Will we ever see another major hardware or software giant join the home console market and should we hope we do?
Sony shook up the console market back in 1994 with the first PlayStation and likewise Microsoft did with the Xbox back in 2001-02.
The entrance of both Microsoft and Sony to the home console market has, regardless of whatever you console of preference is, helped propel gaming forward, a thing for which we all (as Gamers) should be thankful.
However, with three generations under Sony's belt and two under Microsoft's, should we now start hoping that someone else will come in and shake up the industry as Sony did for Nintendo and as Microsoft did for Sony when they joined the console market?
Without further competition will the industry stagnate? To an extent I already feel the current generation consoles manufacturers are trying in some way to play for the middle ground, the widest audience.
If this continues will it come at the expense of true innovation and ideas in the same way that modern politics is somewhat worse off for politicians trying to please all of the people all of the time?
I'm still unsure myself as to whether we do need to 'see another Sony or Microsoft' to push gaming forward, or whether the existing generation manufacturers are capable of pushing each other without stagnating innovation and new ideas, however I'd like to know what YOU think?
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Sony will require UK players to verify their age to keep using PlayStation messages and voice chat later this year.
Such a BS law is this honestly, very poorly thought out and far too broadly applied.
So it's to 'protect children' from harmful content in messages, yet they can continue to play multiplayer regardless, where they will hear worse, they can even hear worse stuff in the street and school playground FFS lol
Well, they can't regulate schoolyard talk or the streets of London, so this is probably the next best thing.
I don't agree with it, though it's exactly the sort of tweak around the edges politicians would make to have it seem like they're doing something.
About as effective as "protecting women's sports" in the US that literally targets 4-5 trans athletes nationally: you *could* do that... But why would you do that.
Both cases are just prudish politics for deeply unserious people.
And I bet when you get your account banned they try and take the access to your digital purchases away
@Valenka Thanks.. I think.. and point noted. :)
The history of Sony and Microsoft I had assumed was known by all and I was worried that if I went to that depth with them I'd need to do the same for every company that has risen and fallen in the last 35 years of home console history.. That would be A) No mean feat and B) make for one heck of a long and most likely boring (albeit informative) post! :/
I find it encouraging that three companies can have hardware on the market and all three do very well for themselves. If this were ten/fifteen years ago one of them would probably have been pushed out of the market.
Now the industry seems to be expanding 'sideways', so to say, with micro games proving popular on smartphones. However there's still a great divide between people who just play on a phone and people who game on PC/consoles.
As for whether or not another company entering into the gaming industry would be a good thing, that would depend entirely on the company. We've all seen that competition breeds excellence but another contender might split support from third parties a little too far, especially if hardware specs differ greatly.
If I was pushed to make a wild guess though, I'd say it's a little late for a new hardware manufacturer. Cloud gaming, while not perfect right, now will eventually become the norm, maybe as soon as 'next-next-gen', then all you would need is an app to access your games. The big three would probably make the transition into a 'provider' role where whoever controlled the most content (i.e. most studios making games) would be king. Hopefully we would get some kind of controller standardisation too :)
I could probably go on making predictions like this for a while but I'll leave it there since it's already looking like a tl:dr situation ;P