Been there, done that.
(Cobe Life has recently switched to a new Subscription service. I strongly advise current Subscribers to resubmit their follow request)
I’ve been a Gamer for what feels like forever now. Video Games have managed to take up a significant amount of my free time. From the first generation of home game systems to PS4 and Xbox One, I’ve played them all. From a competitive stand point Sony leads the way outselling Microsoft by akmoal 2 to 1. Nintendo has put themselves back on the map with the Nintendo Switch. The fastest selling handheld game system ever. Although it’s the newest system on the market there’s nothing particularly ground breaking about the technology that’s in it. Actually none of the big three manufacturers have really pushed the limits with their current systems. Probably the most advanced of the three is the addition of PlaystaPlay VR to the PS4. Of course you can now play virtual reality games on some cellphones. It’s not as though the Game systems are lagging behind current technology. They are actually taking full advantage of what’s available.
Therein lies the problem
With sales of current generation Gaming Systems apparently flatlining. The question that’s being asked more and more often is when the next generation of Games Systems will be released? In the past when next generation systems were being proposed people got excited. I remember the feeling of anticipation well because I have been an early adopter of new Systems for quite some time. The thing is that people had good reason to be excited because the current systems used to be far behind the capabilities of the current technology. The problem Game system manufacturers face now is that there’s nothing new to offer. Best possible picture quality available today is 4K/HDR. Can a current game system reproduce that? The answer is yes. Virtual Reality gaming? Check. Local multiplayer and online multiplayer capabilities? Yep got that too. Massive storage space to make your game library portable? Absolutely no problem. About the only thing a Game system manufacturer could offer the consumer to entice them to buy a new system is access to the newest games. Limit New releases to being available for the newest system only. Thus forcing the consumer to having to buy the newest system. Even though the capabilities of the newer system aren’t actually superior to the previous generation. That’s a scary thought. To pull it off they would have to offer marquee titles exclusively through their own development house, or get the independent software developers on board. Not an easy thing to accomplish, but not impossible.
On the horizon
So what should we really expect to happen? Well what you should expect is that as newer Audio/Video technology becomes available. Game System manufacturers will look to release their latest system along with it. As someone who has worked in the Audio/Video field for many years i can confidently inform you that there isn’t any breakthrough technology on the way. As far as Video resolution is concerned, 4K is about as good as it gets. I don’t doubt that 6K, and possibly even 8K screens are on the way. The problem with that is our eyesight can’t reasonably discern the difference between 4K and 8K. The pixel density is already so high at 4K that anything more looks the same. Actually the greatest step forward in Video quality occurred when HDR was introduced. The thing about HDR is that it really only requires a high quality screen that can reproduce the Contrast and Colours. As long as the source (digital download or Blu-ray) contains an HDR game. All the Game system requires is the necessary software, and processing power. Current generation systems either already have it, or could easily add it through a software update.
Need not Greed
The best we as consumers can hope for is that the Game systems manufacturers continue to invest in their current hardware. Offering add-ons like Playstation VR, or high quality gaming controllers to increase their revenue. Maybe even offering major software upgrades as an option for a cost. The only thing I don’t want is a PS5, or Xbox Two that does exactly what my PS4, or Xbox One does now.
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018 Mr. Corbert de Ronde
