Product Facelift: Difference between revisions

Not just limited to consoles, [[Product Facelift|Product Facelifts]] can happen to many other kinds of goods like cars and toys, often for similar reasons.

 

 

* [[Nintendo]] is well known for their console redesigns. It possibly invented the practice in its modern form with its late-life redesign of the [[SNES]], and raised it to an art form with the [[Game Boy]] ([[Game Boy Pocket]], Game Boy Light [Japan], [[Game Boy Color]]), the [[Game Boy Advance]] (GBA SP, GBA Micro), and the [[Nintendo DS]] (DS Lite, DSi) -- not to mention the conversion of the NES from a toaster to a console with dog bone controllers.

* Although their aesthetics remain mostly the same, both the [[Play Station 3]] and [[Xbox 360]] have been released with numerous different configurations, mostly revolving around hard drive size. The [[PS 3]] models also have varying levels of backwards compatibility, memory card slots and USB ports.

** The newer versions of the XB360 are also desired by some simply because their revised design supposedly means less of that console's infamous overheating failures.

* Non-videogame example: this is common practice in the automotive industry, where cars will have their appearances "refreshed" every few years. Many cars (the Ford Mustang, the VW Beetle) have gone over a decade on the same platform, having their body work periodically updated.

** Sometimes this works in reverse to the console version. For example, the VW Golf has got progressively larger over the years. According to some, this is deliberate: the idea is that someone fond of the Golf brand started out in [[The Eighties]] with a small cheap fun hatchback, then every five years as they grow more prosperous and settle down they can keep buying the new Golf but every time it's bigger, more family-friendly and more sensible. In turn, VW releases new smaller cars to replace the older Golf as the first-adopter option, such as the Polo and Lupo.