Okay opinion/prediction time!
I feel the age of the gaming console and handheld is dead and the age of digital distribution is upon us. With the advent of Steam, GOG, and other indie platforms have proven that digital distribution is the way of the future I feel that Xbox should just think outside the box lol and go back to fully embracing the PC Master Race because let's face it PCs are in every home.
Let's also face it a year or two after launch consoles are already obsolete by new PCs and I'd rather buy a new PC every five or ten years than buy a console because PCs can do way more then consoles ever could we even have emulators to play older console games that we totally didn't get from a website between visits to Pornhub.
Thanks to the widening availability of the internet and computing power skyrocketing have made consoles largely a living fossil because back in the 1980s gaming went from large arcade machines to woodgrain thingamajigs you plug into your equally wood grain giant TVs with sadly tiny screens. I truly think Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony should just give up and join the PC Master Race and compete with the likes of Steam and GOG and more competition means the consumer benefits as well as keeping costs down for developers.
I'd love to see Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox desktop applications. That brings me to handhelds and with the advent of smart devices running on Android and iOS operating systems providing so much versatility compared to handhelds and often more power but that's analogous to consoles and computers. I'd love to see a Nintendo or PlayStation smartphone with their own OS' or maybe just Android and iOS apps. As for peripherals like controllers they can still make unique plug and play devices to use on their games.
Oh and I also forgot the indie console craze that totally failed I have a MOJO and I barely use it lol.
Gamers and developers and even publishers can only benefit from going all digital and officially ending the console era.
Thank you so much for reading. I hope to start a discussion and see more ideas about the future of gaming.