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?
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
@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