Ever since I was a kid E3 was my favorite time of year. Not only would I get to see new games, but I'd also get to see if any of the big companies were planning on bringing a new console to the market. That tradition may be coming to an end according to Xbox director Albert Penello. The executive went on the Inner Circle podcast and talked about how ending these "console disruptions" would help the business more than hurt it.
"You hear us talking about thinking beyond console generations. It's not the idea that you don't want to do consoles anymore or that there's not going to be more performance [in the future with new systems]...But if you go back and look at console generations, they're always super exciting when something new comes out, but they're super disruptive.
While we get super excited about new technology, third party developers have to struggle to learn the nuances of new software, how to implement new features they gained in the last generation and so on. Penello reasons that if the console itself never changed but the hardware improved it would be a much more seamless process and avoid people playing full on catch up as the software improves.
I can see the appeal of a "long lasting console" from Microsoft's perspective. A lot of the things that made the Xbox 360 the winner of last gen was it's interface and features...many of which took quite some time to appear on the Xbox One.
Ultimately, this discussion was coming for the past couple years now. Tech experts have said we were reaching a "tech plateau" a decade ago and it looks like we've finally arrived. If Microsoft was moving towards an upgradeable model as opposed to a console cycle, I can't say I'd be disappointed in that. What about you?
