So it has been recently confirmed that the PlayStation 5 is indeed a real thing and apparently there has been a lot of Mark Cerny quotes making rounds on the Internet, touting all the greatness that will be unleashed once the system is out supposedly sometime in 2020 - please don't get me started on that guy. You know that as soon as the PS5 hits the market, he will begin asking developers what they want from a PlayStation 6. You would think that with the success of their digital marketplace on the both PS3 and 4, plus their roll out of PlayStation Now, they would be smarter with their strategy leading into the future. But no. Do we really need an expensive new console at this point? We really don't. Consoles should start heading towards extinction and replaced with gaming services that can cater to multiple devices that are 1) readily upgradable, like the the Personal Computer or 2) readily accessible, like perhaps mobile devices AND current consoles - what a concept eh? You see, the problem with releasing new consoles is that they becomes obsolete as soon as they are released in today's fast-paced, ever advancing technological world.
4 PlayStations are apparently not enough.
Though many are skeptical, this is the reason why I applaud Google's Stadia. It's a bold fuck you to the console and hardware-based gaming industry. Please, don't tell me that it would not work. Remember OnLive? I used to beta test that and it worked great - there was no lag playing games off a server on the Internet. And that was like what? About 10 years ago? Sony liked it so much that they bought the company. Internet is way faster today so there is no reason for Stadia to fail. The only reason why I personally didn't subscribe to OnLive back then was because the graphics were mostly on medium settings for the more graphically intense games but that shouldn't be a problem anymore and Google even promised 4K for those with proper connection speed.
Microsoft is also guilty of this whole console conundrum because they should really work on their Windows Store to deliver the gaming goods. At least they have realized that they can easily profit from the PC market when they announced back in May that all of the games made by their internal studio will always see a PC release on Steam. But the real remedy here to move forward for the console side is - to abandon consoles altogether. Not to just throw them all into the fire, of course not, but the currently available, most recent consoles can extend their lives by implementing new exciting features, not by abandoning them altogether. Observe the following data from my Game Library:
PlayStation: 94
PlayStation 2: 470
PlayStation 3: 272
PlayStation 4: 78
PlayStation Portable: 111
PlayStation Vita: 34
It's sad isn't it? After the dramatic increase during the PS2 era, the amount of games I own for the following Sony systems dropped tremendously. What is the use of having access to something shiny and new that has less of what I want? I want games. More games! Less worry about the hardware, more focus on the games! This is why most of my games are on the PC these days - I have 4025 titles there as of today. With Steam recently announcing that they will allow offline multiplayer games to be played online via Remote Play, inspired by Nvidia Gamestream Co-op no doubt, is there really a reason to support new consoles coming out? Excuse me, new consoles that now feature... SSD - oh brother - which is something that has been a PC staple for a while now and is not that earth-shattering, certainly not worth building a whole new console for? This new Steam feature is also free and doesn't require online play subscription like it normally would on the console side, which now includes Nintendo. Open your mind. Think. The console era has ended. Don't launch new consoles, launch new services. I don't mind installing a Nintendo or Sony client on my PC on top of Steam, Epic, Uplay, GoG, Origin, and the default Windows Store.
Steam Remote Play Together. Infinitely more exciting than any new console announcements.
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