Destructoid Checkpoint: Musings on a console generation

Because the world keeps spinning, we are already barrelling toward the end of a console generation. Ludicrous as it may sound, it is the terrible truth. It feels like the current gen never really got off the ground, and it can be hard to conjure fond memories of the years since the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X and S launched. 

That’s a little mean, perhaps. It has not been an easy time for publishers, developers, or, well, just about anyone, really. This ninth gen of consoles has had its own wrinkles, and perhaps came with a degree of unfair expectation. The eight generation had been the longest ever, and after staring at our PlayStation 4s and Xbox Ones for the better part of a decade, we were all desperate for something magical to happen. 

(Real ones will hopefully pick up on the reference to a classic dance album in today’s title. Were YOU one of them?)

The Wizard of Odd

Sony and Microsoft came out of the blocks strong with announcements in 2019 that new hardware would be dropping the following year. Then, COVID-19 happened, and everyone was dealing with a very different reality. E3, still an important event at the time, was cancelled, and online showcases became de rigueur. Hype levels plummeted, production was interrupted, supply was low, and it felt like both got off to bad starts.

The already scarce consoles meant many people were left disappointed, a feeling compounded by an ultra-online gaming community both trapped inside and stuck on Twitter watching other people unbox their new machines. Scalpers also swooped in, running bots to snap up what felt like every available restock only to sell them on eBay for extortionate prices.

So a rocky start all around for the new consoles and one that pretty much murdered any real hype that people were feeling. People were also dealing with lockdowns, sickness, relatives being sick and scared, not to mention growing tensions and social divides. Those certainly wouldn’t get worse over time. No siree.

Nintendo had positioned itself in an interesting place as it could compete with the new ninth-generation consoles with its own eighth-generation machines by occupying a different niche. The Switch, despite all the proclamations about being dockable and totally a play-at-home console, was primarily a handheld device. This would be hammered home with the Switch Lite and Switch OLED, the ninth-gen twists that you could also play on a TV, doubling down on them being handheld. 

It’s almost like these companies have access to reams of data about user behaviour that shockingly clash with the conceptions of people on social media. Nintendo has already hit its tenth-generation moment, dropping a beefed-up Switch 2 that pushes more pixels and plays the game of catch-up that it needs to make by being able to push out DLSS-fueled 4K when docked. 

With console gaming being forced into a 4K space because that is just where TV tech settled (1440p at 144Hz is just better, sorry), Nintendo caught up where they had to Guess what, the Switch 2 is still, primarily, a handheld-focused machine. Can it hump more pixels in docked mode? Of course it can. Does it need to hump those extra pixels for very impressive picture quality in handheld mode? No. It does not.

Coming into the 10th generation, that line is still the same. Nintendo is the console that isn’t a console, and it’s up to Sony and Microsoft to fight it out for the spot under your TV.

_{Off to see the Blizzard}

It feels like the ninth generation was defined by acquisitions and live services. For a while there, the latter was the only path forward for some companies. We discussed in a previous Checkpoint that live service offered huge monetization possibilities, so companies lunged toward those rich, pulsing veins with reckless abandon. They forgot that most people only have so much time and so much money. Those who do tend to be deeply invested in specific live service games already, and it can be very hard to knock those off their perch. 

Games like Call of Duty, Fortnite, GTA V, NBA 2K, Roblox, Minecraft, Madden, and FIFA all refused to fall off their perches. There simply isn’t much room at the top, unless you are willing to appeal to a hugely different demographic in the space and unleash something like Infinity Nikki on the world.

Coming out into the last leg of this generation, it feels like Sony is the one who overextended, quite badly, into the live service space. Games at Bend Studio and Bluepoint have reportedly been cancelled, Bungie’s Destiny is limping, Marathon is delayed, and Concord was a record-setting failure.

All that pain has been somewhat spread out over the generation, however, and for quite a while, they were selling lots of units, moving lots of games, and riding high on successes like Spider-Man 2, Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, Final Fantasy remakes, and Demon’s Souls. They also relaxed their grip on the notion of exclusivity, at least regarding PC, and cashed in on old titles on a new platform. 

The Time Capsule

If you want to feel a certain type of way, watch this video of the Sony E3 conference from 2006, lovingly preserved by the amazing folks at NoClip. It has nothing to do with anything, frankly.

