Analyst expects new Nintendo, Microsoft hardware by 2010

**Shrygue** · February 14th, 2008, 18:21

via Games Industry

Industry analysts Pacific Crest Securities believe that successors to Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii should be on the market in two year's time.

The firm expects the industry to see peak sales in 2010, as the two companies roll-out new hardware and the current leaders in the handheld space also come to the end of their cycles.

"We believe that peak industry sales will occur in 2010, given that Microsoft will likely introduce its next console that year and Nintendo will likely launch before then," said Evan Wilson, reports GameSpot.

"Further, 2010 is also likely to coincide with the end of the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP cycles," he said.

Sony has always said that its latest console, the PlayStation 3, will have a ten year life cycle.

SCEE president David Reeves told GamesIndustry.biz last year that the the company hopes the PS3 will remain on the market for ten year's due to the built-in hard drive and the ability to upgrade the console firmware.

**Elven6** · February 14th, 2008, 18:31

Their is no big difference between the 360 and PS3 hardware, the 360 has three cores running at 3.2GHZ each, on top that that they are multithreading, bringing the total up to 6, the PS3 has 7. Plus the whole ram issue with the PS3 won't help it become future proof in any way. Here are some comparisions done abou the Hardware:

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/617/617951p1.html

Plus I don't think a built in harddrive and a firmware upgrade will improve the hardwares life cycle any. The 360 also has a Harddrive and updatable firmware, sure the HDD is detacable but a Hdd is a harddrive.

**drock82** · February 14th, 2008, 19:18

its to damn early for a new console,were in 2008 so in two years a new console will be on the market cmon!!!!its bull@#$%,ps3 was built for the long haul,they did this to the last xbox,after the 360 was released the xbox 1 was just a memory..now they already talkin new consoles-pathethi!!-and remember microsoft has a habit of scrapping old hardware thats not even 3 years old and moving on to the next thing and dropping support!!hopeflly this move will back fire on them

**Mister Klownes** · February 14th, 2008, 20:23

seems awfully soon for new consoles on the horizon

**Dr._Zoidberg** · February 14th, 2008, 21:07

Originally Posted by Mister Klownes

seems awfully soon for new consoles on the horizon

I agree although if it's towards the end of 2010 then that's almost 3 years away, by then people might be ready for an upgrade.

**jdnation** · February 14th, 2008, 21:11

I can see Nintendo releasing a HD version of the Wii. It'll be backwards compatabile with old Wii games and be able to render new games in HD, as well I'd expect the new HD enabled games to also play downscaled on the older Wiis and old Wii games to receive hardware upscaling on the new Wii. Also Nintendo may actually include rechargable lithium Ion batteries and charging stations with the new model.

Microsoft could well release a new hardware piece, if only because the 360 hardware is very faulty they might as well design a new one and dump the old one... it's quite possible, but I'd say unlikely... most likely the 360 will live out 5 years and then get scrapped like the previous Xbox. The new Xbox would be more powerful than the PS3 though.

Sony on the other hand I can see them waiting 10 years before releasing the next PS4. They're committed to making the box futureproofed and supported for 10 years no doubt, but also Sony along with NVidia believe that photorealistic graphics capabilities are capable in 10 years time so they're likely to wait until then and will continue to ride the PS3 profitably for 10 years until they are ready for the next big leap. The PS2 shows that an old console can still be supported and profitable!

Also Nintendo has shown with the Wii success how to reach teh mass market from the get go and it's a lesson that will reverberate throughout the industry. By waiting 10 years not only will Sony be able to do photoreal graphics along with NVidia, but maybe they can also make the console more affordable out of the gates. Microsoft would also hop aboard with antoehr new console by then. Sony within 10 years could phase out the PS2, market the PS3 and PSP and make money off that and blu-ray while doing R and D on the PS4. They may even introduce the PSP's successor before then...

**PSmonkey** · February 15th, 2008, 03:23

Originally Posted by Elven6

Their is no big difference between the 360 and PS3 hardware, the 360 has three cores running at 3.2GHZ each, on top that that they are multithreading, bringing the total up to 6, the PS3 has 7. Plus the whole ram issue with the PS3 won't help it become future proof in any way. Here are some comparisions done abou the Hardware:

PS3 SPU (with out the aid of the PPU) run laps around the 360 3 cores with multi threading. On the flip side the 360 has a better GPU.

Problem with ps3 is
1. Devs are still new to handling multi threading in their engines.
2. Most ps3 games use barely any SPUs or use them impoperly (rudimentry task while the PPU does the critical parts).
3. Yes there is a bus issue for spu but each have local cache space. Devs need to better write code to take advantage of this.

I know people who work on both platforms.