Consoles will become "game players/readers". Like any media players. Like Blu-Ray players. You can choose between a model or another from whichever manufacturer you prefer. And some will be of better quality than others, with better reading capabilities or features, but all do the same basic function which is reading the [untethered] media format. Like Amazon Prime, Netflix, Steam or EGS, you can choose to subscribe to any service you prefer, or buy wherever you like. Each having their perks and idiosyncrasies.
That’s what I always believed the future would be like. Even though the cloud is gaining ground, the fact that the internet isn’t the same everywhere around the world, I don’t see any gaming device relying exclusively on it any time soon.
With the gaming devices being more and more alike, be it PC, home consoles, dedicated handheld or phones, and with developers wanting to put their content available for as many such devices as possible, I see the future heading there.
