Gamers and companies alike seem to have settled into a nice, rather satisfying little niche of sorts when it comes to hardware. Other than Nintendo’s 3DS, which is slated to be released before the end of the fiscal year on March 31st, there is no new hardware in sight.

Normally, hardware cycles tend to run for about five years before a newer, more powerful platform is released to usurp it. And the notice usually comes well in advance. But not this time; Microsoft is nearing the five-year anniversary of the Xbox 360′s release, while the slightly-younger PlayStation 3 and Wii are approaching their fourth.

And yet, no sign of a Wii 2, a PlayStation 4, or an Xbox… er, whatever. Instead, those who developed those consoles are happy to let this cycle last a little longer, with the latter two even rolling out new peripherals to extend the cycle.

However, it appears that Capcom Europe’s Chief Operating Officer, David Reeves, believes that while these “stop-gap” measures will indeed help to prolong this generation, it won’t do so for very long.

Microsoft has said that they see Kinect allowing the Xbox 360 to prosper for another five years, but Reeves believes it will only last for two years before another “clash of the titans.” Three years, tops.

“All the first-parties have got to be working on something,” he said. “The tricky thing is when do you put a stake in the ground on technology? That’s the problem. You can be waiting a few extra months to implement something, but you’ve got to set a date to go with a certain chip at a certain point otherwise you’re going to miss the key milestones.”

Despite seeing a closer horizon than the others, Reeves says that they will support the new add-ons and explore the possibilities:

“Capcom is embracing it, we’re working with Microsoft and with Sony on both sides and trying to match up the IPs we have with what the first-parties want,” said Reeves of motion controllers Kinect and Move. “It’s not a forced fit. In some ways it’s quite a natural way of progressing.”

It is a unique situation for the industry. Thanks to the recent state of the economy, it seems a lot of people are happy to remain content with what they have, and stick to smaller purchases. But at the same time, whoever decides to pull the trigger first could get a big lead on the others, though Nintendo has more than sufficiently proven that you don’t have to be first (or even second) out of the gate to be a front-runner in sales.

Where do you sit on the issue? Do you think we’re due for some new hardware, or is there still plenty of fun left to be hand with what is currently available?

GamesIndustry.biz (login required) (via Destructoid