Michael Pachter is full of fun opinions, and no matter whether you think he's a prophet or certifiably insane, you can't argue that what he says is often bold. In his latest episode of Pachter Factor, the long-time industry analyst took a question from a fan regarding at what point Sony's "market dominance" will end. Pachter's response was about as on par as you'd expect, factoring in the end of the console generation we've been hearing about for so long.
He said:
"Console software is going to move off consoles. So Sony is going to lose market dominance when you can play Call of Duty without a console, and that’s gonna happen in 2019 or 2020. So in the next two to three years, you’re gonna have the opportunity to download to your PC and play on your TV. And in the next 10 years you’re gonna download to your phone and play on your TV."
He also continued by saying that he thinks "every console generation going forward will be half as big as the one before it." And in looking at the current state of the industry it's hard to argue. Both the PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox's Project Scorpio represent a smartphone-like upgrade in the middle of the current generation, with both consoles being able to play the generation's full library. The Xbox One's backwards compatibility program has reasserted the idea that gamers don't want to be cut off from their previous purchases just because they are using a different box, and it's reasonable to expect this to become standard as more and more consumers get wise to the idea.
If you're interested in checking out the full episode of Pachter Factor, you can do so below. Things are certainly changing in the console space, and frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if we are playing all of our games off of our phones in ten years.
