No new consoles until 2013?

News - Analysts believe current gen has long legs

Analysts Wedbush Morgan believe new consoles from the big three are off the agenda for the time being, probably until 2013. Michael Pachter's outfit even cast doubt over whether new systems will emerge at all.

"Because it is eminently clear that no new console is planned for launch in 2010 (the fifth year of the current cycle), we do not expect hardware or software sales to peak any time soon. Rather, we expect that hardware and software sales will peak, as they have in the past, in the year prior to the introduction of a new console; this cycle, we think that will happen several years from now, if at all," reads a new report (thanks VG247).

"Hence, we believe that the 'peak' of the cycle will be in year n-1, with 'n' representing the launch of a next generation console. As we believe that will not occur until 2013 or later, we calculate year n-1 as 2012 or later."

Maths aside, the analysts predict the Wii will win this generation comfortably will sales in the region of 93 million units by 2011. The PS3 second with 49 million, the Xbox 360 third with 44 million.