Microsoft Might Be Moving Away From Generational Consoles After Xbox One
It seems like the end of an era, or eras in this case, is about to come for the gaming industry as Microsoft looks set to institute some changes in how it handles its releases for its home console Xbox platform as an Xbox executive indicated that the current Xbox One might be the last generational release the company will do.
The distinction between gaming on PC and gaming on consoles has long been a hotly discussed topic in the gaming community, with the commonly brought up subject against consoles is that those who prefer them will have to buy a whole new unit every few years when a new generation launches.
For Microsoft, the concept of "console generations" might be ending with regards to the Xbox home console platform according to Xbox marketing head Aaron Greenberg. Speaking with Endgadget, Greenberg said that they "think the future is without console generations."
The subject was brought up with regard to Microsoft's plans of releasing new versions of the Xbox One, namely the upcoming Xbox One S and the future Xbox Scorpio, a marketing move mirrored by rival Sony with the PlayStation Neo.
With new updates gushing in for the Xbox One, Microsoft is deviating from the trend of only releasing a new whole system, or generation, every few years. Before, what each newly released generation meant that the prior consoles have become obsolete. Furthermore, the games made for the previous generation does not automatically transfer in playability to the new one, with fans constantly clamoring for backwards compatibility of their beloved classics.
Microsoft's plans for Project Scorpio is set to buck that tradition, with the mysterious system apparently planned to pioneer the ability for console players to keep their stuff through each iteration instead of having to pretty much constantly start over.
"We think that the ability to build a library, a community, to be able to iterate with the hardware -- we're making a pretty big bet on that with Project Scorpio," said Greenberg. "We're basically saying, 'This isn't a new generation; everything you have continues forward and it works.' We think of this as a family of devices."
Noting the risky nature of instituting such a massive change to a major component of the industry, Greenberg said that the Xbox Scorpio's release will be a wait-and-see gamble for Microsoft. "We're going to learn from this, we're going to see how that goes," said Greenberg, although he did say that the positive buzz surrounding Project Scorpio is giving them hopes for success.