Will a new console be announced in 2011?

[godslabrat]

With the 360 now pushing six years old, and the other two consoles not far behind, we have to be nearing the end of this hardware era. Granted, all three systems are set to be sold for at least another three years, but a new console announcement has to be coming soon. Do you think one of the three major camps will announce a system successor in 2011, and if so, which one do you think will go first?

[Wickeycolumbus]

It would be cool to see a console from another company. I think it would be a mistake if any of the "big 3" released a new console though.

[jaybird3rd]

Unlikely, I think ...

 

http://www.interactive-entertainment.net/2010/05/the-next-video-game-console-war-will-be-started-by.html

[Taskmaster99]

I dont see it happening this year. A ton of people have been saying not until 2015 for Microsoft or Sony.

[Spoon]

Do you think one of the three major camps will announce a system successor in 2011, and if so, which one do you think will go first?

 

Boy, I hope not. Not in this economy at least. People are driving their cars longer, repairing clothes instead of throwing them away, using coupons when grocery shopping...I hope this mentality carries over to the consoles, as well. Get the most out of them before moving on to something new.

 

I also doubt Sony wants to unveil a PS4 when their PS2 is ten years old, still cranking out units, and probably will for quite some time.

[Reaperman]

It would be cool to see a console from another company. I think it would be a mistake if any of the "big 3" released a new console though.

I'm sure V-Tech and Leap Frog both plan on announcing and releasing yet another console in 2011. Seems like they get about 2 years out of them, so they're due for another.

 

Great news if you're in the 2-7 age bracket.

Edited January 8, 2011 by Reaperman

[Vic George 2K3]

Given that I got my Wii about 3 years after its release and my Xbox 360 5 years after its release, I'm not in any big hurry for the three companies to make any announcments for new systems. Maybe Nintendo sometime in the next year or so will make an announcement for its Wii successor.

[Metal Ghost]

There's absolutely no way either Microsoft or Sony are announcing a new console for at least another 2 years. Kinect and Move are their big priority right now, and the Xbox S just came out this past year (and the PS3 slim not all that long ago either). I think that we may hear about an updated Wii at E3, one with HD capability and other imnprovements (maybe that actually plays DVDs too???). But not a new console. Really Nintendo has to announce some updates much sooner than either Xbox or PS3, since those consoles were built with much more robust 'future proff' tech, but not the Wii.

 

 

[Atariboy]

I think we're relatively close to the Wii HD, but I don't see an announcement happening in 2011. They want everyone's attention and dollars focused on the 3DS and continued support of the DS and Wii.

 

But I bet we find out about the WiiHD in the spring of 2012 with a Fall release planned. I doubt the 360 or PS3 will be replaced in 2012 though.

[King_Salamon]

Well Reggie said there would be no new console announcement until they sold another 15 million Wii's in North America (This comment was made before Black Friday 2010) and I'd say since then, Nintendo may have sold 3 to 4 million systems. So it seems we won't hear about anything until late 2011... or possibly early 2012.

 

As for MS and Sony... I don't see new hardware (consoles) just yet. Though the PSP2 news is heating up every few days! My guess is E3 will unveil the PSP2. At that point the 3DS will be out and Sony will try to steal the show with the PSP2.

 

It would be really cool to see an entirely new company try to enter the home console market. I'm up for something fresh and different.

[MagitekAngel]

I agree with much of what has already been mentioned here; new console announcements put Sony and Microsoft at risk of Move and Kinect respectively going the way of the 32x - an expensive 6 month holdover for the real deal. Nintendo, on the other hand, I think will announce their new console first - though not necessarily in 2011. I make that prediction based on the fact they are releasing a handheld with more powerful hardware than their current home console. I suspect E3 2012 for Nintendo's new console.

Edited January 9, 2011 by MagitekAngel

[Austin]

I agree with much of what has already been mentioned here; new console announcements put Sony and Microsoft at risk of Move and Kinect respectively going the way of the 32x - an expensive 6 month holdover for the real deal.

 

I'm not certain about Move, but I'm pretty sure MS designed Kinect to be future-proof. Current 360s even have the port for it built-in, and I would assume this will be standard in future MS consoles as well.

[Reinhardt]

I'd like to see Sega make a comeback.

[SlowCoder]

I'd like to see Sega make a comeback.

Yes.

[Austin]

Likewise, haha.

[MagitekAngel]

When's the Dreamcast 2 coming out anyway?

[jd_1138]

Steam ought to come out with their console. A PC that's placed in an attractive console, with some Logitech Dual Action USB controllers bundled with it. It'd have to run Windows 7 though, since hardly no games work on Linux. Then you could play PC games on it, console style. And use it as a media box/HTPC. And have an optional Blu-Ray drive for it, which would be a thorn in the Xbox 360's side.

 

And have a base configuration with no optical drive -- Steam would like that, as it'd encourage people to buy their games off Steam.

[gdement]

It would be cool to see Sega come back but I don't think that moderate sized, pure game companies can afford to compete in the high end console business anymore. The industry they created has outgrown them, for better or worse.

Atari and Sega faced an impossible opponent in Sony. Nintendo should have been in a good position with the Gamecube but it's performance was overshadowed by Microsoft's heavily subsidized XBox.

Atari and Sega gave up, while Nintendo had to shift to a low cost strategy which thankfully has worked for them. If Sega, or any other company their size tries to get into game consoles, I doubt they'd position it directly against Sony and Microsoft. They'd try to find an underserved market, like Nintendo did with the Wii. So leaving out cutting edge graphics, I'm not sure what kind of Wii-like novelty they could introduce that hasn't already been seen elsewhere.

