Microsoft thinks there might not be new console generations
Engadget sat down with Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft's head of Xbox games marketing, to talk about Xbox One, Project Scorpio and the future of console gaming.
"The future of Xbox looks a lot like PC gaming." That's what Engadget editor Nathan Ingraham wrote after speaking with Phil Spencer earlier this year. Spencer spoke about wanting to see a steady stream of hardware innovation rather than seven-year gaps between consoles, citing the smartphone market as inspiration. Greenberg went one step further. In his opinion, this is the last console generation. "We think the future is without console generations," he said, explaining that Project Scorpio was a "big bet" that gamers will embrace that notion.
Q: The Xbox platform has moved forward to have such regular updates and new features coming all the time. It kind of seems like hardware is going the same way. There was a very short gap between the Xbox One and the Xbox One S, and we're probably talking an even shorter gap before Project Scorpio. Do you see a future of console upgrades continually happening? Is this the last console generation?
Greenberg: I think it is. ... For us, we think the future is without console generations; 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. 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.
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I highly doubt it. The X1 launched in November of 2013, And Project Scorpio isn't set to launch until 2017... that's at least 3.5 years maybe 4. The X1slim isn't really a "new level spec", it has a slight (7% increase) OC on the GPU that is mainly to help with the new HDR content that is being made available for games. I would say that instead of the 8 years we seen between the 360 and the X1 (2005 to 2013) that it will be cut in half. So that would be new hardware every 4 years (maybe 3). If they upgraded the HW every 1 to 2 years that would be impossible for devs. to make games to properly take advantage of a given spec. Plus it would piss of the console-only gamers who love to through hate to the PC Master Race for upgrading so often. I think Spencer knows who XBOX customers are and what they want. I think it's a great idea...
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Ah, the "good" old days when console players and devs used to preach the "death of PC gaming etc." around every corner, now we'll have a "death of console(as we know it) gaming"...

On a serious note though, it's obvious that the old scheme won't work anymore. We have smartphones/smartvs/pc hardware improving each year, now with VR/4K coming out slowly, but surely... you can't possibly have a console box, that is outdated hardware wise on release day, last more than 2-3 years (just like with a regular GPU cycle on PC for example). And even the term console has/will become obsolete at this point, as it bascialy a rebranded PC with regular hardware updates/refreshes.
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Sounds like a way to get people paying for hardware and software, while making the user experience as awkward as it is on a PC.
Doubt it will happen, but I never thought a mid gen upgrade was something that would happen either.
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Or that because we give an OS away for free everyone will upgrade to it will be a thing.
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i still never understood the console hype.. i do respect handhelds tho!
consoles was cool back in the day cuz not everyone could afford a pc until dell came around with that 2350 p4 w/ ht.
but i like having a machine that is a all in one. i can do audio mixing,video editing, gaming, programming, internet, apps, performance upgrades, case mods, low power downclocks, high power oc's, etc the list goes on.
i only used ps3 because it had blu ray. now days you gotta pay monthly for online multiplayer? pc just use my internet. ****s for kids make em happy on Christmas.
@ the phone upgrade every year is easier because the carriers just put it on your monthly bill it not like the people went out and dumped $700.