The lifecycle of the first Xbox was a solid four years before the Xbox 360 arrived to the market in 2005. After the introduction of the Xbox 360, it would be another eight years before the Xbox One released in November 2013. Apparently, the lifecycle of gaming consoles have grown longer and longer. Now, Microsoft Head of Xbox Phil Spencer announced that the future of the console will involve "hardware innovation," or component upgrades similar in fashion to the PC. Are we seeing the end of console generations?
Spencer spoke at the Xbox Spring Showcase event last week, detailing the close development between the Windows 10 OS and Xbox One platform. According to Spencer, consoles clearly are not enjoying the rapid rate of innovation that are the norm for other consumer tech devices.
"We see on other platforms whether it be mobile or PC that you get a continuous innovation that you rarely see on console," said Spencer. "Consoles lock the hardware and the software platforms together at the beginning of the generation. Then you ride the generation out for seven or so years, while other ecosystems are getting better, faster, stronger. And then you wait for the next big step function.
"When you look at the console space, I believe we will see more hardware innovation in the console space than we've ever seen. You'll actually see us come out with new hardware capability during a generation allowing the same games to run backward and forward compatible because we have a Universal Windows Application running on top of the Universal Windows Platform that allows us to focus more and more on hardware innovation without invalidating the games that run on that platform."
Backwards support has been a major appeal for Xbox gamers that wish to continue playing their favorite classics. It looks like Microsoft is determined to continue providing support for games from previous generations even as the team continues to bring technology forward.
"We can effectively feel a little bit more like we see on PC, where I can still go back and run my old Doom and Quake games that I used to play years ago but I can still see the best 4K games come out and my library is always with me," Spencer said in the keynote. "Hardware innovation continues while the software innovation is able to take advantage and I don't have to jump a generation and lose everything that I played on before."
It will be exciting to see how Microsoft intends to balance software and hardware as Xbox continues to evolve. Via Polygon, Spencer elaborated on the direction Xbox hopes to take:
"I still think a console is the best price to performance deal that is out there but when you look at the evolution ... I'm not going to announce our road map for hardware ... but what I wanted to say on stage for people when they see this vision of ours and question our commitment to console I want to make sure that people see that what we are doing enables us to be more committed to what consoles are about than we've ever been and innovate more consistently than we ever have. That's the key for me."
Visit Polygon for the full response from Phil Spencer.
