The future of Sony and Microsoft consoles

Well, its no secret that the XBox 360 and Playstation 3 consoles are being sold at a loss of their respective company. Playstation 3 hasn't been selling terribly well (some attribute that to the lack of good exclusive titles and blueray) and with all sorts of problems with the XBox 360, same say that Microsoft (Remember, Bill Gates has retired and Microsoft is now being run by money man Steve Ballmer) and Sony won't be making another console.

What do you guys think as most of you guys are PC gamers?

I think that the Nintendo Wii while not on my radar demonstrates the potential for consoles and that there is success (money) to be made. Thousands of these consoles have been sole and both companies to some degree have established their console franchise. They just need to build off that.

I voted unsure. Why? Well you state they are loosing money on the hardware.. that maybe true to begin with.. but as time goes along that hardware is cheaper. But also these companies knew when they set out to do this that the real money was in the games not the hardware.. so they loose a little but in the end win big time.

Sony not making another console, really! Thats news to me. So Wii & M$ beat the old Sony down and out of the game. So glad I don't buy Sony. I never liked the PS3, only reason to get one was for Bluray in my opinion.. but poor Sony has always had this problem. Who remembers Betamax? Yep Sony.. gone.. UMD sad but gone.. loved UMDs. So Sony has a bad habit of not supporting its own hardware.. and always making something that is not as popular what the other guy makes.

Sony sees the hand held market as the next big thing, and the home console as a thing of the past as people become more on the go.. so I guess it should be no big surprise.

I would love to see someone bring the dreamcast back.. that was the perfect console.

What we need is someone to come up with a docking station for hand helds.. So you can game on the go, and when you get to your friends place or home you can expand on your gaming.. the handhelds become a part of the bigger system.

Betamax died because they didn't allow anyone to use it. I believe, it was Sony's first attempt to create a controllable (chargeable) media format. The entire reason why HD formats were pushed so hard so soon is because there's no group that gets royalties from every DVD sale (both HD-DVD and BluRay did and do have this).

No one is going anywhere. They're all going to make new consoles. I think, something that could happen is, Sony might forgo cheapening up the PS3 and slimming it down and instead invest, using the current architecture, in a cheaper follow up, like a PS4 or a PS3.5 of some sort.

Starting next year, for example, that cost of manufacturing PS3s is going to go down. (The Cell processor production costs are dropping, currently).

I think, overall, it hasn't really hit its stride. Considering consoles don't generally sell unless they reach that sub-$200 USD mark (in America, anyway) All the consoles might be picking up more when the prices drop. It's very obvious they have this unit in there for the long haul at the speed they're going at.

Nintendo's box is taking it's sweet time as well. However, I think it's for a different reason. Mainly, we're not going to see titles for a little longer because no one was making anything really great (third party wise) before the launch. I recently saw a pretty impressive line-up for next year. Not to mention the largest problem on the box (storage) will be alleviated.

The 360 is, obviously, going strong ... in popularity. It's even beginning to gain ground in other regions ... I imagine this would matter more if Microsoft wasn't blowing $1 billion every 6 months on the hardware problems. Not only are they losing a bit of money per hardware sale, they're losing even more when they have to repair it.

In any case ... none of them are struggling, per say.

It'd be silly to say they're dying, honestly. All of them have at least one more unit lined up for a 2011-2015 launch, so. (None of these guys are in the position Sega was in in the mid-late 90s, for example)

To note, the guys who undersell their hardware, make up for it by charging more licensing and royalty fees. For Sony, this has always made them a profit. And it'll most likely succeed again.

If the PS3 was really in trouble, it wouldn't still be $400 USD as the cheapest version.