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Gazing into my crystal ball, I think the next generation of consoles may well be the last. Cloud gaming services like OnLive, which offer games on demand to wha

by vilya 15y ago

Gazing into my crystal ball, I think the next generation of consoles may well be the last. Cloud gaming services like OnLive, which offer games on demand to whatever device you happen to be using, are going to be the ones eating everyone else's lunch. There may still be a (much smaller) market for a dedicated set-top device which connects to these services, but it'll be commoditised. The only way I could see Apple getting involved in this is if they add gaming services to the Apple TV. Which could actually be quite a good fit, now that I think of it.

ebrenes 15y ago
That will happen when web apps will completely replace device-specific apps, and by that I mean that it's one of those predictions I don't think will completely pan out. OnLive will face several challenges that will make a console-solution innately better due to the unavoidable issue of latency. As a gamer what might seem like insignificant amounts of lag can ruin gameplay. If not are the user's actions subjected to lag, but also their display and other calculations this can really be a deal-breaker for many customers. I'm sure there are games for which OnLive is perfectly suited, and in those categories OnLive and its successors will dominate. But I also believe there are categories of gaming for which consoles and dedicated devices will continue to dominate. Much like PC gaming hasn't been wiped off the face of the earth.