Memories
For a second, I’m going to pretend that it is 2006. The Nintendo Wii has just released and my father and I wait in lines outside of different stores each Sunday, to the point where it has become a weekend tradition for the two of us. The excitement to have the console in our hands is real. We have seen enough E3 footage of The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess and as football fans, throwing hail marys with the wiimote seems like our calling. The problem is, we can not get our hands it. Politely bugging GameStop employees for UPS shipment times did not work.
The hype behind the new console generation was too much and, unfortunately, supply and demand was not going anywhere. That is just one example of the excitement around new console generations, something that has come around every few years since the first consoles. At this past week’s GamesCon, Microsoft’s marketing lead Aaron Greenberg claims that the upcoming Xbox Scorpio will mark the end of console generations.
While my initial reaction was somewhat negative, as it is difficult to think aforementioned memories may never happen again, I have come around to the idea of gaming consoles releasing in iterations, a la Apple.
Cross-Platform Consistency
We are currently on the eighth console generation with the Xbox One, PS4, and Wii U. It is definitely understood that the reaction was mixed when both Microsoft and Sony announced they would be releasing new versions of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, respectively. It would only be natural to feel cheated by the companies, who are putting better versions of consoles you (kind of) just bought on shelves.
But maybe, we doubt these companies masterminds too much. iPhone comparisons are going to be made to these new consoles. While cell phones and dedicated gaming consoles are not exactly identical, the business model could still work and I think it will be better for everyone.
Nobody is saying you need to buy the (rumored) PlayStation Neo or Xbox Scorpio. They are going to play all the same games as their regular counterparts. They will run better and all that good stuff, but you are not being left out by owning the original console. Everything will still work. You will get the same games. Xbox One and PS4 are simply becoming their own ecosystems and with the consoles getting slightly better over time, that is a good thing.
New consoles will be released every few years and you can decide if the upgrade is worth it or not. I recently just purchased the Xbox One S, but will probably not be buying the Scorpio. Even if it runs better, I am quite happy with the graphical performance of my console. However, I would not rule out buying Scorpio 2 in three more years, if that were to happen.
Power of Choice
Adding more consoles to the market might be confusing, but they do give consumers more of a choice. Also, once and for all, you will not have to sell all your games when upgrading to a new console. Since it will still be part of the same family tree, it should all still work. While a simple concept, it will make console gaming much more of a seamless experience. It also makes our favorite games of the current generations have a longer lifespan .
You do not need to worry about servers being down because your console is outdated. The install base of these consoles is not going to shift every few years, either. This is good for gaming with friends as well as the businesses having an ever-growing consumer base to get games to. You could even argue that backwards compatibility will not even be a term anymore, as all games from this eternal generation will continue to work. It is genius in its simplicity, as features we clamor for because of their convenience will not even be needed.
Microsoft still has not exactly revealed exactly what their plan is moving forward, but based on what they have said, I think their plan is just to keep releasing better consoles of the same family. Sure, there may be no groundbreaking new console, but more of a steady improvement overtime, which will benefit gamers in the long run.
Another plus is that gamers will have more financial freedom. You can stick with your current hardware and still be playing all of the newest releases. Whether you want to upgrade every time a new console is released or want to wait ten years before you feel a need to upgrade, the choice is yours. Our childhood memories of new console generations may fade, but maybe it is time that we realize console generations may not be necessary. On the corporations’ end, they may get more money, but they still give us something more valuable: freedom of choice.
