Where will console gaming be 10 years from now?

One of the best things about the gaming industry is how fast it moves. The graphics that we have today were simply inconceivable just 20 years ago. The power that the PS Vita and Nintendo 3DS pack into such tiny handhelds would have boggled our kinds just a decade ago. Touch screens, online play, motion controls, digital downloads, connected ecosystems, games that evolve over time thanks to constant updates, disc formats that hold more data than the average hard drive back then... who could have imagined gaming would be where it is today then?

That's what makes predictions so much more exciting. In this thread, let's try to speculate where the three console makers will be ten years from now. Of course, this is all baseless predictions, since none of us are clairvoyant. But since we can all observe trends, we can try to at least figure out where games will be in just a decade, or two generations of video game consoles. Here are my predictions:

In ten years, Microsoft will not be making consoles. That doesn't mean they'll have exited the market, though- just that the very conception of an Xbox console will have evolved.

Ten years from now, Xbox will be a cloud based streaming service (possibly just under the Xbox Live banner). No actual Xbox hardware will be sold, though Xbox clients to play games (which will require an Xbox Live subscription) will be made available on at least Windows, Mac OS X, and Windows Phone. Microsoft will also sell 'official Xbox accessories-' such as an Xbox game controller or Xbox headsets- to gamers to 'enhance their Xbox gaming experience.'

Essentially, then, Xbox will have evolved past just hardware, to platform agnostic server farms based cloud and client based gaming, alongside a digital forefront. No Xbox consoles will be sold, though controllers and the like still will be. This will save Microsoft the cost of having to develop their own (loss making) hardware, while still keep them in the game.

Sony, like Microsoft, is also moving towards a client based cloud gaming platform agnostic future- PSN, PS+, and PS Now are already very telling indications of this fact- nonetheless, in ten years, Sony won't have exited hardware entirely.

There will still be at least one flagship PlayStation console being sold on the market, billed as the 'best way to Play PlayStation,' possibly hyping its low latency and optimized games. There will be no more PlayStation handhelds (mobile support instead coming in the form of the PlayStation gaming client being made available on Android); PlayStation itself will continue to be a catch all name for Sony's gaming service, that will be available on Windows, Mac OS X, and Android, at the very least. Like Microsoft, Sony too sell official PlayStation controllers and the like to enhance your gameplay experience on PlayStation even if you don't buy PlayStation hardware.

Essentially, Sony's future ten years from now looks more or less identical to Microsoft's, although Sony will probably also have at least one 'flagship' PlayStation console model on the market.

Nintendo's future is the most interesting of the three, because I also imagine it will be the most different. A company as traditionally internet averse as Nintendo will not suddenly decide to ditch hardware and go online client based streaming only. I do imagine Nintendo to continue making hardware even in 2024. I just imagine it will be different than what we have now.

No more Nintendo consoles. No more Nintendo handhelds. Not in the traditional sense. Iwata already gave a pretty good indication of where Nintendo was headed earlier this year, in January- there will be a line of Nintendo products, of different form factors- think iPod Touch and iPad (meant as an analogue, not literally to imply touch screen only media players or tablets)- all of which are based off of the same hardware architecture, and run the same games, and have the same OS, although the 'bigger' more powerful (home console equivalent) probably runs them better or unlocks extra features (once again, think iPod Touch and iPad). There might be some exclusives for each system, but on the whole, this approach will largely unify Nintendo's hardware lines from a development pipeline perspective (meaning they effectively only have to support one system), leading to a lack of droughts even if there is minimal third party support (which it might still be). Actual hardware sold to consumers will still be differentiated into multiple form factors though. Your purchases and activity will be unified across all devices by your Nintendo Network ID.

Nintendo, then, is moving towards a future where the real system isn't their home console or their handheld, but the hardware and OS powering them, that will be common across both, essentially meaning both are the same systems sold in different form factors. Nintendo might iterate on this hardware incrementally like Apple, and it will use universal accounts (Nintendo Network) to make this kind of a dynamic system feasible.

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Well, there you have it, those are my predictions. Essentially, they say that the only traditional console you can buy in 2024 will be a PlayStation- Nintendo will continue doing its own thing, and Xbox (and PlayStation as well) will have largely moved on to client based solutions.

But that's just what I think. What about you? Where do you see console gaming ten years from now?

I see Sony and Nintendo sticking around with their consoles while MS will not be in the console race anymore. Nintendo will still release their HH's while Sony steps away from the HH market.

Technology wise, I don't really care since I'm enjoying what we have now.

Nintendo will still make consoles, sell games in the traditional manner, and hopefully have an online system that's good.

Sony will be dead, and MS will be renting digital content. If Sony manages to survive for 10 more years, they'll also be renting digital content which is apparent given how hard they are pushing it this gen.

