This is the end? My Only Friend? The End?
Truely spoken like a CEO who's getting his company's shares traded on the idea of "Games as a Service".
The tech really isn't there yet. And I doubt it will be there after the next generation. Maybe 2 generations down the lne, also after we've had a standards war on streaming protocols, hardware commnications protocols etc. Without that war, we probably won't see "a reduction in hardware" as proprietary equipment will require dedicated hardware still.
Technology-wise, I'd say this is as big a subject as VR is. And people only have been trying to get that off the ground for 25 years now...
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Anyone who believes that has their head in the clouds.
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As long as even some first-world countries (especially looking at my country Germany) keep being as "fast" as they are in building an Internet infrastructure that's capable of this, it will take much longer until this is possible.
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Nothing will replace PC gaming. Long live the Mustard Race!
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I think that the "it will take long, didn't worry" is a wrong approach here. Seeing our opinions, we mostly agree that they're trying to push this kind of practices. And it is a coordinated attack. Mix this, with the SOPA/PIPA affair, and the end of net neutrality, and you have a grim future prospect.
We have to be informed, and make a stand against this with our money, with our votes. They are looking for the next best method to increase their income, and we giving away freedom, money and access to our own stuff; in exchange for instant entertainment and convenience.
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Can't really say if it'll happen or not, but... If/When the day comes my only option is streaming games, there better be some damn amazing internet connections for a good price, or I won't be playing new games.
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we will see less and less hardware
saw less hardware in movies/series/tv content. not that much as per pc/gaming. this reminds me a little the "chromebook": google thought (years ago) that a browser is more than enough, so de-clutter everything and 1 pc = 1 browser.
so (for me too) this is marketing. can be fascinating yes, but it's too soon and have big doubts i'll ever see something happen...
also, i think no revolution will ever come (in gaming) from who's already there: not Ubisoft nor Steam. it might be a completely new subject (very smaller compared to present competitor giants)
ok time to launch my new awesome steam chat!
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Cloud gaming will replace consoles after the next generation
So, sometime after 2364 then. I'm ok with that.
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it certainly feels like playing a very nice 1993 doom ^^
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No worries, there always be old school and classic games to play! :3
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Yes, but it is sad that we can't know for sure if there is going to be "new" old school.
Imagine that you were a kid that grow up playing vanilla WoW, Darkspore and City of Heroes. You will not be able to play your childhood games ever again. Literally.
And we are talking of games that aren't older than a decade or two. I can still play my Commodore 64 games, on my real machine and an emulator. And that's old. Like more than three decades old.
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I just played some Brutal Doom, I like it and it has been regularly updated like other modifications and also some engines those old school games run on. In any case for me classic and old school games don't lose any value or interest, they are that good. ^^
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Yes. No one will take us our Doom. But I seriously doubt that my friends child could play his online only FPS twenty five years in the future.
Well, he probably could still play Doom then.
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He could, most probably as the servers of that online only FPS would have been closed for lack of funds and\or activity after 5 years, maybe less. ^^
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If you can force higher latency on the Korean Starcraft e-sport scene with professional, televised matches from 1999 onwards, you can certainly force it on the average gamer.
translation:
if you can feed trash to gamers, they will eventually give up and love it.
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Coming from the guy who almost lost his company to a takeover, I'd take that with a grain of salt.
Also it's not like "gaming" is only made of AAA titles.
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I'm not sure how almost losing his company has any bearing on this.
As for AAA, I'm not sure what that has got to do with anything. Streaming will likely have all console games available, AAA or otherwise.
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I'm not sure how almost losing his company has any bearing on this.
What this guys thinks is happening and what is actually happening aren't exactly the same thing to say the least.
Regarding the whole AAA thing, what I wanted to say was that even if Ubisoft, EA, Sony, Nintendo and whatever would shift all their production towards cloud gaming, it doesn't mean it would become the only way to play videogames. Retrogaming would still exist, indies would still publish downloadable games (particularly on mobile), and there would still be means to play videogames outside of consoles even if those became the VCRs they're trying so hard to become.
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I don't think that Guillemot claimed it will be the only way to play. He's basically saying that people want to play their games on all their devices, without having to have specific hardware for that, and that's something that streaming will provide, and therefore a reasonable way to move forward, especially considering that services of this sort already exist.
I do think he's optimistic regarding the time frame (5 years, according to a Q&A I saw), but considering that Sony already has PS Now and Microsoft is expected to introduce a streaming based console in the next gen (probably 2020), it does seem like the console industry is moving in that direction.
Frankly after experiencing Netflix and other streaming services, I think it's a natural way to go. I have a large DVD library (and some VCRs I can't watch and some Blu-rays) and the idea of paying a sub for temporary access to media wasn't something I really wanted, but once I tried it, I found that having a huge library of content at my fingertips is very alluring.
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I don't think there's anything wrong with streaming in itself as long as it's stable (although I'll always favor downloading videos over streaming, but that's because I have terrible internet that's about as stable as a two-footed stool). It's just a different way to access the media. But it's always good to have alternatives to whatever fad has the favor of the industry.
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Also, much of the US still can't easily stream 1080p--and that is just video download, not including the requisite data back up to the server
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Cloud gaming is the future. Countries with great broadband welcome's it.
I'd gladly pay a monthly fee to be able to play games on Ultra, without having to keep buying expensive hardware.
They could set this up in Sweden yesterday.. and make it work. (I pay about 35$/month for my 250/100Mbit Broadband. Problem is, the rest of the world is behind. So a working business model is not likely to appear for many years to come.
