Square Enix: Consoles To Be Extinct
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Article written by Tuffcub in PS3 News, Xbox 360 News, on Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 14:00.
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
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
Shadow106 | 26/11/2009 14:03
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63 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I can see his point, OnLive looks like a good service if it works as well as they claim in the real world with real net speeds. I don’t think it’s that close though personally, alot of people like to have a tactile link to their purchases and that won’t go away quickly.
Aitrus | 26/11/2009 14:05
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1253 TSA Points | Member since: Sep 2008
Even if you don’t need a console as know them today, you still need some kind of platform to play the game running in the cloud, whether it’s built in to the TV or phone or microwave. And I don’t see those kind of devices penetrating the market within 10 years. Maybe it’s coming, but it’s going to take longer than 10 years.
JustHonour | 26/11/2009 14:49
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215 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
Exactly what I was thinking. Even if the TV’s come pre-enabled to play cloud-games you’d still be required to have a decent net connex. Plus I bet the controllers would be sold separately and require another BlueTooth box connected to the semi-all-singing TV. In fact, I’d bet most consumers would prefer to buy “just a TV”, and then have a choice of purchasing a game-enabling-box at a later date – at which point they would choose which they prefer (PS Air, MS Cloud or Nintendo Whee).
Aitrus | 27/11/2009 08:56
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When the PS3 was released it was slammed for being too pricy. Most could see that to get an Xbox with the same features (HDD, Hd-drive, WiFi etc.) that would be more expensive, but with the Xbox you had a choice.
Based on that I can’t see consumers willing to buy the more expensive ‘built for cloud gaming and lots of other stuff’-TVs just yet. The offerings would have to be solid for me to take the plunge, and even though I bought both the PS2 and PS3 on launch day, I don’t think I’ll be lining up for this.
And Nintendo Whee? LOL!
bajere | 26/11/2009 14:10
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927 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
it will come some day, it will be a sad day as i like my game boxes!
lol
It will be good if we get a choice of where to buy digital games from, ie; a store front from play.com, asda.co.uk, game.co.uk etc, not just PSN (or SOS as it might be called then). like the PSPgo, digital only is good, fast and convenient, but it locks us down to the one provider, not giving any shops the chance to lower prices and fight for our money. the terminal gen might be very pricey generation!
maximiliano | 26/11/2009 14:17
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193 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Oh go f* you Yoichi Wada.
Last good game Square Enix made was FF XII. Your deals with Microsoft have bring down some awesome studios and makers, see where Sakaguchi is today, see? You don’t, he isn’t anywhere good.
And the quality of the games SquareEnix make is going down quick, with they “westernzation” strategy. Tri-Ace got fed up with them and changed to Sega, and changed for good! End of Eternity will be an original and awesome RPG, as the head of Tri-Ace said: A fun game is fun anywhere, its not because you “westernize” it that people overseas are going to buy it.
Hope Tri-ace can recover and make games in the same level of the past, like Valkyrie Profile and such, that where good times for japanese games. (I had like 50 games or more for PS1, and the only non-japan game I had was Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver).
Raen | 26/11/2009 15:05
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Where’s it got him? Well by my reckoning he’s the CEO of probably the third most profitable software publisher (this excludes Nintendo, MS and Sony because I don’t want to figure out how much the publishing only business makes them) that’s currently in better financial shape than Electronic Arts and behind Ubi and Activision Blizzard. Their market value doesn’t really represent that (but then again EA is hugely over-valued right now based on it’s last results and I feel Activision may well be as well), but they’re in a good position.
maximiliano | 26/11/2009 18:22
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193 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Good for him, for gamers? Not so much.
Surely they’re in this position NOT because of “westernzation”, if you can backtrack all their games based on that approach, for what I read, they have not been well received, just see the sales and reviews (not that I care for that in a gaming perspective). You can say that the places they where most successful (PSP and DS), was because of the more tradicional approach RPGs, not because of the “new away”.
maximiliano | 26/11/2009 18:38
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Just to add, look at the games Square made (sounds strange puts the Hironobu profile, but you will see):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hironobu_Sakaguchi
I almost cry reading that, its a list of pure epicness, from FF goodness to Chrono Trigger, Bushido Blade, Ehrgeiz, Einhander, Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Chrono Cross, Vagrant Story, Kingdom Hearts.
In that list you got: RPG, SRPG, Action RPG, Fighting, and even Shmup!
Seriously, can you look at me and all gamers that enjoyed those games – some of greatest games of history of gaming – and say the SquareEnix still as good as that? Or even 50% as good? Oh, please, they’re not.
Raen | 27/11/2009 13:50
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*shrug* If they’re doing that well I’m pretty sure there must be gamers who aren’t you who are enjoying it, and based on the figures I’m betting there’s a lot of them (or there’s one and they managed to flog him a a single game for a couple of billion). SquareEnix aren’t actually a company that hold a place in my heart at all, because I don’t really like RPGs all that much. I enjoyed FFVII but I only played half of it. I think the second disk was scratched and it didn’t really bother me enough to go and get a new copy.
It’s not like they’re even making money by putting out overly expensive titles or yearly sequels in the Activision vein. They must be doing something right to be making that much money.
Radboud | 26/11/2009 14:19
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899 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I think there is a big difference between digital distribution and digital gaming (like in Cloud-gaming or OnLive or such…). I am love my PSPgo with digitial distributed games on it, but it is still a console. Having just a terminal to view the games you are playing without the need for hardware (I see it as you have a screen, keyboard and mouse (or a controller ofcourse) and you plug them into the power-outlet and you are on, sort-a-speak). If that kind of gaming is gonna be the only kind of gaming, than I will quit gaming. I mean, I don’t want to have to get online to play a game…
I like the choice of being online or not….
