I attempted to make a lifespan chart for past consoles based on the definition of "no new official games = end of life" that wikipedia tends to follow.  People were more interested in the definition, the chart itself only got one comment!

I will attempt to re-make the chart based on the most popular definition of "lifespan" in this thread.   A few questions to ponder:

If you prefer a hardware-based definition of lifespan, do all regions count?  Does "support" (meaning they will replace/repair the console) count? Do refurbished consoles shipped to retail and sold as new count? Do used sales count? Do redesigned consoles count?  Does full backwards compatibility in entirely new consoles count?

If you prefer a software-based definition of lifespan, do all regions count?  Do unlicensed retail games count?  Does homebrew count? Do new sales count, or only new games?

I'm also interested in how you believe Sony defines "lifespan" since they are the company who popularized the term for consoles.   In 2004 they said PS2 will have a 10 year lifespan, and they claimed both PSP and PS3 were designed with 10 year lifespans.  However, they never defined what "lifespan" meant, at least not publicly.

when a consoles replacement gets on market is when i think its gen ends, but its sales may continue until production ends.....


the replacement on market to end gen should be region specific though

10 years after launch is a ten year lifespan. It is their prerogative to choose which launch if the launches in every region was different. The lifespan is over when Sony stops making the system new.

The lifespan lasts as long as it still sells signifficant software.

The Xbox does still sell software, but it's rarely within 5% of the total of the current gen consoles.

Its lifespan is over, it is merely having some death-cramps.

The Ps2 though, is still selling. As long as you sell within 33% of the losing console (and the consoles are pretty even), its lifespan is still there.

If it sells below that, it becomes relatively irrelevant. 20 or 25% might be a better number...

Of course, this definition won't always work, but it gives some relevance to it.

The NES didn't last 20 years just because it shipped 12K in 2001.

The GBAs lifespan is also over, but it was still going in 07.

Software sales make the console, not hardware sales.

When it is discontinued.

This is a hard question. I think when it's discontinued is unfair, because systems are often left alive long after they have died (NES, SNES, PS1, Neo-Geo), but I also think that the replacement is unfair- look at the PS2-PS3 situation, the PS2 is still kickin butt.

Since I think I know the root of the question I will answer that. The PS3 will be produced for 10 years, there will be a PS4 long before then and software will be slim, but it will be produced. Now I'm not ragging on the PS3, just pointing out what I think will happen. Sony is not silly enough to let themselves get out classed (grfx, control, whatever else) by their competitors and not release a PS4 around the time Ninty and MS update theirs.

Sony defines it as whatever they can to not be wrong. It really ends a few months after its successor is released.

 Obviously it ends when Sony decides it does.  If that was a stealth troll, fail.  Frybead is asking what defines a lifespan (discontinued, software drying up, etc.)  If you ask me the PS2's lifespan is still going, it is still being made new and has recently gotten one of the best rpg's this gen in Persona 4. 

Its easiest to call it on the manufacturing of consoles for sale in the western world IMO.

How about when all the games being developed before the successor being released are all released? Sounds good no?