The Days of Consoles Are Numbered, Says EA Founder

[damndaewoo]

I majorly dislike the idea of all games being run through a single service. I like the fact that some games suit some platforms better, i.e. I love racing games and personally think they are better on a console (ps3 would be my console of choice) but for my FPS games or the one online game i play (EVE) i prefer my gaming PC.

in my opinion, having one service run all games indiscriminate of what platform they are played on will cut out the parts that make a good game great.


p.s. Congratulations Escapist on making it onto the iGoogle sci/tech news

 

[2fish]

I long for this day.... fuck off console zealots, hello games for all....

Burn the heretic all of the true faith know that our console is the one true console!

I am with the crowd on this one. I don't trust the corporations enough to figure they will support my favorite games for as long as I want to play them. I would fear that they would kill my games servers for some new game I wouldn't play.

Also this makes all games into mmo's a subscription fee of you lose it all. I will not pay a subscription fee just to play the game.

 

[Mysnomer]

Game makers will need to be agile in the future.

Yes, how else would they dodge all the rotten vegetables and possible assassinations attempts that would come from such an approach to videogame marketing.

 

[Necator15]

They keep talking about services instead of product. You know what I'd like my video games to remain a product. This reason being that I enjoy "owning" the product instead of paying for a service. That sounds like a way for them to charge more for less

Well, seeing as how it's coming from the mouth of EA's founder, somehow this doesn't surprise me.

Like it or not, games industry, what you sell is a product, not a service. It should never be considered a service.

 

[Tarakos]

You know what, I'm getting tired of hearing this. These companies want cloud-based gaming because that trumps the used market and pirating. They WANT consoles to die, because that's what is good for business. No matter how many times I'm told that consoles' days are numbered, I know for a fact consoles are gonna be around for a very long time, as will the used game market.

 

[BNguyen]

While multiplayer games might be the rage for a large crowd, not everyone enjoys them or wants what they paid good money for to be taken away.
I want to keep my games in a physical form so I know the company can't charge me again if I wanted to play them again. Games are not and never will be a service. Developers want their games to reach the public and not be limited, otherwise, there goes good money and potential business.

Besides, when I hear 'cloud-gaming' I envision millions of gamers online at once, all have paid to play a number of games. Then, the service or power goes out and thus there goes the rental. After power returns, say hello to several million pissed off gamers EA.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Besides, when I hear 'cloud-gaming' I envision millions of gamers online at once, all have paid to play a number of games. Then, the service or power goes out and thus there goes the rental. After power returns, say hello to several million pissed off gamers EA.

Launch days for new titles from popular franchises will almost certainly fuck things up. You think services will really have the system capacity and service redundancy for when their usual server loads quadruple for Battlefield of Honor: Modern Warcraft 2 - Electric Boogaloo has a worldwide release? Shit will fall down, go splat.

 

[JeanLuc761]

See, I pay to purchase my games, not to rent them for some indeterminate amount of time dictated by somebody's willingness to continue shelling out for a server.

Basically this.

I know there's a point coming where all forms of media will be pay-per-use unless we fight back against it. I want to OWN my games, not pay every time I want to use the fuckin thing.

 

[Lunar Templar]

No one cares about cloud gaming. People want to own their games and play them regardless of internet connection. And they don't want to pay monthly just to be able to play games that they already own. Which is why OnLive will fail.

while i know nothing of onlive >.> ^this^ i like OWNING my games thanks, downloading to a hard drive, pyshical disk/cart what ever, so long is its playable should i not have internet

 

[Baldr]

People keep clamoring about wanting physical copies. Well the fact is that most gamers don't care or Gamestop and others would be making 75% in profit from resales. Resale is one of the largest problems cutting into the profits of publishers: The answer is to treat games like services.

 

[RedBeta22]

Isnt he the guy who created the 3DO?

 

[Nova5]

Yeah, the days of the console are numbered... In some theoretical future where Cloud services aren't shit, everyone has a 30Mb/s internet connection, and we've all agreed on a single, universal method of getting the experience to homes. Can anyone say "pipe dream?"

 

[ItsAPaul]

Haven't needed a console to play anything in quite a while (and pc versions are always better anyway) so I can see what he's saying. Didn't microsoft or sony mention something off-hand about getting out of the hardware business?

 

[oktalist]

I'm having a hard time taking seriously anyone whose name is Trip.

Seriously, though, NO. This is not going to happen, no matter how much some corporate exec wants it to. They are ignoring the importance of competition in the capitalist system.

 

[Eldarion]

I long for this day.... fuck off console zealots, hello games for all....

Hello games for no one. Cause if the digital distribution servers go down, you lose all your games. No thanks, I'm gonna continue owning my physical copy.

 

[RowdyRodimus]

People keep clamoring about wanting physical copies. Well the fact is that most gamers don't care or Gamestop and others would be making 75% in profit from resales. Resale is one of the largest problems cutting into the profits of publishers: The answer is to treat games like services.

Boo fucking hoo for the publishers. Every used game was once bought new, it doesn't cut out their sales if someone trades or sells something they have already bought. Are the publishers entitled to my money just because they paid a developer to make a game? Should we bow before them as we make out a monthly check to them in tribute or do they want us to grovel?

Should all comic shops that sell back issues be forced to stop so Marvel and DC can sell more trades?

Gaming is a business, and it's one of the few that can get away with treating its customers like shit because people have this romanticized idea that there is just three or four people working on a game that are only paid for each unit sold in their spare time while Gamestop works with pirates to figure out how to cut them out of the profits.

The real answer is to give us games we don't ever want to get rid of.

 

[BrownGaijin]

My first initial thought was "Gee first PC's are dying and now consoles are dying? Looks like Apple made it back to the gaming party a little too late. Everyone is too smashed to go on, and most of the alki is gone."

I just think that it's too early to say how successful this concept will be, let alone how long it will take to occur. People are complaining about both PC's and consoles, somehow I doubt that people will perceive this answer to be as good as lemon balls and gumdrops - when it officially comes out.