Peter Moore was a big name in the video game industry, he led Xbox Then EA Sports and even SEGA of America before that, then he completely changed sectors to direct Liverpool FC, the English club from his hometown. A position that he has now left, but he remains in the world of football, while looking at the world of video games with an informed eye.
In a long interview given to IGN, Peter Moore predicts the end of home consoles, just that. Already in 2007, with the launch of the Xbox 360, he saw the return of PCs and the arrival of televisions capable of running games, something which is concrete today thanks to cloud gamingbut the industry has changed a lot over the years and the former boss of Xbox has a very pessimistic view regarding the future of consoles.
And what do we do? Well, we’re not in the living room anymore. We’re back in the room with our YouTube influencers, our TikTok creators, and it’s about on-demand content… Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2010, editor’s note) is coming and they’re going to say “Why do I have to spend $400 or $500 on custom gaming hardware when I have my smartphone, or my PC, or my Mac, and I can do things on it with a pretty decent controller? »
What I’m saying is that questions are being asked, as they have been for the last 20 years. Are we ready to strap ourselves financially to fight and assume all the costs of development? What can the PS6 do that the PS5 can’t do that would make people leave the PS5, or the same with the Xbox, the same with the Switch, right? God forbid, it’s only gradual.
And I think businesses are looking at that as well. What can we do to extend this life cycle? And then if you’re Microsoft and Phil Spencer, you have Satya Nadella coming in and saying, “Okay, what’s the future here and how does this fit into the bigger cloud strategy with Azure, with the ‘AI? What do we do with AI game development? How to make your games faster, cheaper, with fewer people? » These are all the questions that I think are being asked.
According to Peter Moore, the younger generation would abandon PlayStation, Xbox and Switch to simply play on everyday devices like their laptop or smartphone, in a simpler and less expensive way. The former boss of Xbox, EA Sports And SEGA of America asks interesting questions, Sony recently announced that the PS5 was already in the second half of its life cycle, but what will the PS6 do to justify going back to checkout, at a time when household budgets are increasingly reduced due to inflation? The video game industry continues to evolve, after having reached heights in 2020 thanks to confinement, it is now laying off workers with all its might, it remains to be seen what it will look like in the coming years. But even a man with as much experience as Peter Moore cannot predict that, only time will tell.
As a reminder, Nintendo should launch the successor to the Switch early next year, while Microsoft already working on consoles that will succeed the Xbox Series X|Smachines designed for cloud gaming, but consoles nonetheless. The market will undoubtedly continue to exist for a few more years, but Peter Moore’s vision could come to fruition after a few generations of consoles.
By the end, or not, of consoles, you can find the PS5 Slim from €533 on Amazon, Cdiscount Or there Fnac.
| Clint008 Editor – Tester |
