For decades now home consoles have been easily defined and categorised into several generations. There are a few notable exceptions of course, most notably Sega’s release of the Dreamcast between generations five and six, a release that saw their dominant run in the game’s console business come to a swift end. This pattern of console generations has been the death of those that dare to stray outside of it, but these generation divides may cease to exist once the Xbox One and PS4 have run their course. Here’s ten important reasons why this may be the case in the future.
Nintendo Aren’t Competing
Though a third major competitor in the console wars only came about when Sony launched their PlayStation back in 1994, console generations have since been defined in sets of three. With Nintendo releasing their Wii U in between the seventh and eighth generation though, they seem to be removing themselves from generational classification, a refusal to compete with Sony and Microsoft exacerbated by their decision to not hold a conventional conference at this year’s E3. Even if consoles continue as we know them, will we take the time to define complete generations for only one or two systems?
The Steam Box
Generation classifications only really hold up when the focus of gaming is on set games console. New competitors will throw traditional generation divides out of sync, and Valve’s Steam Box may do just that if it lives up to the usual quality of the Half-Life developer. Granted, it’s more a PC than a separate games console, but it may be enough for PC gaming to eclipse and replace the console market altogether.
Smart Phone Markets
With casual gaming on the rise, most of the population are happier paying out a few pounds for a good phone game over a £40 AAA shooter. In terms of sheer money, you can’t argue with that, and the phone is a device that is almost always to hand and is upgraded very regularly. Raw graphical power and control issues with touch screen devices are just about the only thing keeping core gamers at home on consoles, so you can only imagine what would happen to the console market if phones managed to overcome the issue of touch screen controls.
