EricBall's Tech Projects

I dunno, seems to me the reason neither is getting a successor ready yet was announced shortly after the launch. Both MS and Sony stated early on this round of consoles was going to last a decade.http://www.1up.com/news/kaz-hirai-ps3-lifespan-10http://www.gamespot.com/news/6211650.htmlNow granted things change, and if both stop selling software I imagine they will re-think their strategy.(Something that's not bound to happen any time soon with the release of Move and Kinect)I wouldn't think it would be a surprise to anyone (looks at cnet) that they aren't working on a new version of their console since they told us all they wouldn't be.

Don Daglow wrote an article about this in May. His view is that Nintendo's success with the Wii disrupted Microsoft's and Sony's profit goals, and that the economy and used game sales are also having an effect.

Don Daglow wrote an article about this in May. His view is that Nintendo's success with the Wii disrupted Microsoft's and Sony's profit goals, and that the economy and used game sales are also having an effect.

Interesting. If I'm reading it right, his statement is the Wii gobbled up enough market share so the royalty profit for Sony & Microsoft hasn't been enough for either to want to sink money into developing a new console. He may be right, I haven't looked at the Sony & Microsoft balance sheets. I'd argue that core of PS2 (147M) & Xbox (24M) owners migrated to the PS3 (42M) and 360 (47M) while the Wii (76M) expanded the market. Software sales are more likely impacted by the general economy.And although Sony & Microsoft may have claimed "10 year" cycles, those statements were made very early so are subject to interpretation.

Finally, I bet Sony and Microsoft are waiting for 3DTVs to become more common. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 were design for HDTV and it only makes sense that their successors would be made for 3DTV. (Yes, the PS3 supports 3DTV, it will be interesting to see how much content takes advantage of it.)

 

I don't think 3D really enters into it. It's a niche technology at best, and really poorly suited for home use. They may be considering the 3D adoption rate while developing their next consoles, but not as a key feature that would hold up production if the numbers weren't there.

 

I think they'd like to be able to hang onto the current consoles for a few years, hoping the Kinect and Move will broaden their user base (as happened with the Wii), and generate more hardware-based profitability, before diving into the next generation of consoles. The PS2 is still being sold (10 years on), so it fits that consoles as advanced as the 360 and PS3 could have a ten-year life. Of course that doesn't mean that the next ones won't appear before those 10 years are up.