How long until the NEXT next gen systems?

The Wii ended the graphics race. It's all about gameplay now.

I'm thinking at the earliest nothing will be announced for at least 2 more years. It will be interesting to see what position the big 3 will be in after this gen is over. MS can't afford to rush a new console to market after the RROD debacle. Nintendo is gonna have to step up the power on their next hardware or fall even further behind the technology curve.

I don't think Nintendo is too worried about themselves.

Don't worry about taking the plunge, I can't imagine any of the big three releasing a new system for at least 5 years. The technological arms race is over. The success of Nintendo and failure of Sony kind of ensured that.

All three companies have been pretty vocal about their desire to stretch the current gen to 8, 9 years. Mostly because Nintendo can afford to, Microsoft's *just* starting to see profits from their XBox division and is still enjoying a hell of a stride, games-wise, and Sony's finally managed to convinced people their Blu Ray player plays games.

The next gen's a fair while off. Jump in, the water's fine.

PS2's still going! Microsoft fucked up bad when they dumped Xbox development, even Peter Moore admitted that. They've got to have learned from that mistake.

I don't think this gen console has even hit its peak with graphics or gameplay. Every few months something comes out that blows me away. I believe the 360 recently dropped it's price to $199.99 so now seems like a good time to jump in.

Next gen not until 2013

He makes a good point, that as a next gen system is announced, and as its release date comes near, the sales for the older console drop. Sony and Microsoft aren't going to hamper their current console sales with talk of a new system.

Tati on Live?

YES!

Never minding the fact that the Wii virtually shits money for Nintendo with half the horsepower of its next gen cousins, anyone who can honestly look at Crysis, then look at that Bioshock 2 footage and tell me the 360/PS3 is MILES behind the PC to the point where a new system is necessary is talking straight out of their ass.

Yeah, I can't think of any manufacturers who are really clamoring for new hardware. MS wants to make money with its decent sales, Sony wants to stop bleeding money (and introducing a new console won't do that), and Nintendo is raking in tons and tons of cash.

Plus its a huge additional cost for developers and publishers so who knows if they'd even support a new console. Never mind that developers aren't at all eager to have to deal with all the hassles of new systems again when they're just starting to get a handle on this one.

And then there are the consumers, I know I have no need for a 'new' system to come out (well besides a PSP2 or new iPhone). And no one I know is interested in it either.

I'm hopeful this gen will last another 3-4 years.

Hey Tati, another thing to consider is the cost. It was mentioned earlier, but in addition to recent price drops for the 360 (PS3 could still use one, for better or worse), you'd have to consider the cost of jumping into a new console as an early adopter. Aside fromt the fact that they're still a few years off entry level price points are WAY high, especially for this generation of consoles, even the Wii with all the extra stuff you sort of need to get, and then you throw in new gen games at full price... It'll all add up quick if you wait.

With the 360 now, you can get a (hopefully) more reliable system than the first wave, at a lower price, AND there's already a ton of great games available, many of which have dropped in priceto varying degrees. you can probably get 2 or 3 awesome games for the price of a new release. Same goes for the other systems too, but I still think the 360 is the best value, overall.

Forget the gimped $199 360, though. The Elite comes with Halo 3 and Fable 2 now. Probably the best value on any current gen system, period.

Definitely.

I really hope the 2013 date for new hardware is the earliest we see the next generation. I won't want to pay for three new systems while balancing a mortgage (and at that point, possibly a kid?), especially when I still don't feel like I've got my money's worth for my PS3 or Wii.

I will say that next gen I will probably not own multiple consoles.

They were talking about this on the 1Up podcast. I don't think we'll hear about anything until next year at the earliest, with 2011 being the earliest that a console might be released. Both MS and Sony won't move until Nintendo announces WiiHD. And the push for greater graphics and computing power will have to slow down. Seems like most of the industry is finding that trend to be counter-productive. So the next consoles will only be iteratively more powerful.

This is the best time to get into this generation of consoles. Prices on hardware and games have dropped, the bugs have been (mostly) worked out, and developers aren't holding back anything for some forthcoming hardware.

And why wait for a new console launch? You end up paying a premium for rushed hardware and games. And then you wind up waiting another year for any good games to come out.

I remember thinking when the 360 was coming out that the original xbox got kind of a short shrift. It felt like it was just coming into it's own as it was abandoned. The high prevalence of modding might have had something to do with that though. I haven't looked to closely at it (my old xbox was modded, my 360 isn't) but tying the 360 more tightly to XBL, adding achievements, and clamping down more tightly on the hardware seems to have made modding 360's a less attractive prospect.

As far as the $199 arcade 360 bundles go, I don't think it's a coincidence that the price drop came pretty close on the heels of the launch systems leaving their warranty window. You have a bunch of folks with hard drives and stacks of games and no way other than that to get a working console.

Hell I bought a new Arcade rather than wait 4 weeks for my repair to come back. Sold the old one to a friend and recouped almost all of my costs.

Justin Clark, Sure the Elite is a good deal, If you like playing...Halo or...Fable 2. If the Elite came with either...Raiden Fighter Aces, King Of Fighters XII, then it would be a deal, for me.

Well, the next-gen Wii I think will be within the next year (I'm talking about a high-def, dolby digital, and storage system upgrade -- I think that qualifies as a "next gen").

I think the Xbox ... 720? 361? ... will launch X-Mas of 2012 or 2013. Everything is pointing to 2013, which makes me think 2012.

I have my doubts at the moment that we will see a true Playstation 4 until the latter half of the next decade. I think we'll see a unit with memory/performance upgrades based on the same architecture, but I predict Sony will milk the PS2 and PS3 forever. Maybe 2015 or 2016.

This is why Xbox development (which, IIRC, was considered a breeze in terms of porting), stopped. Apparently it was a modders dream.

I'd release a new system on 12/12/12.

Xbox 121,212

This, in addition to all the now-healthy swans, made my day.

This is the big thing. None of the publishers want, or can afford, to invest in development for a new hardware generation right now (or even in the next couple of years). The thing that hurt the PS3 so much in it's early days was that licenses and development hardware were insanely expensive. And since the launch price point for consumers was so high most publishers figured that they were unlikely to re-coup their investment for development. Once Sony released their newer development tools at a lower cost, and dropped the PS3's price, that's when publishers started to take it seriously, and that's why the PS3 is actually getting good games now.

Don't count on it. Analysts have been saying 'expect Nintendo to announce a re-vamped Wii with hard drive and/or hi-def support this year' every year since launch. Nintendo's big announcements have been Wii Fit, Wii Motion Plus, WiiSpeak and Wii Music. Nintendo hasn't expressed any desire to enter the HD market, and with the amount of money they've been pulling down with the Wii, it's not going to change this year. If anything I'd expect this year to finally see them launching Wiis in multiple colours.