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The PlayStation 5 will be the last console ever produced.

local hardware will be still superior.
Not superior enough for average joe to care.

Microsoft and Sony are both targeting emerging markets like India and South America as they have the largest growth opportunities. There’s no chance they completely concede Australia and America, large swathes of which have shit infrastructure.
My claim is that most urban areas around the world will have access to good internet within the next 5 years. Starlink (and competitors) will disrupt the market. 5G will be everywhere. Urbanization will keep increasing.
 

whyman

Member
This underestimates how long it will take for streaming to be mainstream. I think. Internet access is not the problem. It's to change people's habits.
 

NeoGiffer

Member
Elon will save us, though.

tumblr_oz2e4ymrVQ1v057hno1_400.gifv
 

UnNamed

Banned
Nah.
Even if streaming games will be normal at the end of this gen, a certain group of people would still prefer physical consoles. Like now, where the majority of people choose the disk version over the diskless PS5 despite the huge digital market.
 

pratyush

Member
Consoles will always be around but they will no longer be relevant (IMO they are already getting pretty irrelevant)

If the move to cloud gaming was happening twenty years ago I'd be having a fit but now? modern games are mostly meh microwavable/disposable experiences so whatever

Yeah we just had a generation with combined total more than 150m ( not even accounting Switch sales) sold shows it is getting irrelevant.

And not to mention how nobody can buy the next gen console because of its insane demand shows it is so irrelevant.

Cloud gaming will take decades. People living in big cities think it's around the corner. Try going out once in a while and access internet around even in developed countries let alone developing ones.
 
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ShirAhava

Plays with kids toys, in the adult gaming world
Yeah we just had a generation with combined total more than 150m ( not even accounting Switch sales) sold shows it is getting irrelevant.

And not to mention how nobody can buy the next gen console because of its insane demand shows it is so irrelevant.

Cloud gaming will take decades. People living in big cities think it's around the corner. Try going out once in a while and access internet around even in developed countries let alone developing ones.
People are stupid and buy wherever is pushed on them by corporations that means nothing sales has nothing to do with my point

They are irrelevant in terms of the necessity for gaming you don't need a console anymore to play games they are a choice now choices are good

Cloud gaming is five years from being perfected it will be the norm
In the near future people are either going to be mega wealthy or dirt poor the people who can't get good internet will also be irrelevant
 
I will never understand why people are so eager for the inferior gaming experience.
Gamers are not eager for a lesser gaming experience. Corporations are eager to change expectations through marketing and influencers to make you accept less for more/same. While Corps and their media slaves have a say, as consumers, and hardcore gamers you all ultimately decide a lot by choosing which company/business model to support. Just make the "right" choice.
 
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A special box thats used primary for gaming, will exist. Stadia is exactly this, you can stream in chrome, in androd, but stadia is the special box designed for this. Consoles may chance alot, but will exist in a stream world. Maybe Sony and Playstation dont have the infra for this yet, but playstation is still a big brand, and maybe someone bigger can buy it. But you can easy expect a playstation stream box, maybe not from sony, maybe not after ps5, but when stream becomes standard, it will exist.
 

UltimaKilo

Gold Member
As someone who is almost full streaming with ShadowPC, GeForceNow and PSNOW... stop it. It’s the same shit every generation. Infrastructure is not there, not in the US/Europe and not in emerging markets.

We can have this discussion in 2031, once the PS6 is near it’s lifetime.
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
As someone who is almost full streaming with ShadowPC, GeForceNow and PSNOW... stop it. It’s the same shit every generation. Infrastructure is not there, not in the US/Europe and not in emerging markets.

We can have this discussion in 2031, once the PS6 is near it’s lifetime.
Things are advancing rapidly and you don't even recognize it.. The infrastructure might not be there now, but in the next 2-3 years, WATCH OUT
 

Rubik8

Member
Streaming is going to have to get A WHOLE LOT better to ever be a replacement for local hardware. And unless they are going to massively increase number of data centers or break the speed of light, I’m sticking with consoles.
 

REDRZA MWS

Member
Interesting article.

Sony may win the console battle with Microsoft but it may very well lose the war. Even Microsoft seems to acknowledge they are looking to compete with Google and Amazon and Sony isn't even their concern anymore.

Microsoft has the infrastructure and know how to potentially dominate Sony over Cloud gaming. I like being able to stream games myself. Will PlayStation exclusives be enough?

https://www.ccn.com/the-ps5-could-be-sonys-last-gaming-console-ever/
It has nothing to do with Sony exclusives. Streaming games will never have the responsiveness of actually playing on dedicated hardware.
 
