Analyst expects new Nintendo, Microsoft hardware by 2010

Industry analysts Pacific Crest Securities believe that successors to Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii should be on the market in two year's time.

The firm expects the industry to see peak sales in 2010, as the two companies roll-out new hardware and the current leaders in the handheld space also come to the end of their cycles.

"We believe that peak industry sales will occur in 2010, given that Microsoft will likely introduce its next console that year and Nintendo will likely launch before then," said Evan Wilson, reports GameSpot.

"Further, 2010 is also likely to coincide with the end of the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP cycles," he said.

Sony has always said that its latest console, the PlayStation 3, will have a ten year life cycle.

SCEE president David Reeves told GamesIndustry.biz last year that the the company hopes the PS3 will remain on the market for ten year's due to the built-in hard drive and the ability to upgrade the console firmware.