Cognition Dissemination: Cross-Gen Software Is Here to Stay
Cross-generation software releases, games provided simultaneously for older and newer-generation consoles, were bound to stick around for a while in our current time. This is following a similar trend from the last-console generation, where software was released between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One along with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 for around two years, until publishers felt it was safe to switch entirety to the former after software sales for the latter dropped far enough. A “similar trend,” though, and not an “identical” one. The PS4 and XB1 are likely to remain supported for a longer while with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles thanks to some latter systems remaining difficult to obtain. We recently received a new sign of their continued support.
A Bloomberg article from Takashi Mochizuki this past week provided insight on Sony’s gaming hardware plans for the near future. The company, according to them, will continue manufacturing PlayStation 4 consoles well into 2022 to make up for PlayStation 5 shortages. There’s nothing suggesting that the most ardent people searching for PS5s wish to buy PS4s to tide them over, a strategy that would work splendidly if older consoles were still sold for inexpensive prices late in their respective generations (we’re a long way from the PSOne and PS2 eras now). But they’re only manufacturing an extra one million systems, likely enough to satisfy a relative niche.
Provided these extra consoles sell, as they’re bound to, they’ll only justify current developer and publisher efforts to continue supporting the older consoles with software. This was likely always their plan, with newer consoles still being difficult to purchase on a whim thanks to continued microchip supply chain issues and the overall risk with developing high-budget games exclusively for newer consoles. The risks were high with switching software support over from one console to the next with the last crop of consoles around 2013, and they’re more pronounced now.
There are publishers announcing software exclusively for new-gen consoles to join the few largely first-party exclusives currently on the market like the Demon’s Souls remake and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Sony, for instance, is already planning for the future with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. EA is releasing the next Dead Space title exclusively for the newest platforms, and it wouldn’t be a surprise if they did the same with the next Dragon Age and Mass Effect titles from Bioware that they’ve yet to fully reveal. There are other third-party titles like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. But they’re still few and far between, and most games either releasing or coming on the near horizon are cross-gen.
Sony notably denied the claim that they’re manufacturing more PS4s to make up for the lack of PS5s, but come on. We’ve been here before. Sony also denied a Bloomberg story from the same author claiming the once-reverent Japan Studio was set to be downsized eventually, only for it to slowly happen. Just because Sony didn’t come out and say “were reducing the size of Japan Studio” doesn’t mean it wasn’t true. It’s foolish to doubt this when Mochizuki has been right so often, especially regarding Sony.
Xbox is taking a different approach. When Verge writer Tom Warren inquired following the Sony news, Microsoft responded by confirming something kind of big: The company discontinued manufacturing all Xbox One hardware in 2020. They publicly confirmed they were discontinuing the Xbox One X and Xbox One S All-Digital Edition at the time, but remained mum on the Xbox One S until now. They apparently had enough already manufactured to sell for several months into 2021. It’s not necessary for Microsoft to utilize Sony’s strategy when it’s no longer difficult to purchase an Xbox Series S, the all-digital variant, in stock at multiple retailers as of this writing. That won’t help anyone who still likes physical games, but Microsoft isn’t concerned about that given their efforts to make discs irrelevant.
Microsoft does appear to be maintaining their previously-announced software strategy of releasing Xbox Game Studios-published titles between the Xbox Series and XB1 generations. Though no one knew at the time just how light those software offerings would be, though the pandemic likely pushed back development on a number of them.
There remains a vocal audience thumbing up their noses at the mere thought of cross-gen games. How dare those older consoles and the people who still play them hold back games that could take advantage of powerful new systems. They’ll have to get over it, because we’re talking about a necessary business decision exacerbated by several new-gen consoles remaining in short supply until 2023.
The supply chain issues have been unpredictable, so companies and fans with a sense of logic are clinging to hope that 2023 will be the year when it’s possible to walk into a store and purchase a console. (It would be even better if we could do that without a requirement of wearing a mask.) If so, it will then be safe for publishers to start supporting new-gen consoles exclusively around that time. No one should be surprised if cross-gen titles continue to be announced for 2022 and 2033 in the meantime, though plenty will anyway.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
