Square Enix: Consoles To Be Extinct

Square Enix chief Yoichi Wada has been talking to MCV and predicts consoles will be no more. He suggest that the switch to digital is a lot closer than many others think,

“In ten years’ time a lot of what we call ‘console games’ won’t exist,” he said. “Somewhere around 2005 the console manufacturers’ strategy shifted,” he said. “In the past the platform was hardware, but it has switched to the network. A time will come when the hardware isn’t even needed anymore.”

“With that, any kind of terminal becomes a potential platform on which games can be played – that’s exponential growth in the potential of gaming. The potential size of the market is enormous.”

We know that some day everything will be digital but within the next ten years? Perhaps not, I think we will still have games in shops in 2018. A parallel would be the introduction of the MP3 format music which has been ‘mainstream’ for around 5 years now. Although sales of CDs have dropped HMV still sells millions upon millions of shiny discs a year, especially if Susan Boyle is featured.

Source: MCV