Why the Xbox One and PS4 Aren't the Future

All the talk about the next generation of gaming has centered around two things: Xbox One and Playstation 4. To be sure, both are great systems offering great feature-sets, but these are not the future of gaming and aren't the true next generation.

You may not realize it yet, but you've already got the console of the future in your pocket. The computing power of phones and tablets continues to accelerate, and they'll begin to catch up to game consoles in the next few years. However, I'm not going to make the ad-nauseam claim that those tiny screens are the future of console gaming either. That future still belongs to your television, but your future console won't be sitting next to it.

The emergence of companion technologies such as Airplay, Chromecast, SmartGlass and more are the real story. I don't buy into the whole "second screen" idea, but I do buy into the ability to stream games from a portable device onto your big, beautiful HDTV -- where console gaming is meant to be played. These companion technologies will continue to mature as we see the use of phones and tablets take over our daily computing lives. In time, these advancements will emerge as the true next generation of console gaming, and that is when we'll see innovation reappearing in the console gaming market.