I still think that Sony ( and MS to some extent) are aiming NEW consoles at people with disposable income, like 20 and 30 somethings ( the people who bought the Original PlayStation for example) rather than 15 or 16 year olds and younger.
Remember kids dont have £50 or so to spend on a new game that often either which also points to the higher age groups being the target audience. Everyone knows that Sony and MS make money on the software, which they wont do very quickly if Timmy only gets one game for a bday and one for Xmas - for example. The corporations are hoping that each console will sell 6 to ten games a year at minimum I would guess.
Once the initial wave of either console as calmed down, then they reduce the costs for others to get in on the act and by this time there is a whole stockpile of used games or budget releases to also tempt the younger buyers with less money.
Good point now consoles are reliant on hdd ( as MS has started indicating this) and they are attached to the internet, its only a matter of time before console software becomes as patched up as PC software imo