Albert Penello: Don't expect mid-generation console upgrades

If you're reading video game news on a regular basis, you might have heard of Albert Penello. He was the marketing lead for Xbox, but left Microsoft a couple of years ago and now has a somewhat similar role at Amazon. He is usually very candid with his opinions, not afraid to say what he thinks, and doesn't tend to sugar-coat things either.

Now he has weighed in on the topic of mid-generation console upgrades on the Resetera forums, and says we simply shouldn't expect similar consoles like PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X during the next generation:

"It may simply be less necessary as well," he wrote. "4K was becoming a mainstream resolution for PC and TV's, and the base consoles were designed around driving 1080p (or less) output. When you have a set that requires 4x the performance *just* to drive 4x the pixels, then you eat up all the performance just driving resolution. I think it's unlikely we'll see 8K TV's go mainstream in the same way we saw 4K go mainstream - we're more likely to see improvements in NITS (to drive better HDR) or better framerates to support greater than 60fps on TV's. CPU's and GPU's in the next-gen should easily support higher frame rates and wider colors.

"So the mid-gen upgrades are not only less financially and technically viable, but also likely less necessary to keep up with display technologies."

Do you think Penello is on to something, or will there be console upgrades regardless?