Former PlayStation boss Shawn Layden has said he believes Microsoft is at a “fork in the road” and is questioning whether the company will keep releasing consoles.
Speaking to GI.biz, Layden said there will certainly be more console generations to come, but Microsoft may not be part of that story. “Watching what Xbox has been doing recently, I do get Dreamcast flashbacks,” he said, referencing how Sega got out of the console business after the Dreamcast and became a software company.
“I think Sega realized they just were better off being a software house. I think Microsoft is in that same sort of fork in the road. And I don’t think their hardware offering is persuasive enough to make up the ground they’ve lost,” he said.
If Microsoft were to get out of the console-making business, that would indeed be big news–and it would be unexpected given Microsoft just recently signed a multi-year deal with AMD for future hardware. Microsoft and AMD will work together to “co-engineer silicon across a portfolio of devices, including our next-generation Xbox consoles. In your living room and in your hands,” Xbox president Sarah Bond said.
Bond has said in the past that next-gen Xbox hardware will focus on “delivering the biggest technological leap ever in a generation.” It remains to be seen what that means, however, as some are theorizing that a new Xbox console could be more akin to a gaming PC. Microsoft is also branching out into the handheld space with its partnership with Asus for the upcoming Xbox ROG Ally devices.
Layden said he hopes to see some kind of standardization for consoles in the future, and it’s his belief that going this way could help the total market for console gaming grow.
“Can’t we look at the game console business kind of like Blu-ray, or cassette, or compact disc, or any other medium where the industry decided we’ll compete on content, but let’s standardize on format?” he said. “And then let’s take that format and license it out to everybody who wants to support it. That’s what stops the penetration rate of console gaming, I think.”
For what it’s worth, Sony is said to be working on a new PlayStation console. And while Nintendo just recently released the Switch 2, the company is not likely to give up dedicated hardware anytime soon.
For now, there is no indication that Microsoft will stop making consoles, but the company has changed its playbook somewhat in recent times. The company is now bringing many of its games to rival platforms, like PS5 and Switch, in a bid to generate more revenue. And the plan is seemingly working, as some of the best-selling PlayStation games are made by Xbox.
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