It’s been a momentous couple of weeks for earth-shattering gaming news.
First, Google announced that they would begin sending invites for users to test out their new game streaming platform – Project Stream.
We then had the Wall Street Journal confirm what we reported on in August – that Nintendo was indeed working on an upgraded revision to the Nintendo Switch, which we learned this week is being internally referred to as the Nintendo Switch S.
This week, Microsoft announced their own streaming platform – Project xCloud, which NerdBacon had been reporting on prior to E3 2018.
Finally, Sony officially acknowledged that they are working on the next generation of PlayStation hardware. While that news isn’t much of a shock to anyone who keeps half an eye on the gaming industry, it’s worth noting that there is reason to believe that the machine is much further along in development than many pundits believe, and will likely release in 2019.
There were also a number of other stories that broke in this time frame as well:
An amazing looking Harry Potter game from publisher WB was glimpsed via a leaked video, and Kotaku reported that Microsoft was extremely close to purchasing RPG powerhouse Obsidian.
That’s a ton of huge news to release in a little over a week’s time; however, as Super Metal Dave 64 pointed out in a recent tweet – it’s a lot of news to be released in the 4th quarter of a year.
Rumblings in October since the 4th, in the last 5 days we got rumors/announcements from all the big 3. New Switch from the WSJ, Project xCloud from Xbox and Sony officially confirming PS5 publicly. Why October? Let's keep watching and see if anything else is going on.
— SuperMetalDave64 (@SMetaldave64) October 9, 2018
Typically, the 4th quarter of a year is all about the mass consumer, and not necessarily the die hard game fan. Game companies are more concerned with making sure their big releases are well represented at retail for the all-important holiday shopping season; so it’s a rather odd development to see so much next generation news being reported.
That inevitably leads one to ask the question – what’s going on?
We believe there are a couple of possibilities.
The first is the chain reaction theory.
New iPads will be featured during Apple’s October event, but could there also be something gaming related incoming?
The hypothesis is that Google’s announcement of Project Stream caused a chain reaction of announcements as companies scrambled to lessen the potential impact that the arrival of the first “titan” will have in the gaming industry.
Google announced Project Stream so Microsoft announced Project xCloud. Microsoft announced Project xCloud, so Sony has to acknowledge PlayStation 5, and somewhere in the middle is Nintendo, who isn’t to keen on having the Switch S acknowledged at this point.
The other theory is the making way theory.
The hypothesis here is that each of these organizations is making their plans known to the public early in a bid to grab as much public mind-share as possible prior to a bigger event occurring. Their thinking is if the public is excited about PlayStation 5, then that will lessen the excitement and potential impact of another impending, potentially game-changing announcement when it occurs.
For those familiar with Occam’s razor, the chain reaction theory makes the most sense. After all, Google’s announcement of a streaming service is a potential game changer the likes of which the industry has not seen since the arrival of the original PlayStation in 1995.
However; that theory doesn’t answer the question of why Google chose this time period to make their Project Stream announcement. The service is in its initial public test phase, and there are no current plans to integrate streaming into the company’s ChromeCast product line – at least for this year.
So that lends itself to the making way theory.
But for what?
What announcement would have such a huge potential to change the landscape of gaming to such a degree, that all of these companies feel the need to announce next-gen plans now, and run the risk of undercutting those all-important 4th quarter holiday sales?
An Apple gaming device.
As NerdBacon has been stating for some time, (gee, it’s sort of a running theme now) Apple is the next of the “titans” planning on entering the gaming industry within the next couple of years.
While that may not mean much to gamers right now, Apple commands an unparalleled amount of attention from a nearly endless user base and any new product that they launch will have immediate ramifications for any competitor in that space. In this case – Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, and yes, Google.
Apple has an as-of-yet unscheduled event that will be taking place as soon as the 15th of October. While most industry watchers are counting on the company focusing on the latest version of the iPad and the Pencil, there is a strong possibility that they will use the opportunity to make a gaming-related announcement.
It’s also interesting to note that Microsoft has removed the Apple T.V. version of the mega-popular Minecraft from the digital storefront, and will no longer be supporting the game. While Microsoft cites a lack of sales as motivation, the timing of the move does provide a reason to raise the old eyebrow inquisitively.
While it remains to be seen as to which theory will ultimately be proven correct, and if Apple makes their presence known or not within the next few weeks, one thing is for sure: October 2018 is when the battle for next-gen kicked off in earnest.
And think of this. If we’re already seeing this much activity regarding future products in October, then we are in for a good ol’ fashioned slobber knocker throughout 2019.
Written by The Watchman
He’s also an actor, a reporter, a pro wrestling connoisseur, and some say he’s a cat whisperer.
If you have any questions or just want to drop me a line, hit me up at thewatchman@butthole.nerdbacon.com
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Look me up on Xbox Live @ DJKhadoken
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