The future of gaming looks like Netflix and Amazon Prime

I have seen a lot about the fact that Sony and Microsoft are moving more into streaming and this makes sense. A lot of people have, quite wrongly in my opinion, decided there will be no more exclusivity.

I actually think that exclusivity will still be around but in a different form. Look at the way Netflix do business. I can watch their programmes on my PS4, PC, cable platform but I do have to pay them a monthly subscription to do so.

Whilst it is clear that I will eventually be able to play a Sony exclusive on a PC through streaming I will still have to pay them a monthly fee to do so in the first place. In the same way I have to pay Netflix to watch the new season of Black Mirror, and I cannot watch the new season of Black Mirror with an Amazon Prime subscription, the same will apply to Sony exclusives. Just owning a PC will not be enough to play Naughty Dog's movie game for 2022 (or when the next consoles have finished their cycle). You will still have to pay Sony their cut.

It will free Sony/Nintendo/MS from designing and making consoles but they can still get their money. Sony/MS/Nintendo will not design a system where they can be totally removed from the revenue streams. It makes no business sense so they will not do it.

You're already able to do that

Gamepass is already like the Netflix of gaming. It's going to get interesting when google stadia out.

Some people are such shills when they make statements like "they still get your money", like DUHH! Every game you purchase company X gets your money. This is all an attempt to ease the stress that the games that is somehow mystically more enjoyable because they are exclusive are now less good because it no longer exclusive to a particular hardware.

The good news is that games will be accessible and playable on all capable hardware in the future. Fanboys be damned. :)

It was bound to happen the moment netflix became successful, I don't like it, but it's unavoidable.

I actually think that long term gamers are going save a ton of money. Sounds good to me.

There will be a PlayStation 6 with hard disc. Bet on streaming all you want.

As I've said before, if that's the future of gaming, then gaming has no future.

No worries Dzimm. As long as Generation 9 is still selling disk & carts\cards everything will be fine. The industry still has not got to the point where majority of players are downloading all of their games. Internet speeds are not fast enough for these dreams posters have.

When they stop having physical media for games, I probably will stop subscriptions as there probably won't be hardware. Especially if the industry keeps going down the Fortnite/Apex/PubG trend.

Can you imagine a world where you could never play Final Fantasy VII ever again because Disney bought Square-Enix?

Keep banging the drums about "the future" while I both laugh and cringe simultaneously. Again, a certain fraction in System Wars that goes fanatical about something without a single thought as to what it is they are clamoring for.

*Picture of Marvel's Punisher goes here*

Gaming is a dying breed for me so i'm not fussed.

@Coolyfett: It is not dreams but resignation. I would much rather play games on a console but I see where the future is going. Microsoft seems to be less and less interested in console gaming. Sony are just as interested in the PS Now/PSN angle of business and software companies are more interested in the MMO/Live services route.

They all seem to ignore the success of single player games and the huge sales of both the PS4 and Switch.

I sincerely hope I am wrong but I can see the likes of Sony trying to move away from the less profitable hardware side and more into the services side of the games.

I agree, but 7?

future is starting to look weird.

what do you mean?

I rest peaceful in the fact that the same talking heads in the industry who are pushing this agenda are the same reptilian bean counters who lack the foresight and patience to understand that countries outside the US and UK happen to exist and significant money flows to this industry from those places.

The notion that every publisher is just going to drop the unstreamable planet ingloriously is laughable. Share values will fall. Other publishers will fill that vacuum. The gaming disc of life will keep turning. **** the "digital future". You guys need to stick to PC where it makes sense. Quit trying to open the door for budget conscious console gamers to get robbed blind. It's a plug in and play market. Shutting the door on developing nations and young gamers will murder gaming.

Curious are the "Streaming and VR will conquer the world" posters the same people? Or 2 different factions?

Streaming needs a "killer app" that works for everyone everywhere. Right now there is not one. Until gamers can just go to www.magicstreaminggame.com and log in and play with no issue, that future is a long way off. We all know Nintendo will follow up the Switch with something else and that something else will use game cards\carts. So yea we can assume Generation 11 will be weird. It just seems people post about crystal ball wishful thinking vs what is actually coming like PS5.

@warmblur: It’d be hilarious if someone made a gif of that pic and have a turd dropping from that cloud. ??

lol yeah to much work for me though lol.

@robert_sparkes: Does gamepass have streaming? I thought everything had to be downloaded before playing? PSNow is more like Netflix, as Netflix has older content and both are instant streams.

@Shewgenja: I am not too sure where you think I am coming from but to clarify - I have only ever gamed on a Playstation and will continue to do so for as long as can. I already have money saved for the PS5.

My comments are entirely where I think the industry will go or, more importantly, where I think those at the top of the tree want to take us. It doesn't mean I agree with or I like it.

I see physical and digital being an option for the next 20 years.

Can't wait for PS6 with a bluray drive in 2030 and ppl will be like but i thought streaming was gonna take off no dude its not taking off for gaming

Yeah, it really is... It won't be the only avenue for gaming, but streaming is gonna be huge. These companies have analyzed the markets excessively, because that's how they operate... They don't dive in head first.

15 years from now someone is going to want to play a game from the launch of this next console. They won't be able to lol.

@jcafcwbb: I should have been more precise. There are a number of posters who have been begging for their ownership of games to be taken away since gen7. I'm glad you aren't a fan.

Why wouldn't they? Games wouldn't just disappear because of streaming.

@Pedro: I mean, they could lol.

Look at the OPs post history. No agenda here....lol

Games only being streamable would be an interesting case against piracy. Maybe.

SMH, can you imagine streaming a game like GTA 6 and the game is installed on a server in London and you live in Boston? Such madness.

If the future of gaming is streaming then we're going to end up in a situation like we have with television shows where you'll have to subscribe to multiple services if you want their "exclusive" content, because no one service will offer it all. Furthermore, if that service fails to earn a sustainable income then all of your games will go *poof*; case in point, the Ouya console. Secondly, the very moment a game becomes unprofitable, it'll be gone. No company is going to continue wasting bandwidth on a game that isn't making what they consider an acceptable profit, and eventually, they're going to discover, just like the mobile market has, that flooding the market with cheap, quickly produced games that are here today and gone tomorrow is far more profitable than spending years developing a few quality titles with a long shelf-life.

Now this is interesting? Assuming you are speaking on the "all downloads all the time" crowd. We have even seen where purchased games are removed from the download stores. People are wishing for Xbox Live to be the next Netflix and forget Netflix changes movies every month. Can you imagine getting to a final boss and the game is removed the next day?

i get your concern, and i'm sure there's a chance some of what you predict will happen to some degree. but i think streaming will just become another strand of modern gaming, not replace it.

your first point is something we do now anyway. if you want exclusive content you buy the appropriate console / system to get it. and companies have been taking down the online component of a game after certain lengths of time for years. if a game is only available to stream and not to download / buy then it probably tells you all you need to know about its intended longevity.

and you can't really look at trends in mobile gaming and make assumptions they'll follow over to console / pc. flooding the market with cheap "here today gone tomorrow" titles isn't connected to streaming, and can be done now (and has been possible for years). maybe streaming will create a new market for that type of game but it's unlikely to directly impact the current indie / aaa game markets on pc / console.

as for games as a service, game pass has been something celebrated by xbox gamers who've embraced paying for a subscription to access particular games, knowing they'll lose it when their subscription ends. streaming might just be another offshoot of that type of model. and with gaming growing and growing as an industry there'll be increasingly more and more choice to suit different tastes and budgets. and competition is generally good for us as consumers.

i'm playing devil's advocate a bit here but i think you're being a bit alarmist and glass is half empty