Cloud gaming companies need to start making friends with ISPs globally if its ever going to take off. It's a rarity that you'll see the perfect, necessary combination of super fast speeds and no fair use policies. I have a 100mb/s fibre optic connection, which is far above the required speed, but if I suddenly start streaming hundreds of MBs of data on a consistent basis, that speed will be throttled for an extended period of time.

With low speeds still a problem for a huge chunk of the world, and fair use policies throttling many of those who are lucky enough not to have the slow speed issue, you see the reason early attempts like OnLive were a complete disaster.

i just saw, in relation to the house of cards release, that 25% of americans already subscribe to netflix and the number is growing. clearly the market is responding to streaming based content.  this isn't 10 years out.  it's coming this holiday and in 3-4 years time it will be a big part of the gaming industry.  in 10 years it will probably be the dominant source of money for gaming.

the day cloud gaming becomes the norm is the day i will quit. I like having my consoles and physical copies of games taking up so much space in my house lol.

Netflix is something different. I don't know how many of these households use Netflix in HD, but even if - streaming games is live, you can't buffer a live game.

Considering how the wii u is doing I wouldn't listen to this guy as to what the future is or is not.

nintendo is still behind on online multiplayer and wiiU is, imo, a symptom.  when a successful product has a terrible follow-up it is typically because of consumer dissatisfaction with their original purchase.  now there are many reasons to be dissatisfied with the wii but a lack of a unified online system and robust multiplayer focus is part of that.  that's part of why the sales of the wii collapsed and the 360 had an unprecedented peak year on (if i remember right) year 7.

those online services matter.  nintendo is soo far behind MS right now they can likely never catch up.  sony had to buy gaikai just to keep up.  ..but ignoring emerging trends pretty much solidifies your place in that future.

Personally, I consider Achievements/Trophies one of the most overrated and gimmicky inventions of the 7th gen, so I couldn't care less about a Wii U equivalent. "You put the disc in your 360, achievement unlocked!" "You defeated the first boss, achievement unlocked!" Piss off ya annoying pop-ups, you're distracting and you add nothing of worth to the experience.

I like that Nintendo doesn't just follow the crowd, gaming wouldn't be as interesting if all companies did the same things.

You and me both.

That and the fact that I'm not going to allow myself to be reliant on the 'goodwill' of a company to keep something I like alive for an indefinite period of time.

Add me to the list. No way I'm trusting a company that could go under or otherwise mess with my games, to hell with that. I want to actually OWN my games, not just access to them, which could be taken away at any moment. Not to mention the waste of internet...

Me too. Disks are nice^^