The Wii U is set to kick off the eighth generation of video games consoles when Nintendo releases it later this year. However, there is still no sign of a new Playstation or Xbox joining the party.
Some gamers are perfectly content with keeping their current console and spending their cash on games rather than new hardware, but others feel that the current generation is looking old and tired, and is in desperate need of replacing.
Yves Guillemot, CEO and co-founder of Ubisoft, is with the second camp. He thinks new home consoles are well overdue, recently explaining his reasons to Gamasutra. He said:
“What we missed was a new console every five years. We have been penalized by the lack of new consoles on the market. I understand the manufacturers don’t want them too often because it’s expensive, but it’s important for the entire industry to have new consoles because it helps creativity.”
“It’s a lot less risky for us to create new IPs and new products when we’re in the beginning of a new generation. Our customers are very open to new things. Our customers are reopening their minds — and they are really going after what’s best. … At the end of a console generation, they want new stuff, but they don’t buy new stuff as much. They know their friends will play Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed so they go for that. So the end of a cycle is very difficult.”
“If you can’t take risks because people don’t buy, you don’t innovate. And if you don’t innovate, customers get bored.”
I must admit I have never thought about it like that, but he has a point. The industry does feel like it’s lost a lot of momentum, and that may primarily be down to the extended length of this generation of hardware. What do you think?
