Will there be next generation of Consoles?

Wonder what you think. I love my PS4 and hope there will be 5 but i doubt it. Everyone probably yet heard of the old response from Shuei Yoshida (president of Sony) to the question "What will the next ps be like and when will we see it?" He said "You mean if."

I don't know how it could be an "if" for Sony. PlayStation is the one successful thing they have; PS4's are still selling really well. They would be foolish to not iterate on it in some way (something more substantial than the ps4plus).

My hope for consoles is that they continue to utilize the same architecture/ecosystem so backcompat is no longer an issue and old systems can still play new games (albeit at lower quality). Mark Cerny said the next thing they do would be a full reset, but I think that would be a huge mistake.

Either way, consoles aren't going anywhere.

Even if we have PS4 or #Playstation for the rest of our lives, at one point or another the technology in the consoles will take a significant enough leap that we can safely consider it the start of a new generation. It's not like they are going to be able to use this exact same architecture and technology forever, that stuff is all rapidly evolving outside their influence. At some point it won't make sense to spin their wheels the same way anymore.

Hopefully not. The half-step upgrade every three years or so works out a lot better for everyone.

Yeah I feel like there are a few more generations left in the tank so to speak.

If nothing else I think it'll get to a point where Sony or Microsoft will need to position themselves as the "leader of next generation gaming" (whatever that means) and come out with a console that will at least try to be the standard bearer for whatever that next generation leap looks like. For my part it is getting harder and harder to justify new generations because they feel so much like three-quarters of a step now. Sure, I know that going back and comparing, say, an early-to-mid life cycle PS3 game with a current PS4 game is pretty noticeable, but I'd like to feel thew same sort of sensation I experienced when consoles made the jump to fully polygonal 3D if we're talking about a new generation.

Sorry...got a little derailed there, but yes. I believe the answer is yes.

I think if the current business model works then consoles could become like cellphones where we see annual improvements but not full one next gen. It could also lead to consoles just becoming upgradable gaming pcs with a custom os.

Of course there will be. How anybody could think otherwise I have no idea.

Consoles are still far too succesful to go away, and these consoles are in no way in a position to be upgradeable like a PC (PS4 Pro and Scorpio are not far enough), so yes, I am 100% certain there will be. Maybe the next generation they'll put more plans in place for a longterm lifecycle, but it's not going to happen with this gen.

I think the distinction of what defines a generation will blur. We're probably going to see hardware upgrades like the Scorpio and the PS4 Pro every 3-4 years. Perhaps when the next version comes out (call it Pro 2 for simplicity), games will drop vanilla PS4 support but still work on Pro and Pro 2. If you want to call that a new generation then the answer to the question is yes, but my guess is that games will always support the two most recent versions of the system at the very least.

To address the real point of the question though, yes, consoles will continue to exist for a good while going forward.

Yes, it is silly to think otherwise. Just because the PR mouth pieces like to talk bullshit about "we're all one eco system" and "there won't be another generation" or "you mean if"; the reality is there will be. There will always be another generation. Even PCs have generations for all of the different parts you can buy to upgrade your PC with. Even the "iPhone" cannot avoid having generations but they still market their phones with numbers after them (the PSPro being basically an "S" version). They will never be able to get away from that because otherwise they are just asking to get reamed by angry consumers who bought a game only to find it doesn't play on "X version of their game box". Sure, they could separate it based on OS version like apple does; but it really isn't any different from PS1/2/3/4/etc.

Ok, lets say there will be something like "PS Pro 2". I am curious if games released on both last and next gen (for instance Killzone 5) will be only for Pro and the "Pro 2" or also for ps4? I'm not going to buy next PS at launch and Pro i'm not buying.

Yes? Eventually there will be games that the original regular PS4 can't run.

If Sony releases a PS4 Pro 2 then that might serve the same function as a PS5. But at that point it's better for them just to call it PlayStation 5. I doubt we are going to hear E3 trailers saying 'Exclusively for PS4 Pro 2'.