But... Bring it on 👍
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Ubisoft and Cloud gaming? You mean being on cloud physically or servers with games?
UBISOFT+CLOUD=bigga fail i think. Just remember uplay start :)
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I guess I'd finish playing existing games and then finally give up games altogether, so in a way this would be welcome since I don't see myself stopping playing on my own.
Then again there's already enough games that I would die of old age first so, whatever.
In any case, this is not something I am willing to even try.
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You cannot stream something that requires real-time interaction. With 30-60ms delay... turn-based games? Sure. RTS? Maybe. FPS? Ew no. Platformers? No way!
Slow-paced games can be streamed, but these kinds of games usually have lower graphics requirements. Fast-paced games are those where resources are critical but real time interaction is critical as well. Thus, I cannot see cloud gaming being relevant in mainstream gaming.
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As Ross said in the video, I was also one of those that thought that FPSs on a gamepad will never be a thing. I still think is slow, cumbersome and clunky as hell. But people seems to have accepted it, and I found people that even defend it. So no doubt, they'll find a workaround and people will accept it anyway. As they accepted every other awful thing this industry have shove us up our throats. If is convienient ENOUGH, will catch. And thats terribly sad.
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FPSs/TPSs were ported on consoles as soon as they were born, thus we can say they have been there all the time. Wolfenstein 3D (arguably the first "modern" FPS) was ported on the SNES shortly after it was completed.
They are slow and sluggish (I raged when playing The Last of Us, 90% of the time difficulty came from struggling with the controls rather than from game elements ,enemies etc). I've refrained from buying any such games for consoles. I know some people do play them and got used to controllers, but there's still the other option: play on PC.
This is why I don't think streaming will replace PC and consoles. There will always be market for locally installable games.
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I have played console FPS/TPS games back on OnLive. It felt slightly laggy, but not much, did not hinder my gameplay. I assume a standard MP match has more lag. And this was several years ago.
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It depends A LOT on your connection. 80ms of network lag is high but still somewhat manageable (can be mitigated with some decent netcode). 80ms of input lag will probably turn any sane person into a serial killer. If you live close to the servers and have a good connection, it should be fine, but if you're unlucky...
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A) Yes, at one point if there won't be any other possibility than play by streaming or not to play at all - for sure they will be able to force that on players, but this technology will have very hard time to compare with - in this context let's call it - classic gaming. To this day people lower their graphics and dumb visual effects down to gain additional FPS in competitive games, if they believe those people will accept lags because they will be able to play with top graphics.... you basicly have to change completly the way people think and behave - that will take years, many years. It's doable, I even believe it's actually future technology for sure. But for now, it's just purely believe that whole gaming industry will hold each other hands as one and move that step forward together - that's never gonna happen.
I think a stream gaming is a good concept, it truly feels like a step forward, but when they companies will focus on forcing that technology on us than let us, the gamers, the industry slowly addapt to the concept instead of use PR-suicide words like - I will force it on you, on you all - then in next 2 decades it might become the standard. People are stubborn, gamers are probably even more stubborn than average people, tell then openly you will try to force something on them and you might be suprised how many enemies you just made.
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No, it is not the end of gaming as we know it any more than computers were the end of paper. Have you abandoned the idea of ever upgrading your PC again because the GeForce Now beta is so awesome?
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Too many people like OWNING physical copies. More so console gamers. Sure you might see a trend toward more digital but "cloud"? Look, cloud game sucks ass. I could see gaming moving to 100% digital. Cloud based is way way off.
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In this times, physical not always equals owning that stuff. You can have a physical copy of Diablo 3 for PC, you still can't play it without an internet connection. A lot of people complained about PS4 at launch. They had the console and the games, and couldn't activate the thing. I can play multiplayer with all of my old games, If I want to. You can't play any original Xbox game multiplayer on the original console, even if you own the physical stuff (only local coop, live services were shutted down). They are already killing systems, they're already killing games.
Damn I had to pirate a copy of Outrun 2006 to play it. My disc was unreadable, and couldn't find another copy here in Argentina. I gladly would pay for a steam copy if that was legally available. So it is happening.
Will be even worse?
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not gaming in General, but consoles will move in that direction
the next console generateion (PS5/XBox Two) will propably be last one with discs for games and it will be more of a game streaming plattform
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The better headline would be: "Is cloud gaming the next VR?"
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Clickbait title I know. But for me this stuff is real Nightmare Fuel
Ubisoft CEO: Cloud gaming will replace consoles after the next generation
"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 said in a recent interview with Variety. "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."
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2018/06/ubisoft-ceo-cloud-gaming-will-replace-consoles-after-the-next-generation/
Please see this video also, to advance the discussion. It is long, but everything pointed there is totally valid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS9vvF1V1Dc
One of the critics on the streaming thingy is that players will never tolerate the lag, so there is nothing to worry about. I want to add this comment from the video. I think that hits the nail right on the head:
Gamers will accept higher latency if it's forced on them, so streaming has no trouble on that front. I still remember how every single e-sport organization complained about Starcraft 2 not having multiplayer via LAN during beta and launch (2010). Latency from playing on a server is very noticeable for professional RTS players and major Starcraft BroodWar tournaments in Korea had used LAN for a decade, but Starcraft 2 still released with no LAN for piracy concerns. Players and organizations kept asking for LAN for the first few years, but eventually adapted and accepted the inferior product around the first expansion in 2013.
If you can force higher latency on the Korean Starcraft e-sport scene with professional, televised matches from 1999 onwards, you can certainly force it on the average gamer.
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