It’s fascinating to try and predict what the next range of gaming consoles will look like. Sony and Microsoft are the two market leaders in this space, and they’ve consolidated their reach and influence at the top of the gaming hierarchy over the last two decades.
As both companies continuously search for ways to outperform each other and channel their efforts into innovations and the latest gaming trends that could lead to success, the sustained growth in the online casino gaming industry has led to an increasing number of questions about next-generation consoles.
One of the questions that seems to be gathering more traction is whether the PlayStation 6 or the next Xbox will include betting apps or casino gaming features and how likely it is that we’ll see a prominent casino company or sports betting app teaming up with one of the big gaming console designers.
Current iGaming Landscape
Digital sports betting and casino gaming are collectively known as iGaming. This industry has witnessed one of the strongest, most consistent annual growth figures in the modern, global digital economy.
There are several reasons why the casino and sports betting sectors have been able to continue growing at their current rate, including better legislative conditions, the rise of mobile app gaming, and the increase in the number of payment methods people use to gamble, which has opened up the digital floor to millions of new customers over the last 10 years or so.
Mobile apps are now the dominant way people play their casino games, and Lucky Bird Casino, according to WSN.com, operates a platform highlighting the types of games people seek out online. Slot gaming has started to find a much wider audience, as tablets and iPad screens are a great option for those looking to play a few spins.
Although slot gaming on a console would be a much bigger step up in terms of screen size, the real question that these companies ask themselves is whether the demand is there. If people enjoy playing on a laptop or a mobile phone, is there a significant enough demand for them to take up another screen size and allow people to play via their consoles?
Reported Innovations in Next-Gen Console Gaming
Sony and Microsoft have not announced whether they have a next generation of gaming consoles in the pipeline. Although the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X are their latest inventions, they were released nearly four years apart. During this time, there have been many landmark gaming announcements, the most significant of which is the news of Grand Theft Auto 6, set to hit our shelves in autumn 2025.
Rockstar often spearheads big changes in gaming innovation. While they’re remaining tight-lipped about what the first GTA game in over a decade could bring to the table, the talks of VR and AI both playing an integral part will have intrigued those at Sony and Microsoft who are looking to implement mutual ideas and help companies such as Rockstar maximize their game designs.
Console games aren’t just competing against each other, either; the growing advances in PC gaming technology and free internet games that can be accessed 24/7 are yet another battleground that needs to be monitored. So, there are plenty of innovations that they need to weigh up. Casino gaming is one of several reported avenues neither Sony nor Microsoft have confirmed.
Console Casino Gaming and Sports Betting
Several casino-related games have been released on consoles, including the GTA V casino and the WSOP (World Series of Poker) game. However, going one level above that and integrating betting and casino apps on a console would be quite a considerable step up. Gamers who gamble on their consoles can use the internet browsing tool to access their favorite casino sites, but this is not a popular route people take to play casino games.
The console gaming industry will be worth around $60 billion within the next decade. By this point, both Sony and Microsoft will have rolled out their next-generation consoles, incorporating many innovations, so console casino gaming and sports betting are not something to completely rule out.
Final Thoughts
With the rapid rise of NVIDIA, advanced gaming processing, and Meta moving into the world of VR, you’d expect that Sony and Microsoft would focus on these areas of technology more than on betting apps.
There’s nothing to say that they might not implement all of them. Still, there’s not the same demand for console betting apps, especially with the volume of casino companies and sports betting platforms that operate so successfully via mobile devices.
Speaking from a personal perspective, whenever I place a sports bet or choose to play a casino game, I will do so on my phone via a mobile app. While it’s not a bad idea to give people a choice, it feels as though console casino and sports betting would be an extension and a reinvention of a format that already works very well, so it’d be a surprise to see these integrated into the next Xbox or PlayStation 6 when they are released in the latter stages of this decade.
