The 5-Year Console Cycle Is Dead

Pickens writes "The Xbox 360 recently turned five years old, and with no known successor on the horizon for the 360, PlayStation 3 or Wii, Cnet reports on the death of the 5-year console cycle — one of the video game industry's most longstanding truisms. For example, the Nintendo Entertainment System came out in 1985, followed by the Super NES in 1991, the Nintendo 64 in 1996, the GameCube in 2001, and the Wii in 2006. But now, why should console makers upgrade their offerings? Consumers are still buying their machines by the hundreds of thousands each month, and ramped-up online initiatives are breathing new life into the systems. A lot of it has to do with the fact that with the current generation of consoles, each company found a way to maximize either the technology behind the devices, or the utility to a wide range of new gamers."

Comments

Re:Why do they call it the Xbox 360?

[rdyer1]

you'll turn 360 degrees

...

and walk away

?? At which point you would bump right back into the 360.

Geometry for the people...

[damn_registrars]

Because when you see it, you'll turn 360 degrees and walk away.

If you turn 360 degrees, you are then facing the same direction you started out. If you then started walking after turning 360 degrees you would be walking the same direction you faced when you started turning - which in this case would probably be right into the XBox 360 that you are trying to avoid.