Next-gen consoles should last 6 years, not 10

Sony and EA appear to be in agreement about one thing for this next generation of consoles – the PS4 and Xbox One should be replaced after five to six years, not ten.

The idea that the console generation lifecycle needs to be shorter was first posited by Electronic Arts executive vice president of EA Studios boss, Patrick Söderlund, in an interview he gave to MCV UK just days before the launch of the Playstation 4 in several countries in Europe and in the UK.

“This console cycle may have gone on a little bit longer than I would have wanted. At the same time, you have seen games like The Last of Us and GTA V at the end of a cycle which perhaps you would not have expected a few years ago… but a five, six year gap is what I expect going forward.”

On the eve of the European PS4 launch yesterday, 28 November, Sony Computer Entertainment UK boss Fergal Gara expressed a belief that the console generation would likely be shorter, mostly to match advancements that were going to happen in the computer industry.

“I think there’s reason to believe that the next cycle might be shorter in markets such as the UK,” Gara said in an interview with Computer and Videogames. “It’s probably a sign of the times and how much has changed in seven years, but I think the willingness and the appetite to pick up new technology fast has probably changed quite a bit”.

If this is true, it could be the reason why Sony and Microsoft chose not to overextend on the power of the hardware inside their consoles, but to rather reign in their budgets and focus on mid-range hardware that would be just good enough to power games at 1080p for the remainder of the console’s life cycle.

It could also explain why Sony and Microsoft have thus far neglected to comment on how their consoles will handle games running at the UltraHD 4K resolution, due to usurp 1080p HD as the standard for viewing content in the next few years.

Would you be comfortable with a shorter life cycle for your console, provided that backwards compatibility is maintained? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below and in our forums.