So yes, there will be a next generation. The restriction of needing games to run on the original PS4 will eventually start holding the entire platform back.

There may never be a box that says "Playstation 5", but even if Sony continues on this incremental upgrade path eventually there will be games that the original Playstation 4 can't play. That will be a Playstation 5, even if its called something else.

Yes; but I'm not sure if there will ever be something officially called Playstation 5.

After the Pro will probably come the New Pro or Advanced Pro; and that will be functionally the same as a PS5. Or maybe they'll slow-walk things a bit and it'll be the one after that, called some other buzzword.

Yes. Despite all the hand wringing and querying about the state of consoles and E3 and the industry, there will be another generation of consoles.

Funny you should ask, I was looking at this yesterday, Geforce Now and thinking huh, well maybe that's the end of the hardware race, combined with the xbox app on PC, and Playstations streaming service, you've got to wonder how long before the whole thing is basically games as services.

I think there will always enthusiasts, and conversely, a 'casul' market dependent on hardware by necessity (low bandwidth areas) and tradition/habit.

But the time of digital only streaming has got to be closer than previous outings like Onlive. We take Spotify/Netflix and subscription services for granted more and more.

PC's were way ahead of the new consoles when the new consoles released and the gap is only widening. Yeah, there's a ton of room for improvement. We'll see new consoles.

There will 100% be a box sold by Sony that says "Playstation 5" on it. There is money there to be made.

Yeah their will definitely be a PlayStation 5 but I think it'll be a soft launch sitting along side the PS4/Pro with cross gen games for a few years. Its getting harder every generation selling better graphics, it'll be interesting to see what hook or gimmick MS/Sony use to push their new hardware with.

I'd say so. Nothing that has happened in the console space, so far, has shown me that consoles generations will stop being drawn in the sand with firm demarcation of generations.

Generations are actually quite useful to consumers, publishers, and the console makers. Some people just psychologically will stop buying anything without a "new thing" arriving every so often to shake them up. Publishers need consumers to move on from a console that is saturated with old software, by having new hardware show up. And, console makers have an easier time 'kick-starting' sales when they start to wain with new hardware. Novelty and newness sell products.

I think we are locked into a phase of iteration and not forklift upgrading much anymore. People hate to abandon their hardware and games and accessories that they spent thousands of dollars on.

That doesn't really make any sense from a branding perspective, just look at what it did for the the Wii U. Putting a "5" in the name says it's the next big thing you need to own-- even iPhones still have a number attached to them.

@teddie: The iPhones do, but they an the exception among both Apple products and most consumer electronic hardware in general. Look at things like MacBooks, there are the different product lines (Air, Pro, etc.) and each new iteration is just referred to by the year it came out; there's no MacBook Air 2, its all just MacBook Airs.

And on the software side, its pretty much only video games that are title numbered; which makes sense, as distinct pieces of entertainment. Utility software (e.g. Microsoft Word, Adobe Pro, SPSS, etc.) has version numbers but always keep the same name; even Microsoft Windows is now just going to be Windows 10 forever.

I think this is the path consoles will go; and already have begun with the Pro and the Scorpio. With the hardware updates becoming more frequent and more half-steps, the line has to be blurred for consumers so that no one gets burned and loses their brand loyalty. On top of that, by dropping the numbers, and adopting the position of consoles as services, each console feels more like a complete eco-system and consumers become less likely to switch hardware at future updates. Which, given their dominant position right now, is exactly what Sony wants.

Yes, I think so.

This half iterative program can only go so far. The moment Uncharted 5 requires a minimum version of PS4 to work, they might as well call them "next generation".

There will be a new one for both companies but it will probably take a long long time before they do it.

Yes there will be.

There will 100% be a playstation 5, however depending on how successful the Scorpio is, I have a feeling Microsoft will probably get rid of the Xbox brand and move more towards PC gaming. Seeing how all future "exclusives" will be available on Windows, I don't see any reason left to buy an Xbox.