 

With the widespread adoption of HD televisions, the launch of Kinect and Move, and dropping prices on the 360/PS3, Nintendo is in danger. They need to launch a more powerful HD Wii to keep their customers loyal. I think backward compatibility would be very desirable for their market, but maybe not practical as it's a dated architecture. Then again, they could go for a minimal upgrade that just adds HD support to the existing architecture, and not much change in performance.

I don't know the history of console launch timing, but I imagine the best time to do it is a Spring or Summer announcement, released in time for Fall. I doubt it will happen this year, although it might be best if it did. More likely they'll wait until 2012.

 

I can imagine Apple releasing an iGame handheld. Or maybe they'll just call it the iPad Mini, whatever.

[nathanallan]

I hate to say it but with the OnLive service, I believe the next console is already here.

 

With streaming games to a 'console' not having the overhead of pressing disks, making booklets and inserts I can really see it taking off.

 

Also, as an indie platform it is very attractive, as the dev's get paid for their work, as small of an amount as it is, they still get paid.

 

Yes, I have inquired to being a kind of producer for them, awaiting their responses. I ain't supermegaturbo for nuthin

[akator]

"Gaming" is now too big. There will be no "new" companies for the foreseeable future. The ones we loved from days of old are gone, relegated to software providers.

 

I wish it was different, and that we could "go back" to the days when things were more interesting, but my wishes will never make it reality.

 

Fortunately we have homebrew authors. And we have still have sources for reliable "old" consoles. And we have decades of awesome games to still discover and play.

 

It is fruitless to hope that there will ever be a time like what we have already experienced. Those were times of rapid development when industries were young. Now that things are established, it is unreasonable to believe we could ever have things like they used to be.

 

Don't get me wrong... there are cool modern games, and when I find one I like, I play the hell out of it. However, as great as a modern game is... things will never be the same as they were decades ago, when there were massive leaps in gameplay and technology. Things will never again be so "fresh," new, and inventive.

 

Even if a new console was announced and released in 2011, it has an impossible curve to overcome to impress people now. We will never have another ColecoVision, Genesis, PlayStation, or Dreamcast because the bar is already so high. Even "massive" improvements with hardware are now slightly incremental because things have matured.

 

IMO, there will never be another one of those "OMG" moments for a console... or even a computer.

 

Even worse, the "uncanny valley" has a long way to go before graphics reach the 99.9999% level that something isn't subconsciously uncomfortable. "Clu" in the latest version of Tron proves that. Millions of dollars just for the CGI of just one actor, and it's still creepier than a PSX/N64/Saturn game. Why? The "uncanny valley" is in effect. The closer we get to "real," the more difficult it is to overcome subconscious natural reactions that it isn't real.

 

Even if they released a new console, it would be a suck-fest because the "uncanny valley" would be even worse...

Edited January 10, 2011 by akator

[Austin]

I hate to say it but with the OnLive service, I believe the next console is already here.

 

Yep, especially as it grows, it certainly has the potential to be a real competitor. Every time I load it up, I stare at the main menu screen for a few moments. My mind is still slightly boggled by what this company has achieved, haha.

[rockman_x_2002]

I don't foresee an announcement this year. I would be very surprised if any of the big three were in a position to drop that news on us anytime prior to E3 2014. The only one that might perhaps do so would be Nintendo, and in doing so would probably be an announcement of a WiiHD, which would do nothing more than take current Wii software and upscale it to 1080p for use on HDTV sets. What I have in mind would be nothing more than a stopgap console (not unlike the step-up from the DS and DS Lite to the DSi) until a true Wii2 could be released, which would be a proper iteration.

 

If any of the big three do announce a new console, I think it will be an announcement that the console is still several years from coming to fruition, but they might be willing to display a few tech demos to show off what "gaming of the near future" may be like for us, and perhaps give a few details about what we can expect. But as I said, it would very seriously surprise me to see anything in the way of an announcement to release in 2012 or even 2013 for that matter. Not yet.

[Cynicaster]

Personally, I don't even want new consoles to be announced just yet. I'm perfectly happy with my PS3 for the foreseeable future.

 

Practically speaking, a new console would probably just amount to more power under the hood for better graphics. Big hairy deal, I'm getting sick of so much emphasis being put on "wow factor" over gameplay substance.

[Rev]

Well Reggie said there would be no new console announcement until they sold another 15 million Wii's in North America (This comment was made before Black Friday 2010) and I'd say since then, Nintendo may have sold 3 to 4 million systems. So it seems we won't hear about anything until late 2011... or possibly early 2012.

 

As for MS and Sony... I don't see new hardware (consoles) just yet. Though the PSP2 news is heating up every few days! My guess is E3 will unveil the PSP2. At that point the 3DS will be out and Sony will try to steal the show with the PSP2.

 

It would be really cool to see an entirely new company try to enter the home console market. I'm up for something fresh and different.

 

yeah i read the same thing about 45 million wii's in the US before they bring out a new system.

 

i think nintendo will bring out the new system like you said in late 11 or early 12.

 

i also think it will be nothing like we think. something revolutionary and microsoft and sony will copy it within a few years.

 

 

 

Edited January 10, 2011 by revolutionika

[chrisbid]

if a new console was indeed on the horizon, there would have been some sort of well publicized leak on the specs/design/capabilities of the new machine circulating around.

 

nintendo may be the best candidate for a new system, but despite the cries from the "hardcore" crowd, their problem is not a hardware issue, their biggest issue is keeping the software pipeline full. a new system does not solve this problem.