As you may have heard, we've got some new consoles incoming, and they're a bit different than they have been before. Microsoft recently announced the Xbox 'Scorpio' a new machine with a big power upgrade designed to render 4K games. Sony, too, is working on an upgraded version of the PS4 codenamed "Neo," something we have less information on but is apparently designed as an incremental upgrade and not a replacement for the ascendant PS4. Both consoles are designed to play the same games as PS4 and Xbox One, making for a marked difference from the console generations before it. No longer will you have to upgrade to play the newest games: you'll just have to upgrade to see them in 4K. Likewise, buying a new console won't mean starting over with a new library.
It's a controversial idea that's already drawn a lot of discussion. Gamesindustry.biz recently talked to representatives from EA, Ubisoft and Take-Two, together representing some of the most muscular publishers in the business, and they all came down pretty positively on the idea of fluid console generations. It's not entirely surprising -- the big players often form a somewhat united front, and any excitement in the space tends to be good for publishers -- but their reasoning is still interesting. For EA global publishing chief Laura Miele, it's all about continuity in the community:
"I perceive it as upgrades to the hardware that will actually extend the cycle," she told gamesindustry.biz. "I actually see it more as an incredibly positive evolution of the business strategy for players and for our industry and definitely for EA. The idea that we would potentially not have an end of cycle and a beginning of cycle I think is a positive place for our industry to be and for all of the commercial partners as well as players.
"So it's not my perception that the hardware manufacturers are going to be forcing upgrades. I really see that they're trying to hold on and bring players along. If players want to upgrade, they can. There will be benefit to that. But it's not going to be punitive if they hold on to the older hardware... So we're thrilled with these announcements. We're thrilled with the evolution. We're thrilled with what Sony's doing, what Microsoft's doing and we think it's phenomenal. I think that is good for players. It'll be great for us as a publisher about how they're treating it."
Ubisoft and Take-Two expressed similar sentiments. While these companies no longer get to release remasters like they did with PS4 and Xbox One, it's not hard to see the appeal from their point of view. Console transitions are very stressful on developers, and not just because they have to learn new hardware. It splits their customer base in half, and more often than not requires more work with less payoff. A fluid upgrade cycle means they get to just keep pumping out games and selling them to an ever-expanding install base rather than one that abruptly contracts every five years or so.
