The Future of Tech and the Nintendo Switch

[KLAMarine]

HoloDust said:

KLAMarine said:

Those are the examples I have in my original post: computers, phones, and televisions are all pieces of hardware as are gaming devices. These have to do with the hardware aspect of tech.

On the software side we have, like you said, streaming: services like Netflix which allow one to watch television shows or movies on THEIR schedule, not some television network's schedule.

Convenience.

Digitally-downloaded games on a console also mean one no longer needs to swap a disc or cartridge out of the console to play a different game and digital downloads means no need to drive to a brick-and-mortar store to buy a game either.

There it is again: convenience.

It is convinience - once everything is streamed, you will have the same quality whether you're home or on the go. This is one of the reasons why I see streaming hitting hard in some not so distant future.

But it's not just that - I'm fairly certain that future streaming platform holders will use the same trick that's been used throughout the history of gaming to reel in the audience - flashy visuals not possible on previous platforms. It's just that this time they can sell you different visual packages depending on how much you pay, cause you'll be paying for server proccessing time, not for actual hardware itself.

This will provide you with the choice of having something that no standalone consumer hardware would be able to pull off, if you go with, let's say, Elite package, or you can go with some other more modest package suited to your needs and budget.

I can't say I'm too happy with this future, but given how much control this gives to platform and content holders, I'd say they'll do whatever it takes to persuade audience to convert to that.

So what do you feel this could mean for the future of hardware's form factor?