'Consoles to die in 5 to 10 years,' says ex-Microsoft man

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Old VP of Xbox Europe speaks out

Former Vice President of Xbox Europe Sandy Duncan has cast his doubts on the long term future of the console market, claiming consoles as we know them will die out within a decade.

Speaking in aninterview, he said: "There is a definite convergence of other devices, such as set top boxes. There's hardly any technology difference between some hard disc video recorders and an Xbox 360, for example.

"In fact in 5 to 10 years I don't think you'll have any box at all under your TV, most of this stuff will be virtualized as web services by your content provider."

We think he means you'll stream data from a server or PC straight to your TV, so technically there will still be a box involved somewhere - it just won't be a console as we know it.

Whilst Duncan has a vested interest seeing digital distribution channels open up (he now runs a casual games company), his comments match those of Analyst Billy Pidgeon, who earlier on in the week debated whether the PlayStation 3 would be the last console we'd ever see.

Which, if nothing else, would validate Sony's claim that the PlayStation 3 would have a lifecycle of at least ten years.

Courtesy of CVG.

Mar 28, 2008