Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo End Arms-Race for Radical New Consoles

After decades locked into a race of releasing similar hardware, all three console developers are pioneering into different territory.

Sony shocked the gaming community by announcing its new console last week. Instead of a grand E3 welcoming ceremony, the unveiling of selected details of the next-generation PlayStation took place in a Wired interview with Mark Cerny. New hardware from both Microsoft and Nintendo are also in the spotlight. The Xbox One S drops the disc drive to go fully digital, and there are hints at new Switch consoles.

It’s clearly too early to tell what each console will actually look like when they’re released, so there’s much we don’t know.

Sony has dominated the console market for years, consistently out-selling Microsoft’s Xbox consoles. Even so, Microsoft continued to engage in the arms race, hoping to make a dent in Sony’s sales. Therefore there’s less pressure on Sony to offer something drastically new, so what we’re seeing so far seems more like an upgrade to the PS4 Pro rather than a ‘new’ console.

By contrast, Microsoft and Nintendo’s hardware are evolving in new radical directions. Microsoft’s removal of the physical disc drive from the Xbox One S is both a statement of their idea of future gaming, and a step in the dark.

It reflects the company’s future vision of Xbox as a digital gaming and streaming platform. In December last year, Microsoft confirmed they’re investing ‘aggressively’ in cloud-based services for gaming. They hope to combine local hardware and Azure cloud services. Their overall aim is to make Xbox consoles just one mode of accessing the Xbox ‘experience’. Microsoft have also announced their plan to merge their Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass services into one monthly subscription fee.

Nintendo will continue doing what it does best — its own Nintendo stuff. The company has the unique ability to command mass sales without ever really competing with Sony or Microsoft. Furthermore, the Switch is by far its most successful symbol of this. The company also released news that it’s working with Tencent to launch the console in the Chinese market.

Given these radical new console directions, Sony ends up looking more stationary, whereas Nintendo and Microsoft are re-inventing game hardware. They’re ending the arms race to design radical new looks, how they work, and where and how we play games.

Sony’s domination the console market is a credit to its success, but has also forced the others hands into reinventing the wheel. In addition, fans of Sony have different expectations of the PlayStation than fans of Xbox and Nintendo. When the Xbox One and PS4 were announced as Next-Gen consoles, both weren’t backwards compatible. Xbox got far more heavily criticised for this and then were effectively forced to update and release new lists of now backwards compatible Xbox 360 games every couple of months.

This could be an incredible start to a new era of exciting new console hardware, espcially after many years of platform holders releasing systems that were carbon copies of one another. For a decade, console differences were separated almost only by different controllers, and console exclusive game releases. However, if the new Xbox One S and Switch consoles generate a lot of sales, this could potentially be moment each developer can evolve their different visions of the future of video games.