Sony's main threat, as always, is Sony itself. They have the tools to maintain and expand Playstation, but will they be able to come together as a unified force, or will they continue to in fight.

All Sony has to due to continue leading is offer value and freedom. They need to deliver multiple solutions to access Playstation Software and Services Locally and Over the Cloud. I have said it before, and I will say it again. Sony needs to deliver a unified experience across its VR, TVs, Consoles, Tablets, Handheld, and Phones.

If Sony can offer consumers the ability to boot up the PlayStation OS, Access the PlayStation Store and PSN, and enjoy their entire Library from every Sony device, then Sony maintains their dominance in gaming.

If Sony restricts its user base to a single device, then the entire rest of the electronics industry is a massive threat. Microsoft are well on the way to offering Local and Native playback of Xbox Games across Windows PC, Laptops, Tablets Etc., and Xbox Console, elsewhere they will have xCloud. Google is strongly rumored to have native playback available via a Set Top Box/Console, supplemented by Stream for other devices. There are also rumors of Amazon and Apple both delivering a Gaming Platform in the near future.

AAA games are not going to be limited to console going forward, they won't be limited to Handheld, PC, or even Smartphone. Next gen will be about being able to game where you want, at the level of detail you want to pay for.

If Sony doesn't double down on PlayStation, and broaden its horizons, PS5 will be the Vita of the console market. As always, the ball is in their court.

Sony is their main competitor. They dominate and wins unless they act complacent.

On technological front, from what we know Rumble was on project before N64 controller was knew, PSEye came before Wii same as boomerang and Sixaxis for motion - PS Move being an evolution of PSEye and Sixaxis concept - plus Cell was a really try-out on technology besides DVD and BR tried before by Sony.

Seems odd.

My son started playing God of War when he had about 3,5 year and is about halfway done. Have finished Knack 2 4 times, finished Lego Marvel Super Heroes. Yes he need to put a lot of effort on the game, but he is learning and is quite good at playing console even if he also plays a lot of ios games.

That's exactly it. He started playing such games early on.

But neither my wife or my nephew did, the only kind of videogames they encountered before were those simplistic Smartphone games like the ones I stated before. Having more than one button is already complicated for them since they never grew up with the more complex videogames on PC and consoles. And they are certainly far from the only ones whose only contact with videogames are their Smartphones. Growing up with a touchscreen as input device and games where you have all the time in the world and only have to touch with your finger or swipe once as gameplay makes even just 2 buttons like on the NES seem complicated. Just look at the React video for Megaman and specifically one person in that video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njzAyjAFCMI

No, she didn't try to do a pacifist run, she didn't understand until halfway through he level that she can attack with the other button. It's a similar case here. It's ovious to us who grown up with it, but not for those who have grown up just with smartphones instead.

I can understand a person to not understand at first, but if you explain what is to be done and the person isn't an old one should be able to adapt with some time.

But well, different market and niches. Hardly anyone will change a very good game and his use of consoles to play smartphones =p

Also Megaman is a very hard game even for full fledged gamers... but yes gamers would at least have expected jumping and firing also they to be simultaneos if wanted.

Their own hubris is the biggest threat to Sony

Microsoft are irrelevant to Sony.

Sony can only beat themselves by being anti-consumer. Nintendo isn't a threat or competition as people see the Switch as something to have alongside a PS4 and vice versa. There's no conflict between the 2 platforms. They can both succeed and they both have been.

Sony and Nintendo offer so much difference in experience that the two arent really direct competitors but can each grow healthy on their own track.

Edit: Good to see you're back :)

Sony isn't going to do anything you suggested for obvious reasons that you pretend are irrelevant, and the PS5 will still not be the vita of the console market.

Apple technically has a "gaming platform" right now. Here. Watch some random play Angry Birds on the apple TV.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIIORzt33xU

There's no reason to suspect their boxes will be anything more than Ouya 2.0. Like great, my wife will be able to play bejeweled blitz and pokemon go from the comfort of her own home -  so what? The console gaming market is small potatoes for Apple and Google, and the barriers to enter and compete and fucking massive compared to pretty much anything else. You can't even convince apple or google to spend 1/10th the cost of a AAA gaming budget to make a smartphone game as it is since there is about a 0% chance you're going to convince your average cellphone/tablet user to spend $60 on a game for their phone, and they're not gonna care less about being able to play that game on TVs or car stereos, much less be willing to pay extra for it. What makes you think Apple/Google are going to do that for a device that will at best sell a small fraction of what smartphone and tablet sales amount to? They just don't care, and will continue to not care. Like I said, it's small potatoes and it's an established industry. There's no reason to Apple or Google to pick up that torch and fight Sony and Nintendo over video games.

Sony's going to do what Sony does best. Make solid gaming hardware, and give people reasons to buy that over the other options. That certainly doesn't involve putting putting an OS as bloated as the Playstation OS on fucking TVs and smartphones. Sony already had their own offerings and moved away from them for every obvious reasons that you still want to pretend are irrelevant.

I rather think this coming generation may end up looking a lot more like the PS3/360/Wii one than the current gen.

It seems unlikely Microsoft will faceplant out of the gate this time and they appear to be making all of the right moves to be more competitive going forward. Nintendo has also found that unique offering (portability this time) that will help them stand out, except that this time it seems less likely to grow stale with gamers than motion controls did.

We really won't know until we officially see what the new Xbox/PS will look like/be priced at (as well as whatever midgen upgrade Nintendo is planning), but at the moment I think both will be bigger competitors for Sony than they were in the current gen. It seems unlikely that we'll see anyone with 50%+ of the market share long term, though the Switch will certainly have a head start initially.