God of War Creator Says Next Gen Will Be the Last

[Sovereignty]

Eh no.

People were saying for a while a few years ago PC gaming was on the way out. Magically it grew stronger and looks more and more likely to stay while the consoles that people expected to replace them are on their way out.

Does the streaming market make sense? Of course, there is a whole market segment that A) Can't afford high priced consoles and/or hardware and B) Doesn't want to task themselves with the regular upgrades needed to maintain said hardware.

But to assume that means that consoles and gaming rigs are going to go away? HA. It's like the doom-sayers who were so convinced the growing social gaming niche was going to destroy the hardcore gamer market. They run parallel They will always run parallel.

So long as there is money to be made in the hardware and console game, they will be made. Anyone who thinks otherwise is just ignoring basic economics.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Ah, once more, David Jaffe says a thing.

Once more, it's barely news-worthy. Y'know, if you stop listening to what he says, he'll go away, right? I know he makes good games and he's been around for a while but that doesn't make him worth listening to on subjects that aren't his own games.

 

[LazyAza]

I've been deeply entrenched in the future Jaffe speaks of for years. It's simply going to be a matter of not everything I am doing in a game on my PC will be running solely off just my pc anymore. Games like Diablo 3 are a preview of the future really and they will only continue to rely on external server based systems more and more. Everything will be connected and linked to online services and features. Games as stand alone boxed products are a dying old form of design.

We really are headed towards a world where the internet and everything else in our lives are becoming one thing, people fighting this ultimate future really are living in the past in my opinion.

 

[ecoho]

I don't fucking WANT streaming! It's just more of gaming being taken out of my control and leaving me more vulnerable as a consumer.

dont worry consoles will be around for at least 2 more generations(more like 5) because of 3 big things:
1. internet connections arnt good enough to do it.
2. console makers make more money if you have to buy a new system every few years.
3. brick and mortar retail store will cause hell over this, to the point that they can and will sue game companies under current laws.

 

[K4RN4GE911]

People used to say email and bloggers were going to be the death of the post office and newspapers.

Not to sound like a douch, but they are a major threat. Ask my grandmother, she works in one.

As for streaming, I feel that it should be an alternative for gaming, not the main focus. Seriously, the concept of streaming sounds good, but there are just too many things that can go wrong. It's plain ridiculous.

 

[Fasckira]

Ahhh, Jaffe. The lovechild of Romero and Cartman. Im pretty sure hes just out to troll people these days to be honest.

 

[Ishigami]

dont worry consoles will be around for at least 2 more generations(more like 5) because of 3 big things:
1. internet connections arnt good enough to do it.

I'll tend to agree.

2. console makers make more money if you have to buy a new system every few years.

To be honest I rather doubt that. There is only one company that tends to make a shit load of money from the hardware: Nintendo.
Sony and especially Microsoft would be better off the didn't need it.

Look it up but by rule of thumb I think Microsoft all in all still made so far a huge loss with their Xbox and Xbox 360 System, I do even think the home entertainment department is still in the minus and that includes software sales.
Remember the RROD? Repairs and extended warranty did cost Microsoft about 1,1 Billion Dollar. And not only that the system was also sold for a long time with a loss to increase market share.
The original Xbox ended its live cycle with a loss of 4 Billion Dollar!
Microsoft will therefore not make any income from the hardware in the near future.
The same with Sony. The PS3 was sold heavily subsidized to compete with Microsoft. They lost a huge amount of money due to that and only started to remake that money.

That is one of the reason the current generation is holding its breath so long. Microsoft and Sony simply can't afford to do the same thing they did with their Xbox 360 and PS3 at the moment. They need to wait and make more profit with their current systems.

3. brick and mortar retail store will cause hell over this, to the point that they can and will sue game companies under current laws.

While I do think that retailers would cry I doubt that that they would go to court.
Afaik there is no law that would force the publishers to market their games thru retailers.

 

[lapan]

David Jaffe thinks streaming services will be the future.

Stopped reading there. There is latency issues to consider and i doubt that everyone wants to give up ownership of their games completely. Not the entire world has internet connections good enough to have a lagfree connection to a server at all times. If there is already that big of an outrage about D3, imagine how big it will be if every developer wants to change to streaming which will be a step worse.

 

[Sylveria]

I don't fucking WANT streaming! It's just more part of gaming being taken out of my control.

I think digital distribution and PC gaming will remain though - since streaming is just streaming games from a high end PC. Just the consoles will disappear, and hard copies of games. Whether that's good or not... *shrug*

I've said this before in other places, but every time I check my Amazon wishlist, which consists of well over 100 games I plan to purchase over the next few years, I know I will have enough fully functional physical copies of games in my back log to last the next 20 years by the time physical distribution dies out. Enjoy the future folks.. and your $100 rentals.

Not to mention that even in 1st world countries we are a LONG way away from the "average" gamer having an internet program that can accommodate the idea of streaming games and not completely shatter their bandwidth limits in a matter of days or having $200+ a month internet service programs. Oh.. and we still haven't created zero-latency internet gaming.. try playing stuff like God Of War 12 with lag time.

Also, am I the only one that already is sick of God of War Ascension? The game wont be out for 9months and I'm already getting pissed off at all the advertising.

 

[veloper]

Since no amount of bandwidth will ever fix the latency problems, so for the forseable future streaming will always be much inferior to a cheap local box doing most of the work.
Streaming cannot display the player's movement in real-time and also cannot do extrapolation on the other players' timestamped positions.

Internet is laggy. Consumer hardware is very cheap by virtue of mass production.
Only DRM could be a reason for publishers to consider streaming, but going just the MMO-lite/like route, like Diablo 3, offers them the same amount of DRM and control, without the expense of massive server farms and many more lines.

