This year will be three years since the launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles, and Microsoft expects the next Xbox and PlayStation will launch in 2028, according to a report by IGN, so the time ticking to start saving for the next big consoles. And in the last 20-ish years, there have been four new PlayStations and four generations of Xbox.
With each generation, a significant leap in power, graphics, gameplay, and technology comes with it and it’s always very expensive, but it typically lasts quite a while. These generations have come to last about eight years to ten years now as developers learn how to squeeze all of the juice out of the consoles while the platform holders think about the future of these consoles almost immediately after shipping the current one.
Microsoft is in court Thursday facing the US Federal Trade Commission, which is blocking the company’s $68.7 billion acquisition of publisher Activision Blizard. Court documents released during the trial show that Microsoft expects the next generation of game consoles to come out in 2028.
On the first day of the trial, both the FTC and Microsoft presented evidence backing their respective positions on the acquisition. The FTC says Microsoft’s deals with other companies such as Nintendo and Nvidia that give the appearance of being more open to competition come with “loopholes” and can be renegotiated in the future.
Microsoft, on the other hand, presented a deposition from PlayStation boss Jim Ryan saying Microsoft’s acquisition was not about Xbox exclusivity. Sony raised concerns over the acquisition not long after the deal was announced, citing the future of Call of Duty games on the PlayStation platform could be in jeopardy after the purchase.
“Today showed Sony has known all along we’ll stand by our promise to keep games on its platform and made clear its work to lobby against the deal is only to protect its dominant position in the market,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email statement Thursday.
Ryan also said in his deposition that if the deal goes through, Sony wouldn’t be able to talk with Activision about its plans for the next PlayStation.
Thursday’s legal proceedings come more than a year after Microsoft announced its decision to purchase Activision Blizzard. Since then, the Xbox maker had sought approval for the acquisition from antitrust regulators in the different countries the company does business in. The biggest hurdles for Microsft are the UK and the US with agencies in both countries blocking the deal citing concerns over a lack of competition in the video game industry.
