| KBG29 said: It is funny to see so many people fighting this. The future of home computers is going to be yearly updated PlayStation's, Xbox's, Steam Machine's, and possibly Nintendo NX's if they do it right. This is great for everyone. It is exactly like the smartphone business. The real platform is the OS and the Network. The hardware just continues to grow alongside those two much more important aspects. |
That makes no sense at all for Sony and probably not for Nintendo either. Phone makers continue shurning out phones on a constant basis because that's where they get their money from. Most of them do not run stores where they get revenue, like Apple and Google do. So they have to do this quick cycle to keep the money flowing. Console holders don't get money from selling hardware, they get it from SW sales (and nowadays from subscriptions). There is no advantage whatsoever to trying to sell different devices on short cycles when the money they give you is tiny compared to the real revenue streams; if anything, it causes userbase problems, hurting those very streams. Why do you think last gen lasted so long; necessity. And after coming from the longest gen ever, why would anyone think we'd suddenly arrive at one of the quickest? The same necessities are still there.
MS is the only one that could either benefit or at least not be hurt from doing something like this by unifying Xbox with W10 because reduction in revenue (for example someone buying a game on Steam instead of Xbox/W10 store) could be compensated through other means, like more XBL subscriptions (if online was still paywalled or if non-Xbox users subscribed for the "free games") or an increase availability of Xbox-specific content to traditionally-PC users. Still risky but much more believable. Sony and Nintendo? No.
And the notion that games could potentially scale across these devices is laughable. Of course they could..at an even more horrifying optimisation than they do now. Remember how several games ran late last gen? It'd be even worse this time around. Nobody would get their money's worth; old device users would be gimped and new device users would not see the device's potential properly used either. Nobody benefits from anything.
This is how Sony wants to make money = SW + Vue + Now + PS+ + Accessories
Nowhere does risky HW revisions factor in here, specially when their current HW is selling so well.
