| IcaroRibeiro said: Streaming remove the biggest constraint from consoles and PCs: - High price entry: Buying a machine to then play is the reason why console+PC gaming is nowhere near as popular as music or cinema, even though is a bigger market when it comes to revenue As much people here turn down on streaming is the only feasible way I see for companies to keep making their single player AAA games. The only reason why movies budget kept increasing is because enough people was going to theaters to make them financially viable. Those games will need to sell for more people and seems we already close to reach the limit number of people willing to spend over 400 USD on dedicated hardware Multiplayer games are a different animal, they are interactive, easier to monetize and keep on market indefinitely until you recover your investment and provide a good income baseline for as long the publisher find worth it. Plus the interactive nature of such games make them more feasible to reach wider audiences thanks to good word of mouth Also those games has much bigger shelves life. When FF XIV launched I'm sure an entry level PC couldn't play it. Today almost any PC can run it effortlessly, meaning the game was designed for high specs, but the natural course of time will naturally make it feasible for casual gamers who don't buy dedicated hardware Which leads for the second biggest constraint of PCs/Consoles: - No more need for upgrades. The game will launch and can reach a big userbase right of the bat I don't see consoles disappearing, but I see at best 2 more generations (roughly 20 years) with consoles being the focus of manufacturers. Xbox is likely to be the first one to give up, which will lead Sony and Nintendo profits to go up enough to keep more generations going and provide a much more smooth transition to streaming. Hopefully internet will be good enough to not compromise experience as much as they do it today. |
You're comparing apples and oranges though. You also need a TV / Stereo / Mobile Phone to enjoy Music and Movies.
Streaming games requires a good internet connection which isn't available everywhere and doesn't come cheap either. Plus we still don't know the realistic price of a game streaming service. For now it's great value, so was Netflix at the start. Everything I wanted at CAD 7.99 a month. Now Netflix is up to CAD 15.50 for standard, CAD 20.99 for 4K, while stuff I want to watch is now spread out over Disney+, Paramount+ and Prime Video...
I still prefer buying music and movies although it gets harder all the time.
The big dream for MS is that once streaming becomes good enough, part of the mobile gaming crowd will get into streaming bigger games. However why would they? It's a very different way to play games. It's not the hardware price that's the hurdle since phones cost over $1200.
And there's VR. Still in its infancy, but certainly has potential to become big. And one thing that VR is very sensitive to is lag. Streaming VR games simply can not work, the laws of physics prevent that.
There will certainly be a market for streaming games on TV, however it will be many decades before it takes over, if ever. I'm glad I still have cable / pvr / physical movies since there are still plenty days Netflix will not work :/
