While many are getting excited for the next generation of consoles, it just may be the case that it will be the last generation of consoles we’ll be seeing. This is what was suggested by Ubisoft’s CEO Yves Guillemot when he was asked about the future of consoles. Phil Spencer, the Head of Xbox, also stated that he believed that games are going to evolve beyond console generations.
Guillemot said to Variety, “I think we will see another [console] generation, but there is a good chance that step-by-step we will see less and less hardware. […] There will be one more console generation and then after that, we will be streaming, all of us.” This certainly sounds possible as streaming games is becoming more and more functional. Guillemot also went on to state that this will help the triple-A game industry grow at a faster rate.
When Phil Spencer was asked about this, he stated, “Our focus right now is asking the question, ‘What can Microsoft do for gaming?’ instead of simply how to stack up against the competition. […] I care less that people play Minecraft on an Xbox One, but that people can play Minecraft no matter what console or device they have in front of them.Regarding your specific question about console generations, this is why I still see games themselves evolving beyond generations, and I’d like to keep evolving hardware as multi-generational too.”
Microsoft has been quite vocal in the past as well in their support for streaming services, so it will definitely be interesting to see what their future impact on the gaming industry will be.
