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10 year lifespans for Xbox 360 and PS3? Strategy to beat Wii?
Consoles have until now had a 4 to 6 year lifespan, and how long they have lasted before being superseded by a successor has depended on hardware sales, and what competitors are up to. This generation however, looks to be different, with both Sony and Microsoft already claiming their current consoles will last far longer.
The Xbox 360 was launched just four years after the launch of the original Xbox, and the PS3 six years after the PS2 made its début. This time both companies seem to be settling in for the long haul, and have a strategy in place which means their consoles are going to be around for a lot longer than that.
At the 2006 DICE summit, recently held in Las Vegas, Microsoft studios’ corporate vice president Shane Kim spoke to New York Times reporter Seth Schiesel about plans for the future. Via Games Industry.biz:
“Our belief is that the Xbox 360 will have a very long life cycle. It is much different than the original Xbox. For strategic reasons, we launched the 360 four years after original.”
A very long life cycle to me would intimate more than just the five or six years being touted around as the probable life span of the 360. So although he didn’t mention a definite time-scale, if the Xbox 360 is is going to be much different than the original Xbox, I think Microsoft must be looking at eight year upwards.
Last year, Sony president Jack Tretton answered critics of the PS3 and its poor early sales by claiming that the console is ahead of the market. He then insisted that “we’re into this for the next 10 years and beyond.” 10 years may be pushing it, but it’s clear Sony are in for the long haul with the PS3.
So are we due for the longest lasting console generation ever, with the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii all sticking around for a lot longer than their predecessors? Ah, hang on a minute, the Wii, I was forgetting about the little white console from Nintendo. There’s no way that’s still going to be here in five years, let alone ten.
Which makes Sony and Microsoft’s strategy seem very strange. Technology makes massive leaps every two or three years in this day and age, and to put out some hardware in the hopes it’ll still be current and state of the art in ten years time is just madness.
The PS3 and Xbox 360 are very impressive pieces of gaming hardware, but in a decade’s time, playing one of them will be like using a PS1, or Dreamcast now. It’s not going to work.
Nintendo have eschewed graphics and processing power and instead gone for innovation with the Wii. They have also put out an affordable but profit making machine which they could easily update in 3 years time, with an improved motion control system.
So which strategy will win in the long run? And by the time we see a PS4 or Xbox 720 (or whatever), will we be on Wii 2, or Wii 3?
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XLC Support Team
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