The latest smart gadget scandal could teach us something about the next gen of gaming and beyond

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Video games often lead in technology, but sometimes the industry follows leads set elsewhere. People call services like Xbox Game Pass a ‘Netflix of Games’, for instance, because while the delivery system and technology is entirely different, the end result is much the same: doing away with physical media or digital downloads for a simple, easily accessible stream of content that’ll allow you to enjoy old favorites and discover new ones for one flat fee.

It seems that the next console generation won’t be an immediate, concrete shift as we’ve had in the past. Already Microsoft has suggested that the Xbox Series X won’t get any exclusive games for a year or so – something that makes sense given the company’s dedication to building more of an ecosystem that crosses traditional hardware generations.

But this, and a recent scandal in other areas of technology has me wondering: with the power of Project XCloud’s streaming and Game Pass, won’t Xbox One owners be able to continue to play even Xbox Series X exclusive titles via streaming, eventually? Or will there be an arbitrary cut-off, where only next-gen owners can play next-gen games via XCloud? With the traditional line between generations significantly blurred, eventually a new one will have to be drawn. Where will that be? When? How bold and final should that line be? Perhaps more than anything, questions like this might come to define the next generation.

I love a smart device, and for a long time I’ve been invested in the Sonos ecosystem; high quality, nice speakers that have a wireless network linking them, allowing me to spin a record on the turntable in the living room and pipe it through to the kitchen while cooking, or seamlessly synchronize playback of a Spotify playlist across multiple rooms if we’re having a party. It’s cool stuff. But last week, for many, it became a lot less cool, as Sonos announced it would be ceasing support for a range of products come May.

Almost immediately there was justified outcry. People had spent hundreds upon hundreds on this ecosystem only for items to be cast out seemingly on a whim. An upgrade programme offered 30 percent off replacement items, but that didn’t soften the blow too much. If you didn’t want to pay that 70 percent of retail price to upgrade, you’d then have a hamstrung system, as a network including old devices with discontinued support would continue to work, but no device on that network would get new updates and features – not even all-new ones.