Gamers everywhere will long for the days of old when you could buy a hard copy, plug it in, and play............Non-Nintendo gamers that is. Nintendo gamers will point out to those other gamers that Nintendo is still an option, and then get laughed at.

Meanwhile, PC gamers everywhere will be lol'ing at all the other fanbases while playing in glorious 8k resolutions.

PC, consoles, and handhelds are all doomed. Mobile games are the only way forward.

Streaming games

I HIGHLY doubt that any of the consoles will give up on the physical hardware front - especially with how well the PS4 and Xbox One are selling. Nintendo, however, I could see making a move to 100% handheld -- maybe something along the lines of the Vita: an extremely powerful (by handheld standards) boasting Nintendo's more than capable first party -- look at Super Smash Bros getting a 3DS version.

With the PS4 breaking every console sales record and the Xbox One selling better than either of Microsoft's previous models, I doubt we'll see physical console hardware go away from either Sony or Microsoft.

I imagine in ten years we will be well into generation 9. Both Sony and Microsoft will still be making hardware but Nintendo will become third party. Generation 9 will not be radically different than gen 8 except Apple, Samsung LG will step into the game. Both consoles will launch around 2018-2019. The PS5 will come with Morpheus and MS might have yet another version of Kinect. Each console will be powerful enough to push real VR and also 4k and 1080p will be minimum. Both will use DDR4 system memory and GDDR6 and if trends hold there GPU should easily pack 15-25 teraflops. As for gen 10 this will likely be the last hardware based gen as in there will be no local hardware after that. At this point real VR could be possible without the need for head mounted display at all. In essence they will be dreaming machines that can tap into your brain.

In TEN years there WILL be another console from each manufacturer. However the type of console maybe drastically different than what we have now.

I still believe that all three companies will release a "condensed" console that is reminiscent of a tablet as opposed to a "box".

If by chance they do release a "box" it will be mostly streaming and or DLC.

I don't like any of these predictions... in fact I am seriously depressed about where gaming is headed. The fact that both handhelds are getting next to no AAA support in the West and the PC moba and multiplayer only craze all has me yearning for simpler times. PS1 era golden age where Squaresoft made jrpgs a plenty and PC had Dungeons and Dragons based epic rpgs like Baldurs Gate and planescape Torment. Where online was done on PC only with 3dfx cards and matches were either Quake 2/3 or Unreal tornament.... the golden age of gaming imo....

To me with this multiplayer mindset... I just don't feel like I would fit in. I may just stock up on old consoles and handhelds and build up my existing libriaries of physical games and store DD games on hard drives. If single player goes away like the Free to play people , and Valve all the sudden wants...count me out.

But alas... for my depressing prediction.... Single Player gets scrapped for simpler to make multiplayer games where a few maps can be hobbled together and the young cod kids gobble it up..... :(

this no hardware future.. and multplayer focused future, doesn't seem good.

I remember looking to the future back in the ps1 days thinking about how amazing things will be, and they have been. Back then it was thinking about being in a game where you could open every door, and explore an endless word. we never got there....

In my alternate reality of the future of gaming..... xbox does only multiplayer, Sony and Nintendo finally join forces like originally planned back in the early 90s and single player focused games and rpgs flourish. Squaresoft separates from enix, Bioware Dr's return and buy the company back form evil EA, and Richard Garriort makes a new RPG rivalling Ultima 7. Wing commander V gets announced, alongside Freelancer 2! Creative Assembly makes Medieval 3 and it is an actual good game unlike rome2, Civ 8 is released and the series continues. VR is a thing but totally optional. Final Fanatasy Tactics 2 is out, and Carmack and Remero reunite to make a new genre....

hahahaha ...it's getting late....

I just don't see streaming caching on big for a long long time. Internet would need to advance at a much quicker rate than video games.

I see people complain about latency in Deus Ex HR on PS now so imagine how bad the lag would be for mp. Deus Ex graphics aren't even that good for last gen so imagine a PS 4 game like The Order played streaming? the internet will be more advanced in 10 years but so will games. The average game size this gen will be 20-30gb and next gen will probably be 50-60. Streaming won't become popular until game graphics have peaked and internet tech has more time to evolve.

i don't care cuz ill be 36 and i don't want to be 36 ****

Watch Sword Art Online as i would like gaming to go that much advanced like in the show

You want to be trapped in a gaming world where if you die you actually die? :P

It will leave Nintendo far behind, that's for sure.

Well obviously not that part of the show lol

but the whole reality aspect of it where you get to even feel when touching someone's hands or taste the food lol

My friend works for an analyst firm and they pretty much expect the next console's to be cloud based gaming machines.

