Pushing Buttons: The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One ushered in an era of technical brilliance – but creative timidity

The next gen' consoles of 2013 invented high-definition gaming and cleared the way for streaming - but a decade on, what did they get wrong?

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It was at this point 10 years ago that the future began. Obviously, I am referring to the almost simultaneous launch of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles in late 2013. These machines ushered in the era of universal high-definition gaming. They brought us into the cloud computing age, allowing games such as Forza Horizon and Titanfall to perform complex maths remotely, freeing up your processor for other tasks. They forged ahead into game streaming, allowing us to play retro games across broadband connections, and recognised the growing importance of sharing gameplay, including functions that made it easier to record and broadcast gaming experiences across social media and Twitch.

It was an exciting time, but looking back, a lot of mistakes were made. Microsoft fell on its face with its awful Xbox One debut event in Redmond, talking up the machine's TV services and laying out a vision of an always-online console with digital-first software, seemingly destroying the idea of sharing and reselling our games. Although Microsoft was correct that digital downloads would soon dominate and that fast broadband connections would become almost universal among gamers, it was all too much, too soon.