The last few months have made it quite clear that the console market hasn’t grown the way the likes of Microsoft and Sony would have wanted. Xbox sales have been inconsistent at best for a while now, and PS5 recently also missed its sales targets by a notable margin. Combined with the mass layoffs the games industry has been hit with over the last 14 months (and 2024 in particular) – with the likes of PlayStation, Microsoft, EA, Riot Games, Embracer Group, and many others have cut a significant number of jobs – it’s no surprise that questions are being asked about the future of the business louder than they have been in a while.
In fact, according to industry veteran Peter Moore – who oversaw the launch of Dreamcast as the president of Sega America, then the release of Xbox 360 as the head of Xbox, and then became the head of EA Sports – those questions are being asked internally by the platformer holders as well.
Speaking in a recent interview with IGN, Moore said that given the shape the games industry is in and the fact that spending significant money on a bespoke piece of gaming hardware is becoming a less attractive proposition to many, the companies making consoles are doubtless having conversations about whether another generation of hardware will be worth investing in.
“I think it’s a real serious question that’s being asked I’m sure in Tokyo, in Redmond, Washington, in Kyoto,” he said. “That’s what everybody’s working on right now, because when you start off that next generation, you’ve got to be ready to absorb billions of dollars in losses. And is the industry, given all the layoffs and everything we’re going through right now, is the industry ready for that? Look at Sony laying off 900 people — a lot there in the UK. My two eldest daughters work at EA, they’re all right, but they’re always looking over their shoulder.”
He added: “Those are the questions that are being asked right now and it’ll all be tied around, do we continue to develop silicon? The role of AI, what does that mean? You can’t look away from that. Are these companies willing to go another round of multi-billion? And at the same time you’re gearing up for another cycle where gamers may not embrace the console and just say, you know what? I don’t need this, times are tough. I’ve got my phone, I’m enjoying what I’ve got on my phone. There’s plenty of games I can play. Failing that, of course I have my PC or my Mac, I can go do whatever I need to do there. And do I really need to be spending what could be five, $600 on a bespoke piece of hardware just to play games? So both the companies and gamers themselves are asking this question.”
Moore went on to add that though such things have been in consideration within the industry for two decades, the likes of Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft will be thinking harder about what value their next consoles will truly offer over their predecessors.
“What I’m saying is the questions are being asked, as they have been for the last 20 years,” he said. “Are we ready to gird our loins financially for battle and all of the cost of development, silicon development? What is it that PS6 can do that PS5 can’t that would make people jump from PS5, or same with Xbox, same with Switch, right? God forbid it’s just incremental. And I think that the companies are also looking at that. What can we do to extend this life cycle?
“And then if you’re Microsoft and you’re Phil Spencer, you’ve got Satya Nadella coming in and saying, alright, what is the future here and how does this play into the biggest strategy of cloud with Azure, with AI? What are we doing with AI game development? How do you make your games faster, cheaper, with less people? These are all the questions I think are being asked.”
Of course, as far as the relatively near future is concerned, it’s very much looking like there is going to be a next generation of consoles. Nintendo is expected to launch its next console in March 2025, while Microsoft has confirmed that work on the next-gen Xbox console is already underway. Meanwhile, reports have claimed that Sony is targeting 2028 launch for the PlayStation 6.