There have always been concerns about how long Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo can continue pushing out $300-500 machines every few years, but the former head of Xbox doesn’t think that this is the last generation. In an interview with GeekWire last week, ex-Xbox chief Robbie Bach discussed the future of game consoles, the Xbox One PR disaster and more.
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When asked about the difficulties that the Xbox One faced out of the gate after another former Xbox head, Don Mattrick, announced that the console would require the user to be online at all times and would do away with used game sales altogether, Bach was refreshingly honest.
“I think some of that was predictable and preventable,” he said, but went on to note that the company has since moved past its rocky start and is increasing its market share while offering a “great holiday lineup” in the coming months.
GeekWire then mentioned how unpredictable that success might look now considering the fact that so many analysts were expecting something to come along and take the place of the home console. Bach’s response:
“In fact, the year before PlayStation 4 and Xbox One launched, everybody said the console market was dead, and they wondered why Sony and Microsoft [were] doing it.”
Naturally, the next question for Bach was whether or not there would be another console generation after the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4:
“I think there will be another generation. What the console looks like is a very interesting question. Does it have physical media? Probably not, so how does that look? Is it just a game box or is it more? What’s the balance between what an
Apple TV is and what an Xbox or a PlayStation 4 is? These are really interesting questions, and the teams [are] going to have to wrestle with those. That next generation will be a whole new game.”
Now that reports have begun to spread of the next Apple TV competing with Xbox One and PS4, Microsoft, Sony and others will have to find new ways to innovate in order to ensure their audience doesn’t get distracted by new devices taking up shelf space in the living room.
The full interview transcript is available at GeekWire, or you can listen to the interview below:
