The death of consoles has been predicted with atomic clock levels of regularity for at least the past quarter century. Each new wave of consumer hardware with the capacity – real or hypothetical – to play games has been heralded as the final nail in the coffin. Some of those, like home PCs and smartphones, found healthy, thriving places in the gaming ecosystem. Others, like smart TVs, ended up being sideshows at most – but through it all, consoles have kept on trucking, with revenues continuing to climb even if there’s been a concerning stagnation in the overall audience size for quite some time.
