@TingLz

Are you referring to my God of War II note?

It seems odd that you wouldn't see how this is a good idea, though there is a bit of counter-intuitive nature to it, mostly concerning the importance of supporting the new system.

The basic point is retaining your audience. Not every PS2 owner moved over to the PS3 right away (not all of them clearly moved to the PS3 in general), and the PS2 was still selling well after the X360 and PS3 launched. Still having a high-profile release after the new console is out builds and maintains consumer confidence in the product and brand. Those who adopt later have more to play--hell, the PS2 was still seeing a couple lingering releases in 2010, 2011, and 2012. Mostly annual sports games, but they were obviously profitable or they wouldn't have continued. There is still an audience there.

Not everyone adopts a console right away. I bought my Wii in 2007 (as soon as I got home from training), my Xbox 360 in 2008 (3 years after launch), and my PS3 in 2011 (5 years after launch). For those with the older-gen console, it's good to have late releases continue to trickle out. Hell, Nintendo has long recognized this on the portable side, though not on the console side, for generations. For some reason, they allow their consoles to die early, but will support the portable a bit longer. Pokemon Black & White 2 came out well after the 3DS released.

That's the point. Retention of consumer confidence. And it works. The PS1 and PS2 are both extremely fondly remembered, as will be the X360 and PS3, with their steady stream of late-gen and even cross-gen releases. There is still a large audience there to appeal to. There were maybe 5~8 million PS3's in homes when God of War II released on the PS2, which was well past 130 million by that point.

Look at it like this: The year the PS2 launched, the original Playstation had an astounding 525 releases. The year the GameCube launched, the N64 had only 20. Which one of those retains consumer confidence in the brand or company? Which of those makes the new console sound more exciting merely because of the level of support? Those Playstation owners had ample reason to continue playing, and to be excited for the future of the brand. The N64 owners had pretty good reason to think the N64 was already dead, and to have little hope for the next console.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the biggest reason the GameCube struggled--was because of the N64.

Oh, here's where I got the numbers: http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/playstation/2000/

http://www.mobygames.com/browse/games/n64/2001/

Margin for error based on whether or not MobyGames users have added every game.