The handheld only makes sense if they somehow managed to fit Series S into an affordable, portable package and if this generation lasts until 2027-2028. If the original rumours of launching next gen in 2026 still holds up, a handheld right now makes no sense at all. There is also no reason why they’d give a roadmap and show their cards to the competition this early if that’s their plan. I think a handheld could prove to be popular as I doubt Switch 2 will be good enough to run all next gen games and MS could have the only portable system able to play GTA6 for a few years. Just that I think could make it sell gangbusters imo.
Digital Series X I could see with a disc drive attachment to reassure people. It would be a show of good faith for people who still own tons of discs for BC. While they’re at it they could say it’ll stay compatible with upcoming next gen systems! I know for one I’ll keep my Series X no matter what as I’d rather not have to buy another blu-ray player for my movies!
Not sure…something. Like to ease people’s minds that they are still planning on producing hardware. Just a hunch though. If I wanted to pose as an “insider” this is what I would put out there.
I expect them to pitch their multiplatform strategy with the smaller/older games tomorrow but I also expect them to do some damage control by reassuring fans that it’s only limited to a certain type of game (they have to be clear on this) and also reassure fans of their continued commitment to hardware. Not sure if they’ll announce anything specific to hardware but at the very least say that they’re working on something interesting and how they can’t wait to talk about it in the future.
The Sony results are worse then expected on the console side, the margins are about what was expected and does reinforce the ideas of where the console market is going. My main concern is that I feel Microsoft are making this decision earlier than they should. I would have waited a few years to squeeze Sony into day on date on PC with their first party before porting anything over to NS/PS. As things stand I think PS will go day and date on GaaS but single player games will still be about a year at the moment. I’m expecting that still wouldn’t help that much and they will over the next few years slowly move to day and date.
As for my expectations for the podcast today, a confirmation of future hardware, an announcement on some games going multiplat while a lot of games will stay exclusive but without enough clarity of what is what and probably something about ABK games on gamepass.
Out of curiosity, to you and anybody who wants to respond, would you believe them if they came out tomorrow and said it’s only going to be X or Y types of games? Personally, I’m not expecting any sort of clarity on what games are up for ports and even if they were to specify it, I would only believe that to be the case momentarily before they deem everything else fair game
I’m still not happy at all with how XBox is doing on the console side or with talk of games going to SONY and wish Xbox could boast of PS5 sales. Still, it does provide some context that the SONY is bleeding money internally and doesn’t have many big hitting games to come out this year to help get profits back up for its games division.
I also doubt given the talk of the lack of room for cuts to PS5 RRP that we’ll even get a PS5 Pro now or if we do It cost so much it will be pointless
So last week it was looking so bad for Xbox this week looks nowhere near as bad now. I bet even SONY might look to Nintendo for some of their games now
Xbox " let gu pewt our gamz on PlayStation and Nintendy for moz monies"
PS "It is with a heavy heart that we have to admit the console market is becoming unsustainable, due to this we will be investigating puting our games on other platforms such as PC sooner.
Of course the above is satire but this is how the PR/Media act between the two. It’s all about the messaging and doing it correctly and at the right time.
I really hope Xbox will keep caring about power and that they won’t lose significantly to Sony on that. If they do and it’s a big difference, they will make the choice very easy to move over to PS. With a heavy heart, sure, but surely.
RE: The hardware situation it is interesting that Sony stated that the PS5 was in it’s latter stages of it’s life cycle (like Xbox it’s only been 3 years and 4 months).
It makes me think that Playstation will be releasing a new console sooner too, just like the rumoured Xbox 2026 release.
I personally thought they would aim for around 2028 too, however “latter” would indicate it’s nearing the end already, rather than approaching halfway.
It’s been pretty clear from all the the information we have that Sony stopped caring about the power of their console sometime ago (way back to PS4 Pro days). The latest financials back this up too. They have squarely based their hardware strategy around BoM and getting their HW into profit as soon as possible. Hence a PS4 Pro aimed at reconstructed 4k and the PS5 designed around the bare minimum spec that would compete with Series X (in the early part of the lifecycle with “old style” engines) plus a magical SSD to distract their customers from the rest of the weak HW.
If MS stop competing on specs Sony would double down on this and will continue to make HW based on what makes them money on box sales.
If that happens (and I don’t think it will) then if power is what you’re after it’s a jump to PC ( for those fortunate enough to be able to afford it and able to put up with all the fiddling).
If the rumor about Xbox coming with a handheld and console both being the same power wise, are true, can we really expect it to be much more powerful than what we got now? The hardware already doesn’t make them profit as it is. Unless they don’t care and both devices are very powerful, but is this sustainable\realistic?
Mark Cerny worked smarter not harder with the PS4, PS4Pro and PS5. On paper we were told the Series X was the beast and the Series S should be compared to the PS5. We ended up for a while with third party games being equal on Series X and PS5 (check digital foundry). The features are always better on Xbox but Sony get better returns relative to the power of the console.
Next gen, if Xbox games go on PS, I’m reluctantly joining the PS6 along with the next Nintendo. I can’t justify buying a Xbox console that its makers tell me that I won’t need to play their games. Only if Sony learn how to make constant first party that is. Otherwise I’m upgrading my PC. I’m hoping that Xbox draw a line on sharing its games when the next gen starts.
I have high doubts it will be everything and day and date. I think Xbox leadership is smart enough to know they need to keep something in order to sell hardware and while they might think there is a transition period towards going all out, I still think they know better and will progressively get there across several generations if that’s what they are aiming for.
There is one very good reason for them not to do this and it’s called Nintendo. Why would they dip out of the PS space for selling less consoles only to jump straight into a market where they are guaranteed not to be able to compete?
Most or the rumours we’ve seen so far come from less than ideal sources so I wouldn’t be betting the farm on any of them being accurate.
You could have the handheld’s power (significantly) reduced when on battery (or not docked). Really hard to say, but Sony is supposedly making a portable too too so I’d guess that whatever is in AMD’s roadmap makes sense.
