The five year cycle has developed over time, and really is the best sytem. It combines a lot of factors:
1) Allows people to afford that (in Canada) 400-500 dollar console, something most people won\'t spend every two years. Notice I said most. I know some of you can afford that, I could probably technically afford to buy three 450 dollar consoles every two years - but I wouldn\'t, and I don\'t think others would either.
2) Allows a smooth, long transition for developers. They\'re still making games for the PSone you know, and it\'s taken two years for devs to really blow me away with the ps2\'s avaiable hardware.
3) If there is a big tech gap (ie, going from PSone, to PS2 w emotion engine, to PS3 cell cpu), then people will really feel like they\'re getting their money\'s worth, consumers will be happier with what they get.
When I took home my PS2, played it\'s games, and it blew away all my older stuff, I was happy, and said to myself "that was worth it". When I uprade my computer (which I do constanly, in little bits), and see a 5% performance increase, it\'s no big deal, it\'s just, you know, peh.
4) If you have a two year cycle, even three years, you will end up with two current systems per company. What I mean is If they started a 2 year cycle today, the PS3 would be coming out, along with MGS2, FFX, and in a year FFXI... where would the games go? Would devs be dropping promising titles and just start working towards launch titles for the next system, just a short time away? That\'s the worst thing that can happen. It takes devs a couple of years to really learn the systems, so you don\'t want to change it just as people master the hardware. 400 dollar systems mean I DEMAND my money\'s worth, I want to see a huge library of games, a damn 5 year library, not two years.
5) These console changes, or lifecycles, are not upgrades. When you go out and spend 500 dollars on your computer, it\'s an upgrade, you don\'t have to throw away that old 8 gig HDD, or 64 mb simm. With consoles, each new system represents a TOTAL shift to a new series of specifications. I personally would find it horrendously wastefull to be buying consoles every few years - as it is, I\'ve got around eight consoles in my house already.