It looks like the next generation of consoles could be under development already. Although this may just be a rumor as of now, there are some hints out there that tell of the probability of new consoles in development or at least in early stages of development and planning. Although Sony is still selling the Playstation 2 even after 9 and almost 10 years of it’s release, and 138 million consoles sold (as of September 1, 2009) they are still going to push the PS3 a bit further than the other consoles simply because the PS3 console has the best technology out there.
The PS3 is far ahead of its time and the probability of a new Playstation is highly unlikely maybe in 2015. The companies who I see developing new consoles are Microsoft and Nintendo because there consoles are more inferior than the PS3 and also when you look at the history of the XBOX at the time it was released November 15, 2001 and when it was discontinued in 2005 that is only about 4 year lifespan. The XBOX 360 was released in November 22, 2005 and it’s almost 2010 that means that Microsoft is probably working or are looking into making a new one if they haven’t made one already.
In one of the last years that Peter Moore was with Microsoft as the head of Interactive Entertainment Business division he was interviewed by EGM magazine who asked him when would the next console come out and also asked if they would drop support on the 360 as they did with the original XBOX and he answered that the going to support it “as long as it sold” which is really the thing to say if you want to sell more consoles.
Late 2008, The Inquirer newspaper reported of a speculation from industry insiders that Intel has been trying to get their new high-performance CPU into the next generation 360 or XBOX 720. They want to get the deal instead of AMD or IBM so there probably will give Microsoft the best for their buck. So if industry insiders are already talking about it chances are it will happen soon, but as of it is only a rumor.
The next Nintendo Wii or whatever they call it is highly possible, but it will probably stay in the Seventh Generation era and most likely it will be a Wii HD console basically a better Nintendo Wii. And then there is also a rumor going around about Nintendo registering new trademarks in 2007 Zii, Cii, Bii and Yii over in Japan which could probably be some hints of things to come.
Whatever these companies decide to do, we hope it waits especially with the PS3 and the XBOX 360 because they are the best consoles when it comes to technology. If it’s a decade of different consoles it would be the wiser decision because the company sells more consoles that way and more games are made for it because it gives developers the time to develop these games. It is also good for the consumer because why would you want to change a console every 5 years?