Streaming is going to have to get A WHOLE LOT better to ever be a replacement for local hardware. And unless they are going to massively increase number of data centers or break the speed of light, I’m sticking with consoles.

Speed of light? You play on console bud. Aren't you used to 30fps dogshit performance? Let's not pretend it's not that hard to beat with cloud gaming.

I'll be using hardware for a long time to come too but considering how long console cycles are I can see people living in urban areas getting better performance on cloud gaming in 5 years that PS5 etc.
 
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Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Things are advancing rapidly and you don't even recognize it.. The infrastructure might not be there now, but in the next 2-3 years, WATCH OUT
Sure... they always say that and then when traffic increases, people staying home due to COVID, even the big established multi billion media providers have to cut the video and audio bitrate 😂.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
Speed of light? You play on console bud. Aren't you used to 30fps dogshit performance? Let's not pretend it's not that hard to beat with cloud gaming.

I'll be using hardware for a long time to come too but considering how long console cycles are I can see people living in urban areas getting better performance on cloud gaming in 5 years that PS5 etc.
Enjoy 60-120 FPS games with cloud latency I guess ;). Sure, in some areas for some people the stars will align just right, but like 5G there is tons of hype that writes checks the industry’s ass cannot cash so to speak.
 

assurdum

Banned
Interesting article.

Sony may win the console battle with Microsoft but it may very well lose the war. Even Microsoft seems to acknowledge they are looking to compete with Google and Amazon and Sony isn't even their concern anymore.

Microsoft has the infrastructure and know how to potentially dominate Sony over Cloud gaming. I like being able to stream games myself. Will PlayStation exclusives be enough?

https://www.ccn.com/the-ps5-could-be-sonys-last-gaming-console-ever/
What exactly is interesting? CCN is not new to the doom and gloom about the playstation brand. First or later they will be right, until they continue to repeat this routine at every generation. It's not like the playstation brand is immortal.
 

Clarissa

Banned
This was what my friend who is a Nintendo fanboy was saying months ago. When Stadia was first announced, he was hoping for Stadia to destroy Sony but it didn't.

Now he's banking on Nintendo and Microsoft to combine their powers to destroy Sony so they have to sell buildings to stay afloat. He wants Microsoft to buy out as many developers and publishers as possible but leave Capcom out as he wants Monster Hunter on the switch.

He's telling everyone to get an Xbox Series X and sub to Gamepass ultimate instead of getting a ps5.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
I wonder if the revenues generated by cloud gaming are enough to make up for the necessary multi-billion dollar investments in building the infrastucture. I suspect most big players are dipping their toes into the water in order not to be left out, but Sony and MS would rather stick to the current paradigm. Much less financial risk involved.


See https://polystream.com/cloud-gaming-and-mystery-of-the-bad-business-cases-400-billion-bad/ for an interesting take on cloud gaming.

Cloud gaming is clearly having another moment – between Google Stadia, xCloud, GeForceNOW, and Facebook buying Playgiga there’s a lot of action going around. As you would expect, a lot of writing on the subject too, and a lot of discussion in the industry. It’s a hot topic.

I spend a lot of time with customers, partners and investors and I’m increasingly struck by how rarely the business case for how anyone will actually make this activity payout in the long run. How is this all going to be paid for, and who’s buying?

It%E2%80%99s-one-of-those_-%E2%80%98it%E2%80%99s-so-big-I-didn%E2%80%99t-step-back-far-enough-to-see-it%E2%80%99-problems.-1.png

Is anyone actually asking “How does cloud gaming actually make money?”

Because the answer is absolutely not: ‘same way as games do now’. You see, cloud gaming requires infrastructure in a way that I think most onlookers don’t grasp.

Unlike the value chain of the industry now, the more people play, the more it costs. There’s an inherent 1:1 relationship between required resources and the number of players that will always break the economies of scale that the games industry is built on.
 

Rikkori

Member
The infrastructure for proper cloud gaming en masse is decade+ away. Nvidia can't even get fucking 2060 rigs to people and they still have to queue even as founders. Stadia is better on availability (cause it's empty lol) but worse on quality. And of course xbox/psnow are the worst on quality and are limited in regions.

It's gonna be 1000x harder for any of these companies to overcome such challenges than it would be for Sony to design a new console. Tho I don't think they're competing markets anyway, rather complementary.
 

