Have you seen how big the PS5 is?! And that barely plays one game, a sony console that would play multiple games at once would be the furniture to rest the 4k TV on...
Also it seems that everybody thinks that I'm talking about imminent even though I said multiple times that it will take a long time.
I was speaking more long term. Like how the processing power of an entire room of legacy mainframes is now slower and weaker than the smartphones we hold in our hands. And with continuing advances in digital upscaling and computing power, it's not impossible that one day there might be a console that can handle 2-4 720p concurrent game instances upscaled to 1440p or higher, allowing for a future take on 4-way gaming on one console, but instead of having to be on one massive TV, it'd be across 2-4 TVs in different rooms. Families could game together for game night if they wanted, or siblings could play different games at the same time while their parents also use the console to stream movies. All from 1 home entertainment device, while using thin-clients to provide a local link to say, gamepads and headphones.
As well, if console makers begin investing in their own "game streaming consoles" and infrastructure akin to Luna/Stadia while allowing use of owned digital games akin to GeForce Now, some of those gaming instances could be shifted to relying on network bandwidth instead of running off the central console, using the same thin-clients.
Sure, some prebuilt and most custom PCs will beat the console experience, but it's never going to be as user friendly or idiot resistant as consoles, or even as cheap. Even moreso when it comes to becoming the primary home entertainment hub.
Dramatic Examples of the possible future would be:
The Sony Home
- Relies on strong hardware to act as both a local gaming server and home media server, and integration with various Sony products to enhance the capabilities or accessibility.
- Sony TVs in each room have built-in thin-console elements allowing not only responsive TV UI, but allows for remotely connecting to the "PlayStation Prime" console for either localized gaming off the PSP and installed games, or connecting to the PSN and streaming digitally owned games. Would have built-in connectivity to link to PS gamepads and headsets (which would also allow for quiet movie nights too).
- Sony "PlayStation Link" boxes, which basically act as both a Roku Ultra + connection point to either the PSP or PSN while providing wired/wireless connection to PlayStation peripherals, mainly gamepads and headsets. These would allow non-Sony TVs to have features akin to Sony TVs.
- Sony sound systems would have special built-in 3D audio gaming modes that enhance gameplay, for those who want to be immersed in their game, and could switch to 3D audio theater mode for watching movies, intelligently adjusting the soundpoints for each individual present (maybe through the PS Camera).
- Sony Portable consoles would allow for similar features to the PS Link boxes, and even Sony VR Headsets might have a similar elements integrated; allowing for an Apple VR-like experience, but with the Sony ecosystem and VR games on Sony.
The Xbox Home
- Relies on reasonably strong hardware to act as both a local gaming server and home media server, but relies more on the internet and network to enhance capabilities or accessibility.
- Focuses more on providing value through MS' dedicated servers and Xbox Live/Xbox Gamepass, as they don't have the same level of integration capability as Sony.
- The "Xbox Prime" would be their high-end console that serves as the central hub.
- "Xbox Links" would be "streaming consoles" that can sync up to the Xbox Prime to play downloaded games, or can access Xbox Gamepass and stream games, while also serving as a peripheral link for gamepads and headsets. It also acts as the Roku Ultra replacement, allowing TVs to have access to the Xbox ecosystem while also having a more responsive UI to access apps and content.
- Games designed for Xbox would be almost equivalent to the Steam version, if not outright equivalent and just run at optimized settings, as Xbox of this future would have ceded the hardware race with Sony to an extent and instead leverage their superior server access under MS.
- Xbox Tablets could be produced as a spin-off from MS Surface line, intended to stream Xbox games and play them on the go that way, paired with an Xbox controller.
The Nintendo Home
- Would be similar to the Xbox Home, but more focused on portable gaming and online connectivity.
- They might have one "Nintendo Prime" console that sits at home, but they would continue the Switch concept of having a portable device that could plug into docks to enable gameplay on TVs, and could either stream games downloaded to the home console or from the Nintendo network, or play games downloaded to each individual Switch.
- Might open up their ecosystem to allowing some 3rd party apps like Netflix, Roku, Prime, etc, if only to also offer on-the-go streaming of movies, videos, and music, providing an alternate use to their Switches beyond gaming. However, they won't go the full mile of making the Nintendo Prime a true multimedia server like Sony or Xbox, focusing more on providing exclusive games.
- Might offer the unique capability for the Switch to be used as a smart remote for the Prime console at home. Such as becoming the controller with extras; maybe games played on Nintendo Prime would have special shortcut buttons available on the touchscreen (effectively becoming like a hotbar of skills/abilities/items), or move the mini-map and menu access to the Switch's screen, allowing for less main screen clutter and faster game management.