Radboud | 26/11/2009 14:20
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Uhm…. please excuse my grammar…. :S
rht992 | 26/11/2009 14:20
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2277 TSA Points | Member since: Apr 2009
We are not going to have any radical changes in the next decade. sure there will be some sort of improved music format and the next step up from blue-ray will be here but the industry won’t change its direction. the only new thing that’ll be out will be 3D
rht992 | 26/11/2009 14:20
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and the ps3 will get cross game chat
Charmed_Fanatic | 26/11/2009 14:35
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403 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2009
that will be in 2050, start counting down now!
skibadee | 26/11/2009 15:01
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must say I prefer to have something I can hold.
Tuffcub | 26/11/2009 17:21
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*titter*
scavenga | 26/11/2009 15:18
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I shiver at the thought. Someday you will lose your password, and you’ll lose everything you own with it.
One has to consider ISPs, bandwidth and cost too, the differences are large between different countries. In Sweden 2007, I paid £30 a month for 100 Mbit/s, and then moved (back) to Norway, where I now pay £40 a month for 7 Mbit/s. To get enough bandwidth for such an endeavour as the OnLive thingy, I’d probably end up paying £120 a month. And yes, I mean 10 years from now.
Raen | 26/11/2009 15:27
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You should (in principle) already be ok. OnLive states around 4-5Mbps for HD streaming. We’ve yet to really see how it works in the real world, I haven’t much out of the beta yet. Supposedly it’s going to be commercially available soonish, so we’ll see what real worlds expectations are. They also rate SD at 1.5Mbps, so you should certainly be fine on that count.
Bilbo_bobbins | 26/11/2009 15:52
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I just can’t see this working in the UK for a very LONG time, our broadband network wont be able to cope.
Raen | 26/11/2009 16:06
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Agreed. Hell my line at work just averaged at 4.5.
RadioactiveMouse | 26/11/2009 15:57
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Wow with the download caps that most ISP have introduced this is not likely to go anywhere fast in the UK.
As for speed at my uni it’s currently 0.5 Mbps so no chance for me
skibadee | 26/11/2009 16:06
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1mb if lucky BT still use old copper wiring maybe when they go fibreoptic like VM.
Raen | 26/11/2009 16:32
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I get 4.5 at work and about 3 at home. The UK’s network isn’t great, but it’s not terrible. And you can get quite a lot out of copper. Hell ADSL2+ can get you around 20Mbps, but probably around 14-16 in real world terms. Copper isn’t that bad, just not as good as fibre.
skibadee | 26/11/2009 17:03
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not were I live it isn’t if you live away from the exchange your screwed.
Bladesteel | 26/11/2009 16:09
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When did the meaning of “Digital” change to meaning downloadable or playable over the internet?
Our games are already digital, as in ones and zeros stored somewhere. Heck even music on CDs is digital.
If those are your own words tuffcub then shame on you, if those are MCVs word then shame on them.
Tuffcub | 26/11/2009 17:22
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I should of said “Digital Downloads”. Pendantic git
Damigos | 26/11/2009 16:23
* Banned *
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Susan Boyle….LoL!
legalisemurder | 26/11/2009 16:53
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Sounds like a bunch of cobblers to me.I hate him anyway.Like most people who have expressed an opinion in this post i like to own a game on a disc in a box.You can’t trade in a downloaded game or lend it to a mate or play it if your non-console you’ve downloaded it to breaks.Nice of him to take time out from butchering FF to give us his opinion though.
Raen | 26/11/2009 17:08
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I don’t see cloud gaming as a bad thing. It’s a great replacement to the rental industry, in the same way that I really want to try the PSN video service and maybe phase films out of my LoveFILM rentals. Having any game you want on-demand as a rental is great. Then if I want to buy it I will. They should tie it in the same way LoveFILM and Spotify do and offer a ‘buy it’ link next to the ‘play it’ link. It would be a great service integration and finding the right partner would boost their income a lot.
legalisemurder | 26/11/2009 17:17
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320 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Yeah if you still had the choice fair enough but my experience with a ylod and £50 worth of singstar downloads taught me all i need to know about digital distribution.The PSN/5 downloads is good though.
Tiran Kenja | 26/11/2009 17:48
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209 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
Not exactly a new thought. I think it was Mark Rein from Epic Games who pronounced the same thing about a year ago.
lewis815 | 26/11/2009 18:27
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686 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I completely disagree with this. Yes there has been a massive surge of online activity in the past decade that has lead to this point of digital distribution and yes I believe this will continue to grow.
However, there are still many families who even in ten years will not be able to afford the type of connection that needs good reliable online gaming and downloading, and unless the UK network infrastructure is VASTLY improved this will not be viable as it will majorly slow down internet access in the UK. Also PC gaming may be good for some people but there are many people who do not want to do that because of the upgrading that needs to be done quite regularly to keep up with good quality speed gaming.
Console gaming is here to stay for the next 10-20 years at least I am sure of this.
bunimomike | 26/11/2009 19:43
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3366 TSA Points | Member since: Jul 2009
Good article to discuss, tuffcub. This Square bloke is speaking from a shockingly naive perspective from where I’m sitting. Maybe it’s something to aim for but 10 years? Can’t see that happening.