Michael Pachter With Another Wild Prediction – Xbox To Win Next Gen

This is not news. Let’s be clear about that. While Michael Pachter is a very clever industry analyst who has, at times, given great advice to investors, he also clearly revels in his role as fanboy fire-starter.

So while his latest predictions – made at this year’s South by South West event in Austin – are an interesting talking point, they are by no means “news” in the sense that half of what Pachter says these days seems solely aimed at raising his profile among those of us who like to point and laugh. But we do enjoy discussing his bold, attention-grabbing assertions and we thought you’d like the chance to have your say too.

With that rather obvious disclaimer out of the way, let’s get to the pointing and the laughing.

[drop2]Michael Pachter has said that Microsoft will “win” the next generation. He thinks that the TV Tuner and Skype will be “killer apps” and that potential deals with MSOs (that’s basically cable operators in the US) and ISP (the people who charge you for internet access) lend themselves to subsidies. Actually, I’ve postulated around that last point myself with regards to the next generation so please don’t point and laugh too much at that one…

Although Pachter thinks Microsoft will win the next gen, he sees Sony – who’s home console actually seems to have globally outsold Microsoft’s this generation as being primed to “thrive” although they’ll still be playing “catch up” to someone. Nintendo, presumably.

On Nintendo, he thinks they’ll have strong software sales but that their hardware sales “will be challenged.” Which is basically just stating what has happened in the months since the Wii U’s launch. He also thinks their handhelds will lose share to smartphones and tablets. Welcome to 2010, Mikey.

Pulling some good news out of his ars… hat, Pachter thinks we’ve seen the last publisher bankruptcy for a while. He does give himself a bit of wiggle room with that claim though – predicting the possibility of some “consolidation.”

Finally, it’s good news for the millions of you who have been enjoying some of those high-selling PC games over the past few years – “the PC as gaming device will make a comeback,” apparently. Nobody tell Blizzard.

Image Source: StickSkills

51 Comments

  1. wasn’t it that way at the beginning of last gen?

    every (US) analyst and developer praising the XBOX and dooming the PS3?

    i see some kind of pattern here

  2. Yes, because what everyone is waiting for is ANOTHER device to run Skype on.. I have 8 devices at home that run Skype and I’d rather use any of them than a console…

  3. PC gaming is going to make a comeback? When did it go away? PC is currently handing all consoles an absolute hiding in terms of power and graphical output, and with crappy PC ports seemingly a thing of the past, it should continue to thrive.

  4. These industry experts should stop proving their salaries by saying stupid stuff. Just keep quiet.

  5. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…haaha..ha..haa…. really Patcher? this early? hahaha
    well i gotta say that this is an absolutely awesome way to make yourself look dumb as hell! if u wanna look dumb infront of everybody else this is the way to do it!! U GO PATCHER!!! :P NOOOT!!!

  6. While I don’t think Skype is going to play a role in most people’s decisions over which console to purchase, I don’t think Microsoft will keep it away from PS4 either- after all, when a social app isn’t on one device, the people who lose the most are the makers of the social app.

    It’s even on PSP and Vita, and while an argument can be made that they don’t compete with MS products, iOS and Android certainly compete with Windows Phone but still support Skype. I’m going to assume that now PS4 actually has enough resources to cover increased connectivity while playing games, that Skype will be one of many communication options available for the weirdos who need to cover the immersing sound of the game they’re playing with something else entirely.

    • All of this. I agree with all of this.

    • Also, Sony could also reveal something similar to Skype after microshit shows their next Xbox.

      • Sony sucks at software applications though. Everything they make to share photos, video, music applications, manage PSN Store stuff via PC, etc. is all abysmal. I seriously doubt that Sony could make anything that would come anywhere close to rivalling Skype, either in terms of functionality or ubiquity.

        Also, that silly thing you did with Microsoft? Don’t do that here, thanks.

      • Also, you could refrain from using childish names like “microshit” in your comments. Using such language automatically disqualifies you from any discussion you think you are taking part in.

      • you see? we try to discourage that kind of silly fanboy crap here to keep the discourse civil and smart, where possible ;)

      • And the fanboy of the day award goes to Narayan11. Using things like MSshit doesn’t make you seem mature and will make you seem like a fanboy.

        Peter, i don’t think you can claim that most of us are civilised or smart due to some of our habits. :P

      • I am not a fanboy by the way, and Apologies (with capital A) to everyone.

  7. So hang on, the next xbox comes with a built-in tv tuner? I thought they would just pipe channels through the broadband but heck if it has an actual hardware tuner that’s quite surprising.

    • I thought that reading the article as well. Love PlayTV so if there is a TV tuner in the new Xbox it could be a pretty good feature… not sure it’s likely to happen though.

    • quite unlikely, I would have thought. It’d need a different kind of tuner in each region and then it would further fragment in Europe because the UK chose a different Freeview HD format to most of the rest of Europe. I suggest this is Pachter forgetting that there’s a world outside of North America.
      My guess is that it’ll all be piped in via broadband and the catch-up or live-streaming functions some networks have – like Hulu Plus or whatever the Sky on-demand thing is called now.

      • That’s what i thought :)
        So, according to Pachter xbox will win because it has Skype and a tv service – both of which the ps4 will also likely have..
        The man is clearly a genius, pay him double from now on!! :)

      • “I suggest this is Pachter forgetting that there’s a world outside of North America.”

        and i get the feeling he’s far from the only one in this industry. ^_^

  8. Given the fact there is a 50/50 chance of getting this right it hardly takes a brave or intelligent person to have a guess at whos going to win.

    This guy needs to be ignored, the sooner sites stop posting his predictions the better.

  9. I can’t believe he gets paid for these predictions.

    • I don’t mind that, although it winds me up a smidge, but I do take offence to anyone taking him seriously! He’s the sort of “voice for the industry” bullshit that people who only pick up on the odd bit of news, believe!

  10. because everybody loves free services you pay ms to use, right? ^_^

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