As a consuer, I wish these console releases were staggered more...

I bought an xbox360 at the very beginning of 2006 for $399. Some pretty good quality games for a first year system.

2007 - AMAZING lineup forxbox360. PS3 launches, but too costly and no games. Blu-ray intiguing, but too expensive. Buy cheap HD-DVD player isntead.

2008 - Warner announcement makes Blu-ray victory almost assured. Will look into buying PS3 after next price drop, most likely closer to holiday season. Estimate - $299. Over the holidays, enjoy handful of PS3 exclusives not available on 360. Used mostly as a blu ray player.

2009 - Probably have many quality titles to choose from for both consoles.

2010 - XBOX 720 announced. Don't buy yet. Too much to do with current gen games on both systems.

2011 - Buy XBOX 720 after 1st price drop.

Buy new PS later, 2013?

Anyways, point is, if they start staggering these consoles instead of trying to launch at same time and compete with each other, it is better for the consumer. We can enjoy previous system while new launch system's libraries are being built up.

Never thought I'd own more than one console, but starting to think it might not be a bad idea. I think more an more people will start doing that as video games continue to become more of an accepted entertainment media.

The other thing I've learned is that early adopters always get screwed over. Just the way things work. May as well wait a year, pay less, and have more games to chose from.

Is the point that laying out your plans on a forum for your future enjoyment of videogames somehow a therapeutic thing? Because I don't see a point.

Also, connoisseur.

Hosestly, what you propose would be absolutely horrible for consumers, console developers and 3rd party devs. If a console was released every couple of years you can safely bet that it would outclass the other consoles.

So what consoles do 3rd party devs support? The newer, more powerful console or the older less powerful one with a much bigger fanbase? Since a system released a couple years down the road would be performing past the older consoles limits multiplats would either be much more costly to produce, which would hurt devs, or would be watered down to play on the least powerful console, making the purchase of the newer system pointless.

As 3rd party devs are forced to support a much wider variety of hardware requirements, their costs would rise while the expected sales rate on each console while total sales would remain the same.

Releasing new more powerful machines every couple of years would also turn off consumers to the console market. The PC market already offers them such an environment. And at least the PC parts can be exchanged and upgraded, unlike consoles which would simply be outdated, forcing the consumer to purchase yet another system to play all the new titles that their machine can no longer run.

Finally, a two year run as market leader wouldn't allow console manufacturers enough time to turn a signifcant profit before beingbumped to the back of the pack once more. If the manufacturers can't turn a significant profit they will simply pack their bags and move to greener pastures. The end result would be we would eventually have one or two consoles back on a 5-6 year cycle. In fact, it's why the industry has been on this cycle for the past few decades in the first place.

I bought an xbox360 at the very beginning of 2006 for $399. Some pretty good quality games for a first year system.

2007 - AMAZING lineup forxbox360. PS3 launches, but too costly and no games. Blu-ray intiguing, but too expensive. Buy cheap HD-DVD player isntead.

2008 - Warner announcement makes Blu-ray victory almost assured. Will look into buying PS3 after next price drop, most likely closer to holiday season. Estimate - $299. Over the holidays, enjoy handful of PS3 exclusives not available on 360. Used mostly as a blu ray player.

2009 - Probably have many quality titles to choose from for both consoles.

2010 - XBOX 720 announced. Don't buy yet. Too much to do with current gen games on both systems.

2011 - Buy XBOX 720 after 1st price drop.

Buy new PS later, 2013?

Anyways, point is, if they start staggering these consoles instead of trying to launch at same time and compete with each other, it is better for the consumer. We can enjoy previous system while new launch system's libraries are being built up.

Never thought I'd own more than one console, but starting to think it might not be a bad idea. I think more an more people will start doing that as video games continue to become more of an accepted entertainment media.

The other thing I've learned is that early adopters always get screwed over. Just the way things work. May as well wait a year, pay less, and have more games to chose from.

mnvike

Not everyone wants to replace their system in 4-5 years or buy more then one console so one can be predominatly used as the console that plays exclusives and multiplats while the other is just for exclusives. Everyone keeps thinking that the Xbox 360 will have a short lifespan but people dont really realize why the Xbox had a short one. Its because it made MS NEGATIVE MONEY. Thats right is was a money hole that needed to be dropped. And do you wanna know why Sony supports its system for so long. Because console makers make the most money off their system toward the end of its life cycle.

Right now MS is just working to try and make a profit off the 360 and things like the 1 Billion dollars spend on the RROD have hurt that. Eventually toward the end of its life cycle it will make them a profit for once. Do you honestly believe that MS wants to hurry into a situation AGAIN where they are selling their system at a loss. I dont think so.

Not to mention 3rd party devs. They are complaining about how expensive it is to dev for the PS3 and 360. DO you think devs will be all "gung ho" when MS announces a new machine that will cause devs to spend MORE time and MORE money making video games when they finally mastered making games for the PS3/360 for a reasonable price.

Hypothetically if MS rushes out another system, expect 3rd party devs to shun itto an extentuntil the competition releases their newsystems. Overall gamers to win from the rushing of a system, because it makes it harder on devs leading to rushed games or solid games not getting the respect they diserve on their last gen predecessor.