Is the Xbox One X fundamentally changing the traditional console cycle?

A quick little disclaimer: I have not been following the Scorpio buzz until just recently. I knew of it, of course, but I wasn't really thinking about it too much. So, please forgive me if this has been discussed already.

I'm 34 years old, and the 4-5 year console cycle has been something that's been around as long as I can remember. I remember having and NES in kindergarten, and then a Sega Genesis in 4th grade, by middle school I had a Playstation, then I had a N64 my freshman year. When I was 18 I got my original Xbox, and then an Xbox 360 when I was 22. There was about a four year gap for each of these. The only outlier of course was the 360 which ran a whole 8 years.

There were a number of reasons why the 360 (as well as the PS3) went on so long. First of all, we had arguably entered a period of diminishing returns, where it took a lot more powerful hardware (and thus way more $$$) to make games look significantly better to the average consumer. On top of this was the economic recession. Around the time gamers should have been clamoring for news of an "Xbox 720" consumers were being extremely frugal. A console launch really didn't make sense if developers could still squeeze the 360 for everything it had.

Finally, in 2013... yep about four years ago... we got our Xbox One. Now, considering that according to the old cycle we should be due for a true Next Gen^TM console right now, instead of just an upgraded version of the Xbox One.

I'll admit, that I was pretty disappointed when I first leaned that the Scorpio was just an upgraded Xbox One... but that was before I really began to understand what this might actually mean.

The console cycle as we know it might be completely dead. Instead of releasing a totally new Next Gen^TM console... which fractures the user base and forces developers to work on costly iterations over old and new platforms, they can just keep making Xbox One games.

It's a win-win for everyone. Microsoft doesn't kill a currently strong platform. Developers aren't forced to dump huge amounts of resources on Next Gen titles that have a tiny consumer base. The consumers themselves aren't left in the cold by being forced to upgrade if they still want the latest games.

I predict that the Xbox One platform may just keep going on and on with new iterations. The Xbox One X will probably be succeeded by yet another upgraded Xbox One.

The only potential problem with this is the lowest common denominator issue. At some point, games will just start to get too sophisticated for the 2013 version of the Xbox One to handle.

I'd presume that what Microsoft will do is this: Once a certain percentage of the Xbox One player base has migrated to a newer iteration, the software developers cans start making games for "Xbox One X and newer"... at this point people with the old Xbox Ones would finally be forced to upgrade, however that might be another 8 years down the road.

In a way, it's kind of like what mobile phones are doing. You have our iPhone or your Galaxy, and you have the version 4, 5, 6, 7 and so on... the platform is never changing really. Not for the end of the line consumer anyway. Each iteration gets upgraded hardware of course, but the storefront is the same. However, you might run into apps that require an iPhone 5 or newer. If you have an iPhone 4 still, you're out of luck... and that is exactly what I think will happen to progressively older versions of the Xbox One.

I'm actually very excited about this!

tl;dr

• Xbox One is now a cross-generational platform. Kind of like Android or iOS.

• This will be good for developers and consumers alike.

• Over time the "lowest common denominator" older versions of Xbox One will stop being supported, but only after a significant portion of the user base has upgraded away from it.

Submitted by NeroJoe | #Specialdealer Special Offer Online Shopping Store 2016