A new generation of consoles when there are still games coming out for the previous generation? You are a fool.

It would be a very stupid move to start it off too early (look at what happened to Sega's Dreamcast). You must have a lot of money to throw around if you think nothing of buying a new console. I believe the next generation of consoles will be far more expensive than any previous generation. They will also challenge what we think of as a "console" much more than even this generation has.

If you constantly want to see vast improvements in the graphics department, then you picked the wrong platform. Get a PC where new more advanced hardware and software comes out for it constantly. You could constantly upgrade your graphics card, get bigger better RAM cards, upgrade your hard drive into the terabytes and beyond. You could do all sorts of cool things to get a better performance, like overclocking your CPU (make sure you've got a really good cooling system). The thing is you can build/buy PC's now that can do things gameplay wise that no console currently can. Most PC's you can currently buy at Best Buy completely blow the PS3 out of the water.

Console owners don't want to constantly have to buy a new better platform. It is too expensive and it is too cumbersome. Hell, it is downright f***ing annoying! A console should at least have a lifespan of seven years, preferably at least ten. It is getting harder now, due to the unbeleivably rapid rate that technology is improving. It's not only improving, but improving by leaps and bounds, and the rate at which it is improving is increasing.

The thing is, it sucks when a new console comes out with new games and the one that you grew to love with all your data and progress and time saved into it is suddenly...obsolete.

Na a shift in generations won't be too nice to my pocket.

it won´t come till at least 2012. And I think the next big leap will be in AI. Graphics don´t make a good game, but a good chalenge does. The gameplay was improoved by Ninty, so the next step is making the NPCs more intelligent and chalenging, without resorting to cheating. Yesterday, for example I was playing fifa and lost by 3:2, with the opponet giving 3 shots exactly and I 20. I wish a chalenging game but not a cheating one. And that´s even more important with shooters and action games.

This generation will probably last much longer that the last. For the HD consoles there is really no reason for wanting new hardware yet. PC games has hardly done much progress, graphics wise, at least to me it seems the graphics are evolving slower (at least in comparison to itself, I mean like jumps from HL1 to HL2). Last gen graphics were outdated as soon as it launched, but that isn't really the case this gen is it (besides the wii)?

It seems to me that at least one "defining game of a generation" is likely to come at the launch of a console, (SM64, Halo, Wii Sports), but beyond that, they can come out anytime in the generation. Big, new ideas that excite the public aren't necesarily tied to some hardware timeline. In fact, series that debut late in one generation sometimes become defining series of the next generation (Tony Hawk, MGS, Guitar Hero).

And maybe the best example of all is Pokemon. It didn't come out in NA until late 1998, or Europe until late 1999, the same times Game Boy Color was debuting in those regions.

In the next 20 months! I didnt pay £400 for a 3 year console!

I disagree. The best year in terms of gaming for the PS2 was 2005 (Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, Gran Turismo 4, Resident Evil 4, etc.) That was its fifth year. We can expect a lot of great games coming for this gen for 2009, 2010 and afterwards

that wouldnt be nearly enough time for the consoles potential to be utilised

Last I checked, Chrono Trigger and Star Ocean for the SNES came out very late into the SNES's lifespan.

This generation will be defined by the overall value (and quality) of games throughout the entire generation. You have no idea what's around the corner. What if MAG blows away every game that has come out? What if Alan Wake is the uber-game of the Xbox360's entire library? What if Nintendo develops a new IP, or franchise game that takes their software library to the next level?

As others have said, the PS2 has churned out some VERY gorgeous games 6-8 years into it's lifespan. Personally? I'd rather have this gen go on for 10 years...Let the technology mature to where the next generation is a huge leap, rather than a small one after 4-5 years.

Jumping to the next generation in a mere 20 months would not only be stupid, but potentially disastrous for any developer stupid enough to go along with it.

Last year, most companies had such high losses that they out-paced their profits--THEY LOST MONEY. There are two major factors: The high cost of development for this generation, and the smaller install base because it's still a fairly new generation. Almost nobody made money, except for Nintendo, EA, and maybe a couple more. No developer anywhere is ready, or will be ready for the next generation so soon.

Worse, it'd be pointless. The PS2 is still managing to eek out surprises no one thought it was capable of doing, the Xbox and GameCube were killed before their full potential had ever been tapped. That's right, Halo 2, Doom 3, Metroid Prime 2, and Resident Evil 4 were all amazing, and none of them fully utilized their respective machines.

Now, we have three new machines, two of which have pushed raw horsepower to astronomical levels. Call of Duty 3 (X360) looked marginally better than if it was on Xbox. Then Gears of War blew it away. Somehow, amazingly, Gears of War 2 looks even better. Imagine how much more Gears of War 3 might look! There's no telling what the new machines are capable of--the Wii included. I think that The Conduit (yes, I'm seriously saying this) is only scratching the surface of what it truly buried in the Wii. With slight tweaking, The Conduit could probably run on the GameCube. The Wii is twice as powerful as that and developers are only now trying to find ways to push it. I'm not going nuts here, I won't say that the Wii can do what the X360 or PS3 can, simply that there is untold potential in all three systems and that it wouldn't just be a shame, but a damn crime against gamers to kill this generation too soon.

Here's the other thing, aside from the Wii, this generation's sales are hardly skyrocketing beyond the last gen. Hell, the PS2 continued to be a major contender through Christmas of last year proving that competently competing against the Xbox360, Wii, and all-too-often, overshadowing the PS3. The 6th Generation was not finished yet. And this generation will definitly not be finished in a mere 20 months. That's ridiculous. I doubt it'll be finished in 3 years. Nintendo and Sony are in it for the long haul this time. MS would be smart to follow suit.

Honestly, I don't want to see another generation show up until 2012 at the soonest. No sense in killing these machines until every last drop of processing power has been thouroughly tapped.