^^^ Sorry solid but I can give an opinion on Sony's finacial situation. I invest in the video game industry and I study their finacials. My comment wasn't ment to be insulting it was just ment as a possible option, and it's an unlikely option.

Can you tell me whether or not the XBox360 has made any money?  Is the entire project out of the red yet?  How about recouping Microsoft's investment on the original XBox?  I know that the XBox360 is making Microsoft money, but has it been profitable yet?  Microsoft lost close to 6 billion on the original XBox and lost another billion on RROD.  So I'm asking, has the XBox360 made 7 billion in profit yet?  Why would Microsoft be in a position to launch their console whenever they want, if they haven't recouped their losses yet?  If I were an investor, I'd be pretty pissed if Microsoft launched another console, before the XBox360 recouped it's initial investment, as well as making up at least some of the loss that the original XBox incurred.

The Playstation wasn't dropped when the PS2 came out, it was manufactured well into the 2000's. If Sony keeps their promise the PS3 will be supported until 2016.

I have no idea when the next Xbox will be released, but I have to think the PS3 and Wii successors will come out in 2012 or 2013 at the latest.

The PS1 was discountinued in the year 2006 infact it lived a lot longer then 10 years. It was 12. And the PS2 (just released in Brasil) will live a lot longer then the PS1. I guess maybe 14-15 years and the PS3 will pass atleast 10 years.

The next PS will focus on 3D gaming

The next Xbox will focus on Natal


I think in the next run, Wii and Xbox will compete over casual gamers with Natal vs. Wii controls, and the PS will be on it's own catering to techies or gamers or people who care for high end stuff.

I'm not sure there will be a next Xbox if the 360 continues to be deeply outsold worldwide every week.

MS already has tons of unsuccessful businesses, and gaming was never their core business.

I guess it will depend on Natal sales.

lol, no.  Microsoft won't exit the business for strategic reasons alone, and unlike Sony they could actually afford to flush $5B every half decade f that's what it took.  Thankfully, this gen they haven't even needed to eat those sorts of losses.

360's improved on Xbox massively, and has pretty much cemented itself as the "base" platform for development in the industry.  Microsoft's not going anywhere...

If Sony doesn't release a new Playstation in the same time frame as the other next gen consoles then it could possibly end up in a worse position than this gen. 

At this stage both the 360 and PS3 hardware are beginning to show their age and to say the PS3 is more powerful by a long shot is not supported by most developers who have worked on both systems.  I'm not quite sure what the Sixaxis has done/is going to do for Sony's popularity but it's moot as any system can use motion controls.  The questions is whether they have a good install base and are well implemented and well supported by the development community in the form of quality software.

Your entire post seems based around the assertion that the PS3 has significantly more graphical potential than the other consoles but regardless it's output is still likely to look outdated compared with any hardware released in the next few years.  As has been pointed out already, hardware longevity has historically been related to popularity rather than processing power and I am yet to see anything this generation that makes me think this trend will change.

Having said all that I do think this generation could last a little longer than people are expecting and I don't think any of the hardware manufacturers will have a particular problem with that.

Ms next console depends on Natal's success

Next gen, I think we'll see everyone choosing designs based more on efficiency versus raw spec. They'll choose chips that will economically scale better, and build architectures more around maximizing potential and ease of use rather than hitting absolute insane theoreticals . This gen pretty much killed the spec war imo, though we'll still see a generational transition, it'll just be a "smaller step" than it would've had PS360 led the market. I think next gen we'll see everyone launching at $249-399 too.

I also see Microsoft making backwards compatibility a priority, given their new DirectX mandate for 360 R&D (they're not allowing "to the metal" codingt, everything on 360 must be DX10 compliant or it doesn't pass QA). Xbox 3 may actually be the only fully backwards compatible console imo, though I'd also expect Nintendo to try and retain it (to help bring their huge userbase over). Sony could go either way imo, they don't have much to lose and they don't seem as married to the concept of backwards compatibility as they used to be. It really depends on if they decide to retain CELL or drop it in favor of something more efficient.

Wii 2/Plus/HD/Blu/Zii/whatever will probably be the lowest spec again, but I think it'll outperform 360/PS3 in most respects (similar to Wii vs PS2/GC/Xbox). Generally, I think all 3 will be closer in spec than this gen too, ensuring more multiplatform development across ALL 3 (at least initially, R&D will likely refocus proportionally on 1st/2nd place as the gen wears on). I also think all 3 will hit in 2012 and all 3 will use Blu-Ray media. Not sure about controllers, but I think they'll all be close to what the current gen has by year's end but better integrated (Wiimote/Nunckuck/Motion+, 360pad/Natal, DS3/Gem/Eye).

Wii may also get an iterative "premium" update in the interim imo (like DSi versus a theoretical DS2). With more optional stuff like HD scaling (but with an additional dedicated scaler chip/RAM, not an entirely new next gen chipset), a larger flash drive (1-8GB), HD (7.1) audio, integrated Wiimote/Motion+, DVD movie playback, lithium-ion rechargable Wiimotes, different color options, etc. And probably a price hike back to $249. If it doesn't happen by the end of 2010 though (at least for America/Japan), they'll just hold off for the real successor in 2012.