Last week we saw the trailer of the brand new Fallout game but many were upset when Bethesda officially confirmed that the game would not be making its way onto last gen consoles. This is just the latest in a growing list of titles that are not being developed for the last gen systems, so is this finally the time that we say goodbye to the old and fully embrace the new? A lot of developers and publishers seem to think so.
One of the most notable titles that has officially dropped the last gen is the yearly blockbuster Call of Duty who have confirmed that Black Ops 3 will be coming to current gen consoles and PC only. Other titles such as the reboot of the Need For Speed series and Batman: Arkham Knight have also made the leap and Ubisoft recently announced that they will not be developing anything for last gen consoles in future.
There are however some titles that are not making that jump. FIFA 16 is coming to last gen consoles as well as current gen, so why are some companies not willing to make the jump? The answer is that the companies expect to make more money if they release on last gen as well as current gen and that they will not commit to leaving the last gen behind until they can do so while keeping the books balanced.
This being said, the cutting out of the last generation of consoles is the only sure fire way to make sure that more new consoles are sold. With so many titles cutting out the last generation this year, I would predict sales to dramatically increase, especially towards the end of the year when the bigger titles and yearly franchises start dropping.
There is always a dilemma when a product launches where the developers will not fully commit to it until there is a big enough install base of consumers, but the consumers don’t want to invest until there is enough good content from developers that cannot be played anywhere else. I think that this Fall will be the crucial point where both sides jump in and we finally see the current generation start getting used to their full potential.
