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Microsoft Corp made a splash this week with the eagerly awaited unveiling of its new Xbox game console, eight years after the last version, as it seeks a larger share of the $65 billion a year global computer gaming industry.
However, the small device faces some big competition from the PlayStation 4 by Sony Corp and the Wii U by Nintendo Co Ltd in a shifting market.
Gamers are gravitating to online play – suggesting the heyday of console games are over – while Microsoft wants its sleek new toy to finally cross the bridge to the mainstream and become the family’s entertainment centre.
Ryan McCaffrey, executive editor at entertainment website IGN.com, said: “The entire Xbox experiment from Microsoft was for it to be the centre piece of your living room.”
To that end, industry-watchers expected a raft of improvements from the new Xbox when Microsoft unveiled it at its Washington headquarters yesterday, from closer integration with the TV and link-ups with mobile devices to access to new and even exclusive content.
Console gaming still takes the lion’s share of a growing gaming market – about 42 per cent of the $65bln world market – according to Microsoft. But playing games on smartphones and tablets, or as an offshoot to online social networks, is gaining ground fast.
Console sales have been in decline for the last four years, chiefly because of aging devices, but the first of the new generation of machines has not reignited the sector.
