Will Nintendo Force Sony, Microsoft To Release New Game Consoles Sooner?

Consumers may not have to wait another seven years for Xbox Two and PlayStation 5 to arrive. If Nintendo NTDOY releases its Wii U successor before then, Sony SNE and Microsoft MSFT may be forced to follow suit. "I think it really depends on the environment strategy, and if this takes off," Christine Arrington, Senior Games Analyst at IHS Electronics & Media IHS, told Benzinga. "You've seen Sony and Microsoft -- Microsoft for at least 20 years, and I think Sony for at least 10 years, they have had their eye on being the environment in the living room. They've talked about, 'We're gonna replace the cable tuner. We're gonna be everything in the living room.'" If that happens -- if either company is successful "in creating that living room environment and making the PlayStation brand your content brand, and Xbox your content brand resource," Arrington believes that Sony and Microsoft are less likely to care about competing hardware. "Then there's not so much of an incentive because Nintendo can't push them that hard because they've moved outside of just the gaming world," Arrington added. "If they're not successful and Apple AAPL or Google GOOG are the ones who get that environment in the living room, then that push from Nintendo gets more serious and they might be inclined to release another iteration based on what Nintendo does." Related: PlayStation 5, Xbox Two Likely To Offer Virtual Reality Many fear that this may be the last generation of traditional game consoles. Industry watchers have been predicting the end of consoles for more than a decade. They believe that dedicated gaming devices will not be necessary once the streaming and download/storage issues have been resolved. Thus far, several companies have attempted to replace traditional game consoles with their own devices. All of them have failed. OnLive, for example, offered a service that allowed consumers to stream select games to their TV sets. The service underperformed significantly and caused a $40 million loss for its most prominent investor -- HTC HTCKF. Disclosure: At the time of this writing, Louis Bedigian had no position in the equities mentioned in this report. Louis Bedigian is the Senior Tech Analyst and Features Writer of Benzinga. You can reach him at louis(at)benzingapro(dot)com. Follow him @LouisBedigianBZ