In think over the next couple of years it will very clear that graphics are now a case of diminishing returns. People still dig their PS2s graphics and the mighty Wii is just an gamecube with a killer peripheral. Consoles in 5 years time will be able to destroy the PS3 and for much less cash. Sony has made what might turn out to be the istake of their careers in trying to make a console that will last 10 years. Its proving to be ridiculously expensive for the first 1, 2 or even 3 years and will be outdated in the last 2 or 3, thus the actual usable "life" of the console is more like 5 years.

On the question of Nintendo's next console (I'll call it N6 for the sake of it)...

Nintendo will go out of their way to make sure that however powerful the N6's graphics are, the production cost for the GPU and associated bits and pieces is low enough such that they can sell their console at under $300 and still pull profit.

I don't see why the PS3 can't last 10 years, I mean if graphics no longer matter who cares if it's outdated in the latter half of it's life. Chances are the people buying it in the latter part of it's life are those mass market consumers who don't put graphics at a high priority.

I also suspect that since both Sony and Microsoft were badly burned by going to market with new powerful expensive machines that they'll extend the lifespans of them in order to try to recoup their investments and wait until a significantly more powerful machine is cheaper to produce than the PS3 and 360 originally were.

Thank you leo-j for making me laugh so hard. You really helped the time go by while I'm here at work. 4-D FTW!!!

I think that Legend11 just proved your point. 

 Nah, I think Sony will just name their next powerhouse : The Z Fighters.

Why was my post deleted?

PS. Errr ok it wasnt....It was gone 2 mintues ago I swear....This forum is odd.

I don't disagree that the technology of the PS3 will still be very good for producing games on from 2011 to 2016 (or beyond). The problem is selling the system to consumers past 2011 if it is not to dominant system this generation ...

Assume for a moment that the PS3 ends up selling only 10 Million units worldwide by the end of 2008, by mid 2008 every third party publisher would have reduced suport to nearly nothing and the system would become (essentially) impossible to sell at a price above $100; from this point on third parties would continue to reduce any support that the PS3 had until there was no support at all. Even if the technology was good enough to last 10 years the system would be dead before its 4th aniversary.

the next generation of Nintendo Consoles...

Will have HD. be it 720p or 1080p - depending on the price of said chip.

will have a better processor

will have the motion control scheme/ or something better

will mot likely have a hard drive.
Might have a blueray or hddvd storage drive (if the price has come down enough) otherwise will be DVD still.

will be under 300 dollars


next generation- if there is one- of the xbox

will have 1080p
will have a better cpu
will do hd-dvd or blueray
will have larger hard drive

Will be 350 dollars or Less


next generation of playstation

will have a better cpu(cell maybe or other)
will have a better graphics chip
will STILL do 1080p
will have a larger hard drive
will have blue ray

WILL be under 400 dollars-probably under 350

the people have spoken this generation AND the last generation too

(~70% of all playstation2's were sold for 299 or less )

 sub 300 dollars= masses will buy your product ...

sub 400 decent sales BUT won't move massive amounts of said product. 

Unless Blu-Ray wipes the floor of both DVD and HD-DVD over the next 4 years (hint: so far, it isn't, DVD is still king), Nintendo will not put their games in BR format. That'd be like handing Sony a big, fat check every time they put out a new game, or worse, sell a console. It's poor business policy.