I’ve been making the case for iterative consoles, leading to continuous platforms with no generational breaks, for a while now. And while the jury is out on how well the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X have actually executed on the idea (in my opinion, the One X far better than the Pro), the cat is now out of the bag, and it will be very hard to put it back there.
Put simply, precedence has been set, and Sony and Microsoft might just continue offering iterative consoles that evolve their existing hardware platform with their upcoming consoles—an idea that Microsoft, at least, has publicly subscribed to in the past.
It looks like that is what developers expect as well. Speaking to GamingBolt in an exclusive interview, Collin Moore of holospark, working on Earthfall, said, “With Sony and Microsoft expanding the line with PS4 Pro and Xbox One X, we might just see continual evolution in the line rather than completely new boxes and architecture. We can see both follow a similar formula that Apple has with cell phones.”
It is a tempting proposition—your games work now and in the future, and games for successor consoles might work with your current one, at least for a while. Developers and customers never have to deal with a reset at the start of every generation. It all sounds good—but especially for companies that specialize in getting to sell new hardware, new accessories, and new branding, every few years… why would they want to give that up for continuous compatibility?
It remains to be seen exactly what Sony and Microsoft have in mind for their follow-up consoles. Stay tuned for our full interview with Collin in the coming days.