The XBox Live 360 thing does, I grant you, involve profits, and is just an attempt to wrest market share away from Sony. In terms of console creation, I guarantee that Microsoft would add it to the regular XBox if doing so was likely to get them the market share that they wanted since creating a new console just equates to new losses. I guess it remains to be seen as to whether they can demonstrate that the 360 is worth the upgrade (and is better than the PS3) before this “master” plan pays off. For some reason, at this moment, I doubt that there is going to be a major rush if the thing is so similar to the current system…

In terms of consoles into PCs, I tend to view it more as a merger in the other direction, i.e. PCs into consoles. Both items are seeking a place in amongst (or replacing) your existing home entertainment system. Consoles, however, have had a role here for the last few years (with design becoming ever more acceptable) and PCs have recently been making the transitioin (i.e. your Media PC). I have my doubts that the 2 will ever converge entirely since the consoles will never return to the office and PCs will never truly be 100% living room systems since you need to write your letters or do your accounts somewhere than on the sofa. Somewhat more likely is that the 2 systems will interface with each other to share desirable features but never full converge.

Stiil, just like most of the predictions of Tommorrows World, the above is probably a load of bollocks and both PCs and consoles will be replaced by iToasters or something.

Also the console coup is always questioned and quickly dismissed months after launch. This fall we see the new line of graphics cards that are very similiar (if not more powerful) to what powers the new consoles. Gears of War will no doubt look better on a PC come early 2006. By this time next year high-end PCs will have eclipsed console graphics.

I also think just in the name of profit more consoles will be developed. Xbox live is a good example and I think Kelmon mentioned it earlier. Surely the features in Xbox Live for the 360 could easily be implemented on the current Xbox. But they aren’t, instead it is one of the 360’s flagship features.

Consoles are also an excellent way to push new media storage (blu-ray anyone?).

The only way I see consoles ceasing is when they fully assimilate into PCs. I see the entire console trend as a sort of mutation off of PCs. They came from PCs, seperated themselves completely and then slowly began forming back into their original form. The Xbox and Xbox 360 are very clearly moving into PC realm. The 360 is pretty much a media center PC with gaming as its prime function.

It’s quite probable that there will be new advances in gaming in the future, but will you need an entirely new system to use them? To a degree, I guess it depends on how extensible the current architecture has been made.

Now, in 6 months when the Xbox 360 hits shelves, it’s specs are still going to be far beyond a high-end desktop PC, because the fact is it’s architecture seems closer to that of a supercomputer than to a regular desktop. If the sub-par specs on the old Xbox were utilised to allow good performance for so long, imagine how long the Xbox 360 will last, being the powerhouse that it is.

I think it’ll have a longer lifespan than the current Xbox did, and that is quite a long time for any electronic entertainment device. And all of the above can be applied to the PS3 as well.

My point is that we can never be certain that technology can go further and gurther. We may think that it cant get better, but maybe thats just us not being able to comprehend it. And also, graphics are not anything. They may also improve on other factors with new consoles, such as AI or overall game size.