As for xbox, that's probably one of the few smart moves Microsoft made recently. Consoles have a built-in 3 year upgrade cycle. That's *much* better than Windows.
I don't think there is a 3 year upgrade cycle. Sony has stated that there will be a 10 year life cycle for their consoles, so there is always an overlap with their consoles and games that are coming out. I think the average is about 5 years before a new system comes out. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo all plan on releasing new consoles next year, so that will be 6 years for Sony and 5 for the other two.
Nintendo: NES(1985)->Super NES(1991)->N64(1996)->Game Cube(2001) = 5.3 yr/ug Sony: PlayStation(1996)->PlayStation2(2000) = 4 yr/ug Sega: Genesis(1989)->Saturn(1995)->Dreamcast(1999) = 5 yr/ug Atari: Pong(1975)->VCS/2600(1977)->5200(1982) = 3.5 yr/ug
For a full timeline check out http://www.cnn.com/interactive/computing/0010/playstation.timeline/frameset.exclude.html
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