Believe it or not, it’s not just the general gaming population that wants new consoles, as Ubisoft’s Yves Guillemot recently shared his problem with the extra-long life cycle of the current-gen consoles.
Speaking to Gamasutra, Guillemot explained that the lack of new hardware has limited the creativity of development studios, which in turn is hindering the creation of new and exciting content for gamers.
What we missed was a new console every five years. We have been penalized by the lack of new consoles on the market. I understand the manufacturers don’t want them too often because it’s expensive, but it’s important for the entire industry to have new consoles because it helps creativity.
The Ubisoft boss then went on to explain why new hardware naturally brings about new and exciting software, saying that at the start of a new console generation, gamers are much more receptive to new IPs.
It’s a lot less risky for us to create new IPs and new products when we’re in the beginning of a new generation. Our customers are very open to new things. Our customers are reopening their minds, and they are really going after what’s best.
At the end of a console generation, they want new stuff, but they don’t buy new stuff as much. They know their friends will play Call of Duty or Assassin’s Creed so they go for that. So the end of a cycle is very difficult.
