Nintendo's 'Project Cafe' console confirmed

[Cyph]

Good post Jarrod. A lot of R&D went into the 360 and PS3 that hopefully could be reused rather than them starting from scratch (i.e. Live, BluRay, Cell). The Wii is a gimmicky system that succeeded, so kudos to Nintendo for winning that gamble.

I agree with everything that you have written in your post. However, I still feel that the current gen is becoming some what long in the tooth, especially compared to what the PC market can produce. It's a shame that the 360 and PS3 weren't released higher spec at the time (simple things like more RAM etc), it would've gave them so much more leg.

I can still dream for a day a console can play a true 1080p smoothly, alas, as you pointed out, it may be a while away yet.

[Jarrod]

Indeed, this generation is really starting to show its age, especially compared to the power of affordable PC hardware. Sticking more RAM in their systems would have been solid future proofing.

I really dont know how long this generation will last. Nintendo will launch in 2012, but we dont really know the specs of their system. Microsoft could launch 2012 if they wanted to be aggressive, but they've made it clear they want Kinect to extend the system's life. Sony cant afford to launch too early, and the PS3 has finally picked up steam, and they've got the PSP2 on the horizon.

It's really interesting to think about as this generation is unlike any other. The traditional path of hardware releases has been severely disrupted. I think people expecting things to flow along as normal are going to be in for quite a shock.
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[Nietzsche]

PS1 - 94
PS2 - 00
PS3 - 06

SNES - 90
N64 - 96
NGC - 01
Wii - 06

Xbox - 01
360 - 05

The pattern seems to be about 5 - 6 years. By that logic the next Wii isn't that surprising. I think Sony and Microsoft will launch maybe a year or two after the next wii comes out depending on how well the new console does. That will be in 2013 which will mean the 360 will have been out for a mammoth 8 years, while Sony will be 7 years. It's hardly breaking the flow, but it is a longer cycle than previous cycles which an be comfortably blamed on the numerous factors like the recession, the casual push (move and kinect) and the fact that there is not really a competing market (like the old arcades which had better hardware than home consoles and recently the PC market has taken a huge hit as it's become unviable for developers to push on PC due to piracy and the massive success of consoles.)



Also

[Googol]

Nietzsche, I don't think you really understand how much money Sony lost. They're making "profits", but they actually don't have a net gain this generation yet - in fact, they've lost most of the profits from their phenomenal success of the PS1-PS2 era.

Here's what I'm talking about: http://www.sharingsys.com/life/z8/65249ed93bee23784d0b995dd88c1e8a.png
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I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died. — Steven Wright

One hundred zeroes are better than one.

[Benza]

@Googol
Wow. I did not realise MS were doing that badly.
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[DancesInUnderwear]

Microsoft is heading up finally, though. I think its Sony's side that is more amazing - when you consider just how massive the PS2 was (and the PS1 was no slouch either), seeing how one stuff up can effectively wipe all that clean is crazy.
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[Googol]

[Nietzsche]

@Googol source?

[Googol]

Sorry, I scabbed it off somewhere else that didn't give a source. I don't have any reason to believe it isn't accurate, but I'll search for other data to correlate its authenticity.
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I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died. — Steven Wright

One hundred zeroes are better than one.

[renegadesx]

Microsoft's Xbox division is groundbreaking as its the first division within Redmond outside of Windows and Office that could eventually be a profitable business unit.

On Nintendo: they have no plan to sell the hardware at a loss, thats partly why the Xbox division has never seen black ink and partly why Sony lost $3bn on the PS3.
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[Googol]

I couldn't find the exact data it used (adding up each year's profits and losses for each company and graphing it) but here are a few links that support it.

Also note that the graph ends at Mar 2010, so the PS3 actually turning a profit hadn't come into play (that happened in April-May 2010):
http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/playstation-3-finally-turning-a-profit-on-each-console-sold/?news=123

So the graph now would look pretty much the same but with a tiny kick upwards at the end on Sony's side. Obviously, not enough to account for the whole lifespan's losses but in the right direction. of course, they lost an awful lot of money, almost all the profits from their glory days in fact:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/08/19/the-sony-reciprocal-ps3-losses-surpass-ps2-profits/

As far as Microsoft is concerned, they've been making profit on the Entertainment and Games division for the first time this generation, and started back in '08 according to this chart:

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-microsoft-entertainment-and-gaming-2011-1

Obviously, a quick eyeball of the chart shows that the profits don't exceed the losses, not even accounting for losses before '05. Just like Sony, they'll want to drag out this gen for as long as they can to try and get it into the black for the first time.

I don't think anyone doubts Nintendo's graph. They haven't done as well yearly as the others sometimes, but they've never lost money, making their cumulative graph look relatively higher than its standing. It has been losing quite a lot of profit at times, but they've always been MAKING a profit, meaning this doesn't show on a cumulative graph. They're obviously not in dire straits though.

Of course this isn't crazy hard data, it's a bunch of internet articles, but the paint the same picture as the now defunct graph above.
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I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died. — Steven Wright

One hundred zeroes are better than one.

[Nietzsche]

Just as I thought, the graph shows hardware finances which is a small percentage of actual money made from being in the games business. The real money is made from software/games that people need to fuel their systems which is why Sony made so much more money than Nintendo last gen even though Nintendo actually profited from people buying the Game Cube while Sony lost money during the early years of PS2.

EDIT: Thinking about it you are probably right about Microsoft still not making the money in their game division. They sunk a whole lot of money into that and it's only now paying off.

[Googol]

How did you get that from that? The graph said "Cumulative Operating Income" of the videogame division which has nothing to do with being hardware only. I was posting those articles because I didn't have the original source of the graph - so I searched for related articles instead. Sony definitely lost way more than it gained this gen in its gaming division, not just with hardware. It's not a shady fact, it's pretty much everywhere you look.

Look, man, I'm not trying to be the devil's advocate, I'm just putting out the facts. A lot of money has gone down the tube this generation, and Sony and Microsoft's way of making it back is with a much longer shelf life on their consoles. All three companies are in a precarious place at the moment, and while the industry won't collapse just yet the way things have worked before has got to change.
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I stayed up all night playing poker with tarot cards. I got a full house and four people died. — Steven Wright

One hundred zeroes are better than one.