Shawn Layden expressed concerns about Microsoft's future in the console market, suggesting they face a pivotal choice similar to Sega's exit after the Dreamcast. Layden doubts that Microsoft's current hardware can regain lost ground. Despite Microsoft's recent partnership with AMD to co-engineer future console hardware, the potential of a more PC-like structure for next-gen Xbox consoles complicates the outlook. Layden advocates for some standardization in gaming consoles to potentially grow the overall market and improve competition focused on content.
Watching what Xbox has been doing recently, I do get Dreamcast flashbacks. I think Sega realized they just were better off being a software house. I think Microsoft is in that same sort of fork in the road. And I don't think their hardware offering is persuasive enough to make up the ground they've lost.
If Microsoft were to get out of the console-making business, that would indeed be big news--and it would be unexpected given Microsoft just recently signed a multi-year deal with AMD for future hardware.
Bond has said in the past that next-gen Xbox hardware will focus on delivering the biggest technological leap ever in a generation. It remains to be seen what that means, however, as some are theorizing that a new Xbox console could be more akin to a gaming PC.
I hope to see some kind of standardization for consoles in the future, and I believe that going this way could help the total market for console gaming grow.
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