Microsoft: in the future, our consoles will not have generations

The authors of Xbox reject the idea of generations in the console market. Apparently, they are just going to release more and more devices.

The technical lag of the Xbox One from the PlayStation 4 forced Microsoft to make an unexpected move. At the last E3 in June, the company announced a new console – Project Scorpio, which is formally the Xbox One, but at the same time is “4.5 times more powerful” than it. The console, the start of sales of which is scheduled for autumn 2017, will support both full-fledged playback of games in 4K resolution and VR.

This situation has caused understandable concerns among the gaming audience: whether those who have already bought Xbox One will not remain without games. Microsoft says not yet. Moreover, in yesterday’s interview with Engaget, the head of the Xbox division, Phil Spencer, said that exclusives will not be created under Project Scorpio: “this is one ecosystem [Xbox One] – it doesn’t matter what you have – Xbox One S or Project Scorpio, we don’t want to leave anyone.”

But he immediately noted that there will be VR exclusives for Project Scorpio (the basic Xbox One does not support virtual reality). “As for this area [VR], we don’t think of it as console gaming, we perceive it as high-quality VR (…) this will be just the new thing you get with Project Scorpio,” Spencer said.

What Project Scorpio will look like is unknown, at the moment only its stuffing is shown
He also said that Microsoft sees its future without generations of consoles.

The company now treats Xbox One as a “family of devices”, within which new consoles can be released that will not be considered a new generation, since all new games will work on previously released consoles of this family.

It is quite possible that the company was inspired by this idea from the mobile market. For example, a new iPhone comes out every year. There is backward compatibility between them.

The conclusion seems quite obvious that the company is going to switch to a model of earning, first of all, on sales of the consoles themselves, and not on deductions from games to them, which is still generally accepted in this market. How ready the players will be for this is an open question.

A source: Engadget