Quit your whining... I will be 36 this year in December ......nooooooo :(

There was a movie in the 90s called, I think, end of days, or something like that and they had this squid cap you put on your head and basically made you be in the game in your own mind. .. I rember thinking that is what it would be like in 20years from 2000...yeah, it ain't happening (back in 1990 it was the holodeck from Star Trek tng ...thats not happening either.... :( My god am I a downer tonight!

nuuuuuuuuuuuu shit dude :(

Sony and Nintendo will continue their Greatness, maybe MS will give up

They'll probably be slightly better... again.

Sony will dominate another console generation

Since consoles are now touching the low end of hardware at launch, I'm wondering if streaming services are the future for games consoles. Internet is getting better, more consistent and more stable everywhere and this way we can let Sony and MS worry about the hardware and they'll be able to deliver much higher end hardware at all times then.

I don't think I'll have a problem with it. Already console games are pulling away from us having the feeling of actual ownership. The discs are just a delivery method now to install one version of the game and then there's a 2.5GB update on the X1 (an exaggeration I know), dlc and other stuff just when you start it. So while I resisted the idea at first, I think it might be for the best. Ya know, stop effing about and do it already. It feels like XBL and PSN (if it's the same) behaves like a Trojan horse version of steam already.

I think Steam was before it's time when I started using it and didn't like it, but now I get it with the services thing, they just cut to the chase without the coddling and said this is the future and how it's going to be.

This is how I see it, it's sad to me that we're pulling away from consoles as we knew them.

i'm 43

Physical consoles will be around for many years to come. Streaming games has issues to overcome before it will be practical. Reliability, latency issues and bandwidth caps are preventing streaming from becoming the standard. Streaming will be great for demos, but no way in hell do I want to rely on streaming for long play sessions.

will be EXacly same like today. but will be much more cinematic, and will have much more QTEs. majority of games will be most likely interactive movie.

all in all same like today but with better graphics.

Sony and MS as console manufacturers will both be dead. In their place will be streaming services. Rio for MS and PSNow for Sony. They are already working out the kinks for both. In the end Nintendo will be the last console. Not only that they will be able to stream both services, which means that in the end you will only need 1 console to play all games. In the end everyone will get what they want. Publishers will get the full control of content that they have been praying for and Nintendo will get the creative freedom that they have always fought for. But this will come at the cost of gamer's rights.

Right now, sure. But in ten years I don't think there'll be any issues with it. By the end of the 8th gen, I expect a lot of those problems to be sorted out.

I don't think the games will change. I think this gen proves gamers deep down don't like change or something different. I think gamers like 'different' in a temporary fashion. However I think the hardware part will change.

PS5 will definitely be dedicated hardware. I will bet money on that. I mean really what is the benefit of streaming for us?

The only thing that is changing is software. Physical software will probably be replaced with 100% digital downloads for the PS5. Streaming isn't really needed when you can just download the actual digital file and play the game without the worry of streaming issues. Streaming makes sense for rentals and demos. In 5-6 yrs time SSD's will cost peanuts and make digital downloads more practical.

brain gaming.

I expect things will be different by the time 10th gen. So PS6.

And while that's a very good point about download speeds, the advantage of streaming, is that they can have much higher end hardware in their data centres. Costs have to be kept down with consoles, because £400 is the absolute limit they'll sell for and even that's too high and this gen that's got us a low end AMD CPU and a low to mid range GPU. Where as if we pay a subscription, MSs and Sonys own hardware will rival high end PCs and we just have to access it.

On the PC this isn't a problem, Steam will work as you described, because it's up to the consumer how powerful they want their hardware to be. And we seem far happier to spend much more on them. Consoles don't have that luxury.

Although I think next gen we will still have hardware, and like you said, we might not have physical games anymore. But IDK about that, after the backlash MS certainly won't try that again and Sony don't exactly lead the way with change much.

And with Comcast charging overages HD gaming will cost the "hard-core gamer" $200+ a month just for Internet use.

Depends on how this gen goes (and perhaps the NeXT)

I don't think MS will stick around if this gen turns bad for them. The rumblings from the higher ups is none too positive of the Xbox brand as far as we've heard.

Sony IS suffering, and if they do not turn the Financial issues around there will simply not be a PS5, perhaps with the possible exception that PS will become its own brand, and spun off Sony.

Nintendo will hardware wise likely be in a decent spot, so we will see another console from them I am sure, I do not know however how that hardware will be, the notions of a handheld with an hdmi port might not be as far fetched as some peoplw would think.

If this holds true? well then the only way MS or Sony can even be in the console buisness without bleeding Cash would be through streaming services. That are somewhat cheaper if done correctly, and cost the consumer more in the long run (but not completely a bad deal, since the rental fes would likely be flexible).

Handhelds? Well I don't think Sony will make another handheld, which is a shame since the Vita is the best handheld I've ever had, Nintendo might try to go for a kombi system, meaning that it is both handheld, and can be used as a console (If hardware has evolved to a place where powerful enough).

