New Microsoft and Sony Consoles Expected in 2014

[Ben]

With all of the recent chatter about a new system coming from Nintendo next year, there's been little-to-no mention of the competition. We've heard about how the Wii 2 -- or whatever it may end up being called -- will be announced at E3 in June, its touchscreen and camera-equipped controller, and how Rockstar may be on board to develop games for it. Whether or not every last detail about it is true, where do Microsoft and Sony stand with their respective follow-ups to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3? According to various sources that spoke with Kotaku, both companies are eyeing new console releases in 2014. "Both MS and Sony are telegraphing to each other that they're delaying, to milk the current [generation] and fill in previous craters better," said one source, while others indicated that either company could push for a release in 2013 if it feels pressured to do so.
That pressure could very well come from Nintendo should it indeed release a new system next year. If new competition doesn't come out until 2014, Nintendo will have gotten a head-start of between one and two years which, if nothing else, would provide it with the opportunity to be priced much more cheaply.
Microsoft is reportedly unsure of what components its next console will carry and is also undecided over whether it should shoot for profitability on day one. Traditionally Microsoft and Sony have taken a loss on their hardware at launch, only beginning to make money on hardware sales once the costs of their internal components are lowered. Nintendo, by contrast, was turning a profit on each Wii sold as soon as it launched in 2006.
It doesn't come as a major surprise that it could be another three-plus year wait for a new line of consoles from Microsoft and Sony. For years now, both sides have been talking about extending the current generation; Microsoft claimed it did so with the launch of Kinect last year and its ongoing development of the Xbox Live experience (with Netflix, ESPN, and so on). Sony meanwhile has always talked about its systems' 10-year life cycles and the PlayStation 3 certainly has the hardware to continue going strong for the foreseeable future, not to mention the added online functionality it's gotten (like Netflix and Hulu) through firmware updates.
"I think we'll see a game of chicken between Sony and Microsoft," M2 Research analyst Billy Pidgeon told Kotaku. "Sony definitely isn't launching a successor before 2014 and could stand to benefit by having Microsoft launch first as PS3 builds in to North America and builds a strong position in Europe. Microsoft claims there's a lot more room in Xbox 360 for developers to max out, but here PS3 could have a strong advantage."
Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter agreed that it will be several years before we see new consoles from either company, particularly because hardware costs need to come down first. "[T]hey certainly don't want to launch at a $600 price point," he said.
Assuming this is all accurate, we likely won't be hearing about it for quite some time. In the meantime, we've got less than two months until E3 where Nintendo will supposedly be opening up about its next console.

Seems like a good point for them to launch new systems, as I think both current gen consoles have a lot of life left in them at this point. Just hope with this next set of systems we don't see price points above $600.

 

[Kairi]

the price is going to be killer, watch ><

 

[NotReallyaGoodUN]

Sorry, but 600$ would be just insane.

 

[PHX]

Don't want it to be 600 bucks means it'll be 500 which means I'll be sticking to PS3 for a long time.