Microsoft is likely debating the future of Xbox consoles, as the market is rapidly changing, making launching new hardware more difficult and expensive, according to Xbox and EA’s former boss.
Speaking in a lengthy interview with IGN, Peter Moore, who was the SEGA of America president back in the early 2000s, the vice-president of Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft until 2007, and EA’s chief operating officer until 2017, talked about the future of consoles saying that the challenge consoles are facing right now is the competition of other “plug and play” forms of entertainment. This is a concern that the industry has had for a long time, as even back in 2007, there were talks about the console generation of the time to be the last. Now that entertainment is no longer confined to a living room due to smart devices, consoles are facing additional challenges as well.
According to the former Xbox executive, Microsoft is definitely discussing the future of its consoles, but so are Sony and Nintendo, as these discussions always happen when a new console generation is about to start since companies need to be ready to absorb billions of dollars in losses. The company that will set the trend for the future, Moore says, it’s Sony, as it is “very much a hardware company”. Microsoft, not so much as Moore is sure the company would love to move everything on the cloud. As such, while discussing the future of the console business, companies are also asking themselves what a new console generation could deliver compared to the previous, ways to extend the current generation, and how AI can help game development. Speaking specifically about Microsoft and Xbox consoles, Peter Moore is certain that Phil Spencer and Satya Nadella are discussing what the future looks like for the company with and without hardware.
One thing that Peter Moore feels will disappear is the distinction between first-party and third-party titles, at least for Xbox, as he feels like the company will turn into what it is at the roots, a software and services company. It will get to a point where great games are made and delivered with a great service, thus, first-party and third-party definitions will be legacies of hardware.
While it is hard to say how many more console generations there will be in the future, it definitely looks like the current one is not going to be the last. Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo are all working on the next PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, but the challenges outlined by Peter Moore are sure to influence the hardware in some way. With rumors of handheld options for the next Sony and Microsoft consoles and the almost certain hybrid nature of the next Nintendo console, however, it seems like console manufacturers have realized how gaming is no longer confined to the living room, as the former Xbox boss highlighted.
