Are MS Killing the Console?

I've been having a think over the last few days since Microsoft's E3 conference about what all this 'gaming beyond generations' guff means for current Xbox One owners and I have to say I'm not particularly happy with the way things are going. One of the key benefits of owning a console are the fixed spec and consistent hardware which allows developers to push the hardware over time and produce some stunning games as we saw in the last generation, another is that many of the best games tend to be console exclusives which is now no longer the case.
A big fuss was made during the conference that nobody will be left behind and that all games will be playable on all systems, which is all well and good but the fact is that this shift means that our 'consoles' are no longer consoles in the traditional sense but boxes that run windows 10. Games will be played on xbox, xbox one s, scorpio and windows 10 PC's. So the Xbox One which I along with many others on this site paid over £400 on launch day two and half years ago is now the worst place to play Xbox games, behind even the budget Xbox One S which offers HDR and 4K capabilities.

What does everyone else think?

Its smoke and mirrors the S console is the exact same but smaller, that's all.

Does not play 4k games, only has the 4k netflix app, thats free on every single 4k tv anyway.

The HDR thing is a minor minor bump that nobody will notice.

The upgrade comes next year with the Scorpio, that will play games in 4K hopefully.

I personally think its great as XBOX will own Playstation again in the power stakes.

That's why they never showed the NEO, they knew it was underpowered compared with Scorpio and panicked and pulled it.

No console should last longer than 5 years for me, the tech moves too fast these days.

So in summary nothing at all will change until next year and even then not much really as a 4K TV upscales everything itself as I own one.

Sorry Kent but i disagree, consoles should last 10 years. some of my favourite games on the last gen came towards the end of that consoles life. The last of us is a spectacular game and that was one of the last games released on PS3 before the release of PS4.if I'm paying £400 plus i expect the very best of that console and if it takes 10 years to realise the full potential of a console then so be it.

As for 4K sony already have plans for a 4K ps4, so the i have no doubt the difference would be non existent, yet again it will come down to console exclusive games that define this generation of consoles.

I guess this depends on the pricing but if scorpio is basically a well specced Windows 10 box you would probably be better off just getting a pc as you will still be able to play all of the Xbox games with the same or better graphics and without being tied in to microsofts ecosystem and having to pay £54.99 to download a game third party games that costs half that on steam.

Gotta agree with Bertie. I feel that mS may faze out the traditional console and "Xbox" will eventually be an app rather than something physical and we'll be playing games on windows 10 boxes or PC.

I'm edging more and more Towards my playstation platforms as time goes by. For us old farts who are trying to cling to a more traditional console gaming experience, we may well have to choose Sony or even Ninty in future.

garymason72 wrote:Sorry Kent but i disagree, consoles should last 10 years. some of my favourite games on the last gen came towards the end of that consoles life.

Got to agree with Gary here, they should last 10 years at least!

My reasons are that one: I can't afford to shell out £400-£600 god knows how much it will be next time every 5 years! It's a treat for me that I can't justify that often, not with a house to maintain etc.
Reason two: We are now on year 3 of the console and we are coming into a good run with games and the console (most of the time) works really well now. But for the first year or so, it wasn't always smooth sailing, there were issues and the games took a while to get going (in my opinion... unless you wanted only shooters and racers!). So on average you would be getting 2/3 good years, before buying a new console and having to wait another 1/2 years for it to find it's place!

minkey_monkey wrote:Got to agree with Gary here, they should last 10 years at least!

My reasons are that one: I can't afford to shell out £400-£600 god knows how much it will be next time every 5 years! It's a treat for me that I can't justify that often, not with a house to maintain etc.
Reason two: We are now on year 3 of the console and we are coming into a good run with games and the console (most of the time) works really well now. But for the first year or so, it wasn't always smooth sailing, there were issues and the games took a while to get going (in my opinion... unless you wanted only shooters and racers!). So on average you would be getting 2/3 good years, before buying a new console and having to wait another 1/2 years for it to find it's place!

I have changed my mind on this as I quite liked the look of the new Scorpio console but after thinking about it I think that Microsoft should be spending more time and effort in getting the most out of this console instead of making a new console after a few years, so I agree as well that consoles this day and age should be lasting at least 10 years. If Microsoft keep releasing a new console every 3 years or so I think they are going to alienate there customers because not everyone can afford a new £300-£400 and more console every few years.

I'm hoping that Scorpio won't mean that we are all forced into getting it at some point! Fingers crossed!

I don't think a new console every couple of years is a strategy that they can continue with surely. I think it's just that the current crop were rushed out and are underpowered. I think future consoles will maybe be modular so we can upgrade parts like P.C. But like I say. I can see Microsoft leaving console hardware behind as we know it.

To me it looks like Microsoft has looked at the success Apple has had with the iPhone and want to copy that model which I don't think is the right direction to go in. I agree with the sentiment that the console generation should be longer as being 3 years into this gen and it is really only just starting to get going having only just dropped the previous gen requirement from the majority of games which were holding back a few but it has also taken a lot longer than usual for developers to start making new games rather than remakes / remasters.