| zero129 said: Internet speeds will get fast enough where you wont be able to tell the difference. How long that will take? i dont know maybe another 20 years for it to be perfect enough to where you can play a game in the cloud and not be able to tell it apart from playing it localy. But then it doesnt even have to be that perfect or else BluRays would be the top format for watching movies yet more people stream movies online then watching them on bluray. CD'swould still be selling great and MP3's would be the cheapo solution that caters more to the lowest denominator. |
Maybe it's true about the downloading speeds. The average bandwidth will be always faster (although very badly distributed) and that will allow the streaming of less compressed video output at an higher resolution. But you can't beat the lag. Which has a physical limit of 1ms round trip every 150KM/100 miles (given by the speed of light). The lag can't get lower than that (and it will still be quite higher).
Then you are not considering the most important thing: to sell or stream digital movies and music is convenient for the seller. The cost is mostly on bandwidth. But to stream videogames is VERY costly. What you don't pay buying a console you pay renting a server. To get a worse experience. Better the graphics quality and performances, higher the computing power needed for each single session, higher the cost.
Then there is the third factor: people love to buy electronic toys. Some love to build their PCs, many others love to buy a console and do different things with them. Which means there is a market. Just suppose one of the three (Sony/Nintendo/MS) decides to go only streaming. Streaming most of the games available in one of the two next gen consoles. What do you think people would buy?