So basicly two of them will likely be "services" which you can already hear they want to move towards, and if they decide on it, nothing the consumer can say will change that, especially gamers WHO time and time Again have shown they have spines like jelly and will cave in to anything that looks pretty.

The PC will likely be a mix between the two, having still the games they have now, aswell as the services MS and Sony offers, as will your phone (which hopefully by that time fixes control issues, with plausible workarounds like how they can make phones which offers a feeling feedback. (ie. you can feel the thumbstick even though it is not there).

It's not about "benefits for the consumer".

Streaming content means the gamer is stripped entirely of ownership of the game which in-turn makes the gamer more inclined to pay a subscription fee to get access to games which in-turn means a steady stream of money for Sony/MS which in-turn makes them happy.

I'm willing to bet PS+ is Sony's biggest earner just like Xbox Live is Microsoft's. Soon Sony will be launching PS Now, and the downhill slope consoles are on currently will become a drop off over a pit of spikes.

Download speeds are already high enough as is to very easily support "download only". That's not the future......at least not for Sony or MS. There's a reason they're heavily pushing for renting digital content, and paying for online services rather than providing a much better digital distribution landscape such as Steam is on the PC.

That's the other side of it. It's very clear they want to move away from consumers having ownership of a game. Most content is now just licenses. So in ten years it makes sense it's going to move away from physical ownership all together. I'm okay with streaming or whatever now since it kind of already feels like we're moving on to the Steam like licence method. But the by-product is we no longer get weak hardware because MS and Sony won't have to cut corners to fit it in a tight £350 package.

Download speeds are not really adequate for the average gamer. Games are frequently bigger than 10GBs usually three times that on consoles. While the Steam system is possible, it won't solve the hardware issue because you still need a host system to run the games on. These consoles are already expensive to design, manufacture and launch globally, yet now they can only achieve low end hardware. Also given that Sony are developing PS Now and MS investing so much in their Azure global network, it's clear that's what they want to do.

I expect the next gen to be the last physical console with physical games. Why bother with the a Steam like business model on consoles. I think they might as well go all the way anyway.

I think what Sony and MS get from offering free games, is a Trojan horse way of moving in that direction too. Nothings for free without motives. They benefit from learning what we want and getting us used to digital content.

That's why Steam has so many sales, the service would be no where near as popular without them. Now everyone's into it and it's a widely accepted form of DRM.

I went off topic probably, but I agree with pretty much everything you say.

when you get older you try not to think too much about the future.

free 2 play and indies are gonna dominate like never before and I will not like it.

@charizard1605: struggling to do 4k?

Seriously? MS has the biggest chance of ending hardware and its their fault. If they hadn't had the now gone policies at release, they would be faring better. But your streaming prediction seems pretty spot on.

@sukraj: ill be 42 in November. Glad I'm not the only one our age

Steam will win out in the end. Nintendo will survive because of their IPs.

Well, I hope we'll see a huge change in the general computer hardware paradigm in 10 years, which should also impact consoles. Look at this article, from 2012. This is supposed to be a hype killer, though read the last phrases in that article. Things are going faster than expected on both the graphene and carbon nanotubes areas.

A brazilian university filled a patent, published in 2012, that more than halves what were by then the current production costs (a decrease of 55%) of graphene. This is only the beginning (really, I know my country, if a brazilian university managed such a breakthrough, soon enough there'll be some US, EU or Japanese universities or tech companies with way better new methods).

Maybe it's farfetched, but sincerely, I hope that this is the new kind of hardware we'll be seing in 2024. How both that and cloud computing could relate to future gaming though... is too much speculation for just one post.

> implying we have a crystal ball

nothing to discuss here kids. lock your own thread dumbass.

Just ask SONY how is driving the industry and consistently pushing it forward,.

i think there needs to be at least one more console cycle...so i think in 10 years, there will be the last consoles ever needed. all digital/streaming consoles need the internet and that net neutrality to be figured out first

this will be the future...before that we will have total DD support for the consoles

Will be the same as now but with more tropes, because we all know that if last gen lasted 8 years, this one will last even more. What's stopping them?

VR will start the cycle back to where we were in the PS1/N64 days. Our internet networks will be painfully unequipped to stream games to VR consoles and discs will remain relevant as a result.

Developers will pioneer more and more socially connected online titles. Lobbies will actually be expanded on so that they are no longer dead space between games.

4K will be the accepted single screen format for the consoles.

The graphics themselves won't be radically different from what we see today since the focus will be on using horsepower to push the dual-monitor/VR format instead of a single TV panel as hard as possible but it will be there.

We may see the rise of the subscription format this gen where new games will be the exception instead of the rule. Think Orange is the New Black or House of Cards on Netflix. Retro gaming to the previous 8 generations of games will be a big deal for those who did not buy into VR.