You might say he's a little biased, being the head of a company so linked with PC gaming, but Paradox Interactive's CEO doubts there will be more than one new set of home consoles. Fredrik Wester, speaking at a showcase in Stockholm, said that revenues had increased 97% in 2011 thanks to digital sales, in 2006 that figure was only 1.5%.
“The next generation of console hardware will probably be the last,” he said. “I’d be surprised if we see another generation after that.”
The focus on digital is something that has obviously appealed to the PC crowd, with services like Steam offering ridiculously cheap games and proving, once and for all, that fair prices attract a wide range of customers and, more importantly to a business, increase the amount of money coming in. I wouldn't necessarily say that that information applies to console manufacturers as well, they're offering a completely different service.
But who knows where we'll be in a decade's time? Ten years ago we were still being blown away by the Bouncer – how far we've come.
