The future for Microsoft

It's been a busy past few weeks for the folks over there at Microsoft, what with E3 conference, the huge backlash, getting wiped all over the floor by Sony and big U-turn on their used game and online check-in policies.

There has been lots of talk on the interwebs about the whole situation but I'm not going to go into detail because I'll be here forever and I've seen that a few people have changed their minds about what console they are going to pre-order now. I personally am still pre-ordering the PlayStation 4 because I've lost trust in Microsoft and a company that were so actively looking to shaft consumers to begin with.  I understand that money is needed to survive when you release a product but there is a difference between making money and rinsing consumers for every possible penny.  To me it seems that Microsoft only care about the money and not what the gamers want; a games console.

I've also seen some people defending the used game policy of Xbox One by comparing it to Steam, and the fact that you can't trade-in the games you purchase off there.  I don't think you can compare the two because Steam is PC gaming and downloads only.  If you download a digital version of a game off of Steam with the expectation that you can trade it in then you sir are a moron.  Needless to say I'm getting off point and must get back to the original reason of this post.

All this talk and the U-turn has left me wondering what the future holds for Microsoft, not so much the next few years but beyond that and the time after Xbox One.

I don't see Microsoft giving up the potential money making opportunities of putting the used game market out of business.  I can see that something similar will return in the distant future and have a very strong gut feeling that the next console they work on will be download only (like Steam).  It is the only sure fire way to get rid of trade-ins altogether in one big swoop and I feel that this will happen at some point.  Whether or not the generation after the Xbox One and PS4 will be consoles as we know them now is something I'm unsure of, but I am confident that the next few years at Microsoft's research/development team will be based primarily on new ways to bypass the used game market and other ways to make more money without seeming like a complete bunch of money hungry arseholes.

I know that this is very, very early days to be talking about things like this when the Xbox One isn't even out yet but it's something that has been rumbling around in my head for the past few days and I felt that I needed to share it.  Let me know what you think either in the comments below or via the Twitter button in the top right.