Over the years we’ve gotten a lot of great consoles. But we’re noticing a trend where a lot more devices seem to be capable of streaming or having an on-demand service. And one publisher believes this is where the future is heading.
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Speaking with Variety, Ubisoft co-founder and CEO Yves Guillemot believes that the industry has one more round of consoles to go (likely the PlayStation 5 and Xbox “Two”) before it moves to a future where games can be streamed on devices.
“I think we will see another generation, but there is a good chance that step-by-step we will see less and less hardware,” Guillemot explained. “With time, I think streaming will become more accessible to many players and make it not necessary to have big hardware at home.
“There will be one more console generation and then after that, we will be streaming, all of us.”
In a previous interview with Variety, he had noted how accessibility to streaming AAA games could be a huge innovation for the industry as a whole. “”It is going to help the AAA game industry grow much faster,” he explained. “We have to work on the accessibility of those games, to make sure they can be played on any device, but the fact that we will be able to stream those games on mobile phones and television screens without a console is going to change a lot of the industry.”
He noted that developers could use this technology to personify game experiences, with services such as GeForce Now and PlayStation Now being able to replace downloadable or physical games. “There are quite a few people that are working on streaming, like Nvidia,” Guillemot said. “So, we think it’s a trend and that it will continue to evolve. Eventually, the technology will improve dramatically, which will allow us to have a very smooth experience in the big cities of the world.”
That said, it does have a ways to catch up. While PlayStation Now has been effective over the past few years, it hasn’t nearly been as popular as Sony was hoping, nor as successful as Xbox’s Game Pass. That said, there is the possibility that a service like GeForce Now could do something, depending on accessibility.
For now though, we’ll be able to enjoy our consoles and physical or digital video games. But who knows what the future holds?
(Hat tip to Variety for the scoop!)
