It’s a Great Time for Games (But Not Consoles)

The Summer Games events have come and gone and barely a moment went by without something new and exciting to check out on consoles. There’s no doubt about it: the next year is going to be pretty fantastic.

No matter what kind of game you love, there was something for you. If you’re really into moody Soulslike games, then you’re eating really well. But it doesn’t end there. 2026 is going to be huge, and that’s without taking Grand Theft Auto 6 into account.

Previous years have had lulls in each show. You drift off or zone out, trying to work out why these games are getting such a big showing. Not so this time around. It seemed like everything deserved to be there, and little overstayed its welcome. Maybe not everything was for me, but nothing was so obviously poor that it was for nobody. That’s the sign of a good show, and we got three or four.

There was one downside to the busy week. Games took the absolute forefront – as they should – but innovations in consoles were sadly lacking.

The E3s of the past could contain hardware reveals, new major features and, save for some hints in the Xbox Ally reveal, there was very little of that this time around.

Even worse, the Switch 2 came out last week and it seems the thing that’s got people most excited is playing Switch games in a slightly improved way.

On top of that, some of the biggest games will simply not look like they looked in their trailers. There will be major downgrades to get them to run on consoles (and most PCs). They just won’t be playable on Switch 2 or on handheld PCs.

The End of a Console Generation (That’s Just Begun)

It’s not just the technical quality of these devices – those are things we’re already used to. It seemed like the first half of this generation had nothing that pushed the limits and then everything did. We went from silent running and 120fps to sub-1080p image quality in about a week. They’re still doing their jobs and despite the compromises, offer a decent experience at an (almost) affordable price.

There were a couple of other things that showed how strange the next few years are going to be.

In the first instance, the Final Fantasy VII/XVI reveal for Xbox. The latter is available now at almost full price, some two years after release. Final Fantasy VII – five years old – is coming later this year. It’ll likely also be full price. For single player story games this is a strange decision, especially given the apparent success of Death Stranding in the Xbox ecosystem. People won’t take a punt on a game that’s years old and still full price.

But it also shows that the walls of exclusivity are coming down. The likes of Square Enix just don’t want to play that game anymore.

The Xbox Ally reveal takes this a step further, hinting at a future without walls at all. It is an Xbox that allows you to play Steam games, and much more besides. Unusual for an Xbox branded device, but not for a handheld PC. But now it’s happened, could the rumours be true and will this be a feature of all Xbox devices going forward. Improvements to gaming on Windows that will come along with the Ally certainly make it possible.

Some of these changes hint at a future that isn’t about cutting edge graphics, but about being good enough. It’s not about new features, but iterating on ways that work. This’ll look a bit disappointing at times, but as these shows have proven, the games are ultimately what matter.