KBG29 said:
If this becomes a trend for consoles, then their is very little need for PC's in most households. Microsoft is already basically turning Xbox into their in house PC brand, completing their hardware portfolio (Xbox = PC, Surface Book = Laptop, Surface = Tablet, Windows Phone = Smartphone). Sony is flinging the doors of the PlayStation Store open, and allowing PS4 and PSVR to be basically an open, but secure ecosystm (ala the App Store/Google Play). These consoles are becoming full blown, highly optimized PC's, with steamlined and highly optimized OS's.
This kind of release schedule is actually going to lengthen the generation, while allowing consumers choice within the platform. It is going to give people a low cost entry tier, and high tiered devices as tech advances. This will allow Sony and Microsoft to lock to this generation longer, and allow PS5 and Xbox Two, to be massivly improved platforms, built around completly new tech, and focused on redering and game design teniques that are just not possible on PS4, PS4.1, PS4.2, etc..
On the development side, this is going to open the door to millions more consumers. As I said above, these consoles are becoming the home computer of the future. As they quickly make the transition to complete computing systems, the sales of common PC's will shift quickly to consoles. This is going to mean their will go from 60M PC/PS4/XBO users capable of playing current gen games, to a couple 100 million in a matter of a couple of years. There will be more people with devices capabale of playing the latest games than there ever has been in the history of the industry. Finally, at the end of the day, the amount of work to optimize a game for PS4 and PS4K will be much less than the current work being done to develope for PS4 and PS3. Once PS4K and XBOK arrive, I expect a complete stop in production and development on PS3 and 360, which will actually result in savings.
On a broader computing level. The raise of low cost highly optimized computing devices will be a tide that raises all ships. Having a baseline of PS4 and XBO will allow software outside of gaming to make massive leaps as well. Having 100's of millions of people all using the same devices will allow all software to be highly optimized, and that will lead to a better computing experience for everyone.
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