Fitzchiv
Member
One of the things I've really liked about this place is the sheer variety of opinion on what the next few years holds for the industry, and in particular console/tv gaming. We all seem to have a few big opinions/hunches about what feels like a transformative period the likes of which we've not seen in quite a long while. So, where better to post your outrageous predictions, hunches, opinions and tasty bait than here?! (I'm classing the next gen as nominally 6-7 years based on the current console iterations)
Don't feel like you need to back it up with evidence, you'll spend enough time fighting individual battles in coming years and doing that.
Here goes, my attempt at being Nostradouchebag;
Don't feel like you need to back it up with evidence, you'll spend enough time fighting individual battles in coming years and doing that.
Here goes, my attempt at being Nostradouchebag;
- One of Sony and Microsoft will exit the console hardware business, but not necessarily gaming - so we all see Stadia coming, and xCloud, and PS Now and whatever else services there are out there in development and kind of all agree that it's too soon to be making daft equivalencies with hardware gaming just yet, but my hunch is one of the big boys will throw their hat into a streaming/service model entirely by the end of the lifecycle of PS5/Scarlett.
- It'll start with the end of the disc - the machines are almost certainly both going to have 4k bluray drives, but by the mid point of the generation several big publishers will announce the end of standard physical copies of their releases (but won't be able to resist the cash grab of the special editions). The onset of the disc-less console will come much earlier this cycle. By the end, games will be released almost exclusively by digital channels, which will influence..
- AAA Game Prices will increase above inflation - control of the supply chain will result in a change in purchasing culture, with prices held at the top end much longer and seasonal digital sales more of an event. The average price of a AAA title will be 30-40% more than we've seen this gen.
- Nintendo will go "nearly Sega" - I guess it started withe Cube, but Nintendo's been playing the same game for a while now and the increase in cloud gaming services (and use of smartphone screens) will make casual/on the move hardware less attractive. They won't exit hardware entirely, but by the end of the gen Nintendo will be publishing games for other platforms to back-fill lack of hardware sales.
- Only one of Apple Arcade, Stadia and Amazon Cloud Gaming will succeed as a top tier game experience, the other two will focus on mobile/casual or be shut down.
- Smart TV's will adapt to be directly streamed to, quite quickly, and kill the need for lower end hardware such as dongles etc. Sony will make good use of it. Microsoft will release a Surface TV that does all the in-home streaming and smart hub stuff leveraging Cortana.
- We'll get Halflife 3 - it'll be a massive letdown.
- I'll piss away a load of money on old machines to play games I can't on the new machines, then a 3rd party multi platform solution will be released - someone will cash in on whatever the impact on older school BC is by the end of the gen.
Last edited: