Metal Gear Solid Developer: Consoles Are Dying

I would cry when my Internet connection failed.

No it's not "bingo"... sometimes I want to play on xbox360 with a screen that's bigger than 32".

No, it's not on life support.

I see cloud gaming becoming a viable alternative to what we have now, but not replacing it in the near future. If they can pipe all the graphics with low latency then they could charge a monthly access fee for the latest games, but hardware is progressing so fast that they would have to build a game several generations beyond what we have now to entice people, otherwise the would probably prefer to own it and play it at home.

Im not all too convinced about this cloud gaming. I like having my OWN hardware, with ME controlling it. besides, all the technical challanges with cloud computing.. latency, packet loss..etc.

Consoles now work for anybody, A nutless monkey could hook a console up to a TV, and set everything up.

Im a PC gamer though, so my standards are a bit higher than majority of people.

I really don't see cloud computing going anywhere anytime soon. To many challanges as xbeater is saying. Personally, I like having the control over my own hardware. Maybe in the VERY long-term outlook, cloud computing could go somewhere. I just don't see how it could anytime soon.

Aw man, I was hoping he'd say something along the lines of 'PC FTW!!'

He probably want to tell the PC hardware is better.
Old 5-6 year old console where only Xbox360 and PS3 running in 1080p and have a limited 5 year old video card.

It's a bit soon to call the dead of consoles.
When they'll have a sale drop, they'll just make a new one with better hardware and new support like "cloud-base game" or "on demand game"... whatever is need in the future.

So Hideo is just alarmist.

Cloud gaming in the U.S. is definitely out. ISP's are trying to throttle end user bandwidth as it is, not expand it. If we were in South Korea, then yes I would say it has a much more viable chance.

I am actually running on a connection that is roughly twice the national average and it continually pisses me off. I would hate to see those at the national average or below. Welcome to dial up?

Until the Government comes in an whacks a few people amongst the head and shoulders and gets the U.S. on track, we are going to remain in the stone age in terms of internet capability.

No offense but the Czech Republic and Romania are beating us out in terms of average speed.

I am glad to see he is looking toward the future, but I am curious how the economic end of things are going to affect cloud gaming. So far what I have seen proposed is that you pay a monthly access fee and then must still buy or rent the games you want to play. This will be great short term since you aren't buying a 300 dollar console, but stop paying and you stop playing. I often buy games to play "later" so I am currently not interested in cloud gaming at all.

Internet connection speeds in this case are irrelevant. It's all about the latency. Gamers consider wireless mice slow. If that's slow, then sending input information across the internet and getting the results/video sent back across the internet to you would have to be considered glacial.

I like my PC elitism better so thanks but no thanks.

Wow - he is SO stoned in that photo. [insert asian racial epithet here]

Of course developers want cloud based computing. They would be able to charge by the hour for any game, have perfect copy protection, and completely eliminate the resale market.

Luckily, I think moves like this will give indie developers and open source gaming a much needed boost.

Though I think we are indeed behind where we should be on internet speed and deployment, comparing us to small countries like Romania is laughable. We have how many times the landmass and how many more rural residences?

Maybe when our wired connections are in the 10gb/s ports ha.

It seems as if everything will be invisible, as we only have to thing it and it will be done. That will be the end of the controller as well.

I suppose once real time ray tracing is available the need for different formats will dissipate and perhaps then cloud computing can happen.

So in that regard consoles wont last forever... but they will last another 15 years at least.

It seems as if everything will be invisible, as we only have to thing it and it will be done. That will be the end of the controller as well.

as an onlive beta member I think what he says is true, console gaming is fucked in the future. Onlive does have some latency but its barly noticable using a controller, as for the mouse thats a whole nother story. If i was still a kid i would no doubt get onlive over a console, way less money, really decent graphics (720p) instant games, really good interface. Plug and play to the fullest no more buying a new console + controller + accessories ever. It can only get better from here

Sure, consoles will cease to exist someday. Just as someday there will be no differentiation between mac, pc, windows, linux, etc. But this is WAY WAY into the future. Like 25 years or more. I predict the emergence of these little personal projection devices will help to doom consoles.

I have to agree with those talking of our internet connection being the limiting factor in this. For example, while watching a Blu Ray on my PS3 I can watch in realtime the MB/s gauge, and for instance, Watchmen would sometimes peak around 33MB/s. That gives a rough estimate of what a 1080p video stream could require. So even my Fios 20Mb connection is not even close to that at the moment. The cloud gaming service I have heard of will be streaming in 720p, so a little less bandwidth intensive. I also agree with those saying they enjoy building their own machines with the hardware of their choice. For alot of us that come to this website, we are enthusiasts and hardware/building PC's is our hobby. It's what we enjoy doing. But on the flip side of this, there are many many more people without the budget or knowhow that are sitting at home with a single core/integrated Intel graphics that would love to be able to play what we do and that's who I see this service appealing to. To be able to stream all the new games without ever having to upgrade your hardware for the cost of playing an MMO would definately turn some heads. It will be interesting what comes of this...though I can't say it will ever be in my living room.

It's still going to need a box... a console if you will

sounds like someone who should know what they are talking about...but doesn't

I bet they see this as the only way to "stop piracy".

Too bad they won't get much money from that, as most "pirates" wouldn't buy anything anyway.

PS
"A game designed to sharpen management skills"...

There are too many issues for Cloud computing for it to take off any time soon, many of which are discussed here already, internet speed, latency, cost etc.

You only have to look at how restrictive games are when not controlled by local hardware to see the result, take for example MW2 and compare how that plays against MW1, Activision's move to control all the gaming servers has been a huge detraction from the gaming experience offered by MW1

Then there is the cost, look at a subscription based game like WoW, how much that costs you to play, imagine if every game cost you the same? you will end up paying $50 - $100 a month just for subscriptions without owning anything

And I am sure the hardware companies will not be happy, this would put companies like Asus, Nvidia, ATi, Intel etc. out of business, if people never need to upgrade then they have no purpose in life.

It wont take off, gaming is already an expensive business, games would sell much less, for example my kids have an Xbox 360, if they want a game badly at Christmas time, they ask their family for it as a xmas present, and normally they would get it, but no way can they ask their families to take out an on going subscription to play a game

I see cloud computing in much the same way as I see communism, the theory of all being equal is great, the reality is far different and sucks big time...

"In the near future, we'll have games that don't depend on any platform,"

Didn't sound like Sony is overjoyed by the propspect.