Project Scorpio & PS4 Pro May Be Ousted By High-Spec PCs By 2020, Analyst Predicts

Project Scorpio and PS4 Pro are about to face off in the next leg of the great console wars, but that struggle may be meaningless by 2019, one analyst predicts. Infamous Wedbush Securities figurehead Michael Pachter has gone on record to say Sony’s market dominance may soon be over at the hand of high-powered gaming PCs.

On episode 59 of his Pachter Factor series, the man argued “Console software is going to move off consoles. So Sony is going to lose market dominance when you can play Call of Duty without a console, and that’s gonna happen in 2019 or 2020. So in the next two to three years, you’re gonna have the opportunity to download to your PC and play on your TV. And in the next 10 years you’re gonna download to your phone and play on your TV.

In few words, Pachter is essentially predicting the advancement of products like Valve’s $50 Steam Link that allow gamers to stream PC content to their TVs. The implication is that either the technology will become more cost effective or it won’t require a peripheral at all. When that happens, logic suggests the public may gravitate toward cheaper PC software with superior performance.

Read: Why A $500 Price For Project Scorpio May Be A Disaster

As for what Sony can do to stay on top, Pachter’s answer is simple. He believes the hardware maker must be able to “make the console do more” in terms of services like PlayStation Now, PlayStation Plus and PlayStation Vue. Multimedia perks alongside high-quality exclusive software will be essential for Sony’s future success, Pachter argues.

From this man’s perspective, that doesn’t leave high-spec machines like Xbox Scorpio and PS4 Pro in a very good place. In 2019 both systems will likely be on the market, and that’s when he thinks a significant trend will begin. “Every console generation going forward will be half as big as the one before it,” he muses.

That being said, analysts, and Pachter himself, have been falsely predicting the demise of consoles for quite some time. As far back as 2009, Pachter expressed belief that “we could be in the last console cycle as we know it.” With Xbox One selling respectably and PS4 on pace to be nearly as successful as PS2, that assumption never wound up coming to pass.

PS4 Pro is available now, and Xbox Scorpio is expected to be on the market this fall.

Do you think PS4 Pro and Project Scorpio mark the beginning of the end for traditional consoles? How long will the dedicated gaming boxes last? Tell us in the comments section!