 will be to the Xbox 720 if its released in the next 3 years. Better, but only on a shrug your shoulders and keep your old console capacity.