 

[SonicWaffle]

Heres the thing..hard copies will always be in demand...thing is what if a perosn who buys streaming exclive games has a crash and loses all his or her data...what if there is a hackvist attack...No I don't see consoles going away anytime soon. People used to say email and bloggers were going to be the death of the post office and newspapers.

When was the last time you bought a newspaper?

This morning. Wasn't alone either, the place I buy my daily newspaper is usually busy of a morning and you're still more likely to see someone reading the paper in a pub or on the bus than reading news on a phone or tablet, due to the internet not being magically perfect and unable to drop out.

Of course, when you ask a question like this on an online news website, you're not exactly getting a representative sample. Physical media aren't as strong as they once were but there are still a fuckton of people buying newspapers and magazines.

 

[Fireprufe15]

Yeah right. That can't happen until the entire world has cheap and fast internet. My country is only going to have 40 meg lines by 2015, and that isn't anything more than a definite maybe from the service providers. Right now I pay more for 1 Mbps internet than any American pays for a 10 meg line. Besides, if there were no consoles, and your internet is down, you're screwed.

I'm sure this will happen in the future, but 10 years is perhaps a little ambitious. Also, his statement is actually redundant, because if games go over to streaming completely, that will be a generation. The thing that puts the streamed game on your screen still is a console. When that launches, I can guarantee this same guy or someone like him will also say it will be the last generation, you know, until a better technology is developed that will warrant a new next generation. Heck, by generation 20 people will still be saying that.

 

[VincentX3]

Of course I'm going to believe a man that has a retarded picture and says in "10 years just so he wont sound like an idiot".

/sarcasm

 

[ecoho]

dont worry consoles will be around for at least 2 more generations(more like 5) because of 3 big things:
1. internet connections arnt good enough to do it.

I'll tend to agree.

2. console makers make more money if you have to buy a new system every few years.

To be honest I rather doubt that. There is only one company that tends to make a shit load of money from the hardware: Nintendo.
Sony and especially Microsoft would be better off the didn't need it.

Look it up but by rule of thumb I think Microsoft all in all still made so far a huge loss with their Xbox and Xbox 360 System, I do even think the home entertainment department is still in the minus and that includes software sales.
Remember the RROD? Repairs and extended warranty did cost Microsoft about 1,1 Billion Dollar. And not only that the system was also sold for a long time with a loss to increase market share.
The original Xbox ended its live cycle with a loss of 4 Billion Dollar!
Microsoft will therefore not make any income from the hardware in the near future.
The same with Sony. The PS3 was sold heavily subsidized to compete with Microsoft. They lost a huge amount of money due to that and only started to remake that money.

That is one of the reason the current generation is holding its breath so long. Microsoft and Sony simply can't afford to do the same thing they did with their Xbox 360 and PS3 at the moment. They need to wait and make more profit with their current systems.

3. brick and mortar retail store will cause hell over this, to the point that they can and will sue game companies under current laws.

While I do think that retailers would cry I doubt that that they would go to court.
Afaik there is no law that would force the publishers to market their games thru retailers.

ok ill conseed point 2 to you as i dont know too much on that subject, but on point three you are wrong. Stores like gamestop,EB games,ECT. can claim that this forms a Trust which is illegal by US federal law (and im pretty sure laws in other countries)and as such the console makes IE playstation,MS,and nintendo would be forced to enter a protracted legal battle that while WRONG and I stress WRONG would last years and would prevent the sell or use of said systems.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Christ this David Jaffe guy sounds like a massive douche, swearing every second sentence. Lucky I don't even like God of War because knowing this guy created it would probably make me disown the series forever.

 

[JasonKaotic]

If solid copies of games stop being made, and everything is streaming and digital distribution, it's safe to say I'll stop playing games. I'm not falling into the PC gamers' pit of things I bought with my own money still being owned by the seller, and being told how to use what should be my property and being stopped from using it if I try to play it in a certain way, etc. Even if it doesn't go that far, I just like having solid copies of things that I feel like I own. It doesn't feel anywhere near as fulfilling to have a game when it's just data on a hard drive. Plus hard drives have storage space limits.

 

[ecoho]

ok ill conseed point 2 to you as i dont know too much on that subject, but on point three you are wrong. Stores like gamestop,EB games,ECT. can claim that this forms a Trust which is illegal by US federal law (and im pretty sure laws in other countries)and as such the console makes IE playstation,MS,and nintendo would be forced to enter a protracted legal battle that while WRONG and I stress WRONG would last years and would prevent the sell or use of said systems.

They'll be able to ***** and wine all they want, but the law wouldn't give them anything.
They're not removing Gamestop's business. Old games will still be there, just as well as old consoles. There are no laws that say a product must be readily available in all stores. Gamestop can claim that it's hurting their business all the way to the home, but the courts will just say, "Why is it their problem? You never helped them in the past; why should they be helping you?"
Anti-competitive laws are funny and extremely stupid at some points. They're what keep one gas station from selling gas at 2.50 a gallon while the others have to sell at 4.50. But they can't prevent a company from not providing a product that can be sold in all stores.
It would never even get a court date, because Microsoft and Sony wouldn't actively be hurting the store, or the consumer. Businesses and services have come and gone for years. It will be Gamestop responsibility, and theirs alone, to keep them going with the changes in technology. If Gamestop starts going under, at best they'll get a minor bail out.

ok first off switching to just streaming games would hurt gamestop to the number of about 30%. now while thats not a fatal blow its a big enough one that they would have grounds to sue and while they would most likely lose, it would cripple any attempt to sell any system that used streaming contant as the way of playing games. As to why this would be considered a trust, well they would own the makeing, selling,and distrabution of all console contant. What makes them strong would hurt them in this as they are all connected under the same legal banner. i know its stupid but it is the truth.