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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Gaming Streaming - What does the future look like?

Hi All.

I believe we are at a tipping point for the gaming industry. Streaming is upon us.

We've all seen today the news of Amazon launching their new gaming streaming service Luna. Google has Stadia, which I heard is not that great. Microsoft is launching xCloud and Sony dabbled with PS Now for a while.

I am not very informed on these services and would like to understand what you all think about these.

Who is better positioned to become a leader? Do we think the main Cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP) will have a competitive advantage over Sony? What will Nintendo do? How do you feel the market will look like in the next 5-10 years?



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Microsoft already won this fight because of Gamepass with theirs. As they buy more studios and improve their first party exclusive lineup it will only get bigger.

Amazon, Apple, and Google do not have 23 first party studios producing a steady strem of AA and AAA quality exclusives for them. That 23 will only continue to grow.

Sony and Nintendo are the only ones that could compete on first party (and MS arguably had a more impressive first party lineup now), but neither have the infrastructure or funds to operate the infrastructure necessary to make streaming a reality for their customers.



One I won't part take in. I hate everything about it. If it were up to me all services would die off.



Bite my shiny metal cockpit!

When the tech is ready, it'll be great. I think it is a 100% certainty that streaming will become a large part of the gaming market. The only question is is the tech ready? So far, it seems like we're just a little bit short of where things need to be to make streaming a consistently great experience. So, I'm guessing we're about 5-8 years away from streaming becoming the most common way to play games.



I just wanted to have good internet to really take advantage of it. I'm a cloud developer and enthusiast I want to make use of stream as much as possible, but I live in a 3rd world country and the truth is I will never be able to have que the same quality experience as fellow japanese/american/european gamers who can embrace the real start of art in cloud gaming experience

I'm not picky when comes to looking for hardware specs and whatever, but I have the power to purchase the most fanciful PC gamer money can afford, I will just need to sell my house first, but whatever, choices. When it comes to streaming I'll be forever trapped in geographical infra restrictions



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Dulfite said:
Microsoft already won this fight because of Gamepass with theirs. As they buy more studios and improve their first party exclusive lineup it will only get bigger.

Amazon, Apple, and Google do not have 23 first party studios producing a steady strem of AA and AAA quality exclusives for them. That 23 will only continue to grow.

Sony and Nintendo are the only ones that could compete on first party (and MS arguably had a more impressive first party lineup now), but neither have the infrastructure or funds to operate the infrastructure necessary to make streaming a reality for their customers.

I agree with what you say.

Maybe Sony and Nintendo will partner with the likes of Amazon and Google to leverage their infrastructure? That could ensure their 1st party games will rival Microsoft's.



Ka-pi96 said:
Not streaming, that's what the future looks like.

Even if an all digital future does ever happen, downloads will stay be leagues ahead of streaming.

I guess that will be the case in the near future (<5 years). I believe streaming will be able to rival downloads after then.

Last edited by Kinneas14 - on 25 September 2020

I think Microsoft's hybrid approach with Gamepass, which to a lesser extent Sony has going with PSNow, is superior.

A one time download simply makes more sense to most of the target audience. I'd rather deal with that over latency issues, even if it means spending an extra 2-300 up front.

Another issue is cross platform play. If I were Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, I would allow cross platform play among those systems, and not with streaming company, assuming that is not considered collusion. Alternatively, just stop cross platform play altogether. Having platforms where gamers are already congregating as opposed to new growing platforms is an issue.

There's also a possibility of oversaturation in the streaming market. With Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, HBOGo, Peacock, Youtube Red, Disney+ and so on, a lot of people are saying fuck it.

Streaming games is a good proposition at 10-20 per month. But, the average gamer is only buying a couple of games a month at most, possibly not at full price. So, if it gets to a point where you need 5 streaming services to play everything you want, gamers might just say fuck it. Maybe they'll keep whichever service they think is the best, and just buy other games individually. That's what I plan on doing as of now, mainly playing on Nintendo, and supplementing with Gamepass (and the occasional PS4 game).

Nintento is in an odd position. They're slow to adapt, but they may need to. They have an advantage in many ways with a first party lineup, and an extensive back catalog. But... I'm not sure Nintendo can feasibly do something like this. Gamepass is clearly a loss leading proposition, and Nintendo really can't do that. I think for Nintendo, the future may be something like a Nintendo system that features one of the other services, in addition to selling most first party games separately. So, Nintendo gets people to buy their systems for first party software (people have already shown a willingness to do this, and to pay a premium for Nintendo games), get some sort of kickback when gamers use Gamepass or whatever on their system, and still sell some third party games separately.

Nintendo's real ace in the hole though is hardware design. Wii, DS, and Switch succeeded largely through innovative hardware that couldn't be easily replicated (without doing something like Kinect or Move and fragmenting the market). So, the hardware itself could have features that can't be done on other platforms. Even with streaming on phones as a possibility, the Switch still has obvious advantages over gaming on a phone (detachable players for multiplayer, ability to play with weak or no internet connection). Their next system will have to have compelling features that are not practical with a streaming device.



Until faster than light communications are invented, game streaming is not replacing anything.



I don't get why people want to stream to shitty devices. Why not just buy a gaming console or PC that can actually play the damn game without depending on internet connection.