Michael Pachter is a well-known analyst in the industry that is pretty spot on with many of his predictions regarding gaming as it is and what it will be. In the latest episode of his podcast Pachter Factor, Pachter discusses a little more about what he believes the next generation will be. PlayStation 5 and Xbox … er, Xbox talk has been running crazy lately, which is no surprise given that E3 2018 is right around the corner. Pachter’s latest predictions however are fairly interesting, especially with the push for digital in recent years.
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According to Pachter, those that say disc drives are already a thing of the past are sorely mistaken. He mentioned in the video above that he thinks they are here to stay for the long-run, at least where the next generation is concerned. Given that the next wave of gaming consoles is reportedly still a few years off, that means our farewells to our beloved discs isn’t happening any time soon.
The reason for this technical camaraderie is that neither Sony nor Microsoft, according to the analyst, want to cut ties with their retailers. That relationship is a powerful one, one that drives a lot of revenue – especially during high impact sale times. Since many still buy the actual consoles at stores, to completely cut retailers out of the process once those platforms are home seems a bit odd, so Pachter’s prediction might actually be right on the nose given that perspective.
He also talked a bit about Play Anywhere, which is a blooming feature for Xbox One owners. The Xbox Play Anywhere program allows players to play on their console, or on their Windows 10 computers, and makes crossplay between the two even easier! A huge reason why I enjoyed Sea of Thieves was that as a PC player, I could still play it with my Xbox One buds.
Pachter mentioned that their Play Anywhere program has tons of potential for growth and will be a major focus for the brand. At one point, he mentions that the PC side of it will be a huge focus saying that the differentiation between Xbox and PC will become more and more blurry.
You can hear what else he had to say about the future of gaming in the video above! Don’t forget to sound off in the comment section below about what you think the next generation will bring!
