Why we don't need a PlayStation 5 (or Xbox Two)

Opinion by Matt S. 

It's expected that Sony and Microsoft will announce a new generation of consoles this year. That, of course, means that conversations about those successor consoles will dominate discussion in the media and gaming circles. On the one hand, the idea of hardware is viscerally exciting; a shiny new box for under the television, and all the new games that that entails.

Sony and Microsoft will be certainly excited to get new hardware out there, too. New hardware means new revenue streams, and with this generation of consoles now edging into the "late majority" part of the diffusion of innovations bell curve, Sony and Microsoft certainly have the incentive (via their respective shareholders) to come up with new stuff to sell.

On the other hand, I'd argue that we don't really need new consoles at all. I'm not sure the benefits are there either for game developers or consumers.

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