M1chl

Currently Gif and Meme Champion
Nah even MS said that it won't be the last and since now the piracy is pretty much gone, why would you not make another devices? Does not make sense.
 

Matt_Fox

Member
I certainly believe this gen is the last for physical discs, and I think it could be the last gen for physical consoles too. Come 2027 or 2028 I expect streaming (the long-mooted Netflix of gaming) may be so completely reliable and instantaneous that the notion of actually having to download a full game would seem like a major inconvenience.

A Smart TV and a gamepad (and Sony would be well placed to throw in a free 6 month subscription with their Bravia's) would be all you need. No more console, no more wires, no more plastic game boxes cluttering up the place.

I know that's an unpopular opinion but 7 or 8 years is a long time in tech, don't underestimate the pace of change.
 

Zog

Banned
This is the last console generation! It's true this time I tell ya!

Why just look at the low sales of the PS5, they are practically giving them away!

/s
 
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TonyK

Member
I read this statement each generation. It's amazing how anybody can write anything and it has the status of news. And paid for! I want to be journalist!
 

German Hops

GAF's Nicest Lunch Thief
. Nvidia can't even get fucking 2060 rigs to people and they still have to queue even as founders.
Nvidia has to deal with new wafers, though. This problem will practically solve itself within the next 12-18 months.

Developments are moving incredibly fast; just look at how fast we got the covid miRNA vaccines.
 

yurinka

Member
Bullshit.

PS4, Switch and PS5 achieved several all time gaming history records and are on track to achieve several more. There will be PS6 and Switch succesors.

Cloud gaming is still a very small market and even if this generation will grow, it will continue to be a small market compared to consoles in approx. 5-7 years once PS6 gets released (and obviously in a few years once the Switch succesor gets released). There are many countries and areas with shitty internet connections, with decent ones too expensive for many people, or even data caps. And 5G won't fix it because 4G area coverage is still small if we look at the global scale outside the big cities, so 5G support won't be an alternative.

And well, server costs are super high for game streaming and it's key to have a server close to your home to have a good game streaming experience, so they can't allow to have data centers everywhere across the world. Even if you live in USA or Europe, many people won't even have a data center on their country/state.

And Sony not only dominates Microsoft on selling consoles and games. Sony also dominates them in game subscription market with PS Plus and in game streaming with PS Now, both in terms of users and revenue. MS may continue shifting their focus away from their console, but the console market will continue there, and will growing as grown all these years were some people who have no idea said consoles were going to die since more than a decade ago.
 
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I certainly believe this gen is the last for physical discs, and I think it could be the last gen for physical consoles too. Come 2027 or 2028 I expect streaming (the long-mooted Netflix of gaming) may be so completely reliable and instantaneous that the notion of actually having to download a full game would seem like a major inconvenience.

A Smart TV and a gamepad (and Sony would be well placed to throw in a free 6 month subscription with their Bravia's) would be all you need. No more console, no more wires, no more plastic game boxes cluttering up the place.

I know that's an unpopular opinion but 7 or 8 years is a long time in tech, don't underestimate the pace of change.
Yep, convenience sells. Netflix might have an awful bitrate compared to a Bluray, but 98% of people simply don't care. Same is gonna be true for cloud gaming.
 

Kenpachii

Member
PS6 will arrive for the simple fact that the demand of the PS5 is there. Sony will have to utterly fail a generation to the point of no return and that won't happen when demand is there.
 
Even if you take the view that streaming is the future (which not even MS think it is solely the future - Phil Spencer has given several interviews where he explains his thoughts - basically more of a hybrid future), Sony have been in the game streaming business longer than MS have thanks to their purchase of Gaikai in 2012 and the running of PS Now since since 2014. Sure they have no where near taken any advantage from that (much to my annoyance - they should be so far ahead by now) - but they are there!
 
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Valkyria

Banned
Man, I love how even if that futures comes, this journalist always forgets that the pioneer on streaming gaming is Sony. They already have a comercial product for streaming, that is multiplatform. If the time comes be sure they will fire all their pistons to be there and continue in the market.
 

Unknown?

Member
us Californians must be very fortunate then
Lol, wut... I'm in California and have a data cap. Also very crappy upload speeds.

Back to topic, these articles about some mythical Microsoft getting their shit together and winning are the new consoles are dying bs. Absolutely no evidence of these claims.
 
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