Xbox, by now taking a bit of a kicking on the per-unit sales and soundly losing the war to shift units to both Sony and Nintendo, decided it was time to harness the power of all those Microbucks and buy something. And holy moly did they ever buy something. The guts of $70 billion later, and some courtroom wiggling, they had Activision Blizzard added to their roster, a whole gaggle of first-party studios to feed the Game Pass machine, and a lot of hearts to break. 

You see, parts of the internet really seemed to think that Xbox had spent all this money and was under no financial pressure from it. Not only that, Phil Spencer would be eager to use this as a stick to beat Sony fans with. Call of Duty would become a system exclusive, PlayStation users would wake up to find that their copies of Skyrim had self-deleted, leaving nothing but an icon of a dragon flipping them off on their home screens, and they would never again enjoy another release from these now Xbox-branded studios. Sony would have no choice but to bend the knee and allow Game Pass onto PlayStation. 

The future was green, except it wasn’t.

Phil Spencer, being NOT an idiot, did a little wiggling and cavorting, but eventually just told people that not only would they not be pulling Activision Blizzard games from Sony, but they’d pretty much be putting all Microsoft releases on the platform of anyone who wanted to sell them. Why? Because of the sudden monumental weight of a $70 billion investment that needed to start coming good. 

Microsoft was closing studios, including ones they had just paid for, including ones that made good games. Long-term strategies were being planned, and gamers were not privy to the minute details because they were likely to upset them.

A certain type of fan became more and more concerned that Microsoft was no longer going to be in the hardware business, and would rather avoid the massive money pit that is hardware development entirely. I guess if there is one sensible thing to accuse a company that has just spent $70 billion of, it’s being afraid to drop some cash.

There's no place like the home screen

All of these horrifically truncated history lessons bring us to the story of the week, where Microsoft announced a partnership with AMD for their tenth-generation consoles. All the really important words were said. They are making new hardware and handheld devices. There will be backward compatibility. They even mentioned AI, because it is great for shareholders and makes most of us feel positive thoughts when we think it’s being used to push more pixels rather than cost people their jobs. 

Sony has yet to formally announce that it will be working with AMD for its next-generation console, but it has helped with the development of FSR 4. This is all part of Project Amethyst, a joint venture between Sony and AMD that also focuses on AI, as they likely aim to explore novel machine-learning solutions for the next Sony console. 

So, while it might not feel like it, we really are coming to the end of this console generation. You will potentially see announcements for new consoles occurring within 18 months, which is basically nothing in the grand scheme of things. You will likely see hardware hit the shelves in the latter part of 2028. Microsoft stated this itself in court during the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. 

So, it might feel like a long way away for you, but for Microsoft, this is what they are working on right now, and have been for a while. AMD says that for Microsoft, they are going “beyond building custom chips for Xbox consoles” and will design a full roadmap of gaming-optimized chips that combine “the power of Ryzen and Radeon, for consoles, handhelds, PCs, and the cloud.” Once again, they also highlighted the importance of backward compatibility.

Watching Microsoft roll up its sleeves this early is interesting. It seems like someone there is aware that they have rocked their fanbase's confidence and has decided to move that up their “key issues” chart. This early show lets everyone know that hardware is still coming and remains an important focus for Xbox going forward; there is no reason to think they will be ignoring that part of the market.

It also heavily implies that their overall strategy has not changed that much. They will want to lean into the “This Is An Xbox” marketing vibe of pointing at something that is clearly not an Xbox but saying it is. It’s corny, and it won’t work any better next generation than it has this time around, but it’s the long-term play as they aim to increase the potential customer base for a Game Pass subscription that will certainly go up in price over the next decade. 

Ultimately, Xbox needs to sit down and have an honest think about what it means to take on a competitor that just has a bigger hardware console base but a smaller install base. Making people jump ecosystems is tough, and the smart play was always to focus a large part of what Xbox does on publishing things that appear on other platforms while offering the best possible value on their own.

I’ve said it a dozen times, but nothing quite hammers home the value of Game Pass like seeing the thing you just paid $60 to $80 for appear for free on another system.

Heaven help me, but I already feel a degree of excitement about the next generation. Xbox appears to be making smart enough moves, and that means Sony can’t rest on their laurels, and that is good news for fans.

What’s happening, Destructoid?

In a timely article, Adam Newell wants to know if you are disappointed with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series era.

Scott Duwe went hands-on with Borderlands 4 and found it something worth being excited about.

Rachel Samples took a surprise trip back to her childhood and got to experience the Gex Trilogy all over again.

Andrej Barovic dove into Death Stranding after feeling a way about it for a very long time. Turns out he was wrong this entire time.

And that’s it for this week. Stay gold!