The Future of Consoles – How Far Can They Go?

Video game consoles have come a long way since the humble beginnings of home entertainment in 1972 when Magnavox launched the first generation of video game consoles called The Odyssey.

They have dramatically evolved over the years and have taken gaming to extraordinary new heights, but how far can they go? What does the future look like for gaming consoles? Let’s dive in to find out.

What are Today’s Biggest-selling Gaming Consoles, and Why?

The two biggest-selling consoles on the market today are Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X. The current generations have been on the market for over three years, and the gaming options on both consoles cater to a wide range of players.

Today’s consoles are far more powerful than a standard gaming PC, which was never the case just five to ten years ago and beyond, and they are also cheaper than purchasing a pre-assembled gaming desktop computer or laptop from a store.

However, when purchasing individual parts for a gaming PC with equivalent computing/graphics power as a PlayStation or Xbox and then building it yourself, it can work out slightly cheaper than forking out money for either console.

For most people, consoles are the far more convenient option. Plus, there’s the loyalty that people have with Microsoft and Sony, which is why gamers stick to one of these consoles. They will typically stick with the same manufacturer whenever they upgrade to the next generation.

If Gaming Consoles are Still Around 20 to 30 Years from Now, What Might they Look Like?

If gaming consoles like the Xbox and PlayStation are still around 20 to 30 years from now, they might look completely different to today’s consoles. It’s hard to say.

If we look at how much consoles have changed over the past three decades, it’s not just the physical design that has improved.

You can do so much more on a console today instead of just playing games, meaning consoles of the future might also come with even more features and apps that allow us to carry out more activities so we can entertain ourselves in various other ways.

For example, besides standard online and offline gaming activities, players can also use consoles for the following:

• Watching movies and television shows on demand
• Live streaming movies, television shows, and sporting events
• Browsing the internet
• Purchasing in-game items, products, and services (and from other websites)
• Storing, accessing, images, videos, files, and more

New Niches

In the future, people might be able to do this and much more from their console. They will almost certainly have far greater built-in graphics processing, computing, and programming power.

In general, we can expect to see the developers behind the next-gen console games leaning further into industry trends and maximizing those collaborative opportunities to capture a wider variety of players. We may even one day see https://www.thesun.co.uk/author/james-fuller/, given the massive potential that niche holds for developers. It doesn’t take a casino whizz to know that this arena offers top dollar to those who can embrace new tech and new trends and dominate the competition.

Typically, such an innovation would mean that anyone who is of legal age in their country to gamble in the real money mode on licensed and regulated sites may be able to switch on their console and log in to their favorite iGaming app to place sports bets and play thousands of computer-generated or live dealer slots and traditional table & card games like roulette and blackjack.

Consoles of the future will also likely have more internal storage and memory capabilities, and the accessories/peripherals, such as controllers, keyboards, microphone/speaker headsets, and others, will be far more advanced.

Other technological innovations will also help future consoles even more engaging, such as improved live streaming capabilities, cloud computing/gaming, faster and more efficient web browsers, and lightning-quick Wi-Fi/internet connectivity/speeds, which will completely eliminate things like latency, buffering and lagging issues that frequently plague gamers who enjoy playing the more graphically demanding, triple-A video games.

AI-powered tools, such as generative AI and machine learning (ML), which are currently used by the market-leading companies that make consoles and the games we play on them, will also continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in online gaming, taking the industry to exciting new heights.

Some people say that we are already close to reaching the point where consoles can’t really go any further, but others say that there is still a lot more development to come and that consoles will continue to evolve over the coming years.

Final Thoughts

It’s hard to say what any new technology will look like in the future, but it’s safe to say that consoles are here to say, at least for the time being.

Experts predict that VR (virtual reality), AR (augmented reality), cloud gaming, high-fidelity graphics, and generative AI, along with the fee-to-play and play-to-earn models and metaverses, will play a huge role in shaping the future of video game consoles and the gaming industry as a whole.

These cutting-edge technologies will help revolutionize how we play and interact with games. Many new technological innovations are also likely to appear out of nowhere to completely reshape the gaming industry in ways we cannot yet imagine. It will be interesting to see how consoles evolve.