Not sure if this has been asked already, but here goes. As far as my memory serves, there was always at least one company dying to start the console war anew. To hopefully steal some customers away from the top guy, knowing they can't best the top player in the current gen. And usually, it's the top player who wants to keep things going in the current gen for as long as possible. Though there have been times when the top console maker was eager to start again. I believe Sony was in that position with PS3. Going in thinking they had yet another console gen won, and would use the PS3 to push Blu-Ray.

But overall, the general feeling was the top dog didn't want to start again, and wanted to make as much money for as long as they could on their investment. While the underdog(s) wanted to start fresh.

Things don't seem that way this gen.

Nintendo is the most obvious one amongst the three, in favor of not starting the next gen anytime soon. But I also believe the other two aren't eager to start again either, despite the fact things haven't gone according to plan for either of them.

If you combine all the years since XBox launched, I think MS still hasn't made all it's money back. The entire XBox run had them in the red, they were eager to end that gen quickly. 360 is fairing much better. And they're finally in the black each quarter with this newest system. Can they be all that eager to start again?

And PS3. Wow, how much money did Sony put behind the PS3? Has it ever made any money for them this gen yet? Seems one big loss after another. I seriously doubt they're looking to scrap this gen just yet. They'll want to, at the very least, get as close to breaking even as possible. If not turning a profit overall.

Obviously, each console maker was working on their next console as soon as their current ones were completed. And each one may still be working on a 5-6 year life cycle for their current console. But I wonder, if any of the three are willing to do that. What if no one blinks first, and no announcements are made about a 2011 or 2012 launch? I honestly can't envision any new consoles that soon. It feels like the gaming industry and fans as a whole don't talk about the next gen like we used to. Soon as PS2 and GC and XBox launched, people were talking about the PS3 and GC2 and XBox2 and what they would be like.

It was the same this gen at first, but it seems a lot of that chatter has really died down. Could be my imagination, but talks about the next consoles seem to be a lot less frequent than they were this time last gen. Are we all feeling the same thing? That this gen will be a bit longer than what we're used to?

recession probably will be biggest reason for this gen being longer then previous ones.

The recession is probably the reason for this. However it looks like the recession may finally be starting to reverse so in a year or 2 i fully expect us to be hearing about the next gen consoles

this gen is going to be long for everyone except the ps3, 10 years is the norm for sony consoles.

I hope

@ Yiridan )

I'm pretty sure Sony would have waited at least another year to release the PS3 if MS didn't push the 360 to the market that early.


Other than that I agree with your points. All 3 manufacturers at this point should have their respective reasons to drag out this gen as long as they can, but chances are one or two of them will lose a hefty amount of momentum within the next 2 years.

I don't think the recession has that much to do with this, but just the fact, that consoles and console game have become much more expensive especially with added services like online-gaming, while the pace the industry is growing has shrunk considerably (well, there was no way it could keep the extraordinary growth numbers forever anyway). For the investments to be worthwhile 6 or more year cycles probably will become the standard even for the less popular consoles.

yes i think it will be i believe we wont c new consoles till at least 2014

I don't think it'll be very long at all, certainly shorter than 10 years. All three (four?) next gen consoles will be out by 2013 I think.

If this gen ends anytime soon, It will be the worst generation EVER

This gen, IMO, should last at least 2 more years, and I mean the very minimum should be 2 more years! The new handhelds will be an indicator as to when the new consoles come out. MS and Sony have invested a large amount of money this gen, and Nintendo has a good thing going for them, so I don't expect either to want the new gen to start any time soon.