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?
"Albion Online, the free-to-play fantasy sandbox MMORPG developed by Sandbox Interactive will launch for Xbox Series X|S on 21 April 2026." - Sandbox Interactive.
Jason Dietz: "We reveal the past year's best and worst video game publishers (based on their 2025 releases) in the 16th edition of our annual Game Publisher Rankings."
I was just going to say this, their biggest and top rated game here is TLOU2 for PC….it’s embarrassing.
Even Ubisoft and EA are ahead
Kind of surprised Nintendo is pretty low aswell, their biggest game is also a rerelease with the Switch 2 version of TotK.
@christopher:” Take note, Sony, you're falling behind by a lot.”
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Why single out Sony? Microsoft didn’t do any better than the year before 5th same as Sony 9th and they have acquired activision and other mayor titles that have boosted their score massively from a 9th and Sony a 4th the year before the acquisitions.
Sony does need to do better without a doubt and I do hope they do take note but not the note of buying publishers is the way to succeed.
1. Microsoft didn't get worse.
2. Sony got way worse.
3. Because Sony needs the criticism the most considering their publishing output this generation has been propped up by last gen ports and third-party developers for the most part.
Big part of that has been the live service push resulting in cancellation or flop after flop but when they put out the games their fans want we get amazing stuff like astro bot
Leadership really screwed the pooch trend chasing
https://www.metacritic.com/...
https://www.metacritic.com/...
Well I apologize I was wrong about not doing worse but my statement of Microsoft getting a boost still stand 🤷🏿
But... but... the garbage-mongers always tell us that Square Enix is in trouble! 😂
Square doesn't help that it fear mongers itself with ridiculous 'goals' that they can't reach and then they proclaim failure if they don't reach it. They're quite freaking profitable and people act like they're dying.
Keep in mind that these "proclamations" are usually third-hand bad translations from somedude who was at the investor conference, posted on Twitter, and picked up by press and youtubers like they were gold, and then when the official translation comes out, they're much softer statements, but at that point, the damage is done.
to be very fair
being number one on these things does not indicate how "well" their games do selling wise.
Console Creatures writes, "The Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is packed with content and showcases the series' best moments with attention to detail and quality of life improvements to make this one heck of a packaged deal."
@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