Typically I won’t run Michael Pachter “stories,” but once in a blue moon he’ll say something I can’t resist talking about. Today’s nugget of fried gold concerns his prediction that this is the last of the console generations. Yep, no hardware to follow the Wii, Xbox 360 and PS3. Apparently the platform holders will scrap all their current plans and instead focus on a single distribution model.
“I think we’ve seen the last generation of consoles,” he claims. “[Third party publishers] are not going to support a PS4 or Xbox 720. The content is not going to change in any meaningful ways because the publishers can’t afford it.”
Two other analysts, Colin Sebastian and David Cole, disagree. They’re still expecting a new generation in 2012, although they’re unsure if we’ll see any successor consoles after the next crop. Cole also adds that by 2012, the PS3 will be the industry leader in terms of software, which will force the other two companies to release new machines.
Pachter seems to provide no real solution as to how Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo will suddenly be able to deliver us a gaming platform without any hardware in just a matter of years. However, a source close to the analyst says that he believes little elves and pixies are being specially bred in petri dishes, and they will be able to distribute software to consumers with magicks gifted upon them by the Old Gods.
